Appallingly slanted reporting from the Guardian -- DC plane crash

[GeneralPeter]

This article describes Trump's theory that DEI had something to do with the crash using debunking words throughout. 'Baselessly', 'without providing evidence' etc etc.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/30/trump-washington-dc-plane-crash-dei

The thing is, this isn't 'baseless'.

The FAA has said that the tower was understaffed. We don't know if that was relevant or has not. We do know that FAA recruitment cratered because of a (very well-evidenced) extremely crude attempt at DEI. There is a long-running class action lawsuit that is on public record and not made up. The test really did award points for saying you had more Ds than Cs at school, for saying science was your weakest subject, etc etc and they did then give the answers to candidates of a particular race before the test.

Sometimes things that sound like loonish right-wing conspiracy theories actually turn out to be true. If you think I must be a right-wing loon, please read this thread first (and many others out there -- this is all public record in court documents and not denied by the FAA).

x.com/tracewoodgrains/status/1752091831095939471

You would not know any of this if you read the Guardian article. Their reporter must surely know this stuff. So it's another attempt to bury with slurs an ideologically inconvenient actual truth. We've seen this before with sex-based rights, and the Guardian should stop it.

(Obligatory: I'm not a Trump fan, think he is appalling in many respects, several of them disqualifying for the presidency. But while comment is free, facts should be sacred).

There’s a huge class action lawsuit about this, Brigida vs Buttigieg.

Gonna take a guess they’d think Fox News.

Everyone needs to wait for the NTSB report in 30 days.

Just to manage expectations yes you should get an initial report in 30 days but there won’t be much meat on it…it’s usually a handful of pages with an outline “we know x” “we know y,” “we are looking at z “….but “we have yet to reach any conclusions on…..”

The full usually hundred page plus report with all the analysis and recommendations can usually take one to two years to appear….(as long as there is no political interference…)

If you watch the full press conference you will see that he distinguishes between what is known and not known.
And there is general grief and shock. And statements about what will change.

@LordEmsworth

However great that you apparently do have evidence and can state these things categorically, within 24 hours of the incident.

Goodness me, that is a silly straw man.

Can I categorically state there is an actual issue here? Yes, with links to analysis and court documents. I could have done that 24 hours before the crash too. This is not new.

Can I categorically stated this was a cause of the crash. Absolutely not. I’ve been at pains to say we don’t know repeatedly in this thread.

Is my beef with DEI on this thread? Not really. It’s with the Guardian’s reporting.

Not watched Fox News, but as a general point it is a good idea to listen to a range media with different reporting biases rather than relying only on sources you are comfortable with.

Too many people (including politicians) are living in echo chambers.

@GeneralPeter

Do you want to explain what you think DEI is?

Because I don't think you know.

I did watch it, and his signing of the executive order about woke DEi causing the crash a few hours later.

He should never have speculated, that is not his job. He is the president and bodies were still being fished out of the river. He politicised a tragedy. By saying ‘it might be, it might not’ does not get him off the hook. And his EO proves this was all a political play.

Barely ever watched Fox. From when I did, they seemed to put an ideological slant on their output that distorted their news reporting.

Based on this thread, can you guess whether I think that’s a good trait or a bad trait for a news outlet?

A religion around a carefully constructed hierarchy of ‘oppression’.

What it is not is about is equality of opportunity for everyone.

So who then if not Fox News?

And @GeneralPeter too

Don't be coy - it would be good to know

@GeneralPeter

"Can I categorically state this was a cause of the crash. Absolutely not. I’ve been at pains to say we don’t know repeatedly in this thread."

But if Trump said 'it could be DEI' then that's reason enough to speculate that anyone who isn't a white able bodied male who was a pilot of one of the doomed aircraft, or working in air traffic control that night, may well be at fault for this accident because they may have been unqualified for their job.

Can I categorically state, Trump supporters are genuinely disgusting. And stupid. No.

But your post points to a likelihood of this being the case.

What right of centre news sources do you read, even if only occasionally?

@izimbra

*Can I categorically state, Trump supporters are genuinely disgusting. And stupid. No.

But your post points to a likelihood of this being the case.*

Are there any Trump supporters on this thread? I'm not aware of any.

As others have said - if there has been a shooting, press conferences also refer to gun laws. Trump does says in the press conference that this was a terrible accident and several times says that details are yet to come. His comments about air traffic control mainly were about how bad the situation was, and he talks about what actually happened in relation to the helicopter.

The posts on here gratuitiously discrediting, making personal attacks are not acceptable.

Would you class the Daily Mail, Daily Express and the Telegraph as unreliable right wing papers with columnists who pop up spreading misinformation?

It's rude to answer a question with a question

FWIW Telegraph - but doesn't answer my question

Now your turn

Even if there were, the personal attacks are not acceptable.

"A religion around a carefully constructed hierarchy of ‘oppression’.

What it is not is about is equality of opportunity for everyone."

White, able bodied, middle class men have been (and mostly still are) vastly over represented in positions of power and influence in the law, medicine, business, the media, politics, academia, STEM etc etc.

Is that because of DEI or because white middle class men are just better at everything than everyone else?

You don't want DEI because you're comfortable with the status quo where power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of one small sector of society.

Your explanation of what you think DEI is comes from the far right propaganda playbook.

What's going on across the world right now is a huge pushback against progressivism - to put us back in the 1950's when marginalised groups were PROPERLY marginalised, and when black people, lgbtq people and women knew their place.

It would be good if you on the far right just acknowledged openly that this is what you want.

If you consider a post is a personal attack, report it.

I used to read them all as it was good to know what the other side were thinking. (Lighthearted)

Now every other line whatever the news source I am thinking "is this right? do i need to fact check or look into this to get the full/real picture?"

I think international laws should be changed to ensure transparency of funding and bias right across the media.

Is that an instruction?!

I prefer to let them stand if they are attacking me, and tell them that what they are saying isn't correct or acceptable. If they are attacking others and I notice, I offer support.

@Efacsen

No coyness.

Guardian, Economist, BBC, occasionally Private Eye, a range of Substacks on specific issues, MN, Twitter (where I follow I an eclectic mix of economists and lefty feminists, mainly). I used to subscribe to the NYT but went off it a bit. I like their long-form reporting and love the physical paper. I used to love the Atlantic but it's gone downhill I feel.

If you have others to recommend, I'd love to hear it. I'm particularly in the market right now for really thoughtful progressives.

"Even if there were, the personal attacks are not acceptable"

People coming on this board implying - before any proper investigation has been done - that minorities may well be to blame for this tragic accident, because of DEI - are scum and deserve the abuse.

He didn’t mention that 8 days earlier he sacked the head of the FAA, several hundred senior people in the TSA and coastguard and that many Air Traffic controllers were given letters telling them to quit as part of his chaotic executive orders. Maybe they were short handed due to the stress that caused?

He didn’t say that he had been a cause of cutting safety in just the past week.