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You are here: Home / Every Time

Every Time

by $8 blue check mistermix|  December 8, 20159:45 am| 118 Comments

This post is in: DC Press Corpse

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Jay Rosen on the press’ role in our common disaster:

Every time you had to “leave it there” after ideologies clashed mindlessly, fruitlessly. Every dubious truth claim you had to let pass because challenging it might interrupt the flow or make you sound too partisan. Every time you defaulted to “will it work?” when the bigger question was “is it so?” Every dutiful effort you made to “get the other side” without asking if the number of sides was really two. Every time you asked each other “what’s the politics of this?” so you could escape the tedium and complexity of public problem-solving. Every time you smiled weakly to say, “depends on who you ask” before launching into a description of public actors who dwell in separate worlds of fact. Every time you described political polarization as symmetrical when it isn’t. Every time you denied that being in the middle was a position so you didn’t have to ask if it was a defensible one. Every time you excluded yourselves from a faltering political class. Every pox you put on both houses because it felt good to float above it all. Every eye you rolled at the humorless scolds who rage at the White House Correspondents dinner. Every time you jeered at the popularity of “partisan media” without reminding yourself “…there goes our audience.” Every time you laughed at the Daily Show’s treatment of you with no companion sense of dread. (They’re on to us.) Every time you said “the truth is probably somewhere in the middle” when you really had no clue. Every time you pointed with pride to the criticism you were getting from both sides, assuming it meant you were doing something right when you might have been doing everything wrong. Every operative you turned into an expert. Every unprincipled winner you admired for their savvy. Every time you thought it was not up to you to judge when it was on you — especially on you — to assess, weigh and, yes, judge.

All of it, every moment like that had the effect of implicating you in this mess.

There’s more to read at the link, at least until Trump calls Bill Gates and has him shut down the Internet.

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Previous Post: « Better curves in the future
Next Post: And Now a Few Words from President Washington: The Government of the United States which Gives to Bigotry No Sanction Edition »

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    December 8, 2015 at 9:58 am

    It’s not exactly J’accuse, but it’s a start. Sadly I predict the minor howls of Rosen will go nowhere. Trump is good for eyeballs/clicks, and that’s the only concern of the corporate media paymasters.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 10:04 am

    Ask John McCain again, if he’s still willing to vote for Donald Trump. If he thinks a Republican nominee who says things like this is still better than any Democrat. If McCain says yes, challenge him to justify his answer and don’t let up until he does.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    December 8, 2015 at 10:04 am

    When he was the BIRTHER-IN-CHIEF, and the MSM coddled Trump. They just went along to get along. But, like I’ve been saying all along: Trump is not appealing to a SLIVER of the GOP. He appeals to the very CORE of the GOP. And, he’s speaking to them in non-Frank Luntz-approved dogwhistles.

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    December 8, 2015 at 10:10 am

    Per the newspaper USA Today, Trump is again gaining ground on his rivals by playing the 21st century American version of Mussolini.

  5. 5.

    Gene108

    December 8, 2015 at 10:12 am

    @Yutsano:

    Rosen has been very critical of the MSM’s “view from nowhere” reporting for some time now to little effect.

  6. 6.

    Mike J

    December 8, 2015 at 10:15 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Ask John McCain again, if he’s still willing to vote for Donald Trump.

    It should be asked of every Republican. Especially those who are running and have pledged to support the eventual nominee.

  7. 7.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 8, 2015 at 10:18 am

    Trumpettes scare me more than Trump.

  8. 8.

    Belafon

    December 8, 2015 at 10:18 am

    The purpose of the press was to be our daily check on the government. The average person doesn’t have the time for that; if they did, we’d be a Democracy, not a Republic. The press blew it when they gave up the role.

    I could find a number of points of failure, but, to me, the biggest occurred when the Bush Administration colluded with Fox to neuter the press.

  9. 9.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 8, 2015 at 10:19 am

    Snooze Hour is one of the worst perpetrators of this view from nowhere reporting.

  10. 10.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2015 at 10:22 am

    I definitely co-sign the excerpt quoted above. Many times I have pleaded in vain with the anchor to please not “leave it there”. When Chuck Todd considers debunking falsehoods about the Affordable Care Act, a law that will impact every single American, not part of his responsibility because the White House is supposed to “sell” the ACA, we are in serious trouble.

    Most of the time the “we’ll just leave it there” is followed by “we have to go to commercial”. The way we pay for our access to information is a big part of the problem.

  11. 11.

    joes527

    December 8, 2015 at 10:23 am

    Every time you had to “leave it there” after ideologies clashed mindlessly, fruitlessly.

    This is what drives me nuts about our media. No matter what you watch/listen to, discussion is always, Always, ALWAYS constrained by some arbitrary-but-short time limit. There are no good guys on this issue. We have collectively decided that if an issue can’t be fully explored in 3-5 minutes (max) then … what are you going to do? We’ll just have to leave it there.

  12. 12.

    greennotGreen

    December 8, 2015 at 10:23 am

    The sad thing is that there are people who watch PBS and think they’re informed. After all, it’s PUBLIC TV…or something. This was made all the more apparent to me when my cousin, a not-unintelligent person, wouldn’t join the rest of the family for an activity until a segment with David Brooks was over.

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    December 8, 2015 at 10:25 am

    this tweet gets to the heart of it for me. If you’ve been Black in America longer than 3 days…..you know, it will eventually get around to US..so, we need to shut this shyt off at the path.

    ……………….

    Michael Hargrove @MichaelHargrov1

    If you want to know how dangerous Trump is, replace the word Muslims with Jews, Blacks, Catholics or the other people he can ban.

  14. 14.

    Peale

    December 8, 2015 at 10:31 am

    @rikyrah: Listen, he’s just proposing a temporary ban so that Obama can’t destroy the country with his Muslim horde and then to study the problem thoroughly. Once we are done studying the problem, I’m sure the ban will be lifted. It’s really odd that no one has been looking into terrorism and its causes. Donald is scholarly, though.

  15. 15.

    RSR

    December 8, 2015 at 10:32 am

    And he’s just talking about education reform, right? Ha. Of course not. But Rosen’s statement really applies across such a vast landscape of the grifting of modern American policy and politics.

    Every time you defaulted to “will it work?” when the bigger question was “is it so?”

    And there’s seemingly no remorse or repentance for the literal death and destruction that have occurred because the press wants to ‘float above it all.’

  16. 16.

    joes527

    December 8, 2015 at 10:33 am

    It is a sad commentary on our civilization when the “news” shows that do the best job are nominally comedy shows. Last Week Tonight seems to be leading the pack in this area right now.

  17. 17.

    Debbie

    December 8, 2015 at 10:33 am

    It’s that they don’t even bother to include both sides anymore. I fired off an angry email to the NPR ombudsman yesterday, for all the good that will do.

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    December 8, 2015 at 10:39 am

    These People are pathological. Morning Edition has a story from rural Kentucky about incoming Governor Bevin’s promise to eliminate Medicaid expansion. They interview an unemployed woman currently on Medicaid who nevertheless voted for Bevin. In her view, too many area moochers are dependent on the gummint (but: not her!) and she’ll gladly give up Medicaid to get those bastards off the couch and back to work. Her logic: he’ll grow the economy so she’ll get a magical job from the rising tide or magic job tree or whatevs. I suppose the spectacular success of Brownback’s Kansas is there to give her hope.

    It’s been stated here more than once that this mentality holds sway because folks will take a wound so long as the undeserving suffer more. Give them a box under a freeway overpass so long as those bastards are sleeping in the rain on bare dirt.

  19. 19.

    Belafon

    December 8, 2015 at 10:39 am

    @joes527: Which is why John Oliver’s climate change episode was so great. He had the two people who didn’t believe it, and then 40+ scientists who studied it to help Bill Nye. It finally showed the sides as they truly were.

  20. 20.

    lurker dean

    December 8, 2015 at 10:39 am

    A great example of this stupidity last night, in reaction to Trump’s muslim ban.

    Christopher C. Cuomo
    @ChrisCuomo
    So the media should strike him down for making a suggestion that perhaps offends certain sensibilities?
    https://twitter.com/ChrisCuomo/status/674018884270297088

    “perhaps offends certain sensibilities?”

  21. 21.

    scav

    December 8, 2015 at 10:47 am

    “News” reporting, untethered to any regard for truth, reality or validity, is gossip-mongering for profit.

    Given that –monger is defined as merely a dealer or trader in whatever, we’ve moved into gossip-wright territory as they are actively constructing what they claim merely to report.

  22. 22.

    RareSanity

    December 8, 2015 at 10:47 am

    I commend Rosen on his attempt, but it will make no difference. Ever since the news turned into “infotainment”, ratings are are the top priority. Even if people are tuning in to watch the train wreck of Don Lemmon on CNN, they’re still watching, generating ratings.

    The only thing that will change it is that the audience does not tune in to the freak shows.

    …and with a non-trivial amount of people in our country that think this is OK:

    Severed pig’s head thrown at Philadelphia mosque door

    I don’t feel very hopeful that will happen.

    One thing for sure, it’ll be a pretty cold day in hell before I watch MSNBC again, after what they pulled rummaging through the house of the San Bernadino shooters.

  23. 23.

    MattF

    December 8, 2015 at 10:49 am

    And here’s Louie Gohmert– Obama is letting in terrorists and freeing criminals so that he’ll have an excuse to take our guns away. Makes perfect sense– if you’re a psychopath. And, um… it’s just a coincidence that these criminals and terrorists are brown-skinned.

    So, if you’re a journalist, where do you begin? What’s the news story here? Where are the facts that need to be checked? Is there really ‘another side’ to the story? Do you ask Louie about his medication schedule?

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 10:50 am

    I would normally consider running a photo like this a cheap shot. But The Donald has willingly brought this upon himself.

  25. 25.

    TooManyJens

    December 8, 2015 at 10:51 am

    Is there somebody out there with better CSS-fu than I have who could tell me what I need to add to my Stylish script to make the background color here white again? I’ve somehow managed to turn the front page white but leave the comment pages gray. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  26. 26.

    catclub

    December 8, 2015 at 10:54 am

    Dick Cheney said that Trump was wrong on banning all Muslims from the US.

    But the rest of his statement was completely horrible. Not really surprising.

  27. 27.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 8, 2015 at 10:55 am

    @Amir Khalid: Cheap shot? Isn’t it at an accurate description of his intentions.

  28. 28.

    catclub

    December 8, 2015 at 10:57 am

    @Debbie: In discussions of the Psalms, I have frequently recommended
    writing an angry letter to King David.

  29. 29.

    Cermet

    December 8, 2015 at 11:00 am

    I think an annalists for CNN said it best: Trump is a “Presidential candidate Troll”; and I believe he, trump, knows this himself and enjoys the roll.

  30. 30.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 11:01 am

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    If it were anyone but Trump, that photo would be a cheap shot.

  31. 31.

    Mike in NC

    December 8, 2015 at 11:02 am

    Trump simply needs to decide whether his devoted followers should wear brown shirts or black shirts.

  32. 32.

    scav

    December 8, 2015 at 11:03 am

    The only judgement of history or critical, moral or philosophical evaluation of past actions Trump seems worried about is that of the highway naming board. That’s it, back to numbering. (not to mention highlighting why dorm-naming might actually be something important enough to re-evaluate).

  33. 33.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 8, 2015 at 11:04 am

    @Peale: he’s just proposing a temporary ban

    So, in other words, a “temporary solution”, as opposed to ….

  34. 34.

    raven

    December 8, 2015 at 11:05 am

    @RareSanity: Hey man, good to see ya!

  35. 35.

    MattF

    December 8, 2015 at 11:06 am

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s an interim solution.

  36. 36.

    bemused

    December 8, 2015 at 11:06 am

    @trollhattan:

    I’ll have to listen to that when I get a quiet moment. That woman’s illogical beliefs blows my mind and there are so many out there like her. If there are too few jobs in her area and she can’t get one, she blames people dependent on assistance because there are too few jobs paying livable wages? If more people on Medicaid get thrown off including her, how does she think that will create more jobs? Utterly bizarre and it makes my head hurt.

  37. 37.

    benw

    December 8, 2015 at 11:09 am

    @MattF: interim!? I hardly know him! ::doffs top hat::

  38. 38.

    scav

    December 8, 2015 at 11:12 am

    @bemused: Misguided or not (but definitely ringing the bell on several metrics of mean), at least this individual is operating from a position where she is willing to share in the actual consequences of her belief, rather than mere advocating suffering for others.

  39. 39.

    raven

    December 8, 2015 at 11:14 am

    @scav: Bullshit, she’s a fucking moron just like you.

  40. 40.

    scav

    December 8, 2015 at 11:15 am

    @raven: ah you.

    Eta. because there’s no difference in your world between sending other people’s kids in a misbegotten war and being willing to haul a gun there youself. Never said we were getting out of the zone of dark greys, but continue to plug your absoluting purity rage of black and white.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    December 8, 2015 at 11:15 am

    @Mike J: This morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced Trump’s Muslimfrei policy but said he’d support the eventual GOP nominee.

  42. 42.

    RareSanity

    December 8, 2015 at 11:18 am

    @raven:

    Hey raven!

    Whaddaya think about the Kirby Smart hire?

    Pretty exciting, no?

  43. 43.

    WereBear

    December 8, 2015 at 11:22 am

    @trollhattan: They interview an unemployed woman currently on Medicaid who nevertheless voted for Bevin. In her view, too many area moochers are dependent on the gummint (but: not her!) and she’ll gladly give up Medicaid to get those bastards off the couch and back to work. Her logic: he’ll grow the economy so she’ll get a magical job from the rising tide or magic job tree or whatevs.

    It strikes me as a very common view in most versions of Christianity; sacrifice, suffer, and you will be rewarded!

    Eventually. Probably. At least god is pleased!

  44. 44.

    GregB

    December 8, 2015 at 11:23 am

    @Mike in NC:

    I vote for orange shirts.

  45. 45.

    Woodrowfan

    December 8, 2015 at 11:24 am

    @scav: I’m not sure that makes it much better that she’s willing to suffer if others suffer too. Masochism doesn’t excuse cruelty to others….

  46. 46.

    Hildebrand

    December 8, 2015 at 11:25 am

    @Betty Cracker: Thus, every reporter worth anything should be asking Mr. Ryan – ‘So, if Donald Trump is your party’s nominee, you will support him?’

  47. 47.

    Tim C.

    December 8, 2015 at 11:26 am

    I keep saying this. We have no idea what’s going to happen next. One scenario is that Trump goes out like Dean did in 2004, where at the last moment, enough primary voters “blink” and someone else who isn’t Cruz or Carson, both of those candidates are functionally just as bad. The thing is, Iowa Republicans are actually *MORE* crazy than the GOP norm, so who the hell knows. We really are in uncharted territory here.

  48. 48.

    RSR

    December 8, 2015 at 11:28 am

    …and with a non-trivial amount of people in our country that think this is OK:

    Severed pig’s head thrown at Philadelphia mosque door

    I don’t feel very hopeful that will happen.

    That’s just a few blocks from me. :( I’ve gotten take-out from the middle eastern deli attached to the mosque. Great food. There’s a school attached as well.

    It’s really upsetting, and I’m trying to figure out if there’s some way to show some positive support for the community.

    On a related note, here a recent article about “Islam in the Riverwards: How One Northern Liberties Man is Leading Philly’s Oldest Mosque” http://spiritnews.org/articles/islam-in-the-riverwards-how-one-northern-liberties-man-is-leading-phillys-oldest-mosque/

    It’s not the same place, but even closer to me.

  49. 49.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 8, 2015 at 11:29 am

    @Mike in NC: White sheets.

  50. 50.

    scav

    December 8, 2015 at 11:30 am

    @Woodrowfan: I explicitly said she was mean (on several metrics), nor did I imply that her willingness excused her behavior overall. shades of grey, not whitewash. Just putting her in a different circle of hell from Cheney or Trump (as exemplars of true believers with no skin in the game or trollers also with no skin in the game).

  51. 51.

    D58826

    December 8, 2015 at 11:30 am

    The other day in an earlierthread I contemplated digging a deep hole, stocking it will good books, finme wine, excellent food and a comfortable reewcliner. I would then retiree to said hole and re-emewrge to a hopefully better world in 20 years. After the past few days I can see a major flaw in the plan. The hole has to be deeper, there need to be more books, food and spirits stonmger than wine. The duration must be 40 years.

    First we have Trump. Nothing more to say
    Then the Congresses refusal to do its constitutional duty and pass a resolution to authorize the war that they are so gungho to fight.
    The refusal of Congress to reauthorize the medical program for 9/11 first responders while shedding crocodile tears for the bravery of the first responders.
    And speaking or reptiles. There is a long piece on Slate about the plight of the reptile owners and dealers in America. It seems that the evil guberment want to limit the number of exotic snakes that these people bring into the country or even worse breed locally and then dump in places like the Everglades. They think it an abridgment of some constitutional right or another than they can import black mamba snakes, which is one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Maybe they figure if Obama gets their guns they will turn the snakes lose. The sad thing is they have Congress in their pocket and are getting away with this.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    December 8, 2015 at 11:32 am

    @Tim C.: The media suddenly decided they had enough of crazy Trump, so it’s possible that he starts losing support. IMO, Cruz will benefit. If the choice were between Cruz and Trump, I’d still prefer Trump. Of course, if the choice were between those two characters, I’d consider moving overseas.

  53. 53.

    hitchhiker

    December 8, 2015 at 11:33 am

    The Rs have silenced their moderates over the last 10 years. Their party has shrunk to about a third of the adult population, and about a third of those people are nuts.

    What we have here is a festival of fools — the 1/9th of us who can’t think their way out of a wet lunch sack have found their man.

    And he’s a doozy.

  54. 54.

    Jay C

    December 8, 2015 at 11:42 am

    @bemused:

    Headache-inducing or not, attitudes like that Kentucky woman’s – bizarre as they might appear to thinking folk – are not only common, but are likely to be held as gospel truth by unfortunately vast swaths of the American public. The notion that most economic problems in this country stem from, or are aggravated by, enormous numbers of “welfare moochers” (invariably imagined as darker-hued, of course) soaking up vast amounts of taxpayer dollars which would otherwise somehow create economic Utopia for deserving “hard-workers” is one that has been ingrained in the public mind (by political propaganda) for generations.
    It’s not true, and hugely inaccurate as a picture of the national economy, but has the big advantage of being able to divert peoples’ (usually quite valid) dissatisfactions with their own economic prospects onto blame directed at Designated Others. And, not coincidentally, get them not to think about the actual sources of their discontent.

  55. 55.

    gex

    December 8, 2015 at 11:42 am

    @WereBear: A thing I noticed during the Kim Davis episode is how unfair it is. People like her make me suffer, and I just suffer. I don’t find it dignifying to be treated as a second class citizen. I don’t find it ennobling to have lost almost all my stuff when Kate died. But all the suffering she chooses for herself? It doesn’t even count as suffering. It makes her HAPPY.

    How do you deal with people who’s incentives are so fucked up that suffering is an unmitigated good to them???

  56. 56.

    raven

    December 8, 2015 at 11:44 am

    @RareSanity: Yea, it’s been a long time a commin!

  57. 57.

    Keith G

    December 8, 2015 at 11:45 am

    Ehh, we are probably doing the best we can.

    Once the presentation of information (what was once called news coverage) became an activity expected to increase shareholder value, we were doomed.

    Donald Trump stories have juice so they get pushed. Editors, afraid of blowback and what that can do to the consumers they have (as opposed to other consumer they might be able to reach), take a careful approach. Up til now “Trump Lies” or “Trump Approves Racist Policy” are not headlines used by major news corporations, with the exception of The Huffington Post.

    Like I typed up there, we are doing the best we can.

    It is just shy of eleven months before a most important presidential election (deciding whether the last 7 years will be for naught) and our candidate is looking strong and seems to be a growing favorite to win. Meanwhile, the other party is on the verge of a pants-soiling panic attack.

    Chances are, the other side will not implode and they will select a candidate who is not the one who will piss off/scare 70% of the voters and the race will tighten a bit. Still I am looking forward to 2016, even if the media we have is not the media we need.

  58. 58.

    catclub

    December 8, 2015 at 11:48 am

    @WereBear: I think the original design was to suffer for others whom you love.

    I will admit that just random suffering became popularized over the years.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    December 8, 2015 at 11:49 am

    @gex:

    who’s incentives are so fucked up that suffering is an unmitigated good to them???

    I’ve been trying to puzzle that out myself. We have people who are convinced that it’s morally better to suffer both physically and financially than to buy health insurance because it comes from “that one.” I honestly don’t know how to combat that, because logic isn’t going to work and trying to change someone’s religion is really hard.

  60. 60.

    NorthLeft12

    December 8, 2015 at 11:49 am

    @hitchhiker: Not sure about your math, because Republicans still seem to be getting elected more often than Democrats in the House, Senate, and State equivalents. You would think with that small of a base that they could not win those seats. But sadly, they do.

  61. 61.

    burnspbesq

    December 8, 2015 at 11:50 am

    @Mike in NC:

    playing the 21st century American version of Mussolini.

    He’s not playing. That’s who he is. Any lingering doubt was dispelled yesterday..

  62. 62.

    catclub

    December 8, 2015 at 11:51 am

    @Keith G:

    a most important presidential election

    I bet you cannot find a single presidential election that was not considered, at the time, crucial to the future of the republic. And they all were! otherwise, things would be totally different.

  63. 63.

    bemused

    December 8, 2015 at 11:54 am

    @Jay C:

    Golly, can’t imagine where they may have gotten this belief after getting pounded with the message generation after generation…

    The GOP has a lot of human suffering to pay for. I just hope the bill comes due for them eventually.

  64. 64.

    gex

    December 8, 2015 at 11:55 am

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): Damn edit window is closed on my comment. Who’s = whose. Aaargh.

  65. 65.

    gelfling545

    December 8, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    I’m just not getting the point of comments to the effect that well, yeah, Rosen is saying the right thing but it won’t do any good. So it would be better if he said nothing? Somebody has to be the first to speak out. Then those who agree should offer support to give the notion the opportunity to spread.

  66. 66.

    gelfling545

    December 8, 2015 at 12:04 pm

    I think this speaks for itself.

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 8, 2015 at 12:04 pm

    My nym.

    Wipe them out. All of them.

  68. 68.

    Keith G

    December 8, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    @catclub: Of course, but in terms of the nuts and bolt operation of government and policy formation/implementation, this election is a bit different. The GOP IS being run, to the extent one can call it that, by it’s reactionary wing. This election conceivably could give them control of the whole shoot’in match with only Chuck Schumer in position to slow it down.

    Yeah…”a most important presidential election”

    Remember, during almost all of the lifetimes of all now living, there was a governing consensus guiding the actions of our government. Most policies did not change all that much from administration to administration, from Congress to Congress.

    This one would be different.

  69. 69.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 8, 2015 at 12:07 pm

    @Belafon: When the media, particularly TV “news”, became just another profit center, all illusions about the role of the press and media in general having a role to play in governance were annihilated.

    Corporate media is the organ of the Corporate state.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    December 8, 2015 at 12:16 pm

    @gex:

    I usually try to do a courtesy edit, but I’m at home with a cold today so I forgot. At least my Batgirl jammies were clean.

  71. 71.

    TooManyJens

    December 8, 2015 at 12:16 pm

    Fixed my CSS problem, if anyone wants to do the same thing, by just setting every [div] to have a background color of #ffffff:

    div {
    background-color: #ffffff !important;
    }

    Which is ridiculous overkill, but I don’t care. It works.

  72. 72.

    jeffreyw

    December 8, 2015 at 12:20 pm

    Sigh
    I remember when CBS News with Walter Cronkite was the jewel in the Tiffany Network’s crown. You can argue it was just a loss leader, a fig leaf, but at least they acknowledged that the Ideal was honest reporting and not ratings.

  73. 73.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 8, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    @catclub:

    Dick Cheney said that Trump was wrong on banning all Muslims from the US.

    Saudi Wahhabi bazillionaires are the Dick’s (& the Bushleaguers’) BFFs.

    Watch the sheiks cut production drastically next summer as the general election campaign ramps up (I’m guessing mid/late July right around the conventions) to generate a price spike that will crater the US economy in hopes voters will blame the Democrats–& ramp it back up the day after the election. Just a temporary glitch, folks, nothing to see here…

  74. 74.

    Garrick

    December 8, 2015 at 12:24 pm

    @Belafon: @bemused: Seems like that’s the point. If the press can’t say, “well here are some facts that contradict your thinking,” then they’re no more than megaphones to be manipulated.

  75. 75.

    Elie

    December 8, 2015 at 12:25 pm

    I’m sorry — as much as I criticize and at times despise the press, our predicament is a failure of our citizens. Holding our citizens accountable for tis is essential. The hate, the ignorance, the extremes would not find such a large home unless there was the heart of darkness in the citizenry. The press could have helped suppress the worst, but they believe too much in that letting everyone say anything is about what “freedom” is. I happen to agree with French and German law that criminalizes hate speech…. I do believe that saying hateful things actually triggers action in some people – as we have seen. It also relaxes barriers that should not be relaxed.
    I don’t know how all this will turn out. I am at heart an optimist, so I believe that this whole dark show will not rule the day in our choices. Still it is frightening — yet a good lesson to all of us. Nothing in our system is automatic — justice and our most important values must be constantly upheld and reinforced. There is no time when that is “over”….

  76. 76.

    Iowa Old Lady

    December 8, 2015 at 12:28 pm

    I can’t listen to Ted Cruz at all. Even Trump is less annoying aurally.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    December 8, 2015 at 12:29 pm

    In actual good news, “Hamilton” opens in Chicago on 9/27/2016.

  78. 78.

    The Republic of Stupity

    December 8, 2015 at 12:29 pm

    @rikyrah:

    And, he’s speaking to them in non-Frank Luntz-approved dogwhistles.

    Oh screw the dogwhistles… at this point Trump is just flat our saying whatever pops into his head…

    Deport them all…

    Build a fence…

    BOMB! BOMB! BOMB!

    TORTURE! TORTURE! TORTURE!

    There’s no dogwhistles involved anymore…

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    December 8, 2015 at 12:32 pm

    Wait, I didn’t just get auto-moderated for mentioning the name of my favorite musical, did I?
    /shakes fist at Betty

  80. 80.

    WarMunchkin

    December 8, 2015 at 12:35 pm

    @TooManyJens:
    To class `.main_color`, I added `background-color: #ffffff`.

  81. 81.

    Heliopause

    December 8, 2015 at 12:35 pm

    As I ponder this morning’s “this time he’s gone too far” outrage from the MSM and the establishment pols, the following thought experiment occurs to me: Pretend we’re a couple of weeks into Trump’s campaign and he hasn’t said any of this crazy stuff yet. He’s just finished first in a national poll of registered Republicans and leaners.

    Donald. Trump. That Donald Trump. Just finished first in a poll of Republicans who presumably take this thing seriously. Donald. Effing. Trump. Just finished first in a poll of the partisans of one of the two major parties of the USA. Forget the nutty statements, they haven’t happened yet. DONALD TRUMP just finished first in a poll.

    But wait a minute, it’s not a thought experiment, it really happened.

  82. 82.

    catclub

    December 8, 2015 at 12:35 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Watch the sheiks cut production drastically next summer as the general election campaign ramps up (I’m guessing mid/late July right around the conventions) to generate a price spike that will crater the US economy in hopes voters will blame the Democrats–& ramp it back up the day after the election.

    Given that there was a HUGE price spike in 2008 that cratered any possible chance for the GOP, I await this price spike with very little trepidation. I am also not too sure that the Iranians, whose production will be coming out from under embargo, and the Russians, will be glad to cooperate with the Saudis to help
    manipulate US elections.

    [Yes, I know that the 2008 spike was probably caused by speculation in the futures markets. But I also know that if the Saudis had announced substantial production increases they would have affected those futures markets.]

  83. 83.

    glory b

    December 8, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    @trollhattan: Don’t forget, she also said that being against gay marriage and abortion were more important than her access to health care.

  84. 84.

    benw

    December 8, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    @The Republic of Stupity: for which the dogs are eternally grateful. SQUIRREL!

  85. 85.

    bystander

    December 8, 2015 at 12:43 pm

    @D58826:

    The refusal of Congress to reauthorize the medical program for 9/11 first responders while shedding crocodile tears for the bravery of the first responders.

    I heard something similar from Jon “Both Sides Do it” Stewart. It is not “Congress” that is doing it. The refusal is coming from Mitch McConnell and the Repubs in Congress, not from the Dems. The refusal to close the gun control loopholes is not coming from the Dems. It is the repubs who are fighting to keep guns available to suspected terrorists.

    (Please don’t point out the handful of DINOs who vote with repubs. Their few votes are inconsequential.)

  86. 86.

    Keith G

    December 8, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    @Elie:

    I’m sorry — as much as I criticize and at times despise the press, our predicament is a failure of our citizens.

    It seems to me that a while ago, a very knowing man talked about many who were facing challenges by saying:

    And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations

    It’s part of who we as humans are. I think that this is the norm and those who do not fall back to those entrenched prejudices are the exceptions.

    The question then focuses on the ways to decrease the former and encourage the latter onward.

  87. 87.

    Keith G

    December 8, 2015 at 12:49 pm

    I have a comment in moderation and I am surprised since it does not have any of the triggers that I know about.

  88. 88.

    Cacti

    December 8, 2015 at 12:51 pm

    The problem for the librul media is that Trump doesn’t play by the kinder, gentler, proto-fascism that the GOP has championed for the last 4-decades.

    He’s full on, brown shirt, smashed windows fascist, and the press doesn’t have a fig leaf of “both sides” cover for it.

  89. 89.

    Tim C.

    December 8, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    @JPL: I agree that the beltway brigade has decided he’s real trouble, but I don’t know of they have the pull anymore. The John Bircher/Tea Party/Fundamentalists hate the media and even Fox is discovering that you can’t have people say stupid bigoted crap all the time and then not have the viewers accept it as truth and voting accordingly. As has been mentioned many many times, the Donald is only repeating what the base has believed for a long time, but without the dog whistles.

  90. 90.

    liberal

    December 8, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    LOL.

    The best take on Snooze Hour was by Alexander Cockburn. Yeah, yeah, he’s too leftwing for 99% of the people here, but “The Tedium Twins” was both funny and brilliant.

    Here’s a snippet:

    im lehrer: Robin, the provinces of Judaea and Galilee have always been trouble spots, and this year is no exception. The problem is part religious, part political, and in many ways a mixture of both. The Jews believe in one god. Discontent in the province has been growing, with many local businessmen complaining about the tax burden. Terrorism, particularly in Galilee, has been on the increase. In recent months, a carpenter’s son from the town of Nazareth has been attracting a large following with novel doctrines and faith healing. He recently entered Jerusalem amid popular acclaim, but influential Jewish leaders fear his power. Here in Alexandria the situation is seen as dangerous. Robin?

  91. 91.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    December 8, 2015 at 12:56 pm

    @Debbie: Yes, NPR has a really sneaky trick that biases them toward including a right wing view without also incorporating a left wing view. They’ll have some expert from academia, a Federal Agency, or other nonpartisan source talking about some nonpartisan research finding or policy outcome that supports what the Democrats are proposing. Then, they’ll have a right wing hack on to give the “opposing” point of view, but they don’t have a corresponding left wing hack on. The nonpartisan research finding is the left wing version, apparently, even though it’s just a statement of fact. Maybe the facts do have a liberal bias but in that case you’re under no obligation to have a right wing hack on to obfuscate the facts – that does a major disservice. That’s making you biased, not unbiased. They do it all the time.

    The most blatant example I can recall is they had a researcher measure health outcomes when Oregon had a medicaid lottery several years back, and lo and behold having medicade produced better health outcomes than being uninsured. So then they have a Cato or AEI hack on to provide some right wing spin on government programs not getting results blah blah blah. No left winger, just a non partisan researcher and a right winger. Good luck with their ombudsman because I never had any.

  92. 92.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    December 8, 2015 at 12:58 pm

    @Tim C.: They don’t have enough pull with the base to wreck Trump with the base. They can’t keep him from being the party nominee if that’s really where the party wants to go. They do have enough pull with everyone else to wreck Trump in the general election and lets hope they do.

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    @srv:
    That’s poor form. Crises, whether local, national or international, don’t respect a presidential candidate’s schedule of talking points. Bernie needs to be nimble enough to address whatever question comes his way, or he’s not ready to be president.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    Why is my comment in moderation?

  95. 95.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 1:00 pm

    Why do I have two comments in moderation?

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 1:01 pm

    test

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    second test

  98. 98.

    The Golux

    December 8, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    @The Republic of Stupity:

    There’s no dogwhistles involved anymore…

    I can’t remember whether I saw it here or at LGM, but Trump isn’t into dogwhistles – he’s into train whistles.

  99. 99.

    The Golux

    December 8, 2015 at 1:05 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Well, I just submitted a completely innocuous comment, and it went to moderation.

  100. 100.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    December 8, 2015 at 1:05 pm

    @trollhattan: That was pretty nuts. I’ve heard other people on Medicaid expansion in KY say that they voted for Bevin because he was right on a lot of things they cared about (gay marriage, guns etc.) and that they didn’t think when push came to shove that he’d actually take health care away from them. This is a real problem – how do you get someone to vote the other way if every time they hear something they don’t like from the guy with the R next to his name, they tell themselves, I like him on everything else and he’s just saying that because

  101. 101.

    hitchhiker

    December 8, 2015 at 1:08 pm

    @NorthLeft12:

    They win local elections because the districts are drawn by partisans in most states. When there’s no point in running, you don’t get good candidates from the Ds. When the moderates get kicked out, the true crazies arrive to take over, as happened in multiple places between 2010 and yesterday.

    My math has to do with how many citizens say they are Rs or are leaning in the R direction: it was measured at 39% in April. Trump currently has 36% of the people who are definitely Rs — which I estimate to be about 33% of the nation.

    .33 x .36 = .12 . . . so I was wrong. not 1/9th of us, but 12% of us are gaga over the trumpster. And every front page in the country is about him. Contrast with the strength of support for the president or for HRC right now, and you have to wonder what the fuss is about.

  102. 102.

    scav

    December 8, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    And to continue the theme of whatever sells is news (both going up and coming down, so doubly valuable!) Sun apologises over misleading ‘Six days to terror’ story.

    In a correction on page 2, the newspaper said it had been “misled” by former marine and freelance journalist Emile Ghessen, who claimed he had managed to evade all security checks during a 2,000-mile journey along a refugee trail from Turkey into western Europe.

    But Sun insiders said that, after the Croatian authorities denied the account, with scans of his passport to prove it, Ghessen confessed that he had in fact flown from Croatia to Paris in order to deal with a “domestic trauma” possibly involving his children.

    But this “news”, like the Zombie No-Go zones in London and Paris recently disinterred for lectern waving by guess who, will continue to be cited. Profit!

  103. 103.

    PurpleGirl

    December 8, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    @joes527: Does anyone remember David Frost’s That Was The Week That Was? He did a pretty good job with comedy and satire in presenting the news.

  104. 104.

    pat

    December 8, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    @hitchhiker:

    1/9 is pretty close to 12% (11.1% on my calculator.) So not so far off.

  105. 105.

    Turgidson

    December 8, 2015 at 1:32 pm

    Man, that’s good stuff from Rosen. Somewhere Norm Ornstein, Charles Pierce, and valued friend-of-Balloon-Juice driftglass just got a neck ache from nodding too vigorously reading it, I bet.

    Damn near everything in that graf is a spot-on condemnation of Ron “Severe Dementia” Fournier and describes why I find him to be, with the possible exception of David f’ing Brooks, to be the single best (as in, worst) example of everything that’s wrong with political media in this country. He does all of those things, but is perhaps the very worst exponent of the smug “above it all” condescension and certitude that he must be right about everything because “partisans”, lesser beings he has no time for, are constantly telling him he’s full of shit. And then of course he plays dumb about the fact that it’s all a scam perpetrated at the behest of his wealthy GOP masters (hence why he regularly spews fact free bullshit about the “debt crisis” he clearly knows fuckall about).

  106. 106.

    Turgidson

    December 8, 2015 at 1:35 pm

    @Cacti:

    the press doesn’t have a fig leaf of “both sides” cover for it.

    He’s making it much harder on them than usual, but they’ll find a way to blame some hippie somewhere for something, and claim it’s just as bad as Trump’s neofascism.

    And Ron “Severe Dementia” Fournier will keep hitting “Generate” on his “[x] is happening because Obama is a poopyhead poor leaderly leader guy who won’t lead” column macro for as long as it takes for this unpleasantness to pass.

  107. 107.

    D58826

    December 8, 2015 at 1:37 pm

    @bystander: True it is overwhelmingly a GOP thing. I should have made that clear. The AUMF apparently is a bit more bi-partisan. Neither side wants its fingerprints on the policy if it fails.

  108. 108.

    TooManyJens

    December 8, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    @WarMunchkin: Thanks!

  109. 109.

    elftx

    December 8, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    So is Ben Hecht laughing or rolling in that grave?

  110. 110.

    Bill Arnold

    December 8, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    @MattF:

    And here’s Louie Gohmert– Obama is letting in terrorists and freeing criminals so that he’ll have an excuse to take our guns away. Makes perfect sense– if you’re a psychopath.

    Gun manufacturers are the corporate-people that profit from scary mass shootings.

  111. 111.

    'Niques

    December 8, 2015 at 2:18 pm

    @Jay C: When I encounter these people (and I often do) I remind them that there are thieves at every economic level, and while we are mostly aware of those nibbling at the bottom of the heap, it is those who pull enormous wealth out of our economy to hoard it in overseas accounts who are the real villains. It usually makes them think a bit more clearly.

  112. 112.

    john b

    December 8, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    @NorthLeft12: Here in NC, because of the horrid 2010 election, we get districts where even though 44% voted for Ds this past go around for House, we only get 23% D House reps.

    It’s not all that Republicans are popular in non-national elections. The game is rigged against Ds in many ways: gerrymandering, polling places / hours more restricted in poor / minority areas, not to mention untold corporate dollars flooding the campaigns now.

  113. 113.

    john b

    December 8, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    @john b: and that’s probably under-representing Ds in NC still, because who’s going to vote in a district that’s 75% democrat in the first place? You already know who’s going to win.

  114. 114.

    Bill

    December 8, 2015 at 2:50 pm

    Our modern media’s “both side” approach is without a doubt problematic. But every media outlet in the country could have called Trump fascist in plain language from the day he announced, and we’d still be in the predicament. Trump is popular because a huge part of our country agrees with him.

    The problem is America. Trump is just a symptom.

  115. 115.

    Chris

    December 8, 2015 at 3:21 pm

    @Bill:

    Yep, this is what it all comes down to. I have plenty of blame to put on the media, the politicians, the lobbyists, the financiers, the preachers and all these people… but at the end of the day, it’s all worthless without a popular base that many of the voters in this country are happy to provide.

  116. 116.

    goblue72

    December 8, 2015 at 3:24 pm

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: The dumber half of voters think themselves as the smarter half of voters because they think “all politicians lie” so whatever a politician says doesn’t matter and deep down they just “know” what a politician will do – or not do.

  117. 117.

    goblue72

    December 8, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    @NorthLeft12: Pretty much. They control not only Congress, but majority of state legislatures and governorships. And you can’t blame their victory in winning statewide races on gerrymandering.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    December 8, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    @‘Niques:

    That was one of the few arguments with my (late) Republican dad that I actually won. He said that there were some people who were just bad and I said something like, “Yeah, but if they’re poor and bad, they become drug dealers and if they’re rich and bad, they run Enron.” And he had to admit I was right. ?

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