Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Second rate reporter says what?

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

When we show up, we win.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

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

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Our Failed Media Open Thread: Buttery Mails?

Our Failed Media Open Thread: Buttery Mails?

by | 134 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

The good news is — apparently President Biden is a hard man to demonize!

On the other hand, another midterm round of every prominent Media Village Idiot insisting that Questions have been raised (we brought in the heavy-duty winch for just that purpose) is not gonna be good for anyone’s blood pressure…

Reader Interactions

134Comments

  3. 3.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    She’s their Emmanuel Goldstein.  As soon as Trump gets into trouble it’s 2-Minutes Hate on FOX, Newsmax, and ONANIST News.

  5. 5.

    germy

    Maybe she can draw fire away from Biden and Harris?  It’s a terrible position for her to be in, but if they want to focus their investigations on someone who isn’t running for office….

  7. 7.

    Chris

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    It’s been rough on them not having her to punch anymore since 2016.

    They got somewhat better about finding new targets halfway through Trump’s term.  2018 gave them AOC, and then the 2020 primary gave them Elizbeth Warren and of course Kamala Harris who’s been their primary punching-object ever since.

    But there was a little while there in 2017 and 2018 where they couldn’t stop searching far and wide for any sign that Hillary Clinton was plotting her return.  Heck, they even tried to make Chelsea Clinton the next closest thing, with her writing a children’s book being proof that she was about to run for President.  And even today, as this thread indicates, any hint of activity from Hillary Clinton will still set them off like a dog that just heard a car door slam.

  8. 8.

    mrmoshpotato

    Jesus Fucking Himself!  This bullshit again?

    Questions have been raised (we brought in the heavy-duty winch for just that purpose)

    LOL!  Nice.

    ETA – how about these slapdicks tell us how the Rethuglicans would govern better than the Democratic party – and in specific terms?

    Oh, right…

  9. 9.

    Betty

    A bit OT: I am really distressed by reading a poll this morning giving Republicans significantly higher numbers than Democrats on economic issues. This is so upside down and is the fault of the MSM aided and abetted by Manchin and Sinema.  This saga has become exhausting. It’s one thing to have to fight Fox and company, but the clueless MSM is also a big problem.

  10. 10.

    bbleh

    1. The MAGAts love them some Hillary-bashing, even more than they love Pelosi-bashing or Kamala-bashing or Michelle-bashing, so this stuff gets eyeballs and preserves subscriptions.
    2. The Press Corpse wants to maintain access to the Trumpists if/when they get into power again, in Congress if not the WH, so this stuff keeps the beat sweet.
    3. One can never underestimate their willingness to climb on their high horse, invoke Saint Broder, and say smugly that if both sides are criticizing them then they must be doing it right.
    4. They replay these points to each other in their little echo-chambers, which reinforces them.
  11. 11.

    Mike in NC

    Thanks to the two filthiest rats to ever crawl out of the sewers of New York City (D. Trump & R. Giuliani), the wingnut media can never get over its obsession with Horrible Hillary.

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    @bbleh:

    One can never underestimate their willingness to climb on their high horse up their own asses, invoke the power of Saint Broder, and say smugly that if both sides are criticizing them then they must be doing it right. 

    Fixed for clarity.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris:

    They got somewhat better about finding new targets halfway through Trump’s term. 2018 gave them AOC, and then the 2020 primary gave them Elizbeth Warren and of course Kamala Harris who’s been their primary punching-object ever since.

    Gee. I wonder what all these targets have in common that makes them so attractive to the right wing…

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    Commenting on Novax Plagueovic being willing to miss the French Open, Wimbledon, etc.

    So he's gonna wreck his career because he doesn't want to protect himself from a virus that could wreck his career. Sound thinking there. https://t.co/Yj94K0TBgo— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) February 15, 2022

  16. 16.

    bbleh

    @Betty: “The economy” could hardly be going better, and that applies to pretty much every income group (for a change!).  But that ain’t the point.  It’s February, which is bad enough, plus the pandemic is lingering, plus there’s the general stirring-up of chaos by Republicans and their media allies, and people are cranky.  And when they’re cranky, they complain about … something … I know, inflation! gas prices! whatever.  And they blame the president because that’s what Americans do.  That IMO is what “the polls” (such as they are) mostly are reflecting.

    Wait ’til spring.  “The economy” won’t have cooled, but COVID will have, and the weather will have warmed.  Then maybe start paying attention to polls.

  17. 17.

    E.

    This has been all over wingut Internet for a week now and they take it as proven. All that remains is the sentencing and Trump has already suggested execution as the proper remedy. Yes I am being serious. MGT’s social media has been all about this. You know what? I think if I were Hillary I would be considering fleeing the country if Trump gets in again. That’s how bad this looks to me. These people are deadly serious about this. They want to see her executed for treason.

  18. 18.

    Chris

    @Roger Moore:

    Oh yeah.  There’s a designated Liberal Bitch slot in the media and the GOP’s worldview, and when they’re having trouble finding someone to fill it, it just makes them go even crazier than they already are.  Hillary Clinton just filled it for an unusually long time.  We may never get one who’s that long-lasting again.

    Or to be more specific, there’s a narrower slot of Liberal Bitch Who Thinks She’s Good Enough To Be President, which is what all those people (Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Hillary Clinton) were.  There are other Liberal Bitch positions – Nancy Pelosi’s been in one for as long as I can remember, but nobody thinks she wants to be President, so it comes out in slightly different ways.

  22. 22.

    Ruckus

    @Betty:

    They are not clueless. They are being paid to write these stories. They are vile hate profiters. They may (likely do) agree with the stories but still they aren’t standing on street corners with self painted signs, they make money – a living, writing this crap. Think about if they don’t agree and are still writing this crap. That makes them professional whores.

  23. 23.

    Betty

    @bbleh: I hope you are right, but there are actors who are unfairly making things more difficult for Democrats to get their message out. The time until elections is short, and voting rights remain under siege.

  24. 24.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Maria Bartiromo on Sunday on her FOX News show was just ranting away about Hillary causing the Ukraine invasion.  Bartiromo is a right winger but she just looked completely unhinged. I feel the same way about Kaari Lake who’s TFGs GOP candidate for AZ governor. She used to be a local news anchor and just seems to have gone down the QAnon hole. Its like they actually believe the stuff.

  27. 27.

    germy

    The Durham investigation has shown that the biggest threat to our democracy is not some foreign country, but rather the Power Elite led by the likes of Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators in the mainstream media & security state who work to undermine our democracy from within

    — Tulsi Gabbard ? (@TulsiGabbard) February 15, 2022

    What was Gabbard doing on a Democratic primary debate stage? Talk about undermining our democracy from within!

  29. 29.

    VOR

    @bbleh: There are probably a significant number of DC journalists who came of age in the mid-90s during the Whitewater and Clinton impeachment stories. Peddling Clinton stories reminds them of the good ol’ days.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @E.: they’re all really ramping up on the violent talk, ads, etc.

    There was the guy last week in AZ who suggested shooting…ok, shooting-the-guns-out-of-the-hands-of-but-who’s-kidding-who…Mark Kelly (husband of Gabby Giffords!), Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden.

    And today I saw one from some lady in Texas cracking her whip against ‘defunding the police’ and ‘indoctrination’.

    They’re all going off of the deep end.  Sorry y’all didn’t get another four years of depravity from your orange messiah, MAGAts but I’m going to need the violent morons among you to go straight to jail, do not pass ‘Go’, do not collect a blessed Melania NFT.

  35. 35.

    Jeffro

    @germy: ah the ol’ Power Elite!  that excellent all-purpose group keeping you from achieving the greatness that is your right, MAGAts!

    (to be honest, I see ‘Power Elite’ and I picture some sort of Charlton Comics Justice League knock-off)

    Kestrel Man!

    Uni-Power!

    Shield Girl!

    Speedy du Fast!

    The Puce Lantern!

    it’s….the POWER ELITE!

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    The good news is — apparently President Biden is a hard man to demonize!

    Oh, they will keep trying. In the UK, the press barons are having Covid-rule breaking parties celebrating how they were finally able to smear Labour Party leader Starmer.

    These asshats will happily cycle Hillary, Biden, Obama and anyone else as they try to get at Biden.

     Questions have been raised (we brought in the heavy-duty winch for just that purpose)

    Too funny.

  45. 45.

    Josie

    I have been around politics a long time, more than 50 years.  I have disliked and hated a good number of politicians.  But until now, I have not actively hoped for the death of one the way I hope it for our former president. I know he is not the origin of much of this exhausting crap, but he has given them permission to come out from under their rocks to spout it.

    ETA: Just to make clear, death from illness or natural causes.

  46. 46.

    germy

    @Jeffro:

    I made the mistake of buying a Power Elite beard trimmer.  Four settings:  short, long, stun, kill.

    Can’t return it, I lost my rite aide receipt

  47. 47.

    germy

    GOP must feel so frustrated with all the Jeffrey Epstein guilt-by-association stuff they could be using against HRC and her husband.  But too many important GOP donors are in that little black book and flight log.

    It must be like dangling bacon out of reach of a chained dog.

  49. 49.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Josie: Yeah, understandable. But I still say that if I were put in an elevator with TFG, Tailgunner Ted, Moscow Mitch, and a gun with two bullets, the first two bastards on that list would walk out uninjured.

    And ETA in re: your ETA: dying of natural causes in Sing Sing is my ideal end for TFG.

  50. 50.

    sdhays

    @Josie: Your comment triggered a memory from back in, I think, 2001, where a pretzel down the wrong pipe nearly gave us President Dick Cheney. Supposedly.

  52. 52.

    Leto

    Yesterday I saw my first Trumpov 2024 bumper sticker on the backside of a Hyundai car: Take America Back (or it was Take Back America). I blinked a few times, then remembered why Avalune refuses to let me buy a HMMV.

  53. 53.

    cain

    @Josie: I think him being humiliated and rotting in jail along with his children while up to his ears in debt is what I want to see. He cannot be a martyr.They’ll use him like they continue to use Reagan as some shining example of conservatism (whatever that means today)

  55. 55.

    germy

    I am still sort of reeling from Maggie Haberman saying that only prosecutors–and not journalists–can call something a crime.

    The NYT, for very good and for ill, is the core engine of American journalism.

    — Adam Davidson (@adamdavidson) February 13, 2022

    in its **very first** Hillary email story in March 2015, NYT suggested, in **first paragraph** that she may have broken laws https://t.co/UYP2nZRW65

    — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 13, 2022

  56. 56.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR: ​
      Guns can be used as clubs. The military actually trains on it. Butt stroke to the head was always a favorite, kind of like a right hook to the jaw with a rifle butt.

  57. 57.

    Sebastian

    @RaflW:

    Rudi is cooperating with Jan 6 and DOJ, we might see the whole dark net exposed.

    Tulsi, Stein, Flynt, Taibbi, Glenn, FOX, OANN, zero hedge, Twitter bots, Facebook, …

    I have a feeling what we are seeing now are the first shots fired in the US counter offensive.

  59. 59.

    texasboyshaun

    But Killery kicked my dog and used Clinton Foundation Chinese backers to create and spread the covid so BOTHSIDES!!!!1!!1!!!

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    In the 8 years since the Sochi Olympics, the IOC has gone from considering a complete ban on Russian athletes to allowing Russian athletes with a slightly different flag to allowing Russian athletes who just tested positive for PEDs.

    — Brad Culp (@bbculp) February 15, 2022

  62. 62.

    texasboyshaun

    @Sebastian: Such a long list! Not surprised to see Zero Hedge on there, they’ve always given me bad vibes. I wonder if Naked Capitalism will be next…?

  63. 63.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The press also conflated Her Emails!!1! with the Wikileaks/DNC-hacked emails (thanks Assange) and alot of people on the Left were happy to take the bait and view it all as one big shadow of concern about whether Hillary could really be trusted.

  66. 66.

    Sebastian

    @germy:

    I take my hints from Kinzinger. He appears to be the Jan 6 signaler so far and he said he expects Rudi to fully cooperate. This tells me he already gave them something or agreed and the committee is preparing the public that this will happen. It would be congruent with previous moves. The committee has been superb in it’s media and psyops strategy tbh.

    Also, Rudi is fucked. The DOJ raided him, has all his devices, ergo they know everything about the dirty money he took all over Eastern Europe and the shit he did for Trump. The only thing left for Rudi is client-attorney privilege for the stop the steal lawsuits and 4 Seasons shit but that was already handled by a Special Master I believe. Also, if the DOJ has so much dirt on him, his only hope for any kind of leniency is to proffer everything.

    His official protests might just be to protect himself from Trump lunatics. I believe he is already fully cooperating.

  67. 67.

    Sebastian

    @texasboyshaun:

    Naked Capitalism was always such a weird site and like zero hedge or any other semi-anonymous blog platform, highly susceptible to psyops. I mean, any such site, even DailyKos is super easy to manipulate.

  68. 68.

    RaflW

    @Baud: I feel like you just lifted up a rock and now I see a bunch of wriggling white larvae. (But that’s not your fault — I just stay TF away from that trough of swill.)

  71. 71.

    RaflW

    @Steeplejack (phone): I was surprised by how vehemently the NBC color commentators, who are of course retired Olympic skaters themselves, denounced both the Russians and the Olympics & testing regimes.

    It doesn’t really feel like hyperbole to say that the many, many clean athletes are being totally demoralized and the sport seriously damaged.

    That said, I also  think a 15 year old kid is being actively abused by Russians. It’s f*ked all the way ’round.

  78. 78.

    germy

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Try this:
    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies.
    The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.
    Zero Hedge denied the claims and said it tries to “publish a wide spectrum of views that cover both sides of a given story.” In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it “has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.”

  81. 81.

    bbleh

    @Betty: Concur re voting rights! And yeah the media are blindly self-interested and sometimes foolishly destructive, but Dems can’t expect the media to do their jobs for them: a lot of the “professional” DC Dems also deserve a chunk of blame.  And November is still a long way off: most voters, and especially those who haven’t already made their minds up, don’t pay any attention at all until late summer.

    Soldier on.

  82. 82.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @sdhays: It was a candidate, not the mayor. Looks related to crazy being resentful of gentrification.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    How did they smear Starmer?

    Boris Johnson claimed that Starmer deliberately refused to prosecute Jimmy Saville when Starmer was head of Crown  prosecution. This was a lie and Boris Johnson refused to apologize.

    The media would note that the charge was false and then gleefully repeat it over and over. There has been at least one incident where Starmer had to be pulled back from an angry crowd that may have tried to attack him.

    In the UK, some Labour supporters do not like Starmer because he is a lawyer, and by definition, not working class. But now the Tories have falsely smeared Starmer precisely for being a lawyer. An elegant, if despicable attack. They worked hard to try to find just the right bullshit attack.

  88. 88.

    Roger Moore

    @cain:

    I think him being humiliated and rotting in jail along with his children while up to his ears in debt is what I want to see. He cannot be a martyr.

    The problem is that anything that happens to him can be spun into martyrdom.  If he’s prosecuted and convicted, it will be a politically motivated show trial.  If he’s bankrupted, it will because his enemies conspired against him.  And so on.

    Of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prosecute him if we have enough evidence to secure a conviction.  Knowing that the other side will try to spin what you do no matter what you do means you can discount their spin, since it would show up in any case.  Do what’s right and deal with the spin.

  92. 92.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I actually knew the only real life woman on Ashley Madison. Super attractive, too. She had her pick of the litter, for sure. Her hubs was none too pleased, but thanks to my advice they got through it and are still together over 10 years later.

    Dunno exactly how they reckoned with her addiction, but they managed.

  94. 94.

    Jeffro

    @germy: it really is genius.

    EVERYBODY hates the ‘Power Elite’, except for the 1-2 guys who hear that phrase and go, “you rang?”

    I mean, I see right through their stupid framing and I still hate the ‘Power Elite’.  Who doesn’t hate the ‘Power Elite’?

    Sure, the GQP’s offering nothing but hating the ‘Power Elite’, but who wants to report on that?

  96. 96.

    Leto

    @Roger Moore:

    Do what’s right and deal with the spin.

    That’s where I am. I’m tired of hearing about how we can’t prosecute people in power because of how it will be perceived. If we can’t hold people accountable, then you’re acknowledging that they’re above the law; and if that’s the case, what’s the point in having the law in the first place?

  99. 99.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Jeffro:

    Thing is, all it takes is one white guy in a nice suit to ring the “summon the servants” bell, and they come running and ready  to sacrifice themselves like Bond villain henchmen.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: You also have a point.

    ETA:  I think I just Both Sidesed this.  Can I get a seven figure a year media job now?

  101. 101.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mai Naem mobile: 

    Maria Bartiromo on Sunday on her FOX News show was just ranting away about Hillary causing the Ukraine invasion.

    If only Hillary actually had those kinds of superpowers.

  102. 102.

    Roger Moore

    @Leto:

    I’m tired of hearing about how we can’t prosecute people in power because of how it will be perceived.

    It’s amazing how often this criticism comes from other people in power who don’t like the precedent.  IMO, our problem is that we’ve been too reluctant to prosecute people in power, to the point that they now assume they have impunity.  That looks terrible to the general public.  We need to start prosecuting the rich and powerful and prove they don’t have impunity.  That will piss off the powerful and those who suck up to them, but the rest of the public will love it.

  104. 104.

    West of the Rockies

    Republican or MSM whining about HRC’s emails is akin to Raiders fans getting worked up over Franco Harris’s immaculate reception.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    The problem is that anything that happens to him can be spun into martyrdom. If he’s prosecuted and convicted, it will be a politically motivated show trial.

    There is a long tradition of not allowing former presidents to fall into … disrepute. Trump is clearly taking advantage of that. Impeachment, conviction and removal from office would have been cleaner, but the GOP would not allow that.

    As much as Trump might merit being thrown in jail, that will be very difficult to achieve. And here I am not considering the dreams of his various supporters.

    If he’s bankrupted, it will because his enemies conspired against him. And so on.

    I think civil action against Trump might be easier, including bankruptcy, which he has been through before.

    Even if he is “ruined” financially, he will be able to get plutocrat buddies to take care of him.

    Trump will play on the sentiments and resentments of his supporters until his dying day, no matter what harm this might cause to the country. The Republicans knew this the moment they allowed him to enter the Republican primary. They care more about Trump than they do about the country.

    But we don’t have much choice than to do whatever can be done to bring him down.

  108. 108.

    danielx

    Hillary is their hobby, their obsession, their bête noire, in some cases the basis of their professional “accomplishments”. They’re gonna give that up just because she is not guilty of anything? She HAS to be guilty of something, they just haven’t found it yet.

  109. 109.

    Dopey-o

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I actually knew the only real life woman on Ashley Madison. Super attractive, too. She had her pick of the litter, for sure.

    IIRC, a significant portion of “women” on the Ashley Madison adultery site site were phony accounts. Very attractive phony accounts.

    Insert comments about a fool and his money, one-handed typing, incel culture. The list goes on..

  110. 110.

    NeenerNeener

    Are “The Power Elite” the same folks who are planning The Great Reset and are going to confiscate all our possessions if our ESG scores drop too low? Eff those guys.

  115. 115.

    jonas

    If anyone is looking for a reasonably digestible overview of what this “Hillary hacked Trump’s servers!1!” fauxrage is about, Charlie Savage has a breakdown here, at, ironically, the FTFNYT. dl;dr: Durham is a hack of the highest order. And the rightwing media are just shameless liars and don’t give a shit.

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The problem with Rudi as a witness is that he’s proven you can’t believe a single thing he says even when he’s telling the truth. He’s called wolf too many times

    Rudy has not just called wolf. He has phoned, emailed, texted, DMed, sent Twitter rants and set up numerous FaceBook pages for the wolf.

  118. 118.

    Roger Moore

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The problem with Rudi as a witness is that he’s proven you can’t believe a single thing he says even when he’s telling the truth. He’s called wolf too many times

    Everyone around Trump has the same problem.  The most valuable thing any of them can provide is documentary evidence to support their claims.

  119. 119.

    Martin

    @Jeffro: They’re all going off of the deep end.

    The culture war is still a war. It’s a cold war, and then suddenly it’s not. They’ve lost the culture war, and they sort of know it, but simply cannot accept it. So they keep fighting. If threats of violence don’t win the war, maybe actual violence will. They can always find someone willing to try.

    I don’t see how we avoid increasing violence. I don’t know if it’ll be 1960s violence or 1860s violence, but people should mentally prepare for it.

  120. 120.

    Martin

    @Omnes Omnibus: They pretty much all are. I used to chat a bit with the sugar baby recruiters on campus. They didn’t find a ton of students, but there were always some willing to engage in a transactional relationship to pay for school. They said the real challenge of which service to go with is how they select the men. Do the men know its transactional? Then they’re pretty safe. Do they not know? Stay away. The number of guys who knew it was transaction wasn’t very many, so most of the services were bad news for the students. Was important to understand the industry because sooner or later you’re getting the students who are struggling because they got involved, or where their situation suddenly changed because the guy dumped them.

    Interesting implications around things like legalizing sex work. If it’s illegal, they don’t get to declare their income which *helps* them with financial aid. Once it’s legal, it’ll hurt them. I you have a sugar daddy, is that income? Gifts get counted in a certain way for financial aid. Gifts in kind would be safe – give them books rather than money for books, etc. And like with pot legalization, a split between state and fed gets quite dicey, something we dealt with for undocumented students that were eligible for state aid but not federal.

    You get to learn about and explore a lot of interesting social areas working at a university. You really get to learn how to leave any temptation to judge at the door.

  124. 124.

    wonkie

    About the failed journalists. WOuld it help if the assholes got a shit ton of angry emails whenever they write one of their “both sides do it” or making-excuses-for Republicans or spread rightwing lies? This is thge kind of thing that could be organized here. Post the contact for the offender and get two hundred plus individuals to write critiques of the offensive coverage. I know they get non stop bullying from the right. DO they responses from outside the Beltway people like us? I write to journalists who piss me off regularly but I’m just one person.

  125. 125.

    Sebastian

    @Roger Moore:

    Right? Anyone going scorched earth against banks and their executives would have wide popular (and populist) support.

    Funny bit of info non-corporate folks don’t know: the financial industry doesn’t pay that well actually unless you are in hedge funds. They also don’t give raises or promotions. Instead they are very generous with titles, so much so that it is a running joke in other industries.

    You will have guys who have nobody reporting to them be Senior Manager or even Director, while still working IT Admin and Operations stuff. The number of VPs is mind boggling. They of course have Area Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents, Advisory CTOs, and combinations thereof!

    I have a customer who has, I shit you not, five CIOs last time I checked.

    You can drag literally everyone in court and FOX & Co can’t say “it’s a witch hunt against the small guys” when everyone is a VP and the audience thinks “serves him right, the fucking fat cat”

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    @wonkie:

    About the failed journalists. WOuld it help if the assholes got a shit ton of angry emails whenever they write one of their “both sides do it” or making-excuses-for Republicans or spread rightwing lies?

    Probably not. The media outlet would shut down the email, as they shut down comment sections.

    Also, reporters are employees. They write as their editors and publishers direct them.

  127. 127.

    Sebastian

    @wonkie:

    Emails don’t work. Getting in their face in public space does however.

    Remember how shocked Stephen Miller was when people cussed him out when got take-out at that DC sushi place?

  128. 128.

    Sebastian

    @germy:

    Of course they would say that but I bet you some people are sweating now profusely. Can you imagine being in the crosshairs of the US Intelligence and COINTEL apparatus?

  130. 130.

    Chris Johnson

    @wonkie:

    You are making the assumption that their behavior is organic and motivated by something other than being run out of Moscow through a whole series of cut-outs and plausible deniability engines.

    You’re MEANT to be mad, because they’re trying to stoke a civil war. Getting mad tells them they are being heard and that’s the intention.

    Stop acting like these are normal times. It’s an informational war and history suggests that the FTFNYT is effectively the IRANYT and it ain’t subtle. I don’t really care whether they are just bought and paid for, or blackmailed into it (they are very much blackmail bait) or what combination of pressures were brought to bear. I just suggest that they are actively a thumb on the scale for Russia, on purpose, in a reasonably sophisticated way (more than the Jacobins of the world), and therefore writing angry letters to the editor is like telling a working soldier, ‘you’re being totally uncool man!’

    They know. That is their job and has been for years now.

  132. 132.

    Benw

    I guess if you’re going to sell cocaine then sell a SHITLOAD of cocaine while screaming that you’re selling cocaine and then it’s fine and if anyone says anything it’s okay because pouring ammonia on your eyeballs is a cure for cocaine and anyway what about Hillary? Fucking hell

  133. 133.

    Bill Arnold

    @wonkie:

    WOuld it help if the assholes got a shit ton of angry emails

    Many have twitter accounts, either helpfully linked or easily found, often with very low numbers of replies per tweet. Those can be good targets; just keep the criticism under your guess for their auto-block threshold. The very big names with lots of replies, not so much.

Comments are closed.