People who get their news exclusively from the New York Times are fortunate to read a newspaper that judiciously distorts all the news to fit their biases and beliefs. The Times is no longer “the paper of record” but rather a publication promoting Democratic party propaganda and preferred narratives. The Times’ attack on Toyota last week was a case in point.
The Times led its readers to believe that Toyota is losing loyal customers because it has only one electric vehicle on the market in the U.S. It featured an Arizona woman named Rachel Culin, who mugged for a Times photographer in front of a GM made electric Chevy Bolt she bought to replace her Toyota-made Prius hybrid.
“Where are the options for those people who love Toyota?” Culin asked. “It’s really sad.”
Toyota has lots of options for the company’s brand loyalists. In fact, of the 10 fastest selling vehicles in America, four of them are Toyotas and one of them is a Lexus, Toyota’s luxury nameplate. The fastest selling vehicle is a Made-in-America Toyota Grand Highlander hybrid, which dealers can move off their lots almost as fast as they unload them. Not one electric vehicle made the fastest selling vehicles list.
The Times neglected to mention that GM loses money on its Chevy Bolts, likely because it had to cut the price by $6,000 to sell them because they were piling up on dealers’ lots despite lucrative tax credits the Biden Administration and many states offer to buy them. Not surprisingly, Toyota is considerably more profitable than GM because it sells vehicles that U.S. consumers want, not what the Biden Administration and the New York Times say they should want.
As for electric vehicles, Toyota is hoping to introduce electric vehicles powered by solid-state batteries within a few years fully chargeable within 10 minutes and with an initial range of about 750 miles and ultimately with 900 miles of range. If Toyota pulls it off, you’ll see an EV in this Toyota brand loyalist’s driveway.
This linked story is a textbook example of the appalling lengths the Times will go to deceive. The Times wanted its readers to believe that Susanna Gibson, a nurse practitioner and mother of two children who is the Democrat candidate in a closely contested Virginia House race, is an innocent victim of so-called “revenge porn,” when someone posts sexual photos or videos online with the intent to embarrass and humiliate. The Washington Post broke the story earlier.
Here’s a portion of the Times’ story:
Releasing damaging information about candidates of the opposing party into the heat of a campaign is an age-old political practice, but the sensational nature of the disclosure of sex tapes — reportedly featuring Ms. Gibson and her husband, a lawyer — is highly unusual. Ms. Gibson called the release of the tapes “the worst gutter politics.” The Post said it learned of the material from a “Republican operative” who denied a connection to Ms. Gibson’s opponent, David Owen, or to other political groups in Virginia.
Daniel P. Watkins, a lawyer for Ms. Gibson, said it was unlawful in the state to record someone in a state of undress and distribute it to a third party without that person’s consent.
“It’s illegal and it’s disgusting to disseminate this kind of material, and we’re working closely with the F.B.I. and local prosecutors to bring the wrongdoers to justice,” Mr. Watkins said.
If Watkins is correct that “it’s illegal and it’s disgusting” to disseminate the material in question, then his client could be in serious legal jeopardy. Perhaps this is news to Watkins, but his client and her husband don’t evoke memories of Ozzie and Harriet, but rather are more in the tradition of Johnny and Kissa Sins, a popular porn star couple until they separated four years ago.
As reported by the Post and the Daily Wire, Gibson streamed video of her and husband engaged in sex acts on Chaturbate, a platform that says it takes its name from “the act of masturbating while chatting online.”
Here’s what the Post told its readers:
Chaturbate videos are streamed live on that site and are often archived on other publicly available sites. More than a dozen videos of the couple captured from the Chaturbate stream were archived on one of those sites — Recurbate — in September 2022, after she entered the race. The most recent were two videos archived on Sept. 30, 2022. It is unclear when the live stream occurred.
While still listed on Recurbate, those videos were no longer available for viewing as of Saturday, after a Republican operative alerted The Washington Post about them. But the videos remained live on another non-password-protected site, which The Post viewed. At least two other publicly available sites displayed explicit still photos from the videos, The Post confirmed.
Gibson, 40, can be seen in the videos soliciting “tips” for performing specific acts — in apparent violation of Chaturbate’s terms and conditions, which say: “Requesting or demanding specific acts for tips may result in a ban from the Platform for all parties involved.”
The Daily Wire was more detailed in its reporting. The publication said it reviewed material in which Gibson said, “I like being choked. I like being hit. I do.” She also said, “Y’all can watch me pee if you tip me and some tokens. Again, I’m raising money for a good cause.”
The Post said it typically doesn’t identify victims of alleged sex crimes to protect their privacy, but argued reporting on Gibson was fair game.
“In this case, Gibson originally live-streamed these sexual acts on a site that was not password-protected,” the Post said. “The couple had more than 5,700 followers there. Many of the videos remained available to the public on other unrestricted sites as of Saturday. Watkins said Gibson was not aware of, and had not authorized, the posting of Chaturbate material on other sites.”
The Post quoted Corey Silverstein, who the publication identified as a “prominent adult entertainment industry lawyer” based in Michigan (told ya Michigan has the best lawyers), who said there is nothing illegal about streaming sex acts online as long as the participants and viewers are consenting adults — even if they are paid to perform specific acts.
“There is absolutely no law that they are violating — none,” Silverstein said. “In this case, you have two adults who are engaging in consensual sex, and they’ve decided they want to broadcast that, and they’re doing so in exchange for tipping. There’s absolutely nothing illegal about it.”
Silverstein added: “I think it’s fantastic you have someone running who has an open sex life. It’s actually very refreshing.”
My sense is that there are a lot of Americans who agree with Silverstein, and that if Gibson owned up to her performance videos and admitted that she and her husband like to spice up their marriage a bit, constituents might view them favorably.
According to one study, 46 million Americans actively watch porn and 10% of Americans show signs of porn addiction. Running as a Democrat might also prove beneficial for Gibson: A 2014 BuzzFeed/PornHub study found that Democrats on average watch 13% more porn than Republicans.
Porn is particularly popular with Virginians: The state in 2014 was classified as blue and ranked No. 7 for porn pageviews among blue states. Among red states, Virginia would have ranked No. 2.
Given that a porn star figured prominently in the 2016 and 2020 elections, why not keep up the tradition? I can imagine Gibson going all the way to the White House; instead of a boring State of the Union Address, Americans could be treated to a State of the Union Undress.
Of course, die-hard New York Times readers would remain their habitual misinformed selves, unaware of Gibson’s past and mistakenly believing the Times’ allegations that only Republicans would stoop so slow as to smear a political candidate with sex allegations. I imagine that claim sticks in the craw of Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who during her election campaign Democratic operatives alleged previously worked as an escort, among other claims. Even CNN admitted the allegations were false.
The Times should change its slogan from “All the News that’s Fit to Print” to “Ignorance is Bliss.”
Display art credit: ©f11photo/123RF.COM