Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Let me file that under fuck it.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Come on, man.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

You cannot shame the shameless.

He really is that stupid.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Our Failed Big-Media Establishment, Part 2,487

Open Thread: Our Failed Big-Media Establishment, Part 2,487

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There are good reporters, doing real reporting even as we speak. But the suits who control the megaphones — and the airwaves — have decided that it pays better to strap on their monogrammed kneepads and pretend it’s all another reality show…


Reader Interactions

82Comments

  2. 2.

    JMG

    TV news is based on a simple premise. Anyone who would watch this for information must be stupid. Therefore, we must provide stupid information. As for NPR, they live in complete fear Congress will cut funding. Which Trump will do anyway. They’d rather be hung for lambs than for sheep.

  7. 7.

    lamh36

    Really fuq’n tired of white media so willing to take the bullshit given by Donald Trump since he started the birther BS.

    Tired of white media playing fuq’n psychologist when it comes to Donald Trump and birtherism..
    BIRTHERISM IS FUQ’N RACISM!

  11. 11.

    lamh36

    fuq DT even if it comes out his mouth…he can shove an “apology” or final admittance up his azz…excuse my language.

  12. 12.

    James E Powell

    We need even more of our side’s heavy hitters – politicians, writers, entertainment industry, etc – screaming about the coverage. They dump on us and placate the right-wingers because – give ’em their due – they make noise every single time. And they don’t stop or give in just because some big shot writes condescending bullshit.

  13. 13.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I hate to say this but I feel like the media is acting like they were pre-9/11 when they were obsessing over stupid stuff like Gary Condit and Michael Jackson and then,bam,9/11 happened. I know there was some really awful reporting during the Iraq war but there was some really good stuff as well.

  14. 14.

    BR

    @James E Powell:

    Good point — where has the entertainment industry been? There were tons of great viral videos, music videos, all sorts of stuff in 2008. Plus lots of comedy segments and viral videos mocking McCain and later Romney.

  15. 15.

    BR

    @Mai.naem.mobile:

    I wonder if some sort of October surprise event that forces candidates to demonstrate knowledge and preparedness will force the media to see Trump’s total lack of ability to be president.

  18. 18.

    hovercraft

    Donald Trump made at least 12 false statements today. pic.twitter.com/wrmVE3tcyq

    — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 16, 2016

    That’s a low ball, there were at least that many lies in his discussion of his trip to Flint. And that does not even take into account the lies spewed by Uday, Qusay, and Ursula, who lied so badly two of them were run off the air. What a fine example of family values, a family that lies/lays together stays together.

  19. 19.

    bmoak

    @Matt McIrvin:

    And that tweet will single-handedly invalidate all of Eichenwald’s reporting on Trump’s businesses and will “prove” that the media is out to get Trump, which will make reporters even more skittish about anything that isn’t, at best, “Both Sides Do It!”

  20. 20.

    ? Martin

    Got to give the Trump campaign credit here. They’ve figured out what they can get away with and are taking that ball and fucking running with it.

  23. 23.

    Miss Bianca

    @Matt McIrvin: Gee, a reporter is going to be get in trouble saying something unsubstantiated about Trump. But scores of reporters can smear a bunch of bullshit around about Clinton and that’s all hunky-dory.

  24. 24.

    Kropadope

    @BR:

    I wonder if some sort of October surprise event that forces candidates to demonstrate knowledge and preparedness

    Who wants knowledge and preparedness when you can have “strength?”

  25. 25.

    Trentrunner

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m glad for his reporting on Trump’s nat sec business entanglements, but he seems on TV a bit intemperate and not fully credible. (Contrast with Robert Costa, for instance.)

  28. 28.

    Tazj

    @lamh36: This is exactly right. Most of the media spent tonight wondering “Will he come out and say that he believes Obama was born in this country?” Who cares at this point? It’s crazy to care so much about that. He shouldn’t be able to take it back now, ridiculous. He’s just making the media look even more foolish. They hang on every idiotic thing he says and does but can’t give the public any real useful information.

  29. 29.

    BruceFromOhio

    We want everyone to listen to us and read us...

    …and if that means being a rent boy for the white nationalists and the Klan, Gaia save us all, that is *exactly* what we will do!

  30. 30.

    weaselone

    We’re screwed. Clinton’s probably going to pull this one out, but what about the next time when the Protofascist isn’t quite the same raging dumpster fire as Trump?

  31. 31.

    amk

    The more the left and the sane question the msm tactics, the more they double down on donnie dick’s side. Amazing.

  32. 32.

    Miss Bianca

    All right, I really do need some help from the hive-mind…

    I’m preparing to phone-bank for the Dems, but I also rashly expressed an interest in workng on the campaign for Amendment 60 (Colorado Care). Only problem is, just like Our Failed Media, I now have “questions”…”concerns”…about it. That is to say, I don’t trust the numbers on it, and I’m still kind of disturbed about the possibility that it won’t cover abortions. But now they’re starting to pester me about making calls. It’s people I know who are the local organizers. What’s the most diplomatic way to blow someone off in this instance?

  33. 33.

    hovercraft

    What the fuck is wrong with Robert Costa, he says that Trump believes that there really is doubt about Obama’s birth place. In his heart he really believes he performed a service for the country, and he considered sending investigators. Nicolle Wallace says that the statement is the campaign trying to box their candidate into the admission without actually saying it himself since he doesn’t believe it’s true. Says people think he was faking it but he is a true birther and that is his connection to his base.

  34. 34.

    mkro

    And, yet, Trump is on track to become POTUS in less than 2 months. He leads in all swing states. We’re losing this election and it’s hard to stomach.

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    As late as 2014…this fucker —>

    @realDonaldTrump
    Always remember, I was the one who got Obama to release his birth certificate, or whatever that was! Hilary couldn’t, McCain couldn’t.

  37. 37.

    Kropadope

    @weaselone:

    We’re screwed. Clinton’s probably going to pull this one out, but what about the next time when the Protofascist isn’t quite the same raging dumpster fire as Trump?

    Well, Republicans have a tendency to want to re-double the crazy, so there’s that. Plus, the growing body of evidence that Democrats simply not fucking shit up allows the US to thrive will hopefully continue to be persuasive to the newest generation of voters.

  39. 39.

    frosty

    @BR: Going to our first local Hillz meeting on Sunday afternoon. Sam Wang is calling PA a potential tipping state, so I’m gonna help give it a little shove.

  41. 41.

    btom89

    I remember reading a comment made here during the 2012 election about compromise between the Republicans and Democrats after the stunts the Republicans pulled where the commenter used a metaphor to describe it. “One side advocates killing zero puppies. The other advocates 100 puppies. A good compromise would be killing 50 puppies.”

    Following up on that metaphor to describe what a total scam both-sides-do-it journalism is: “Hillary advocates killing zero puppies. Trump advocates killing 100 puppies.” And a both-sides-do-it journalist would frame it as:
    “Both parties advocate killing a number of puppies. Why? Because zero counts as a number.” Never mind that framing it that way makes it sound like they’re advocating the same thing, instead of each taking the opposite stance on the same issue. The reporter buries that detail deep down the page and you have to read it all the way through to actually get the right conclusion. It really is insidious and infuriating.

  43. 43.

    SenyorDave

    @efgoldman: They see it plain as day, they just ignore it.

    Nobody should ever count on the media to do the right thing, like call out a candidate’s lies.

  46. 46.

    SenyorDave

    If the polls by demo are reasonable accurate, more than ever it will come down to the GOTV. We will have to go nuts this time. I know I’m taking off the whole week before and that Mon – Tue for the first time in my life and volunteering.

  47. 47.

    SenyorDave

    Wondering what the media reaction would be if Clinton sent out disrespectful tweet about a white Christian pastor? I think heads would explode. Not to mention, as usual, he lied. She seemed pretty calm, certainly not a nervous mess.

  48. 48.

    J R in WV

    @Miss Bianca:

    Just tell then you’ve decided it is vastly more important to put your energy into a critically important national issue, working for Hillary Clinton, than into a local insurance issue that you don’t really understand very well.

    And, of course, you can drop off everything after important national issue, if you would rather. But I don’t know who could really take offence at your wanting to work against Trump.

    If he’s elected, Colorado won’t be able to implement a state insurance plan, he will forbid it because corporations won’t be making money on it. End of that plan.

  50. 50.

    James E Powell

    @Mai.naem.mobile:

    I know there was some really awful reporting during the Iraq war but there was some really good stuff as well.

    It may be that my persistent nausea during that period obscured my memory but I don’t recall much good stuff. I do remember a lot of people who reminded me of Roland Burton Hedley III and I despise them almost as much as I despise Bush, Cheney, the justices who installed the junta.

  51. 51.

    lamh36

    Donald Trump is that racist uncle that white media folk have, who they chose to coddle cause they don’t want to admit Uncle D is a RACIST POS!

    SMH…

  53. 53.

    danielx

    It is a fact that the orange shitgibbon was lying like a rug, so is there some reason NPR doesn’t report that?

  54. 54.

    ? Martin

    @Miss Bianca: I would argue that even if the prior ban applied, that you should still support it. The courts ought to side in favor of universal in that conflict. And even if they don’t there’s time to reverse the ban before it could be implemented.

    This stuff is never perfect – you have to push forward.

  59. 59.

    TS

    Believe the children – not the media. My granddaughter can pick the frauds before they get anywhere near her. Children understand respect and empathy.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    @hovercraft:

    I’m sorry, Trump “sincerely believes” something totally irrational that’s been disproven multiple times and we’re supposed to respect that? What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with these assholes?

  61. 61.

    seaboogie

    I know that Huffpo is what it is – a shameless news aggregator that doesn’t pay people, but I do give them credit for consistently calling Trump out on his BS and stating exactly who he is and what he does at the end of each post. Tonight’s headline is “Birther Bulls**t Bonanza”. I just read them for the headlines to get a read on what is happening, but this is pretty cherce.

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    @Mike J:

    Tom Levenson was at the game left before the bottom of the 9th.

    I don’t recall seeing him there. You sure he wasn’t just making it up?

  65. 65.

    danielx

    OT, but I feel obligated, nay, compelled to pass along this tidbit. Naturally, this human shaped pile of toxic waste is a huge Trump supporter…but I repeat myself. Take it away, Wonkette!

    Manosphere winner Matt Forney took a break last week from shouting his love for Donald Trump from the rooftops, pushing Clinton conspiracy theories, pointing out other people’s physical flaws, writing about how fat women don’t deserve to be loved — and, I am not kidding, writing books about how to pick up women in the Philippines — in order to ask for help with his latest mission: doxxing Emily Doe, Brock Turner’s victim.

    Forney, if you are not familiar, is one of Roosh V’s most vile henchmen, and a pretty terrible human being.

    I would bet twenty dollars against a stale doughnut about the following….

    1) This individual does not and never will get laid without paying for it, unless possibly with the aid of roofies, and

    2) He is soon to be as famous as the magnificent George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    This means, morally, they are no better than him.

    And so what is going to be done about it? Maybe I’m expecting too much, but it would be nice to see some Hillary surrogates out there, every day, hammering on Trump enough so that they finally break through the wall the MSM has constructed to keep out Messican truth and perspective.

    Trump seems to be controlling the “narrative” (in the sense that he throws out another shiny object — when Hillary isn’t doing it to herself — and the MSM lapdogs chase after it), and if the Clinton campaign doesn’t regain control of it, then what? Outside of counterpunching, which probably is not an effective strategy.

  67. 67.

    Ian

    @Miss Bianca:
    Tell them they are idiots for thinking Colorado can do this style of single payer, without national help, and tell them to focus on CO-6 where we can take that dick-weasal Coffman out.

  69. 69.

    shomi

    Trump doesn’t need to do anything because…Al Gore. That is proof right there he will win.

    I read that right here on Ball Juice and since a lot of Presidential campaign advisors who know how to run a campaign better than Clintons advisors apparently spend a lot of time commenting here, it’s just a fact. You can take it to the bank.

  71. 71.

    joel hanes

    @James E Powell:

    “embedding” was just access journalism by another name.
    It was the only offer; I can’t blame some reporters for taking it,
    but the media became the military brass’s bitch on the instant they accepted

  72. 72.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: What, since when has making it up been a problem with the press? My girlfriend dropped out of journalism school after she interned and saw the causal lying done by professional reporters.

  74. 74.

    Raven Onthill

    And then there are his speech patterns. He sounds impaired. Perhaps he is, perhaps his peculiar incantory speech, that speaking in triplets, is in fact a result of some sort of mild aphasia. … Now, I realize that everyone is looking desperately to find something wrong with Clinton, but the threat that Trump presents is yuge and it deserves attention. — Me, short reflections on Donald Trump’s health.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @shomi:

    There was a time where you — on very rare, very special occasions — would attempt to write something that wasn’t completely fucking stupid and was not another “I fucking hate everyone on Balloon Juice because you all fucking suck because we hates it!” screed

    It’s clear that time has passed for you. Have a great time casting your vote for your soulmate, Corrupt Deadbeat Donnie.

  76. 76.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @BruceFromOhio: Let me fix that for you:

    We want everyone’s eyeballs on the page/screen so we can charge top dollar for the ads we run that pay our bloated salaries. We especially want the attention of any & all demographics overrun with dolts who swallow advertising bullshit uncritically & can be manipulated to rush out & buy the advertised crap.

    With that in mind: Gesummaria! Why the hell is anyone even wondering why the emmessemm bends over backwards not to offend the tender fee-fees of the Trumpenproletariat? That cohort is largely congruent with the credulous rubes whose purchasing power pays their salaries!

  79. 79.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Man, a media company that trolls for donations by touting its self as the best source of information ever says informing people when a candidate is lying isn’t really what they do, because of tone. Well, say he’s lying politely then. Otherwise, don’t tell me how you guys are the tops at making me an informed citizen every time you come grubbing for money. Especially when you have no problem discussing ad nauseum whether Hillary is too “secretive” – I mean, there’s nothing neutral about that word so why are you willing to say negative things about one candidate and not the other?

  80. 80.

    The Other Chuck

    I think there’s some merit to the first sentiment: editorializing out of the gate with polemic, even if it’s justified polemic, doesn’t convince people. The case has to be built slowly and relentlessly.

    What the case still doesn’t need, however, is bullshit both-sides-do-it “balance”.

  81. 81.

    D58826

    Chalk up another success for the Trump media. There is an article on Huffington that says polls reflect a rising concern about Hillary’s health. The BIG LIE is alive and well

  82. 82.

    sam

    If they don’t want to call him a “liar” because that somehow requires them to opine on what is in his brain at the time that he said something (admittedly an impossible task, given the vacuousness between his ears), then they could simply say that what he is saying is NOT TRUE or FALSE. that is a purely factual statement that does not rely at all on knowing what he “believes” in any way, shape or form.

    That would still be better than this bullshit.

    And just to be clear, I think he’s a goddamn liar.

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