The blatant difference between the journalists' covering of Trump's presser yesterday versus their unrelenting haranguing on Biden's age, memory, mistakes (not lies), unworthiness to be president, need to drop out, etc. is so obvious. Why is the press supporting Trump's behavior and lies?
"Political reporters should report honestly...". Well, tbh they're not paid to ""report honestly", but to generate eyeballs/clicks, and to do that they simply print what comes out of tRump's cloacal mouth, and watch the reaction. However, these days, tRump's WWE-inflected act is worn-out, tiresome, repetitive, and worse yet, BORING, but the MSM is slow to catch on, as they treat those fatigued tropes as "newsworthy", and continue with the stenography.
Sure, there are efforts at "fact-checking", but everybody realizes by now tRump's rhetoric and rants AREN'T about "facts", but all about entertainment, and there is little mileage gained in expending time and column-inches in doing that task. The only sure cure for handling this demented fool's act is just to ignore it, IMO, as there is a palpable decline in the public's interest in following a stale, formulaic, vaudevillian routine, so why waste the time and effort helping him prop it up?
TRump reminds me of the Laurence Olivier character, Archie Rice, in the film "The Entertainer", who went from a headliner to performing in second-rate venues, and getting heckled in the process. Hang 'em up, tRump, your day is done.
And nobody questions how Trump's ear, which he and the FBI claimed had been shot with a bullet from an AR-15 type rifle, has miraculously healed without so much as a scab or a scar, in only 2 weeks. This just makes me wonder just what else we're being lied to about?
All of this is true and has been true from the moment Trump came on the stage. But it goes so far beyond lies. IMHO as a sane but non-medical observer, DJT is not sane and probably has never been. I admit that there were times early on when he didn't come off as completely unhinged but the Captain Queeg moments are pretty much the norm now. All of which would be clear if we had a real press doing the job that a real press is supposed to do. If he is ever dragged of to an institution for mental health treatment, as he should be, I'm sure the press will interview him there - and probably use the Mr. President salutation. I honestly don't believe I'm engaging in hyperbole here.
Perhaps you disagree with the historians warning us that the dystopian vision promoted by Trump and the MAGA movement is part of an authoritarian goal to destroy America's democracy. And what we have is a press too afraid of Trump and of losing even more of their audiences to say anything much about it.
And let's face another alarming fact - that Trump is losing his goddamn marbles, due to dementia and his sociopathy. It's the one elephant in the room that goes totally unnoticed, while the news media played a huge part in forcing Joe Biden to end his career because of one bad debate "performance."
The problem, what can we do??? I have canceled all subs to MSM. I write to editorial boards. I direct tweets to them attaching articles such as this here. I feel powerless. There seemed to be a movement firming on social media to boycott reading MSM from the 1st thru 8th. That seemed to have fizzled. The power of thd individual has always seemed through the purse, but I know hundreds have canceled subs. What's to do?
Subscriptions to major print newspapers have declined drastically in the last decade, journalists have been laid off and local newspapers have gone out of business. Major cable outlets such as CNN dominate and determine what news gets to us. The competition is tight, and the risks are high, especially when it concerns reporting that many people's cult leader is as mad as a hatter. Nobody can afford to lose those clicks,
The "open border" claim, by all GPO members, is one that really bothers me, among all the others. They keep repeating it and it's baloney. But it's all lies, cheats, and bullies because that's the only way they can win. But they won't. Trump is losing it and the alt press is covering it, all over the place. Thank you for covering it as it should be covered. (Cancelled NY Times, Guardian and WaPo over a month ago. It makes me sad that they can't do what they're supposed to do. Democoracies depend upon an honest and factual reporting, but thank gooness we now have alternate choices.)
The corporate media will never practice actual journalism where Trump is concerned. On the one hand there are the death threats, but more important, he gives them easy bylines and easy clicks. So rather than report that his whole campaign is bullshit, they are laboring long and hard to keep him in the game, made more difficult each day by his obvious mental decline. Just wait a week or two when they start tearing Harris and Walz down after a massive polling bump from the DNC.
Thanks Dan, as always. You and Lawrence O'Donnell keep me sane.
The blatant difference between the journalists' covering of Trump's presser yesterday versus their unrelenting haranguing on Biden's age, memory, mistakes (not lies), unworthiness to be president, need to drop out, etc. is so obvious. Why is the press supporting Trump's behavior and lies?
"Political reporters should report honestly...". Well, tbh they're not paid to ""report honestly", but to generate eyeballs/clicks, and to do that they simply print what comes out of tRump's cloacal mouth, and watch the reaction. However, these days, tRump's WWE-inflected act is worn-out, tiresome, repetitive, and worse yet, BORING, but the MSM is slow to catch on, as they treat those fatigued tropes as "newsworthy", and continue with the stenography.
Sure, there are efforts at "fact-checking", but everybody realizes by now tRump's rhetoric and rants AREN'T about "facts", but all about entertainment, and there is little mileage gained in expending time and column-inches in doing that task. The only sure cure for handling this demented fool's act is just to ignore it, IMO, as there is a palpable decline in the public's interest in following a stale, formulaic, vaudevillian routine, so why waste the time and effort helping him prop it up?
TRump reminds me of the Laurence Olivier character, Archie Rice, in the film "The Entertainer", who went from a headliner to performing in second-rate venues, and getting heckled in the process. Hang 'em up, tRump, your day is done.
And nobody questions how Trump's ear, which he and the FBI claimed had been shot with a bullet from an AR-15 type rifle, has miraculously healed without so much as a scab or a scar, in only 2 weeks. This just makes me wonder just what else we're being lied to about?
All of this is true and has been true from the moment Trump came on the stage. But it goes so far beyond lies. IMHO as a sane but non-medical observer, DJT is not sane and probably has never been. I admit that there were times early on when he didn't come off as completely unhinged but the Captain Queeg moments are pretty much the norm now. All of which would be clear if we had a real press doing the job that a real press is supposed to do. If he is ever dragged of to an institution for mental health treatment, as he should be, I'm sure the press will interview him there - and probably use the Mr. President salutation. I honestly don't believe I'm engaging in hyperbole here.
Perhaps you disagree with the historians warning us that the dystopian vision promoted by Trump and the MAGA movement is part of an authoritarian goal to destroy America's democracy. And what we have is a press too afraid of Trump and of losing even more of their audiences to say anything much about it.
And let's face another alarming fact - that Trump is losing his goddamn marbles, due to dementia and his sociopathy. It's the one elephant in the room that goes totally unnoticed, while the news media played a huge part in forcing Joe Biden to end his career because of one bad debate "performance."
The problem, what can we do??? I have canceled all subs to MSM. I write to editorial boards. I direct tweets to them attaching articles such as this here. I feel powerless. There seemed to be a movement firming on social media to boycott reading MSM from the 1st thru 8th. That seemed to have fizzled. The power of thd individual has always seemed through the purse, but I know hundreds have canceled subs. What's to do?
Subscriptions to major print newspapers have declined drastically in the last decade, journalists have been laid off and local newspapers have gone out of business. Major cable outlets such as CNN dominate and determine what news gets to us. The competition is tight, and the risks are high, especially when it concerns reporting that many people's cult leader is as mad as a hatter. Nobody can afford to lose those clicks,
The "open border" claim, by all GPO members, is one that really bothers me, among all the others. They keep repeating it and it's baloney. But it's all lies, cheats, and bullies because that's the only way they can win. But they won't. Trump is losing it and the alt press is covering it, all over the place. Thank you for covering it as it should be covered. (Cancelled NY Times, Guardian and WaPo over a month ago. It makes me sad that they can't do what they're supposed to do. Democoracies depend upon an honest and factual reporting, but thank gooness we now have alternate choices.)
I fully appreciate their predicament but... they also have a duty to the nation. If that is lost, so too is the nation!
Gotta say PBS Newshour did a pretty good job tonight thanks Laura Barron Lopez.
The corporate media will never practice actual journalism where Trump is concerned. On the one hand there are the death threats, but more important, he gives them easy bylines and easy clicks. So rather than report that his whole campaign is bullshit, they are laboring long and hard to keep him in the game, made more difficult each day by his obvious mental decline. Just wait a week or two when they start tearing Harris and Walz down after a massive polling bump from the DNC.