Arthur Brisbane, the Times’ Public Editor who recently said that the Times couldn’t be expected to be a “Truth Vigilante”, has written his last column and it’s full of the kind of reasoning we’ve come to expect from that moron:
When The Times covers a national presidential campaign, I have found that the lead editors and reporters are disciplined about enforcing fairness and balance, and usually succeed in doing so. Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times.
[…] A just-released Pew Research Center survey found that The Times’s “believability rating” had dropped drastically among Republicans compared with Democrats, and was an almost-perfect mirror opposite of Fox News’s rating. Can that be good?
Since it’s a well-established fact that Fox News viewers are well-informed about many things, let’s be sure to take their word on what news source we should believe.
amk
What a vapid idjit.
WereBear
When everything is dumbed down, the man with 2 brain cells is King!
Scott S.
Has there ever been a public editor/ombudsman who wasn’t a preening nincompoop?
TS
So the truth has a liberal leaning – listening to Mitt Romney and his offsider – LIES definitely have a right wing leaning – it is hard to believe they can win an election by telling lies – then again there was a story about weapons of mass destruction – ahhhhh
Why does the GOP so want absolute power that they will force women to bear children and do little else and force 50% of the population into abject poverty and servitude – and people still vote for them.
Schlemizel
i dunt kare i gots my brawndo an my tv
GO WAY! BATIN
cathyx
Clearly the paper is leaning more to the left because the believability rating has dropped among republicans. See? Proof is in the statistics.
Valdivia
So glad our dear old Truth Vigilante is out. Pity it had to wait so long.
Also, too: I put this in another thread but didn’t want to get lost because it is that good.
The Do Over
The Obama Team is so good at these things.
RalfW
A recent Gallup poll showed that 58% of Republicans think the world was created in the last 10,000 years, with humans in their present form.
So of course they think the NYT has a progressive bias.
For f*cks sake, the job of the NYT is to report the news, aka fact-based journalism. If that makes the paper ‘unreliable’ to these anti-science, antisocial facists, well tough shit.
Baud
“The Times’s “believability rating” had dropped drastically among Republicans compared with Democrats, and was an almost-perfect mirror opposite of Fox News’s rating. Can that be good?”
It is good. It means the NYT is doing its job and reporting facts.
I wonder if Fox worries about their believability gap with Democrats.
dewzke
That fooking guy got paid for that shit? Ow!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Valdivia:
I commented on your link in the other thread, but will do so again, here, now. You just gotta Love Team O! They’re doing terrific work, and it’s clear they’re all having one helluva good time doing it.
Donut
This Brisbane fellow seems to have no problem whatsoever disproving the old cliché that there are no stupid questions.
Linda Featheringill
@Valdivia:
Hee-Hee. Do Over is so cute! I hope they put this on TV, just because it’s so good!
cathyx
So what he is saying here is that Fox News is on the same level of legitimacy as the NYTimes. And with writers like him, I think he’s correct.
mamayaga
Not good if your ultimate goal is to sell papers to superstitious ignoramuses. Somebody should tell this guy that the papers in the supermarkets already have that market covered.
RalfW
If that douchenozzle was the editor of the paper, I suppose he’d make all science reporters have a set paragraph that says “creationists and Republicans deny global warming, as the earth might be as young as 10,000 years old. So all baseline science about earlier earth temperatures may have been made up by God, so we can’t know if climate change is in fact happening. You decide.”
Is that the news we want, Mister Brisbane?
Arrghgh this has pissed me off this morning.
arguingwithsignposts
@Scott S.:
I would have to do some research (which I am not going to do), but there are number of ombudsmen at papers and media outlets around the world, and have been in the US since the 1960s, so I would say the odds are that the answer to your question is “yes.” See here for the Organization of News Ombudsmen.
Culture of Truth
To quote Airplane, “what an asshole”
Forked Tongue
Can he resign retroactively back to his first day on the job?
arguingwithsignposts
@SiubhanDuinne: @Valdivia, i posed this question in the earlier thread, which seems to have died, so I’m reposting it here:
One thing I wonder is who there is in the wings? I realize this election isn’t over, but whether Obama wins or loses, the dems will need a new standard-bearer in a couple of years. Who’s that going to be? And will that person bring along the Obama team?
It certainly isn’t going to be HRC or Biden.
I’ve heard Booker and O’Malley (? Maryland) names tossed around, and Cuomo, but the dems will need to slot in a potential candidate for 2016 in this year’s convention. Any others come to mind?
Cacti
@RalfW:
“Some people believe that the earth is held up on the back of a giant turtle. Scientists disagree.”
“And we’ll have to leave it there.”
kay
It’s just such a fucked up world view.
Imagine if this theory was adopted in the real world, with real consequences. Bridges would fall down. Innocent people would be executed. But it would be fair to “both sides”, because they would be treated exactly the same.
One can’t force “facts” into a “fair” frame. It won’t work.
Facts may be unfair. They may favor one side over the other. Can we all agree on that? I think we have to!
“Fair” isn’t the same thing as “true”. They don’t need any more fairness enforcers. They need a fucking dictionary. Start over: “what is our JOB?” and then start looking up these words they use.
Cacti
@arguingwithsignposts:
Jay Nixon, the governor of Missouri.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Is that man even vaguely aware of the world around him?
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
I saw that and commented back that I just love love how Obama and his team tweak Romney every chance they get.
@Linda Featheringill:
Me too. It’s so perfect because the form of it is something every person relates to: a movie ad.
@arguingwithsignposts:
I know Cuomo thinks of himself as the person (see all his moves to keep all his records secret). I think O’Malley. Watch out too for the young Texan who will speak at the convention. Not for 2016, but later.
WereBear
@Valdivia: Thank you thank you! LOVE it.
Valdivia
@WereBear:
I aim to keep our troops happy! :)
The more I think about this Brisbane idiocy the angrier I get. So just because the crazy crowd refuses to accept reality the NYT has to accommodate them. Idiot.
RSA
@Cacti:
“Some scientists disagree, such as Prof. So-and-so, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010…
But Mr. Donatello, turtleback proponent and retired Walmart manager, differs in his views…”
amk
@arguingwithsignposts: Deval Patrick, Brain Schweitzer, John Hickenlooper come to mind
Villago Delenda Est
The facts. They have a liberal bias.
If stupidity of this sort were a capital crime in this country, this shithead would be before a death panel faster than you can say Captain Jack Sparrow.
MattF
This is too easy. The answer to his question is ‘Yes.’
tofubo
http://www.examiner.com/article/marine-arrested-for-facebook-posts-ordered-to-be-released-by-circuit-court-judge
Today, the Rutherford Institute in released statements stated that an unexpected ruling handed down today by Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharrett, the judge dismissed the government’s case against Brandon Raub, the former Marine who was arrested by local police and FBI agents, detained in a psychiatric ward and forced to undergo psychological evaluations based solely on the controversial nature of lines from song lyrics, political messages, and virtual card games which he posted to his private Facebook page…
wheee
Suffern Ace
Yes. More reporters who think gays are an abomination and Muslims are all violent nihilists at heart would make the Times Style section more believable. It’s those other sections fault. Why not just eliminate them.
Dennis SGMM
To me, it seems that the NYT has signally failed by not appealing to a party whose ticket this year is made up of a serial liar and a man who firmly believes that 2+2= whatever he says it equals.
This post has, however, enlightened me. Before reading it I didn’t know that one of the definitions for “ombudsman” was “tool”.
scav
Some of our Market Share chooses to disbelieve anything that fails to agree with their dogma du day. Follow the Market Share! OmBudding is hard work.
amk
The old man ron paul
geg6
His name is Arthur Brisbane, for fuck’s sake. Who would ever expect the guy whose very name conjures up visions of watch chains, spats, a monocle and a cigarette holder would be a clueless, entitled asshole?
WereBear
No fair looking at your brain during the test.
gelfling545
It would seem to me that if a news source is reporting with scrupulous honesty that the “believability” is the problem of the consumer. Is Mr. Brisbane suggesting that acts should be altered or withheld to make the paper more “believable” to some groups? It occurs to me that the a number of those surveyed have probably not read the Times in years because of their whole liberal media conspiracy theory. The only way to make it equally believable to all groups is to convert it to a throw-away that publishes yard sale announcements.
scav
@gelfling545: well, except that they also reproduce boilerplate releases from large corporations (in an astonishing variety of sections) along side the yardsales, you have indeed identified a commonly adopted marketing plan.
gbear
@Valdivia: Just watched ‘The Do Over’ clip. They got everything so right, especially the foreboding musical buildup. My favorite thing is that they could keep the comments open. Almost every comment loves the ad.
Back on topic:
That has to be the most unaware statement that I’ve ever read in a major newspaper. I can’t even imagine how someone in his position could be so clueless. Reasoning fail.
Amir Khalid
@Valdivia:
A quibble: in that infamous column, Arthur Brisbane was actually saying it wasn’t the New York Times’ job to be a “truth vigilante”, to call out falsehoods uttered by public figures — whereas so many of its readers see it as a fundamental part of NYT’s journalistic mission. Like one of them said: “Is this a joke? This is your job.”
Emma
@Valdivia: Dayyyyuuummm. Where do they get the talent and the speed?
dance around in your bones
@Valdivia:
That Do-Over ad is brilliant.
That Brisbane guy is not. He seems to have been assimilated into the ‘Fair and Balanced’ Borg.
Villago Delenda Est
@amk:
Well, that’s hardly surprising. This is supposed to be the Mittens Show, and dissent of the slightest nature cannot be tolerated. It’s as orchestrated as a Partei rally in Nürnberg.
Villago Delenda Est
@tofubo:
That entire article gives no indication at all of what it was that caused all those officials to descend on that Marine vet.
There’s lots of talk of stuff being taken “out of context” but the article gives us no context, either.
This is interesting in and of itself.
Given that the Rutherford Institute is a theofascist outfit, makes you go hmmm.
SiubhanDuinne
@amk:
FSM knows I’m no glibertarian paultard, but I must say I love this! It’s easy to see why he has such an enthusiastic, diehard base.
Jennifer
OT and creepy, but this should probably be shared.
scav
merely a muttered aside of no consequence: So, video has 301 views, 319 likes and 15 dislikes. Hard to keep up with the upgrades in mathematical logic they keep springing on us recently.
Bill E Pilgrim
“Enforcing balance?”
Sigh.
Note that he’s holding this up as a good thing.
Yes, whatever you do be sure and divide truth into two equal parts, corresponding to whatever each of two major political parties is claiming at any given moment. Your job should never be to question a statement in terms of whether it’s true or not, but based on a quota system, wherein you see how much truth has been allowed to Democrats, and how much to Republicans, and then top up whichever is needed. Balance is what matters, not truth. Never forget this.
I wonder if they’ll start giving that as their welcome speech to new journalists.
Opinions differ on shape of the Earth, film at 11. h/t Krugmiester
Dennis SGMM
@tofubo:
I never thought I’d see the day when “controversial” would make you subject to arrest and detainment.
dance around in your bones
@Jennifer:
Redrum, redrum, redrum…..that little Tony in my mouth is talkin’ to me again!
Villago Delenda Est
@Dennis SGMM:
Yet we’re given not a clue as to what the “controversy” is all about.
That article is devoid of fact on this point. It paints the officials as running wild, yet there is no context at all to determine what sparked their reaction to this “controversial” content.
Ben Franklin
Mirror-images in a Vampire World…..mebbe.
RaflW
@gelfling545:
Which is exactly what the right wants done with all “liberal” media. Let’s see what wingnut wellfare Arthur starts pulling down in retirement.
Villago Delenda Est
@Valdivia:
The use of the “In a world…” trope is brilliant.
mamayaga
@Villago Delenda Est: Here’s the full text of his statement that so alarmed the FBI:
http://wtvr.com/2012/08/21/full-text-brandon-raubs-proclamation-take-our-republic-back/
On a quick read it seems to me to be a garden-variety internet rant — don’t the authorities have better things to do? If this is dangerous enough to merit detention, there are tens of millions in this country who need to be detained.
WaterGirl
@Valdivia: I love that! Can’t believe it’s only got 301 views.
Edit: how’s your dad? how are you holding up?
arguingwithsignposts
@mamayaga: That FB post is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ll read on the Internet all day.
amk
@WaterGirl: It’s got only 301 views but has 387 likes / 23 dislikes. What gives?
El Cid
__
This is presented as if it’s merely a loose philosophical or hazy ethical question, whereas it’s actually one to be addressed empirically.
First and foremost, if a “newspaper” isn’t overall concerned with the veracity of the things it prints, it should get out of the business, period, much less claim to be the arbiter of press initiative for the nation like the New York Times does so regularly.
And so whether or not those opinions of the NYT relate to coverage can be evaluated in the light of whether or not each ‘group’ (Fox News viewers and NYT writers & editors) is as closely connected to the measurable, verifiable, demonstrable world.
If — and it’s a big if — a particular NYT report reflects empirical reality, and Fox News (and/or its viewers) does not, then yes, “mirror image” of approval or not, it’s better.
This isn’t hard.
Villago Delenda Est
@mamayaga:
I agree, from what I saw there, it’s your pretty standard internet rant. Can’t imagine what was going through the officials’ minds when they decided to descend on this guy. There was no specific threat to anyone, just general wingnut boilerplate on the Federal Reserve, etc.
It’s just very interesting that the Republican alternative web site didn’t see fit to provide that information to us. It’s like they’re not quite sure they should identify it for fear that someone might think that the officials were fully justified in their actions.
Donut
@amk:
Brian Schweitzer would at the top of my short list but I don’t think he will want it. Also, too, he is way to straightforward and bullshit free for the Village to accept in this post-Tea Party world, IMO.
WaterGirl
@arguingwithsignposts: I read that O’Malley has arranged a meeting with the iowa delegates at democratic convention, with the article stating that showed his intentions for 2016.
Violet
@Valdivia: Ohh…that is so good!
cmorenc
@TS:
A major dynamic in Southern politics (in its more modern post-WW2 form) has been to stoke the class sensibilities of white working-class voters by seemingly protecting their relatively higher status by reinforcing the notion that most of the nonwhite population is visibly lower than they are, but seeks un-earned upward bootstrapping to remove the distinctions between them and the white working-class. A key part of this strategy is to emphasize factors creating cultural solidarity with economically elite whites, distracting working-class voters focus from the often-exploitative factors which sharply divide their interests from those of the elites. Unfortunately, this tactic has too often worked and is at bottom what has given such incendiary force to racial politics in the south, but the fact that this same dynamic works in contexts beyond just race has not been lost on GOP strategists such as Rove or Luntz.
Villago Delenda Est
@arguingwithsignposts:
Oh, I don’t know. Is it as stupid as this?
dance around in your bones
@mamayaga:
It sounds like a typical blog post (except for the reference to the boa constrictor ‘on the loose’ – I hate it when ‘news’ pages do that, insert links to other stories right in the middle of a current one. I was like, what does a boa constrictor have to do with this? Hunh?)
Just amazing that this would have triggered an FBI investigation and not, say, some kid purchasing multiple weapons and a bazillion rounds of ammunition in a very short time frame after suddenly dropping out of grad school.
Samson141
What if we looked back in history to say the civil war era, or the sufferage era, or the civil rights era and apply this sort of bullshit “the truth must be in the middle, facts and morality be damned.” You would think Art and his ilk would realize that they are on the wrong side of history when they grumble that self-interested greed head opinions, bigot’s opinions, etc. should be respected and held up as the equal to fact based, enlightened opinions.
Omnes Omnibus
@mamayaga: That is the text of a facebook post. Were there others saying something different? We don’t know. I am pretty skeptical of the need to arrest people for facebook posts, but I am also pretty skeptical of anything being pushed by the Rutherford Institute and written up by a guy who describes himself this way:
scav
ahh ahh ahh, wasn’t that 301 a placeholder for views we’ve not finished counting? whew, cancels upgrade on logic function, not that the new one would buy things based on internet rankings or reviews ever.
Nylund
Shorter:
Crazy Republicans don’t believe reality so the Times should stop reporting the truth in the name of balance.
mamayaga
@dance around in your bones: I hope this guy sues everyone responsible. His First Amendment rights were clearly violated. And the FBI really needs to get out more. Some of the nutsier parts of that rant are endorsed by elected officials in various parts of this country.
Jay in Oregon
@WaterGirl:
@amk:
Newly-released videos on YouTube often get stuck on 301 views for a while.
It’s an anti-spam thing, to prevent bots from artificially inflating the view count on videos.
http://mashable.com/2012/06/25/why-do-youtube-videos-freeze-at-301-views/
arguingwithsignposts
@Villago Delenda Est: Sadly, yes. It’s stupider than that. I put conspiracy one-world-government-911-was-an-inside-job-america-is-the-land-of-milk-and-honey rants much higher on the stupid scale than illogical navel-gazing from ombudsmen.
ETA: I’m unclear on this – was this guy a serving Marine at the time he wrote this?
El Cid
@Valdivia: That video is fantastic, hilarious. I only regret that they didn’t include “I’m not sure about those cookies; I don’t think you made them.”
WaterGirl
@amk: My theory: likes and dislikes are counted in real time, but view counts are updated hourly or something like that.
Edit: love the ending, by the way.
PANTS
ON
FIRE
rated N for not gonna work
WaterGirl
@El Cid: You didn’t make those cookies.
mamayaga
@Omnes Omnibus:
The judge didn’t seem to think there was any more to it, and he, I presume, had all the facts ( probably presented by the arresting authorities in the most damning light possible). The only things I can think of that might merit even official questioning would be a credible threat of terrorism or a credible threat on a public official. If that had been the case, wouldn’t there have been something released to the press to that effect? Wouldn’t the judge have taken it into account? I’ve seen nothing to show there is any there there.
El Cid
@WaterGirl: You just got them from the local [“We got them from a local bakery!”] 7-11, or whatever.
Anya
@arguingwithsignposts:Reposting from dead thread: I have a feeling O’Malley can bring along the Obama team. He’s been a great surrogate. He’s telegenic, a very successful governor and he has a broad appeal. I don’t think Cuomo will win the primary. He’s hard core corporate tool and he’s been really tough on unions and cutting social programs. Aside from the gay marriage issue he cannot point to anything that will appeal to liberals. He’s stated top goal in 2012 is the reduction of public employee pensions. WTF!
El Cid
@Nylund: Clearly NASA should change its mission plans and technical details so as to better reflect the approval ratings of Fox News viewers for each fact and detail. How could this fail to improve their missions?
amk
@Jay in Oregon: ; @WaterGirl: Gotcha. Thanks.
Villago Delenda Est
@arguingwithsignposts:
Not sure on that point. The picture of him in the article had him in uniform, and that’s a touchy point sometimes, as it’s a UCMJ violation to attend political events in uniform if you’re not there as part of a color guard or similar official delegation. The military does not take sides in partisan politics, as a matter of policy.
If he’s no longer on active or reserve duty, he’s not entitled to wear the uniform in a political context, either, he’s just no longer subject to the UCMJ, but civil law on that point.
General Stuck
A perfect example of today’s GOP, under Romneyism, both for and againstism. Nothing is what it seems, nothing to get hung about. It’s the Strawberry Fields forever party.
Shorter wingnut – When democrats read what republicans say it isn’t what they mean, or even what they said. Wolverines!!
Libtards and their details smetails.
arguingwithsignposts
@Anya: FWIW, I don’t like Cuomo much at all, either. I don’t know enough about O’Malley, other than people here have spoken positively about him. I hope the DNC has a plan. When Obama spoke at the convention in 2004, I’m pretty sure he was in the back of people’s minds for future runs, but probably not so soon.
It’s obvious the RNC doesn’t have a deep bench to pull new candidates from. I just hope the DNC isn’t in the recycling business like the elephants are.
dance around in your bones
@mamayaga:
Maybe some FBI supercomputer monitoring program pulled out keywords like spill their blood, they are killing, terrorism and Marine, and got all OMG!
Oops, I’ve probably just triggered that same program. I am doomed.
Anya
@mamayaga: I can’t believe he was institutionalized for this. This is crazy. He has a case for violation of his civil rights. WTF. I am appalled.
Valdivia
@Amir Khalid:
I was being sarcastic.
arguingwithsignposts
@Anya: I can’t believe so many people believe half the shit he wrote in that post, regardless of the propriety of the law enforcement officials involved.
Valdivia
@WaterGirl:
Thanks for asking. One more day of radiation and we are done. Just hope none of the dreaded side-effects show up weeks after the radiation is done. It will be a relief not to go to the hospital everyday.
Amir Khalid
@Valdivia:
Missed that. sorry.
scav
@General Stuck: What is the contract boilerplate for that? Credit cards is what springs to mind. Portions of this contract may be unilaterally altered at any time? but that sounds far far for too straight forward. “Look ma! I’m standing on vaporware!” captures a bit of the ethos, or maybe that mirror that reflects what you really really want back at you. Shared by above ombudsdoormat of the NYT and ombudsleadermitt of the GOP, by coinckydink.
lamh35
hmm so Charlie Crist endorsed Obama for re-election. what does that mean fo FL?
FormerGovernor Charlie Crist: Here’s Why I’m Backing Barack Obama
Valdivia
@Amir Khalid:
No worries. That Brisbane guy earned a lifetime of mocking and derision for that Truth Vigilante thing.
Redshift
Brisbane’s statement is appalling, but I congratulate him on unwittingly crystallizing the “working the refs” strategy for anyone with a functioning brain. Now if the NYT would just hire the next “public editor” out of that pool…
LanceThruster
You can’t fix stupid.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
I just wanted to note that, per usual, the comments on that piece are full of self-congratulatory “SEE, SEE!! I TOLD YOU THE NYTIMES WAS A STUPID FUCKING LEFTY COMMIE RAG! THIS PROVES IT! ANGERRRRRRRRR!”
This apologia false-equivalence (except when the Democrats are actually worse worse miles worse!!!!) bullshit only reinforces this stupid goddamn victimhood amongst those who earnestly believe in the Mass Liberal Media conspiracy. And admitting it doesn’t somehow give you or your outlet cred for admitting it. It just makes them scream more and turn their back on you more in lieu of the only ‘true truthtelling media!!’ in Fox, Rush, etc.
You shoot yourself in the foot by pandering to people who will never love you in the first place. So why do these goddamned cretins like Brisbane always pull this shit? Do they honestly believe that ‘BOTH SIDES SAME THING EXCEPT DEMS ARE ALWAYS WORST!!!’ bullshit they keep peddling?
Redshift
@General Stuck: Personally, I’m enjoying the fact that becoming a high-profile national Republican has meant that McDonnell has to frequently go on TV and make extremely implausible denials that the GOP is endorsing positions he himself has espoused for his entire career.
Anya
A just released Public Policy Polling poll found that fifty-one percent of Republican primary voters surveyed nationwide ascribe to the delusional birther conspiracy theory. Since news papers should be about accommodating republican paranoia, maybe The Times should accommodate their delusions by adding a caveat whenever they write about the President stating that no one knows if President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. What an idiot.
Anya
@arguingwithsignposts: There’s a fine line between sanity and insanity. I think most of them crossed that line.
Dennis SGMM
@General Stuck:
“Terms, conditions, and applicability depend strictly on the nature of the audience. Your mileage may vary. Objects in the mirror are larger than they appear. When you ride a bike at night wear white.”
piratedan
@Redshift: just think on what Brisbane means to journalism as a whole, if asshats like this guy have been in positions of influence over the last 30 years its no bleeping wonder why journalism is in such a shoddy state. Cripes, can you imagine how Arthur might have shit himself if actual journalism had been performed under his very nose, you can pretty much guess than anything that could have offended the powers that be would have been shitcanned pdq if his ilk was commonplace in the decision making process as what constituted the news. I understand telling both sides of the story and I can certainly see how facts taken out of context can be used unjustly, but isn’t that their job as journalists to tell both sides and to ensure that context is maintained?
Dennis SGMM
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
Victimhood is the Step One of the Three Step Program to becoming a Republican.
Step One: I am a victim.
Step Two: I am oppressed by the media and the dark skinned forces of evil.
Step Three: It’s not my fault.
WereBear
I must say that this tactic works with zero effort on the part of the exploited. They get to feel superior without any substantiation for that feeling having to be identified and acquired.
This perhaps explains its popularity despite its high price: any fool can feel a king.
Anya
@arguingwithsignposts:
True! but what’s sad is that any lunatic or a panderer to lunatics the Republicans inflict on us will automatically get 41% of the votes.
danielx
@Baud:
Yes.
This has been another edition of Simple Answers To Simple Questions.
Michael Bersin
@arguingwithsignposts:
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) will be the featured speaker at the annual Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa on September 16th.
WaterGirl
@Valdivia: Really glad that the radiation treatments will be over. So much uncertainty, though, that’s really hard. Glad you all have each other.
Did you end up taking a leave of absence from your job, or leaving your job? Your dad is so lucky to have you.
Southern Beale
Wingnut neighbor sent me a chain e-mail by Lou Pritchard, the guy who did the “Obama scares me” chain e-mail that went viral 2 years ago. He’s got another one that’s just as retarded.
I don’t know what these people would do if they didn’t have someone telling them who to hate.
And then I read Thomas Franks’ piece in the current issue of Harper’s basically explaining how Obama has been the best Republican president in the past 20 years and honestly, I just despair. If we as a country have no way to sit down and agree on x, y and z about just the basic facts — if half the country thinks the president is a conservative sell out and the other half thinks he’s a socialist bent on destroying capitalism, then what the fuck is the point of any of it.
danielx
@cmorenc:
Shorter:
We (Republicans) are going to protect you from liberals who will
1. take away your money
2. give it to brown people
3. who will defile your women while eating T-bone steaks that you paid for
4. and force your children into gay marrying each other.
Works every time.
piratedan
@Dennis SGMM: step four…. drop the whip and hope that they see the dead horse and connect the dots versus the slave quarters round the back….
Michael Bersin
@Cacti:
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Ah, yes, he’s running ads for his reelection campaign in Missouri extolling his virtues and decrying a broken process in D.C. For a statewide race in Missouri.
I attended a local Democratic Party event a while back in our neck of the woods of semi-rural outstate Missouri where a liberal State Senator from Kansas City, a guest speaker, quipped in her remarks that “Jay Nixon is the best Republican governor we’ve ever had.” Everyone in the room laughed in recognition.
Like Dick Gephardt in 2004, I don’t think Jay Nixon has processed the concept for 2016 that if you’re gonna run for President maybe you should have a voter base in the Democratic Party that would actually support your run. The republicans certainly won’t.
Paul
That’s like saying that once the intellectuals figured out the planet was not flat;
that the intellectuals “believability rating” had dropped drastically among people who believed the planet was flat compared with people who didn’t believe it was flat.
It is the job of the Times to report facts, not to make up garbage just to satisfy the crowd that believes that the planet is flat or that there is such a thing as legitimate rape.
Anya
@Southern Beale: I think the group that believe the president is a conservative sell out are our 27%.
Valdivia
@WaterGirl:
I took leave but by now it’s more like quitting. When all this is over (at least the crisis stuff because this stuff never really ends) I have to rethink where life is taking me.
Thanks as always for your kind words. It means a lot!
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
I just…..holy Jesus Christ.
The more I read the reactions to this thing, the more I fucking weep. It’s like a fucking 95%-5% chorus of “YEAH, FUCK THE NYTIMES AND ALL THE GODDAMN FOREIGN LIBERAL FUCKS!!!!”
Not to mention the idea that…somehow….Douchehat and Brooks aren’t hyper conservative, and that the lack of ‘conservatives’ as defined by them proves just how fucking anti-conservative and therefore anti-american the paper is.
Just….fuck, I feel foreign now because apparently the entire goddamn country can’t suffer anyone left of Lieberman to fucking live.
The Moar You Know
@Southern Beale: Pumping rounds through the side of your home, or shooting the dark-skinned kids at the local school. I for one thank God for Fox, it gives these idiots something to do during their waking hours (I assume most of them are so stupid that they don’t work).
Frankensteinbeck
The ‘Cult of Savvy’ hypothesis wins again. It’s a religion to this guy that both sides MUST be essentially equal, and if you support one more than the other it means you’re falling for their snow job. He really thinks he’s doing the smart, moral, correct thing.
@Samson141:
If you looked back to those eras, you would see that newspapers were pure propaganda machines, ‘yellow journalism’ as it was called – but everyone knew it.
scav
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik: If the entire goddam country was, in fact, reading the NYT, the NYT wouldn’t be so frantically chasing and pleading for the pro-FAUX market segment. We may still be freaking aliens in this nation but the screamers in comments are probably following a link-trail and have possibly never soiled their hands with the newsprint under discussion in their lives — basically an accident of flash-mob composition.
dww44
@Scott S.: Actually, I sorta like the one for PBS, whose weekly email newsletter which always includes posted comments from readers. He seems to be pretty balanced and fair. His name is Michael Getler and here’s a link:
http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2012/08/the_mailbag_what_ever_happened_to_tote_bags_1.html?utm_source=list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=120823
dww44
@Southern Beale: All too true, which is one reason I don’t bury myself in Digby’s posts for too long, although I do like her. Like yesterday, a long post about Obama and conserva Dems leading the way to deficit cutting, budget cutting, safety net cutting and how if the Tea Party Gop’ers figure this out and start to working with him and then, then progressives lose.
Frankensteinbeck
@dww44:
The ‘Obama wants to gut the safety net’ meme is as unhinged as ‘Obama wants to take away our guns’. He’s had the best opportunities any president will ever have to do it. Instead he refused and gave lengthy speeches about why it was the wrong thing to do. If he wanted to kill Medicare and Social Security, folks, he would have done it by now. Utter paranoia.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@RalfW:
At what point are we allowed to say out loud that GOP “values” pose a concrete threat to human advancement and survival?
Just waitin’ for permission here…
Frankensteinbeck
I think that figure is deceiving. It’s not a measure of how unhinged their belief system is, it’s a measure of how unhinged their hate is. You can argue about why (I do think it’s mostly race) but you can’t argue that the conservative movement right now is running on pure, frothing anger searching for excuses and shape. Their side is Christian. Creationism is a Christian shibboleth. Thus, conservatives who four years ago believed in evolution will now loudly defend Creationism just because it’s a way of defending their side and lashing out at the Other.
Rafer Janders
Probably late to this party, but I note that his key metric is “fairness and balance” rather than “truth and accuracy.”
You know where fairness and balance really matters? In a play party for five year olds.
Origuy
The article tofubu linked to calls Raub a “former Marine”, so he’s not active duty. His Facebook page claims that the government fired a missile at the Pentagon, so he’s a truther. One posting I found somewhere else had a string of “This is the country of Washington.” etc. that included Smedley Butler. Butler was the general who was supposed to take over after the Business Plot ousted FDR. He wasn’t involved with it,and served honorably as a Marine, so I don’t know if the reference is just as a Marine or has a deeper meaning.
AHH onna Droid
@Valdivia: FUCK Cuomo.
That is all.
Kathy in St. Louis
Just another proof that reality has a libeal bias.
Robert Waldmann
Can that be good ? He asks. Well yes it can. Many Republicans don’t believe that Obama was born in the USA, that the climate is getting warmer, that Obama and the Democrats have cut taxes (also most Democrats and independents on that one).
Given the documented facts which many Republicans don’t believe it is very good for a newspaper to write things which many Republicans don’t believe.
Brisbane is assuming that displeasing Republicans and Democrats equally is consistent with accurately reporting the facts. In fact he clearly considers it evidence of accuracy. But this is an article of faith not based on evidence and challenged by massive evidence.
If he reflects seriously and humbly and rises above his current self, maybe maybe some day he will be able to understand Colbert.
Brandon
I am digging the schadenfreude that the NYT hired this moron in the first place and then had no problem hiding behind him when he was penning his inane drivel in defense of the same paper against the complaints of its readers when they complained of their over reliance on ‘even handed’ reporting of the controversy, without bothering to contextualize if one side is full of it. And now the very same NYT has to defend itself from the stupidest of charges as a parting shot from this idiot. They got what they deserved. Forgive me if I reserve my scorn for the NYT for hiring this moron in the first place and not the moron himself. He is only doing to his former employer what he’s done to readers throughtout his tenure.
Lancelot Link
Hopefully we will be spared any future Brisbanality.
Lurking Canadian
The only grounds for concern I see is that if there are still any Republicans who think you are “believable”, it means you are slanted too far right.
4jkb4ia
But in the lead story today, the reporters wrote, flat out, that Romney’s welfare ad was false! The NYT!
The most laughable part about the column was that Brisbane wrote that Times Nation was too quick to embrace OWS, when the NYT relative lack of coverage was documented on this very blog.
/checking on whether John has sent me to blogging Siberia
4jkb4ia
It has now been 80 comments, and even I cannot believe that John gave a damn about what I wrote if he actually read it, but verify.
noabsolutes
Wow, I would suggest that this public editor is the dumbest motherfucker on the face of the earth, but I’m concerned that Republicans won’t find my assertion believable.