The Media are the Goddam Problem

[bill_g]

Like so many seniors, The Gray Old Lady has been watching too much Fox News.

[AndyinPA]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... ble-blows/

Headline:

Double blow of inquiry and son’s indictment create tough stretch for Biden

I didn't even read the article. I did go into the comments, most of which are disgusted with The Washington Post.

[raison de arizona]

On NPR today they were discussing how both Clinton and Trump got bumps up in their polling as the result of impeachment inquiries. The Biden team is probably pleased, and it isn’t as if they haven’t been planning for this.

[pipistrelle]

[RVInit]

FUMedia.jpg (153.09 KiB) Viewed 3229 times

[p0rtia]

Michael Tomasky of the New Republic gives an overview of today's media coverage of politics. Showing how it's done. With achievable recommendations.

https://newrepublic.com/article/175612/ ... -spectacle

We Have Two Medias in This Country, and They’re Going to Elect Donald Trump
If the press doesn’t get involved in the civic health of the nation, there may not be a nation in which a free press might reside.

It’s often asked in my circles: Why isn’t Joe Biden getting more credit for his accomplishments? As with anything, there’s no single reason. Inflation is a factor. His age is as well. Ditto the fact that people aren’t quite yet seeing the infrastructure improvements or the lower prescription drug costs.

There is no one reason. But there is one overwhelming factor in play: the media. Or rather, the two medias. It’s very important that people understand this: We reside in a media environment that promotes—whether it intends to or not—right-wing authoritarian spectacle. At the same time, as a culture, it’s consistently obsessed with who “won the day,” while placing far less value on the fact that the civic and democratic health of the country is nurtured through practices such as deliberation, compromise, and sober governance. The result is bad for Joe Biden. But it’s potentially tragic for democracy.

...

The success of the right-wing media is by and large due to the way they speak in lockstep, with one voice, and the way they push one very partisan agenda. They promote Republicans and conservatives, and they say nothing good ever about Democrats or liberals (exception: people who go off the reservation and willingly foul the Democratic-liberal nest, like Joe Manchin or some liberal academic or talking head who turns right, like Glenn Greenwald). Their guiding ethos is not journalistic but political: to advance one party and creed and work their readers and viewers into a constant state of agitation about the other party and creed. And in a time when the Republican Party project has little to do with policy and everything to do with fomenting culture war, no matter how trivial, the right-wing Wurlitzer is adept at ginning up a good two-minute hate against something that got tweeted or what Mr. Potato Head is wearing that week—and here, the mainstream media, chasing engagement like a child fields for candy, follows the right down into these rabbit holes.

The mainstream media, in contrast, do not speak with one very partisan voice; they speak in many voices—critically, including many non-polemical ones. Their guiding ethos is not political but journalistic. Sure, they’re “liberal,” in two senses. First, their editorial pages typically endorse Democrats. And second, they are culturally liberal, because they are mostly based in big cities and their staffs include lots of LGBTQ people, for example, and precious few evangelical Christians.

But even with all that, the mainstream media do not serve a transparent political agenda in the way the right-media do. When The New York Times or CNN or MSNBC gets a scoop about serious corruption in the Biden administration, they pursue the lead and, if verified, report it. If Fox got such a scoop about Donald Trump … well, it’s conceivable that there’s someone left there who wants to do real journalism and who might pursue it. I wish that person luck, though, in getting it on the air. And even if Fox were forced to report it, they’d quickly find ways to rebut it.

...

There are times when it’s impossible, from a journalistic perspective, to treat both sides as equals. And the press has to get a lot better at recognizing when those moments arise.

Lot's more; all high content. Nice to read an article that doesn't tail off over the last third.

[RVInit]

What makes me so damn mad about CNN and other media constantly reminding everyone that "many people are concerned about Biden's age" and then they just stop right there. They are MAKING people worry about his age by telling them that everyone else is concerned about his age.

Instead of constantly reminding us that "many people are concerned about Biden's age, why don't they show some of the hours of available video showing that Trump can't walk more than 10 steps at a time, he is on the record as believing that there is a set limit of how much physical activity a person can do and he doesn't want to go over that limit - which shows yet another fucked up belief this idiot has adopted. And then show the many hours of video showing Biden running and cycling. I guess there is a whole of of running, but there is some video of him and Obama running side by side as well as lots and lots of video showing Biden cycling.

Trump couldn't ride a bike if he was told he would be reinstated if he did.

[pipistrelle]

I saw 50 million tweets of one clip of Biden falling off a bike to prove he’s mentally and physically gone.

[p0rtia]

I wandered over to CNN this afternoon to get Jim Acosta's take on the universe, and who was there playing a talking head? Geraldo Rivera. I decided to watch, because of his Fox Gnus history.

The Google tells me that Geraldo is now 80, and looking well (despite the two-day growth of beard along with his trademark mustache).

But the gibberish that he spouted was cringe-worthy. I'm not sure he ever finished a sentence, let alone a thought. Nor did he make any attempt to answer the questions Acosta teed up. Acosta asked him his thoughts on TFG going after Jack Smith's family again; Geraldo responded by saying something generic about gag orders, and then concluding that "of course" this is different, because TFG was going after Jack Smith's family again. Then he played devil's advocate for TFG (badly, repeating at least six lies in 30 seconds), while declaring his own uber-liberal creds.

Acosta nodded and smiled (not his thing, usually), giving the impression that he was delighted to be in the company of journalistic* royalty. (Though being JIm Acosta, he introduced Geraldo as being "formerly with Fox"). He did not call out Geraldo's crap about Biden's failings and TFG's brilliance, but he did abruptly change the subject.

Why was this man on my 40" TV display? The skinny on Geraldo forty years ago was that he was a lightweight with a mustache whose ideas were meaningless. That doesn't seem to have changed. But I'm pretty sure his ideas came out in sentences back in the day.

[AndyinPA]

Good description of Geraldo.

[RVInit]

I still remember Al Capone's vault. I pretty much associate with Geraldo with that fiasco.

[AndyinPA]

What soured me on his was at some interview in the 90s (probably) where he talked about his vacation home that was in a flood zone. As far as he was concerned, it didn't matter how many times he was flooded out, if the government was stupid enough to give him the money to rebuild, he would rebuild. I am paraphrasing heavily here, but I never forgot that attitude.

And, yeah, the Capone thing, too.

[raison de arizona]

DO NOT COME TO WASHINGTON DC until @MayorBowser calls out the National Guard. It is dangerous!!! Read my last two tweets. Carjackings are skyrocketing (even an FBI agent in broad daylight ), murders skyrocketing….it is dangerous here! Congress has security..so does Pres and Mayor..but the rest of us???

https://x.com/greta/status/1732744288054755641?s=20

[Frater I*I]

DO NOT COME TO WASHINGTON DC until @MayorBowser calls out the National Guard. It is dangerous!!! Read my last two tweets. Carjackings are skyrocketing (even an FBI agent in broad daylight ), murders skyrocketing….it is dangerous here! Congress has security..so does Pres and Mayor..but the rest of us???

https://x.com/greta/status/1732744288054755641?s=20

You'd think a [expletive deleted] reporter would know that the Mayor of DC can't order the Nat Guard to do anything...

[RVInit]

DO NOT COME TO WASHINGTON DC until @MayorBowser calls out the National Guard. It is dangerous!!! Read my last two tweets. Carjackings are skyrocketing (even an FBI agent in broad daylight ), murders skyrocketing….it is dangerous here! Congress has security..so does Pres and Mayor..but the rest of us???

https://x.com/greta/status/1732744288054755641?s=20

You'd think a [expletive deleted] reporter would know that the Mayor of DC can't order the Nat Guard to do anything...

Worse than that, she's a lawyer.

[raison de arizona]

and seriously WTF.

Next by @AP :

“Julia Child and Jeffrey Dahmer are two famous cooks with different approaches to ingredients.”

One attack, two interpretations: Biden and Trump both make the Jan. 6 riot a political rallying cry https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump- ... 0d0d854043

Trump has still built a commanding lead in the Republican primary, and his rivals largely refrain from criticizing him about Jan. 6. He has called it “a beautiful day” and described those imprisoned for the insurrection as “great, great patriots” and “hostages.” At some campaign rallies, he has played a recording of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by jailed rioters — the anthem interspersed with his recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

[raison de arizona]

Sheesh.

CNN contributor criticizes Biden for not curing cancer

[John Thomas8]

[raison de arizona]

Meet the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

These right-wing billionaires buy up mainstream media outlets to push their conservative propaganda.

This time it’s the Baltimore Sun. https://popular.info/p/right-wing-media ... -baltimore

[Dave from down under]

Do you think fox will cover this?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/ ... /103363600

Billionaires tell global leaders they would be 'proud to pay more' taxes

[raison de arizona]

Ain’t nothing stopping them from contributing more.

[raison de arizona]

All interviews should be like this, don't let them off the hook.

Do journalism like this

[AndyinPA]

That was great.

[raison de arizona]

Megyn Kelly doesn't have a jealous bone in her... Oh, my. Hello pot, kettle calling.
https://x.com/MikeSington/status/175245 ... 66179?s=20

Megyn Kelly blasts Rachel Maddow for her salary: “This woman Rachel Maddow is getting paid $30 million a year for one show a week! And this is the kind of journalism we get.”

I’d like to remind this woman Megyn Kelly she was paid $69 million to host two shows on NBC, both of which bombed, and then she was fired from the network.

[raison de arizona]

A special just for NYT.

Paul Krugman tells @GregTSargent that he gets "a little bit questioned" by Times editors when he writes that the Biden economy is doing well; they want him to give more credence to arguments that it isn't. At a little after the 11-minute mark here: