Day 3 Media Rap Sheet: Another Night of Bias

Day 3 Media Rap Sheet: Another Night of Bias

All times are Eastern. Newest posts on top. Please send tips of corrupt media behavior you see on the air or online (including Twitter) to jnolte@breitbart.com or on Twitter @NolteNC.

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11:37 — TWENTY FIVE! Childish Media Stories Mocking Eastwood

ABC –Clint Eastwood’s Throat-Slicing RNC Moment

Associated Press –‘MAKE MY DAY’

Associated Press – Donna Cassata – “Clint Eastwood is Mitt Romney’s opening act”

Bloomberg – Margaret Talev – “Eastwood Says ‘Go Ahead’ and Crowd Obliges”

Business Insider – Brett LoGiurato –“WATCH: Clint Eastwood Just Gave The Most Incredible Speech Of The Republican National Convention”

BuzzFeed – Zeke Miller –“Eastwood’s Folly”

Chicago Sun Times – “Clint Eastwood bashes imaginary Obama”

Daily Mail – Toby Harnden:‘Save some for Mitt!’ Clint Eastwood tries to tame a roaring crowd as he appears as the mystery speaker at Republican convention

Entertainment Tonight – Ken Tucker – “Clint Eastwood talks to Obama at the Republican Convention: ‘What do you mean, ‘Shut up’?'”

The Hill – Pete Kasperowicz – “Clint Eastwood grills invisible Obama, says ‘We got to let him go'”

Huffington Post – Jennifer Bendery:Clint Eastwood Taxes: Film Director Benefited From Generous Credits

MSNBC –Schultz: Eastwood is an ‘ironic choice’

NBC News – Mark Murray:Eastwood surprises GOP convention – maybe in more ways than one

NBC New York – Emily Feldman – “Eastwood Mocks Obama and Biden”

Politico – Mackenzie Weinger:Clint Eastwood RNC speech: All atwitter over Clint’s crazy speech

Politico – MJ Lee – “Clint Eastwood’s rambling RNC speech”

Politico – Emily Schultheis – “Clint Eastwood’s bizarre speech”

Politico – Jennifer Epstein: “Obama camp suggests Eastwood’s speech was surreal

Politico – Kevin Cirilli –“Clint Eastwood RNC speech: Wildest quotes”

TPM – Benjy Lee:Clint Eastwood Delivers Bizarre, Rambling Speech To Empty Chair

USA Today – Catalina Carnia: Live blog: Marco Rubio introduces Mitt Romney

USA Today – Susan Davis – “Clint Eastwood makes sudden impact at RNC”

Washington Examiner -Joel Gehrke:Clint Eastwood: ‘When someone isn’t doing the job, we’ve got to let him go’

Washington Post – Rachel Weiner –“Clint Eastwood talks to invisible Obama”

The Wrap – Tim Molloy – “Clint Eastwood Holds Weird One-Sided Debate With Obama’s Empty Chair (Video)”

11:34 — NBC News Speech Reaction Perfectly Mirrors Obama Talking Points — Tony Lee

Brokaw: a speech a checklist, not eloquent. Says Eastwood took away from Romney speech

Mitchell: rambling Clint Eastwood took away from speech

Brokaw: Romney’s father tried to make party less extreme, Romney went from moderate to conservative (read: extreme). Tries to paint him as extreme like Obama did in last weekend’s AP interview

Brokaw says going to the moon was a government enterprise and promotes more government intervention, again helping Obama. MSM KNOWS “you didn’t build that” comments damaged Obama badly.

Chuck Todd says speech reminded him of Dole’s 1996 speech that Clinton was able to frame as one that looked backwards. Todd says team Obama thinks they can do the same to Romney’s speech.

Obama’s campaign slogan just happens to be “forward”

And this is NBC’s last word before signing off

11:15 — CBS’s Schieffer Wants Eastwood to Dominate Morning Shows — Warner Todd Huston

CBS’s Bob Schieffer said that it was all a mistake to have Clint Eastwood come on before Mitt. “All the morning talks shows will be talking about Clint and Mitt will be competing with that, it was just a huge mistake,” he said.

Nora O’Donnell claimed that everyone went to bed and missed the end of Romney’s speech because it went over time. Uh, Norah, the speech went a mere 14 minutes past 11PM eastern. What a silly point to make!

11:27 — CNN’s Jeff Berman: “Was saying Obama threw Israel under the bus over the top”?

Then Berman asked if Republicans really wanted Obama to succeed.

10:29 — Elitist Media Slams, Mocks, Fact Checks Eastwood

Email:

After Eastwood, — unlike like ABC which continued coverage as Rubio quickly started speaking, Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell took a minute to attack Eastwood’s presentation — a mixture of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and really “strange,” with him talking to an empty chair. Mitchell opined that Eastwood had misstated Obama’s war record. NBC then broke to commercial, though it did pick up with Rubio after that.

Some of the observations were perhaps warranted; my criticism is that NBC was so eager to undermine Eastwood’s talk that it started the attack immediately rather than cover Rubio.

From Tony Lee:

Andrea Mitchell said Eastwood was just strange. Shakes head. Mitchell looks flabbergasted

10:05 — Politico Unaware They Are Part of the Mainstream Media — Tony Lee

Jim Vandehei says mainstream networks are dying. Irony lost on him. He doesn’t realize his organization may become as irrelevant in the online world as mainstream networks are becoming in the TV world if POLITICO continues to act like neutral arbiters while slanting left

9:56 — Politico Livestream Trashes Evangelicals As Bigots — Tony Lee

Mike Allen: Will Romney says “Mormon”?

Jim Vandehei — every evangelical voter I talk to tells me mormons are weird …

9:53 — Politico Spins Palin’s Huge Ratings For Her Historic Speech As a Negative — Tony Lee

Politico editor-in-chief John Harris mentions 17 million more viewers tuned in to see Palin’s VP speech in 2008 than Ryan’s in 2012. Snidely comments Palin’s ratings may not have helped her and it may have been bad for that so many people watched her convention speech.

That convention speech was only one of the most remembered convention speeches in history and gave the McCain campaign an 8-point boost in the polls over the mainstream media’s chosen one who touched all of the mainstream media’s — in POLITICO’s words — “erogenous zones” in 2008.
John Harris, not “The way to win” the livestream news cycle.

9:42 — CNN Has Finally Stopped Being Relentless Anti-Romney Hit Squad

Though The Most Trusted Name In News still isn’t playing much of the convention, Anderson, Wolf, Erin, and company have finally relaxed and just kind of let events flow.

More of Romney’s interview with Borger aired where the nominee talked about his father. Again, Romney looks more relaxed and confident than I’ve ever seen him and CNN is airing long excerpts that are quite flattering. This is also when people are starting to tune in as we move closer to the Big Moment.

9:00 — PBS Upset Romney Didn’t Waste What Little Money He Had On Mormon Ads — Warner Todd Huston

Both David Brooks and Mark Shields claimed that it was “political malpractice” not putting in campaign ads the Mormon families that came forth tonight to reveal the warm, personal stories that endear Mitt Romney to them. Shields and Brooks excoriated Mitt saying he should have been doing this for months to put a dent in the lack of likability from which they say he suffers.
But why didn’t Romney do this? Neither supposed political analyst bothered to note that Mitt Romney has been prevented by law from spending any of his campaign war chest on such ads.
The truth is, Mitt has not been allowed to put these people in campaign ads because campaign finance laws prevent him from using his current campaign money meant for the post convention general election effort.
Perhaps its more like “media malpractice” on the part of Shields and Brooks not to note the law and the truth as to why Mitt Romney hasn’t put pout such heartwarming campaign ads!

9:12 — Romney Goes on Offense and HAMMERS Obama Over Tax Returns In Terrific CNN Interview

CNN just aired a portion of an interview Mitt Romney did with Gloria Borger and I must say our new nominee sounded confident and loaded for bear; better than I have ever seen him.

Instead of flinching and waiting for the tax return issue to come up, Romney actually brought it up himself! Paraphrasing:

Barack Obama never attacked John McCain for releasing only two years of tax returns — the same number of years I’m releasing. But it’s all he has. Obama has no record to run on. It’s not about my taxes. If it was, he would’ve gone after McCain. It’s about a president who has nothing to offer but attacks.

What a great answer.

I’m telling ya, based on the behavior and actions of the two campaigns, our side is looking like we’re ten points ahead and Obama and his desperate media minions are looking like terrified losers. 

8:50 — On PBS Ifill Never Misses Chance To Hammer Romney Over Likability — Warner Todd Huston

The panel next turned to Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour who remarked how powerful the stories of Mitt Romney’s work for others. “It will be hard for Obama to continue to say that Mitt Romney doesn’t care about people,” he said.

Ifill warmed to her favorite theme saying, “Is this what we are waiting for? We’ve been saying all week that Mitt lacks a likability, is this it?”

Brooks went to the Medicare question. One of Brooks’ main points this week on the PBS Newshour coverage is that Ryan’s policy ideas on Medicare must hurt the GOP. Gov. Barbour, though, noted that America knows that Medicare is unsustainable as it it. “The longer this debate goes on, the better it is for us,” he said.

Just before the president of Staples came out to speak, David Brooks brought up Romney’s offer of a cut to Public Broadcasting. Barbour immediately piped up and said, “That’s not a tough cut!” Laughing as the panel of PBS correspondents groaned.

8:20 — On PBS, David Brooks Bristles At Convention Theme of ‘Individualism’ — Warner Todd Huston

As a side note, I have to give PBS credit. They did a good job allowing the speakers to have their say. The anchors in the PBS booth did not interrupt the speeches with their inane, leftist chatter — they kept that to the breaks. Unlike MSNBC and the networks, PBS allowed the speakers their due time in the spotlight.

After JEB Bush gave his presentation on education, the panel talked about the Bush family’s dedication to education. But here New York Times columnist David Brooks took a moment to scold the rugged American individualism that has been one of the themes of this convention. “To my mind this convention has been too individualistic,” Brooks scowled. Brooks felt that big government nannyism is an important idea that this convention has not given its due.

A moment later Judy Woodruff asked lefty historian Richard Norton Smith if the Tea Party was waning?

Smith replied that “if anything it is growing.”

But Brooks felt that the anti-Wall Street part of the Tea Party had been “defanged” and was not present at the convention. But, what part of the Tea Party was ever “anti-Wall Street”? It is true that the Tea Party was formed against the abuses perpetrated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and there was a feeling that things had gotten out of control.

But the Tea Party was never against Wall Street in its essence the way the Occupy Wall Street “movement” always was. The Tea Party has always been pro-capitalism.

8:49 — WaPo Fact-Checker on NPR: Lying Ryan ‘Technically Correct’ About GM Plant — Joel Pollak

“Technically, the words that Ryan said could be defensible as entirely accurate” – Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler admits – but then says Ryan left open a possible misleading interpretation about Obama being able to do something about the plant in Janesville, which Kessler says he could not.

“A politician kind of misleading listeners with what they choose to leave out.” Kessler added.

On Medicare cuts, “Both parties use the federal budget to mislead people.” – Obama’s “so-called cuts are an anticipated trim… Paul Ryan uses the same spending cuts.”  

“It’s pretty misleading to say it’s being funneled out of Medicare. Government money [is] fungible.”

So Ryan tells the truth, but is still a liar.

8:44 — On NBC Nightly News, Chuck Todd Blames Credit Downgrade on GOP — Tony Lee

Regarding the credit downgrade, Chuck Todd said, the downgrade was the fault of the GOP in Congress. He says S&P downgraded America’s credit because of “policy making uncertainty.” 

No mention of Senate Democrats not having a budget. No mention of how the Republican budget could have prevented the downgrade.

All Ryan’s and the GOP’s fault!

Todd says Ryan’s words were ” technically factual but what he left out distorted the actual truth.”

NBC News’s message to viewers: Trust us to fill in what a candidate may not have said. Trust us to tell you what the candidate really said. Trust us to explain to you what the candidate said.

Doesn’t work that way anymore in the new media age. NBC News didn’t get the memo.

8:33 — MSNBC Airs a Whole Lot More Of the Convention Than CNN

If you only had the choice between MSNBC and CNN, and if you wanted to watch the actual convention speeches, my guess is that MSNBC is showing about three times more of the speeches than CNN. On the other hand, CNN just loves to hear themselves talk and loves to lace their childish anti-Romney narratives at every opportunity. It’s not even effective; just annoying and tiresome. 

MSNBC is anti-Romney, as well. But at least MSNBC doesn’t their bias and does play a lot more of the convention.

This whole attitude explains why CNN’s ratings are in the crapper.

8:25 — Transcript Of Chuck Todd Conceding Media Trust Is Doornail Dead

From a tipster. Can’t verify its 100%, but it sounds close to what I remember hearing:

“They’re not pushing back on the uh, “corrections” if you will, on Bowles-Simpson… They’re not pushing back on the “corrections” about the Debt Ceiling that everybody has been doing… They’re not pushing back on those, and here’s why… I talked to a couple of people inside the campaign…They basically said, “You know, these “fact checks”… They’re not having any impact on them, they’re not seeing any impact… They’re now seeing voters, uhhhhh… Accept them, and somehow, digest them, and hold it against them… They think that they can sort of float past this, that the credibility of the media… Whether you, you have this argument that they are able to, sort of, attack the “fact-checkers”… Question a “fact-checker”… Get the base of their party, the “activist base” of their party to, uhhhh… Bomb, if you will… Twitter-bomb reporters… Twitter-bomb news media… They think they can float above this… Uhhhh, annnnd… Who knows, they might be right…”

Oh, set it to music, Chuck.

You sold your souls for Obama and New Media’s just helping you cash the check.

Rest in Hell, Media.

8:14 — Whoa! Politico Panel No Longer ‘Whites Only’! — Tony Lee

Yesterday, POLITICO had four white guys lecturing Republicans about diversity.
Today, Politico has Juana Summers — who is a minority and a female — on the panel. Summers, unlike others at Politico, usually does a great job covering politics fairly and does not come off as self-important, pompous, or insufferable.

8:09 — Instead of Airing Jeb Bush Speech, CNN Panel Babbles About Romney Being a Liar

Blah, blah, blah fact check. Blah, blah, blah misleading. Blah, blah, blah we’re shameless hacks and if Our Precious One isn’t reelected we’ll simply die.

8:07 — NBC’s Brian Williams Blames ROMNEY For Janesville GM Plant Closing — Tony Lee

Brian Williams tried to blame Romney for the GM plant closing in Ryan’s hometown. Williams mentioned Ryan voted for the auto bailout. He says Romney disagreed with Obama’s plan to prop up the domestic auto industry.

Ryan answers that Romney wanted a managed bankruptcy. Williams condescendingly talks to Ryan like a child, saying a managed bankruptcy would have been impossible.

Williams insists on trying to make Romney the villain, even though Romney was not an elected official at the time and had no control over what happened with GM.

8:00 — CBS Evening News Gets Bizarre and Petty In Ann Romney Interview — Tony Lee

Scott Pelley asks Ann Romney if she is frustrated that Romney seems to “stiffen” in front of big crowds.

Pelley asks if Romney if he is in the White House, if he would still give 10% of his time to his Church. A very bizarre question, to say the least. A viewer could interpret this question to mean if the Mormon Church would own 10% of Romney if he is in the White House.

Pelley asks Romney if he will take a salary as President.

Really substantive questions, here. How are these people different from Entertainment Tonight reporters?!

6:00 — PBS Assumes Mormonism FORCES Romney To Be Generous — Warner Todd Huston

Ifill and Woodruff interviewed Mitt Romney son Tagg Romney. Once again the whole interview centered around Mitt Romney not being “likable.” This has been the central these of the weeks coverage for PBS’s Shields, Woodruff, and Ifill.

Ifill claimed that Tagg was an “advisor” to his father and Tagg demurred from that claim. “What, he doesn’t listen to you,” she probed. The young man correctly noted to her that his father had a full raft of advisors and he was not one of them. “I just go where they tell me too,” he laughed.
Next, before the speeches started, the panel talked to the authors of The Real Mitt Romney. These guys, liberal as they are, expressed how they admired Mitt, especially his charitable work.
Woodruff was skeptical. “How much of that is just him or is his Mormon faith,” she asked assuming that Mitt couldn’t possibly be such a nice guy and that his religion MUST be forcing such behavior upon him. To their credit, the authors refused to agree to that.

7:55 — CBS Evening News Attacks Rich Who ‘Hide Their Money’ — Tony Lee

They run a segment about a struggling middle class family. The lady they profile comments that the wealthy have all kinds of ways to “hide their money,” which is what the mainstream media is accusing Romney of doing.

They cite figures from a study that a former Obama aide conducted for the Tax Policy Center when discussing Romney’s and Obama’s tax plans.  

Report mentions Obama would raise taxes for the wealthy and Romney would lower them. Segment makes it seem like Obama would better for the middle class.

6:00 — PBS Commenter Get Fact-Checked On the Air! — Warner Todd Huston

As the evening’s coverage began on PBS Newshour the panel welcomed GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY). McConnell got a bit upset when Mark Shields once again misquoted what he said early in Obama’s first term.

Shields said that McConnell said he wanted to make Obama’s first term is only term. McConnell replied sharply. “Thank you again for misquoting me Mark,” he said. When Shields started to protest, Mitch McConnell scolded him and insisted that he be allowed to correct Shield’s misquoting.

In truth, McConnell followed up his “one term” claim with this, “If President Obama does a Clintonian backflip, if he’s willing to meet us halfway on some of the biggest issues, it’s not inappropriate for us to do business with him.” In other words, McConnell wasn’t saying that the GOP’s only concern was to dump Obama but their concern was to get someone to work with and if Obama refuses to deal, then he should be voted out.  

7:30 — Chuck Todd Forced To Admit The Era of the Media Having An Impact Is Over

Fascinating moment just now on MSNBC. Race-baiter Chuck Todd explained to Maddow and Tweety McTingles why the Romney camp isn’t worried or pushing back against the media’s claims that Ryan told lies during his speech last night.

With a heavy heart, Todd explained that Team Romney has figured out that the media no longer has any kind of impact on public perception when it comes to fact-checking and the like. The public simply no longer trusts the media.

You could tell this news pretty much took the wind out of Todd. he looked a little dazed, very disappointed, and like a kid who just discovered his bike had been stolen.   

No one can take your integrity away, Chuck, you can only give it away. And give it away you and your corrupt brethren did.

I live for the look I just saw in Chuck Todd’s eyes. There’s nothing like a reckoning. Keep up the great work, America!

7:34 — NBC News’ Brian Williams Still Obsessed With Rape — Tony Lee

On Monday, Brian Williams kicked off NBC’s primetime coverage by focusing on RAPE.
Tonight, Williams interviewed Paul Ryan on NBC Nightly News and asked him three different questions about Rape.
Q1: Williams says that Ryan claims he is a leader. Williams says leadership can be construed as ownership. Williams asks Ryan, “Are you prepared to leave this building and to own the fact that the platform of this party allows a woman who has been raped — no exceptions — but to carry that child to term?”
Ryan says platform is silent on issue and Mitt Romney believes in exceptions, president sets policy.

Q2: Williams condescendingly insists there is no exception in the platform.


Ryan says the platform is silent and produced by delegates.

Q3: Williams keeps asking about rape, says this is the third election cycle in which there is a “disconnect” between the platform and the candidates running. 
He says in a business where Republicans are trying to attract suburban women, does this send the right message?

Ryan says suburban women more concerned with jobs and the economy and education and the country’s debt.
Williams is trying to hurt Republicans with women and suburban women, obviously.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS or AARON SORKIN’S “NEWSROOM”?

7:19 — ABC News Desperately Wants Romney To Say ‘Mormon’

In 2008, the corrupt media downplayed and wanted to forget about faith. But that’s because Barack Obama’s church was creepy, anti-American, and racist; and they wanted to protect him from it. As far as Mormonism, though, the media keeps baiting Romney to talk more about it because the bigoted media is sure Christians are bigots and won’t vote for a Mormon.

Once again, it’s all about dragging President FailureTeleprompter over the finish line.

And so, ABC News drops this tweet today:

Yeah, remember how the media kept count of how many times Obama said, “Reverend Wright”?

Me neither

Falcone also wrote this article.

Like I said, the media believes Christians are bigoted and that the more the Mormon faith is talked about the more Christians they convince to stay home.  

Well, I’m a Christian and I can’t wait to crawl over glass to vote for this Mormon.

My thanks to @Texicalirose for the tip!

7:11 — ABC News Works The ‘Shady’ Narrative — Tony Lee

Diane Sawyer and David Muir spend nearly a minute talking about convention balloons and the balloon drop, which is nearly as much time ABC devoted to Condi Rice’s speech last night.

Sawyer keeps pressing Paul Ryan on what specific programs he would cut, again trying to get Romney-Ryan on the record to name specific cuts so they could beat Republicans over the head with them. Sawyer lets Ryan talk a lot about his family, kids, and late father.

George Stephanopoulos says that Mitt Romney needs to say things about himself that he may have difficulty revealing. The Democratic operative says Romney must reveal “hard truths” about himself, in reference to his personal life. Why does Stephanopoulos think details about Romney’s personal life — like the charitable work he does — are “hard truths?”

 

Stephanopoulos is deliberately trying to further the mainstream media meme that Romney is a shady character with things to hide.

7:04 — Proving He Doesn’t Watch His Own Network, Chuck Todd Praises GOP Diversity

This is rich coming from the guy who strolled the convention floor Tuesday night and accused Republicans of all but token-izing the non-white faces in the crowd. And how would Todd know the GOP had a racially diverse group of speakers after it was his network that instituted a “Whites Only” policy when it came to whose speeches they would and wouldn’t air?

If Todd is trying to fix his reputation as a race-baiter, this is too little and way too late.

6:46 — Wolf Blitzer Lets Wasserman-Schultz Lie Her A** Off

DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz lied repeatedly to Wolf Blitzer tonight. She said Romney-Ryan would raise taxes on the middle class and turn Medicare into a voucher system. These are provable lies and yet the same Wolf Blitzer who was practically screaming for a fact checker to attack Paul Ryan’s speech before the applause died, just sat there and let Wasserman Schultz lie to him.

What a pathetic excuse for a journalist. No pride in his profession or his own integrity. He just let her spew talking points in-between softball question designed to let her undermine — without challenge — Ryan’s criticisms of the president.

6:33 — AP Can’t Figure Out Why Romney Won’t Talk Up the Economy

Released late this afternoon:

You wouldn’t know it from listening to the Republican National Convention, but the nation’s economic picture seems to be slowly getting a little brighter.

Not a lot, and not very fast. Yet there are some glimmers.

But a steady drumbeat of gloom and doom is predictably being sounded at the GOP gathering in Tampa, Fla. – even by Republican governors who are quick to tout economic improvements in their own states.

6:15 — Romney Camp Releases Speech Excerpts

To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right.

I am running for president to help create a better future. A future where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon. …

The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.

Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America.

That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and mother’s confidence that their children’s future is brighter even than the past.

That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.

That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our Creator, and codified in our constitution.

That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need.

That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children.

If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.

6:10 — CNN Announces Romney Will Campaign During Obama Convention

Wolf Blitzer asks the logical question; if turnabout is fair play and if Romney will do what Obama did to him — break precedent and hold campaign events during the other party’s convention. The answer is… yes. We also learned Romney and Ryan will campaign together tomorrow in Florida.

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