At first, I thought DoorMatt richly deserved the beat-down he’s getting for his appallingly bad turn as a moderator last night. But now I see him for what he really is: a big, fluffy Easter Bunny. Think about it: The Easter Bunny doesn’t lay the eggs pastel-clothed Christian children find in colorful baskets on their doorsteps each Easter morning. He’s just the delivery bunny.
Similarly, Lauer didn’t poop out the nuggets of insanity and inanity on display at last night’s forum; he just stood back and let the Orange Nightmare-sicle shit them all over the aircraft carrier deck. Is this a good thing? Well, not the part about a media figure allowing a braying jackass to lie on TV and spout absurdities unchallenged. That’s both problematic in itself and symbolic of a larger issue, as we’ve discussed ad nauseum.
But there’s an upside: Trump sure left a shitload of Easter eggs behind! Secretary Clinton wisely called attention to some of them this morning, e.g., the absurd proposal to “take the oil,” the fawning over Putin, the denigration of U.S. generals, the “dog ate my homework” babbling about his nonexistent ISIS plan, the weird “body language” bullshit about his security briefers, etc.
In addition to that, Trump left other nuggets behind for future exploration — stuff I missed upon first hearing but that reporters are even now starting to explore, like Trump’s bizarre assertion that his Mexico trip was all about bringing down that country’s finance minister, his brazen lies about opposing U.S. intervention in Iraq and Libya (which were finally being called straight-up lies on CNN last night) and other assorted WTFs.
Yes, our Beltway media sucks rancid capybara balls — we all know it. Whether through incompetence, malice or a combination of the two, they have sandbagged Clinton while utterly failing to properly vet a manifestly unfit racist, sexist, xenophobic demagogue who is applying for one of the most important jobs on the planet.
But there’s a cliché about giving a person enough rope to hang himself. Lauer, our timid little woodland creature, may have inadvertently done something akin to that last night, mutely standing by with a big old basket as Trump crapped out enough falsehoods and grotesqueries to generate weeks of headlines, analysis, attack ads — and debate questions.
Will more of our media urchins join the hunt and find those Easter eggs? That’s always been the question, and the smart money is usually on “no.” But today they’re ass-deep in them — anyone who watched last night’s forum is.
None of this excuses Lauer’s incompetence, of course, but I choose to see this as good news rather than bad. Take a spin through the mainstream media sites today. The “both sides” religion is still in evidence, but now the focus is on Trump, and not in a good way for him. Could the tide be turning? I think maybe it is.
jl
” Could the tide be turning? I think maybe it is.”
Might with the actual reporters. I don’t think so for the pundit class. I heard Matthews sputter last night that if Lauer had done enough prep to confront Trump with evidence that he just maybe was not being completely direct and honest, that would be unfair and biased.
So, according the Chris Matthews, if Lauer did have one of the several quotes of Trump from 2003 saying that he hadn’t given it much though, but invading Iraq seemed like a great, terrific, top, idea, it was the height of professional integrity not to mention it.
But then Chris Matthews is an ass. So my argument that the pundit class is hopeless is complete.
MattF
Basically Josh Marshall’s view– although you’re a bit more… unkind to Lauer than Marshall is. Trump’s basic style is stream-of-shit, comin’ at ya– and if you don’t duck, well, that’s a possible response, but it has certain consequences for your personal cleanliness.
Tim C.
I think my last remaining hope is that the turn was always planned. As has been explained by Tom and some others here, the media cares far far more about “balance” and “optics” than truth. In a realpolitik sense, even if Cheeto Jesus is defeated, the institutional GOP still holds enormous clout and influence over the way the media functions. I think the real goal isn’t about getting Trump in the oval office as much as kneecapping a President Clinton II: Electric Boogaloo presidency, maintaining the house and hoping for the Senate. The real danger is the same as in the UK Brexit vote, what happens if the dog catches the car?
Corner Stone
I wonder if these opening remarks by Trump are in the prepared text?
DCrefugee
It’s after Labor Day. A lot of people took vacay over the last few weeks, knowing it would be their last opportunity until November. The race is tightening, as it always does. Meanwhile, you’re just starting to see the Clinton campaign put into operation all the chess pieces they’ve been moving around. The Trump campaign simply doesn’t have the same number/quality of chess pieces to play with.
So the next 60 days or so are gonna be a rocky ride, but barring some major external upheaval/October Surprise, I think you’ll see Hillary play error-free ball, and the Orange Ferret continue to flail. As long as the media doesn’t get any worse (and the recent blowback has been correcting), the race will start widening beginning in mid-October, and continue to Election Day.
Trust me: I was a poli-sci major…
MattF
@DCrefugee: With you until the last line there.
Ben Cisco
Still don’t mind watching Mr. #LaureingExpectations getting his ass dragged all over the Twitterverse
And to the Village I say yet again, Screw Your Horserace.
Corner Stone
“This is in cash.”
Yes. Yes it is.
piratedan
@Tim C.: reposted from previous thread:
The part that is galling about all of this is that it strikes me as having the best of all possible outcomes for the Media to place their collective thumbs on the scales this way…
1) we strongly suspect that Hillary Clinton is going to win… not something they necessarily want, but hell, they’ve made a living fashioning fake scandals about her for 25 years, another 4 won’t really be a stretch, so they can continue as planned, not necessarily bad
2) what they have to avoid, and this is at all costs, is a Democratic controlled House and Senate. Why? Because with a Democratic controlled government, everything starts to be about policy. Policy means explaining things. Understanding things. the Media apparently loathes that because if they can’t be bothered to explain how Trump is such a fucking disaster as a political entity how in the fuck can they make talking about Medicare expansion in friendly sound bites?
3) by tainting Clinton enough, they can avoid a “sea change” election where #2 happens by doing exactly what they’re doing.
gogol's wife
@DCrefugee:
Ooh, you were calming me down until that last line :)
Joeff
The biggest turd of all was that he doesn’t have time to prepare to be POTUS bc he has a business to run. Many hats! ????????
Corner Stone
“And I did oppose it (Iraq War).”
Despite what the media keeps trying to do using my own words over time.
eemom
Interesting — and as always, excellently written — take, Mrs. Cracker. I’m inclined to agree.
Anyway, if nothing else, I’m enjoying the locust storm of fellow media hacks buzzing gleefully over Lauer’s carcass today.
cervantes
Well, the problem with that analysis is that it is now manifestly clear that half of the viewing public is taken in by Trump’s act and unable to perceive the bullshit; or if they do perceive it they actually like it. The vast majority of people who watched the clown show will not read or watch any later fact checking or public opinioning about it, or if they do they’ll just dismiss it as media bias. So no, I don’t think letting him get away with it was a good thing.
Corner Stone
The chyron on MSNBC is delightful:
TRUMP REPEATS (DEBUNKED) CLAIM HE OPPOSED IRAQ INVASION
Corner Stone
The man is delusional. He simply can not let any potential slight or insult go past without responding in a manic way. He’s flailing his arms and pointing his tiny little fingers at individuals of the press while he calls them out as dishonest.
Tractarian
I dunno about this. I agree that the best way to expose Trump’s utter insanity is often just to sit idly by and let the ridiculousness unfold. But that’s not the moderator’s job! And, in fact, the most inane Trumpisms from last night came when Lauer actually did his job – i.e., asked follow-up questions on ISIS plans and Putin.
That is to say, Lauer had his good moments.
But when you combine the e-mail badgering and malicious framing (“Why doesn’t your email problem disqualify you to be CinC?”) and the softball cremepuffs tossed Trump’s way, there was little Lauer could do to redeem himself at that point. It was already an epic clusterf*ck.
Scott S.
I think they desperately want to keep blowjobbing Trump, because they know he’s good for ratings now, and he’ll be even better for ratings if he’s fucking things up on a daily basis in the White House — but they now know they’ll get brutalized on social media if they continue to be quite so blatant in their Trump worship.
Corner Stone
NY State is a disaster.
/World According to Trump
That’s probably not gonna help him out too much.
JPL
If you are watching Trump at a charter school, please update us who are cowards. I read that he’s still talking about his opposition to the Iraq War.
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: As it is, he has less chance of winning NY State than I do.
PPCLI
@Joeff: Since people are insisting that the Clintons cut ties to the Clinton foundation (to the degree that Chelsea Clinton can’t be on the board), has anyone asked Trump what is going to happen to his businesses if he becomes president? Do his kids have to leave? Is the whole thing transferred to a blind trust? Or is it just a blanket OKIYAR?
jl
@DCrefugee:
” you’re just starting to see the Clinton campaign put into operation all the chess pieces they’ve been moving around. ”
Yes. I read that HRC released the Democratic Justice League over Labor Day to go out and battle evil-doers. I hope that does some good.
Oatler.
@jl: I’d like to see the pundit class marched out of MSNBC by security holding their boxed desk contents.
artem1s
I really don’t understand what has happened to the media. any credible journalist of the last century would have been chomping at the bit to take out this charlatan. If not to protect the security of the US or to uphold the profession, at the very least out of pure blind ambition. someone is going to be the next Bernstein (fuck you Bob Woodward) and the fucking golden ticket is lying right there waiting for them to pick it up. I completely understood the media’s reluctance in taking out the Bush family mafia. They have dirt on everyone and power and they aren’t afraid to take people out professionally and ruin them. But Trump is at best a schoolyard bully and has no influence or power. WTF are they waiting for?
germy
@PPCLI:
OKIYAT
(okay if you are trump)
dmsilev
CNN chyron: Trump: ‘I’m the best job creator God ever made’.
All that, and modest too.
jl
@PPCLI:
” Or is it just a blanket OKIYAR? ”
Until last couple of day, wasn’t just any old crummy IOKIYAR blanket, but an IOKIYAR goose-down comforter. I hope that changes.
Quinerly
@JPL:
We are having storms here and my satellite just went out. Didn’t catch where Trump was speaking. Was he reading from that 2004 Esquire article that he keeps harping about?
germy
Does anyone else find it alarming that Christie was the “cool, calm one” at the security briefing? He had to place his hand on trump’s retired general to tell him to please be quiet.
japa21
@cervantes: You beat me to it. NBC has a much larger viewing audience than MSNBC and, I don’t think, showed the discussion afterwards, which wasn’t all that good anyway. CNN doesn’t get a lot of viewers.
Most people who watched the forum have not seen or heard anything of the aftermath.
But, semi O/T, I think the bigger problem with the media is that, with Trump, they actually talk about his policies (as inane as they are) and with Clinton all they talk about are the controversies. My wife has become a real political junkie (compared to where she was once upon a time) and I asked her how much she had heard about actual policies Clinton has on various topics. She said that she had heard very little about policies but was sick to death of the email non-issue.
Villago Delenda Est
The utter scum that is the MSM are just doing their jobs. Generating ratings (and through that, revenue) for their corporate masters. The old notion that they are there providing a “prestige” public service died with Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, with David Sarnoff and William Paley.
germy
I didn’t know Lauer was a political journalist. I thought entertainment was his beat; interviewing Lindsay Lohan, etc.
Roger Moore
@PPCLI:
I’m not sure if it’s IOKIYAR or it’s the general tendency to play Calvinball when a Clinton is involved.
DCrefugee
@MattF: ;-)
PPCLI
@germy: True. I remember when Gerald Ford [a Republican, after all) committed what was seen as the gaffe to end all gaffes in the 1976 debate when he said there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. It was a huge deal, massive headlines, constant chatter. Trump said at least a dozen things last night that were dumber and more demonstrably false than that, and not a peep from the lumpenjournalistiat.
Evidently OKIYAT is even more powerful talisman than OKIYAR.
Corner Stone
Oh, Beth Fouhy. Whatever shall we do with the likes of you?
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Infotainment. That’s what “news” is all about these days with the networks.
JPL
I just put it on.. He’s going to put 20 billion into education for the poorer communities. The parents will be so happy because they can walk their child to a school they want to be in. States will be encouraged to add school choice.
Wow, he’s going to reallocate funds.
James E Powell
Based on what I’ve seen so far in this campaign, by the end of the week everything Trump said last night will be placed on the “Shit Trump Said” pile where it will be disregarded as “ho hum, old news.” He’s crapped out a lot of falsehoods and grotesqueries since this circus began and not one has had the campaign destroying effect it ought to have had, the effect it would have had if it were any other candidate.
Meanwhile the press/media will continue their hunt for “new questions” about emails and the Clinton Foundation. I don’t see them changing. For example, we haven’t seen any explanation for the NYT’s bizarre publishing over the last 24 hours. That means they are going to continue to prop up Trump and attack Clinton.
ET
Lauer was in over his head but then given the media’s treatment of Trump he can join the crowd.
Miss Bianca
I posted this downthread, but I’ll post it again, because it is, sadly, just as relevant here:
That froward, pig-ignorant son and heir of a mongrel dog of a “moderator” feels free to interrupt and attack a former Secretary of State, Senator, FLOTUS, and Presidential candidate, all the while fluffing the equally froward, pig-ignorant son and heir of a mongrel dog, Donald Trump – because she is a woman and he is a white man. Period. That’s it. That, besides CDS, is the reason why he feels free to get away with this sort of disgracefully disrespectful behavior.
No one but a white man gets to be taken seriously, no matter what kind of dangerous, seditious buffoon he is, and no matter how smart, well-educated, and well-prepared any of his opponents may be. It makes me feel sick and wicked.
ETA: My apologies to mongrel dogs. They don’t deserve to be associated with the likes of either Matt Lauer or Donald Trump.
germy
@PPCLI:
Frank Luntz has said that Trump should be held to a different standard because he “has no political experience” when it comes to foreign policy. Someone replied (I don’t remember who) that he wouldn’t be facing easier challenges as POTUS, so why should he be held to a different standard during his campaign?
JPL
The dollars will follow the student and the student will follow the right school.
Mike in NC
I refused to watch that travesty last night because I can no longer stand the sound of Drumpf’s grating voice or watch him constantly waving his tiny hands. The man has to be mentally unstable and a danger to everybody on the planet.
Anyway, Matt Lauer is merely a celebrity airhead who gets paid an obscene amount of money to conduct vapid “interviews” with other celebrity airheads (i.e., to ask “who are you wearing?” as some Hollywood nitwit struts the red carpet at the Emmy Awards).
Archon
The beltway media is doing exactly what we knew they were going to do.
Why are people surprised?
germy
@Villago Delenda Est: Was it someone here on Balloon-Juice that said last night’s townhall featured two men who mistakenly believed they were both qualified for the job they were hoping for?
Matt McIrvin
The tide turns whenever they see someone on the ropes. But it doesn’t last. The media turned on Trump in the week after the Democratic convention when he started railing against the Khan family. That was good for about three weeks, and they got tired of it and started banging on about Clinton’s emails again.
There was another incident earlier in the summer when he went after Judge Curiel for being Mexican. That lasted about the same amount of time and then the Comey presser happened, so they tore into Clinton until the D convention.
Shell
Everytime I hear that quote, I wonder how Trump imagined the military was gonna do that. The way you siphon some gas from your friends car? A good length of tubing and a breath mint for after.
rikyrah
Nope.
his azz deserves the derision and disdain being thrown his way.
germy
Interesting that Matt is propped up at NBC while Ann Curry is gone.
Ann Curry would have been a great moderator last night. Which is why we didn’t see her.
Jeffro
@MattF: @gogol’s wife:
Wait…what’s wrong with poli sci majors?
What if someone had, say, a poli sci major AND a philosophy minor? (And yes, I do already know what that + $7.99 will get me at Starbucks)
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
Apparently NBC executives were not impressed by Matt Lauer’s performance either. Link
Miss Bianca
@germy:
And if this isn’t an example of the essence of white male entitlement, all wrapped up for us in a nice smelly steamy parcel of bullshit, then what the hell *would* be?
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: Or not, misleading headline.
James E Powell
@Jeffro:
Wow, you could make as much money as some poets!
rikyrah
Divided We Learn: Swarthmore’s President on What It Means to be Poor, Black and in Prison
Addressing justice — and injustice
by Valerie Smith
September 8, 2016 1:37 PM
……………………………………….
Education has had a powerful impact on my life and in the life of my family. I’m the eldest of three children of parents who were born and raised in the segregated south, specifically in Charleston, South Carolina. Both of my parents were raised in a community that believed in the value of education.
They were encouraged to excel academically and to attend college because they were surrounded by people who believed that education would lead them from poverty and a limited set of life choices to independence, fulfilling work, economic self-sufficiency, and the middle class.
The first in their families to go to college, my parents attended historically black colleges. After graduation, they married and moved to New York; like many African Americans they were part of the Great Migration from the South to the North, leaving Jim Crow segregation in search of greater opportunities for themselves and their children. My father went on to get his master’s and doctorate and become a professor of biology; my mother became an elementary school teacher and received her master’s degree.
Coming from a background shaped by educators like my parents, it is perhaps little wonder that I found my life’s work in the educational field. I’ve spent most of my career as a professor of English and African American Studies, teaching a variety of courses on topics such as modern and contemporary African-American literature, women’s writing of the African diaspora, black film, and literature and culture of the civil rights era. I’ve experienced my greatest sense of fulfillment when I’ve had students who enter my classes wrapped in timidity or self-doubt, shrouded in a sense that they don’t belong, and I’m able to help them discover their own power.
Although in my first year as president of Swarthmore I wasn’t able to teach, I was fortunate to visit a class where I saw the communal power of the intellectual exchange at work, when I sat in on the final session “The Politics of Punishment.”
……………….
The class was taught under the auspices of the Inside/Out Prison Exchange initiative. Half the class — the women — were Swarthmore students; the other half — the men — were incarcerated.
The Inside/Out Prison Exchange provides a remarkable opportunity for incarcerated persons and regular college and university students to learn together from dedicated, world-class professors. Both groups of students receive the benefit of working, studying with, and learning from people who may be very different from themselves. Both receive the opportunity to experience each other as human beings — not as stereotypes.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
Calvinball = constantly changing the rules every play
Clintonball = constantly moving the goalposts on Clinton’s ‘downs’ while the refs block for her opponent on every one of his snaps. Fortunately, he can’t quit fumbling…
germy
@Jeffro:
I remember someone saying he had degrees in Philosophy and Communications. His father was dubious about his majors: “Is this so you can wonder out loud?”
jl
@germy: So, I guess according to Luntz, the very idea that ‘the oil’ is not a stack of old Samuel P. Chase ten thousand dollar notes that your flunky bag man can pack up in a suitcase bring home is some arcane foreign policy expertise that someone less than two months away from being elected president shouldn’t be expected to understand?
Gin & Tonic
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: That’s excellent. In a business that thrives on gossip and backbiting, people are now, I am sure, racing to throw each other under the bus.
cervantes
@Miss Bianca: Let’s go with the whole quote:
OSWALD
What dost thou know me for?
KENT
A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
the least syllable of thy addition.
jl
@Shell:
” Everytime I hear that quote, I wonder how Trump imagined the military was gonna do that. The way you siphon some gas from your friends car? A good length of tubing and a breath mint for after. ”
Trump knows all the best people. He knows top people who did a lot motor pool time in the service. Brilliant executives keep tabs on that kind of thing. Out of the box thinking. Sad losers don’t understand.
Anoniminous
@japa21:
The Infotainment Mediums cannot talk about Clinton’s policies because then they’d have to give mass media attention to the 2016 Democratic Party Platform which has policies that totally reverse the “Reagan Revolution” give-away to the 1% and extremely popular.
PPCLI
@germy: Well, perhaps I should apply to be the head of IBM. Since I will be judged according to the “have no business experience” standard, and I’m sure I will be among the top applicants with no such experience, they will be eager to hire me without even vetting me.
Though I suppose I will need to send them a letter from a Jerry Garcia lookalike doctor [with a padded resume] stating that I will be the healthiest person ever to run a major corporation.
Villago Delenda Est
@Miss Bianca: Our political discourse would be vastly improved had Frank Luntz never been born.
Iowa Old Lady
@Miss Bianca: You go, lady! The interruptions alone marked this as a pattern men use to disrespect women.
@DCrefugee: I’m not thinking in terms of 60 days. In 21 days, voting opens here and I will hustle on down to the court house and do it. I know the campaigns will still be happening, but at that point, I feel fatalistic. Except for GOTV, of course.
catclub
The Trump secret plan to stop ISIS is getting more coverage and press criticism than John McCain’s equally secret plan to get Osama Bin Laden in 2008.
I have a plan.
I can only tell you the plan after I get elected.
It is a secret.
Anoniminous
@ET:
Lauer would be in over his head at a Boy Scout meeting.
lollipopguild
@Shell: The Big Oil Company Engineers will suck all of the oil out of the ground and bring it all to the U.S.
Tim C.
@catclub: Hell, wasn’t Nixon the one with a secret plan to get out of Vietnam? This. Never. Goes. Well.
Ben Cisco
@Miss Bianca: Well put. Lauer deserves no quarter, and you have given him none.
Villago Delenda Est
@lollipopguild: “I drink your oilshake.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Tim C.: Nixon’s “secret plan” was to stay in Vietnam for another four years before announcing, just in time for the 1972 post Labor Day presidential campaign, that “Peace was at hand” (as actually said by Henry “why, yes I enjoy being a war criminal!” Kissinger).
lollipopguild
@Anoniminous: There are 8 year old Girl scouts who would do a better job at NBC.
germy
from wikipedia:
Just the man for the job.
catclub
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: I will note two things on that:
1.The ratings for Wednesday night’s forum were strong, according to preliminary data.
2. Somebody else posted earlier that Lauer will not get demoted. I bet they are right. Always fail upward.
lollipopguild
@Villago Delenda Est: Nice to see you again. Your reputation preceeds you.
catclub
@Tim C.: Good point. I have a much better memory of the McCain version. My miss there.
sigaba
@PPCLI: It’s come up a few times, and Trump basically says he’ll let his kids run his companies but he won’t sever ties really at all. This has been reported but there’s only so much reporters can do to drag people to the conclusion that he’s unethical.
As with the Lauer thing, you can ask Trump straightforward questions and get crazy answers, and it’s true that the reporter can’t just step in and give his opinion on wether or not the answer is crazy, a reporter does sorta have to let the viewers decide. Lauer should have called out the out-and-out lies and misrepresentations, but when it comes to stuff like “victor go the spoils” and “I’m openly going to profit off my office” you can’t force your readers to decide this stuff is disqualifying.
The worst they could do is write stories about “clouds” and “shadows” over the Trump campaign, but this doesn’t work with Republicans generally. Republican voters don’t care about the ethics of their candidates as long as they say the right things and vote the correct way — witness the endless series of scandals involving politicians, particularly sex scandals. The Democrat is always forced to resign while the Republican tearfully enters treatment, but keeps his office.
Democrats are held to a higher standard because their voters hold them to a higher standard and Democrats hold themselves to a higher standard. Republicans state outright that they work to hack government, to not protect or improve the institutions but to use them, and reporters judge them on those terms. IOKIYAR because Republicans are only judged on completely situational ethics: if something “works” and expands their power, the refs call it fair play.
Villago Delenda Est
@sigaba: To say that Teh Donald is “unethical” is to hint that water might be wet.
Roger Moore
@lollipopguild:
FTFY. We must not forget the most important part of the project: massive windfall profits for the oil companies.
PPCLI
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: From that article:
“But Lauer’s interviewing skills are second to none.”
I have to agree that “none” would have been a better choice.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@catclub: Well shit, the motherfucker gets helicoptered back and forth to work everyday so he spend time with his horses. But yeah, he’ll just get a raise and a fancier helicopter.
Miss Bianca
@cervantes: Heh heh…yes, I guess I was channeling both Kent and Stephen Maturin.
sunny raines
The problem with that is you’re analyzing it as a rational person. Rational thought does not apply. The US corporate media has been performing exactly this way since the reign of error of ronnie raygun, and rational people keep expecting it to correct because it’s so blatant and so very bad for US democracy. But it doesn’t correct, because it’s not news, and it’s not a 4th estate function, its entertainment, which is the only thing US corporate media cares about because that’s where the money is.
So last night was not a media turning point, and no, the double standard and the bias is not going away, but will likely continue it’s downward spiral, and Clinton and Democrats will continue to have to beat both the republicans and the US corporate media.
SFAW
@cervantes:
Thanks for that, haven’t “heard” it for a while. One of the best.
jl
@catclub:
” Somebody else posted earlier that Lauer will not get demoted. ”
As I promised myself last night, I wiki’d Lauer. He did some local news reporting over 30 years ago. Since then he has done various infotainment talk shows. Why would he be demoted? Journalism doesn’t have much to do with his day gig for his professional qualifications. Curry had ten times the actual journalistic experience that Lauer has, which is maybe why she was not deemed suitable for a morning talky.
As I typed last night, Lauer’s job seems to to get testy when the happy and relaxed spontaneous chit-chat on the morning talk show does not go perfectly according the plan, and regulate the infotainment.
Tom Q
Forty years of watching presidential campaigns, and I’ve never before seen journalists turn on one of their own they way they’ve gone after Matt Lauer since last night. Part of this is based on just how blatant the disparity of candidate treatment was; but I think it also represents a building-up of resentment over the past few weeks’ coverage of Clinton, most notably in the NY Times. There are many non-superstar journos who agree with everything we here say about the press, and they’ve been aghast at the war on Clinton in recent weeks, given the stakes of letting Trump even approach competitive position.
But, for the record: I still believe there’s no danger of Trump being elected, and I’d take the over on any election betting — I think Clinton’s chances of a double-digit-or-near margin are far far greater than Trump eking out a slim win. The body language of the electorate — the number of former GOP administration folk who are outright endorsing Hillary; the action of the Dallas Morning News editorial board (something I suspect is not the last of its kind) — gives a far more likely picture of the election outcome than a passing poll.
To echo what was said above, about the margin widening: I’m reminded of how the 1980 election went. Jimmy Carter, excellent man though he be, had a pretty disastrous administration/re-election prospects: hyper-inflation and then recession during prime election-year time, a brutal intra-party challenge that left bitterness at the convention itself, and an ongoing foreign policy humiliation that was highlighted (via anniversary) during the very weekend prior to Election Day. Yet, with all that, Reagan — scary to many — couldn’t get a consistent polling lead, let alone a substantial one…until Election Day, when he blew it out with a far wider margin than anyone predicted, and carried in a GOP Senate and 37 new House members, many unforeseen.
For those who say “The race always tightens”, that was one time it definitely didn’t, and I think this year could well bring the same. Hillary has got up to and over the 50% mark multiple times, where Trump has (except in GOP-favorers) stayed around 40%. The third parties have camouflaged this some (as they did in 1980, when Anderson at one point had mid-teens, but fell to 6%, in the end all out of Carter’s hide). I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Hillary equal (or even somewhat top, thanks to the ground game) her best numbers of the cycle. It’s probably just as well for all that the polls stay tight — it’ll discourage wavering third-party “message” voters. But I say she’s got this.
lollipopguild
@Roger Moore: And our Right to STEAL anything we might want to take from other countries.
sukabi
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: what I got from that piece, wasn’t so much that the NBC execs thought Lauer did a bad job, but that they were surprised by the backlash.
Sounds like the execs had a pretty tight script going in, Lauer executed it as planned. then boom. The pushback was unexpected.
Also sounds like the VET orgs are feeling a bit used.
jl
Another theory would be Matt Lauer as poorly cooked Thanksgiving turkey.
Trump went to dinner on his ass, but Lauer didn’t get the worst of it because Trump got sick and threw up on TV.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
One piece of news that global climate change, reductions in CO2 pollution, and the renewable energy revolution (coming via wind and solar) mean,
is that HUGE amounts of oil reserves, which those oil companies treat as assets, will NEVER come out of the ground.
When this realization dawns, oil stocks will not be good things to own. Time scale ? I have no idea, but given what folks are saying about electric cars and solar and wind power getting cheaper, less than 15 years. Maybe less than 8.
Miss Bianca
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: I got no problem with him helicoptering back to spend time with his horses. Nice work if you can get it. What I object to is his shoveling horseshit *on the air*.
Anoniminous
@Tom Q:
Looking at the demographics, Clinton should handily win the 30% POC vote and better Obama’s White People vote by a couple of percentage points. How that actually plays out on the ground is an informed guess. Mine is Clinton’s Electoral Vote range is 279 to 374 and she’ll end-up with 347, bettering Obama’s 332 EVs in 2012 by winning North Carolina.
Ella in New Mexico
I definitely think so.
Been on a two week tour of the home states of southern PA and Upstate NY with the hubby, and seriously, I’m finding that the “Trump Ceiling” appears to have been reached. Most people in both our politically eclectic families and friend bases have come to a crucial decision at this point. Either:
1. they’re going down in the flames of the Republican Party’s exploding Hindenburg and are absolutely voting for Trump, or
2. They’re voting for someone, ANYONE else. And they cannot stand Donald Trump, and wonder what the fuck is wrong with everyone who supports him–and that’s some R’s in addition to the D’s.
The vast majority of them are in the second camp, and of that group the majority are voting for Hilary. Some are not fans of her “issues and baggage”, some were once on the Sander’s train and still want “big changes” in our national political system, but recognize Clinton is sane and competent and the best choice we have to keep moving forward in this country.
A couple might vote some random third party, and a bigger handful still can’t decide, but will absolutely NOT vote for Trump.
And the conversations always turn to the fact that regardless of who is President, it’s Congress and the States that really will get things done, and that voting in better people as representatives is ultimately as, and in some cases, more important, than who ends up in the White House.
I think we’ve essentially reached “Peak Trump”, give or take a few votes that won’t make a difference in the electoral college. We still have a lager pool of people that could be persuaded to go with Clinton instead of wasting their vote, and those are the people the party needs to be focusing on as far as I see.
And for what it’s worth, I was a Poli-sci major, too, so maybe you can trust my judgement. ?
Villago Delenda Est
@sukabi: The Vet organizations should be miffed at that, because they were used.
Major Major Major Major
@catclub: There’s always going to be a market for cheap oil. The only stuff that’s going to stay in the ground is the oil that’s expensive to get at.
ETA: And a lot of the companies have already started to work around this reality, now that oil’s back down to a reasonable price. You don’t hear a lot of noise about tar sands any more for instance.
It’s going to be a long time before electric cars are a sizable portion of any fleet. Not to mention the need for things like jet fuel.
jl
@Ella in New Mexico:
” And for what it’s worth, I was a Poli-sci major, ”
But you didn’t take any philosophy courses, right? I hope you are correct and really want to trust your judgment.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: What’s wrong with philosophy?
But yeah, that’s up there with “trust me, I’m an engineer”.
Les Bonnes Femmes
@sigaba: Wow. Well said.
Les Bonnes Femmes
@Miss Bianca: Thank you!
TriassicSands
Betty, minor point. It is “ad nauseam,” not “ad nauseum.”
Betty Cracker
The Granny Starver is sick of all this Trump business, you guys!
LMAO!
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Yep. Kay was going off on a similar rant yesterday, because Hillary gets questioned about EVERY FUCKING THING while Trump gets a free pass.
Elizabelle
NBC acts as though it is responsible to its shareholders. Not its viewers, and not accuracy.
It is a megacorporation that happens to own a broadcast network. I am not so sure it’s home to actual journalism anymore.
TriassicSands
@PPCLI:
I’ve heard that Dr. “Garcia” is available to write medical assessment letters when he is not tripping on LSD. However, he has a tight schedule and since he is usually tripping, you need to ask well in advance…
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Kay really opened my eyes to the underlying misogyny in the coverage.
On Hillary — and before her, Obama — having to have someone else assert for them throughout. Their word is not good enough. Sexism and racism and Clinton rules.
eric
@Tom Q: this.
Lizzy L
Drudge and the folks at Infowars are pushing the claim that Clinton was wearing an earpiece last night, through which she was being fed answers. The earpiece was, of course, invisible!
Oy.
Barbara
@germy: Yes, indeed, every prospective employer or client who has ever interviewed me has been delighted to hold me to a lower standard because I have no experience for the position they are trying to fill and they are really eager to pay me to learn on the job and not too worried that I might actually screw things up until I figure it out. What kind of upside fucking down world do these idiots live in? It certainly doesn’t seem to be any world I recognize.
Elizabelle
@eric: Yeah. TomQ’s was a great comment.
Miss Bianca
@TriassicSands:
Not unless you’re going to the Nausea Museum – or “Nauseum”. It’s a very informative place – you get there by way of the vomitorium – but don’t eat beforehand.
Iowa Old Lady
@Lizzy L: They probably don’t believe she could possibly know all those details without cheating. These are the same people who complained that the ACA was too long for anybody to read. Their teachers must have despaired.
Barbara
@Lizzy L: She has magical powers. After all, she is a witch.
jl
@Barbara:
” What kind of upside fucking down world do these idiots live in? It certainly doesn’t seem to be any world I recognize. ”
The world of the reactionary, or whatever-it-takes go-along-to-get-along, white male hack has been a wonderful world. Sinister forces are seeking to put an end to it. To the barricades!
Edit: someone should look for a pic of the ‘Brooks Brothers Riot’ during the disputed Dub-Gore 2000 election. That was an epic victory, and must not be remembered as the last stand. Never.
Villago Delenda Est
@Lizzy L: Cripes, they’re projecting. AGAIN.
Barbara
@jl: Actually, I think I know the answer to my own question. They are never accountable in the way most people are for the quality of their work. Their jobs are such that competence is measured solely by perception, not objective measurements of accuracy or truth. That is one reason why they are hyperfocused on “optics” versus policy. It’s what they live and breathe in their own lives.
Tom Q
@Elizabelle: Thanks much. To eric, too.
Betty Cracker
@Lizzy L: Trump Jr., AKA Qusay or Uday (I’m not sure which), retweeted the InfoWars earpiece theory. The Trump campaign has definitely sewn up the white supremacist and pinwheel-eyed nutbar vote. In 61 days, we’ll find out just how many of our fellow citizens are bigots and cranks. It will be revealing.
jl
@Barbara: You get close to the money stream, and get good at covering your tracks. Sad loser PC do-gooders are trying to wreck what makes the world go ’round. Lose all your ‘top’ people. They’ll go Galt.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
I think you meant to use the word “nauseating” there.
Betty Cracker
@geg6: Maybe. But a blowout win for Clinton would be joyous! I’m not feeling the Emo Eeyore thing today — and y’all can’t make me! ;-)
sukabi
@jl: here’s a pic and here’s the corresponding “where are they now” article from 5 years later…nothing like committing timely journalism.
Barbara
@jl: Anyone who wants to leave civilization behind and go live in the wilderness should stop threatening and just go ahead and do it . There is no journalist alive who is going to upend civilization by going Galt. That goes double for politicians.
D58826
@Miss Bianca: I agree, esp about the poor mongrel dogs. But I wonder if there is something else at work as well. Lauer’s stick is early morning lite chit-chat with celebrities and red carpet types. He has probably dealt with Trump in the past as a celebrity and reality show host not a serious politician. Not sure if he has had any interactions with Hillary in the past But he doesn’t know how to deal with a serious political figure in a seriousness political setting. So he could not ‘relate’ (for want of a better word) with Hillary but could fall back on the old red carpet skills when it came to Trump. Which of course is no excuse for him talking the gig or NBC selecting him.
Sandia Blanca
Hope this falls into the “Our Failed Media Experiment” category: John Scalzi has a hilarious post at his blog you might enjoy: In Which I Turn Out To Be a Surprisingly Poor Agent of White Genocide.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
@Barbara:
My favorite iteration of that is still the one from Bob the Angry Flower.
TriassicSands
@germy:
And you are absolutely correct, as Lauer’s performance yesterday demonstrated. I’m surprised he didn’t focus on what Trump’s favorite color is and his favorite comfort food. You know, important stuff.
maeve
@James E Powell:
The earning power of Philosophy majors (click for a linky thing)
After 10 years a Philosophy BA degree outearns a Biology BS degree (and interestingly enough outearns someone who got a masters or Ph.D. in Philosophy.)
Hatip to John Scalzi (another linky thing) from whom I got the link then deep dived into the data. (Not a Philosophy major myself – in fact never took a course in Philosophy – maybe I should have.)
Mike E
@germy: IOKIYAM(…megalomaniac)
Anything that applies to that candy colored clown oughta have a ‘yam’ in there somewhere
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Just the name “Bob the Angry Flower” was enough to crack me up. that’s before I got to the cartoon.
agorabum
It’s both. Lauer was bad and asked a lot of bad questions (the ones at the very end were just “can you be president” and then “emotionally, can you be president?” which are just such easy, softball “sure, sure I can be.”
But Trump being Trump said a bunch of dumb things, as he always does, and there is also plenty for the media to use against him and to show that he is incompetent and dangerous IF they want to be fair. I haven’t seen that yet. It will probably still be “Clinton says Trump supports war crimes, Trump says he can defeat ISIS on the cheap”
Brachiator
Lauer is not really part of the Beltway media.
NBC treated this Commander in Chief forum the same way they do their Olympics coverage. They bring out their highly paid superstar broadcast people to perpetuate NBC’s brand. Competence or expertise about the subject being covered is immaterial.
I can’t wait for the first debate, also to be broadcast on NBC. It should be a corker.
cmorenc
Will the moderators of the first debate in late September now feel motivated to ask Trump tougher questions with more pointed, challenging follow-up because they don’t want to be remembered as incompetent lightweights capable only of celebrity fluff interviews, as Matt Lauer will forever now be?
jl
@sukabi: None in the slammer yet? It’s a wonder.
@Mnemosyne: The future Galters should take a clue from the parable of the dishonest servant, who could neither beg nor dig. But.. oops, maybe they have and we are the worse for it.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Shell:
And then next day some Iraqi goes out to the pump to get some oil for to sell for some petordollars, but the well is dry!
“Damn it, those Americans again!” the Iraqi curses, kicking the sand
And the camera cuts to a bunch of snickering American soldiers holding some oil cans and tubing…
The problem with Trump is the above is likely how he thinks it would happen.
RK
Hahahahahahahaha You actually think facts matter? Take a look at the polls.
sukabi
@jl: not a wonder, a function of letting the clock run out before you “investigate”.
trnc
I agree with Betty over Josh on this one (whereas I usually think their intersecting analyses reach generally the same conclusions). What’s sad is, if Lauer had done exactly what he had done with Trump but had been less of a lout toward Clinton, I’d be more inclined to think that he was slyly drawing Trump out. As others have pointed out, giving HO some latitude gives him the overconfidence he needs to really start putting the bullshit throttle in high gear. If Lauer had been tougher, Trump might have clammed up a bit more and saved himself from some of his worst unforced errors. That may be giving him too much credit, of course.
If he had treated Clinton exactly the way he treated Trump, there might still be complaints about letting Trump get away with lies, but he would have at least had consistency as a cover and could say that the fact checkers could take over from there. I don’t know that that would even be a terrible way to moderate, although it’s a little close to the Chris Wallace method for my comfort. But instead, with his ridiculous handling of the Clinton segment, it’s like he overplayed his hand. He might as well have put up a big neon sign that said “BIAS”.
TriassicSands
It was predictable, I suppose, but the really bad thing about Matt Lauer’s performance yesterday is that Lauer has become the story and not how unfit for the presidency Trump is (or conversely, to the extent such a short program could illustrate, how much more fit HRC is). Of course, Lauer did nothing on his own to help viewers reach an informed appraisal of Trump. Or Clinton.
You’ve got to hand it to Lauer…if you didn’t, he’d never find it on his own.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Zooming in on the most salient detail as usual! Bravo!
Ella in New Mexico
@sigaba:
YES YES YES
This is exactly what I was saying to my husband today. It’s like Democrats are the perpetual “oldest children” in the family, always expected more of than their later siblings that get away with murder, generally achieving and accomplishing as expected, too often guilt- ridden, afraid of being unserious, and their own worst critics.
It’s also often what it’s like to be female. We end up allowing our strength and brains and power to be muted, generally to avoid being accused of being too aggressive or uncaring or any of a number of “non-feminine” attributes.
Being both, I can attest to the fact that it’s fucking annoying. I can only think how frustrated Hilary Clinton feels.
Dems are the only credible people in the room right now. The only party that anyone can depend on anymore. Hilary is the only serious candidate for president. The media treating Trump like a celebrity and failing to rightfully hammer him on his failings is a reflection of just how low their expectations are and of how little respect they have for him.
Barry
“Similarly, Lauer didn’t poop out the nuggets of insanity and inanity on display at last night’s forum; he just stood back and let the Orange Nightmare-sicle shit them all over the aircraft carrier deck. Is this a good thing? Well, not the part about a media figure allowing a braying jackass to lie on TV and spout absurdities unchallenged. That’s both problematic in itself and symbolic of a larger issue, as we’ve discussed ad nauseum.”
His job is to precisely not to stand back and let that happen.
Barry
@Tractarian: “I dunno about this. I agree that the best way to expose Trump’s utter insanity is often just to sit idly by and let the ridiculousness unfold. But that’s not the moderator’s job! And, in fact, the most inane Trumpisms from last night came when Lauer actually did his job – i.e., asked follow-up questions on ISIS plans and Putin.”
After the Clinton and Bush II administrations, it’s pretty clear that this doesn’t work. Unchallenged lies become the accepted truth.
Barry
@artem1s: “If not to protect the security of the US or to uphold the profession, at the very least out of pure blind ambition. someone is going to be the next Bernstein (fuck you Bob Woodward) and the fucking golden ticket is lying right there waiting for them to pick it up. ”
There’s a saying that the WaPo (for one) has spent decades apologizing for exposing Watergate, and persuading the elites that they won’t do anything like that again.
When there are soooooo many golden nuggets on the ground for the supposed taking, I start looking for the impaled corpses of the people who touched one.