WAPO: Bernie Sanders's strange behavior

[calimary]

102. No flames from me, my friend.

A couple of names there that I thought I once admired. Until some time passed and I started looking deeper.

Let's not forget Jill Stein sat at that same banquet table with Michael Flynn and Vladimir Putin. In that same photo that was frequently used to excoriate Flynn for his cozy relationship with the Russians.

And as for Julian Assange, I've often fantasized about what I'd do if I were the executive VP for News at some network or cable outfit. I'd issue a memo instituting a new policy: WHENEVER Julian Assange's name is mentioned, the writer/reporter/anchor MUST also include a line to reflect how he's still hiding out at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid facing sexual assault charges in Sweden. WHENEVER Julian Assange's name comes up. That line would HAVE TO be somewhere in the story.

Similarly, when Wikileaks was brought up, there should always be a sentence included that mentions Wikileaks' chief, Julian Assange, who remains in hiding to avoid facing sexual assault charges in Sweden. That fact would ALWAYS have to be included as an identifier, so the public remembers and has perhaps a fuller, more rounded concept of who Julian Assange is - someone who hides out to avoid facing real-life criminal charges leveled against him. Makes you wonder why he wouldn't want to step up, fight to defend his "good name", and prove his innocence.

Just a fantasy of mine...

But I do remember various dictates that did come down from the network brass as to how we were to write and deliver various stories. I remember several big point being made when the Falkland Islands war was happening between Britain and Argentina. It was an order. Because the Brits were America's biggest ally, we were obligated to word things the way the Brits would. Therefore, it was always to be the Falkland Islands, and NOT the Malvinas - which was what the Argentines called it. And as for the Argentines, THAT'S what they were to be called. "Argen-tynes". Because that was the way the Brits pronounced it. NOT "Argentinians." "Argentynes." Long vowel sound in the last syllable. I remember spelling it that way in my scripts, just so I wouldn't make a mistake on the air: "ArgenTYNES."

And during the hostage crisis in 1979 - even as it dragged on with no conclusion, we were ordered to include SOME item about the hostages in Iran. Even when there was no other new angle to it except for a one-day-bigger day count. I remember hearing various anchors forced to resort to using that as a kicker to their newscasts: "... and the American hostages have now been held in Iran for 283 days. And that's the news, I'm (name filled in here for the lockout) ... "