do the democrats have a very tough hand? yes. is it likely they lose one or both chambers? probably. is this a foregone conclusion? no, unless you work for the NYT politics desk.
— šGHOULLIKEHELLMACHINEš (@golikehellmachi) October 25, 2022
Hey, they only have that Trump voter diner under contract through the end of Q4; between that and the āTrump voter mythologyā magnetic poetry they canāt let it go to waste.
— Voice of Disgustomer (@3disgustomer) October 25, 2022
This is nearly a Platonic form of political press bullshit. The reporters know itās bullshit. But the NYT plowed ahead w a bullshit headline & laughably predictable & lazy exercise in dishonesty
First, I saw the headline & thought āgotta be Rendellāā¦/1 https://t.co/szie8TPDrp
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 26, 2022
When lazy reporters, or reporters desperate to produce what they know is bullshit but was demanded by their editors, need a āDems in disarrayā quote from a Dem, they call Ed Rendell, Dick Harpootlian, or another of the 6-8 bitter has-beens who will always take a call fromā¦/2
ā¦a reporter, speak on the record, & dump on the Democratic Party, on any subject, at any time. That this was about PA made it obvious theyād get a quote from Rendell.
That was the only on-the-recod quote from a Dem that supported the premise of the article. [Another PA Demā¦ /3
ā¦was quoted, but his quote was contrary to the premise of the article.]
Then, the facts
The article unanimously quotes OTR & attributes to others the assessment that Fetterman is not cognitively impaired except for some auditory processing issues, which are widely believedā¦/4
ā¦by experts to be normal after a stroke, and not expected to be permanent
They even mention what was actually the biggest moment of the debate, when Oz said abortion is btwn a woman, her doctor, the township clerk, the head of code enforcement, & the director of public works /5
So, the reporters & their editorsāremember, a bad story may be caused by reporters doing crappy work, or editors demanding that reporters write a bullshit story, or editors hacking up a good article, but in the end itās the editors who give final approval for publicationāknowā¦/6
ā¦thereās no reason to believe Fetterman isnāt able to perform the duties of US Senator. They know this bc every expert told them this, & theyāre at a minimum clever people
So why write the article? Maybe there are legit worries among Dem leaders that the debate hurtā¦/7
ā¦Fetterman. They know the worries are unfounded on medical grounds. They also know, & the article mentions this, that polling has shown a solid majority who say they believe Fetterman is capable of doing the job
Butā¦
They also know that in 2000 the (first?) Gore-Bushā¦/8
ā¦debate that a majority of those who watched it thought Gore won & didnāt have a big problem w sighing or whatever it was that supposedly showed Gore was a smug elitist who nobody would invite over for a beer
However, the press so fully accepted & then parroted Repub spinā¦ /9
ā¦that people who didnāt watch the debate believed Bush won & Gore was awful
So, if Dems are worried that the debate hurt Fetterman, itās bc theyāre worried that the press will report that Fetterman came off as a befuddled guy with a malfunctioning brain. Dems knowā¦/10
ā¦Fetterman isnāt befuddled & his brain is up to the demands of being a Senator
And
So
Do
Members
Of
The
PressSo what is this article? Itās the press talking about what they think Democrats worry was a performance by Fetterman that raised questions about his health, butā¦/11
ā¦thereās no evidence the debate affected votersā beliefs about Fettermanās health, and thereās little evidence that Dems are seriously worried about the debate.
Itās just a bunch of disingenuous bullshit. /12
Iām not saying the New York Times is actively trying to hasten the death of democracy in America. Just that, if they were, their coverage wouldnāt look much different from this. pic.twitter.com/JOFOal0Pih
— Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth) October 24, 2022
The people who get paid to write for the NYTimes, and more importantly the people who pay them, are secure (incorrectly, IMO) in their conviction that nothing bad will happen to them, personally, if our commonwealth is destroyed…
Extremely telling that the Republican voter casually espousing lunatic conspiracy theories is described with no apparent reflection as "a moderate." https://t.co/Jfja0JLMW0
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@BartenderHemry) October 23, 2022
We're in the most precarious moment for our democracy in living memory and every straight news article about it is just pure nonsense, actively obscuring the danger by pretending it's an open question whether the kooks who want to end it might have a point
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@BartenderHemry) October 23, 2022
Spanky
Soooo, looks like this might not be the best time to bring up the WaPo hit piece “As mayor trying to revive crumbling town, Fetterman shunned local government.”
I ain’t linking.
Baud
The current media environment kind if reminds me of how they were in 2016.
Spanky
Was everyone raptured?Well, not Baud.
zhena gogolia
Too depressing to read
Parfigliano
On the bright side with the death of democracy comes the death of the NYT
MattF
How about some coverage of the fact that a substantial portion of the R party is racist and psychopathic? Iāll admit it took me a moment to figure out what this guy was upset aboutā but then I had an āahaā moment: Obama and Holder are Blackety-Black Black Black Black.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I saw somebody on Twitter saying that the American political press is incompetent, but that’s just flat wrong. They aren’t incompetent. They can do this right if they want to, most of them. What they are isĀ anticompetent. They’reĀ choosingĀ to get all this shit dead wrong.
And that to me is more worrying. You can always help somebody who doesn’t know how to do the work learn. If they know how but are choosing to fuck it up, all you can do is dump them and get new people. The problem is that these people won’t go away, and we canāt effectively just fire them.
I guess I should take some solace in knowing that if the worst does come to pass, they’re going to be rudely surprised that itĀ canĀ happen to them, and most likely will.
Danielx
I have an online subscription to Ā the NY Times, and their political coverage is either great or abysmal. But the editors do seem to have an automatic/default orientation towards āDems in disarrayā, āDems not paying attention to diner denizens in Youngstownā, āDems disconnected from fascist concernsāā¦and on and on.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
As an aside, I would like to see anticompetence become a thing. It needs to be a term people recognize and understand.
David š āThe Establishmentāš Koch
Is this the same FTFNYT that spent the 1920s and 1930s white washing Hitler?
CarolPW
@Parfigliano: In this case it would be a suicide.
Danielx
@David š āThe Establishmentāš Koch:
Aye, the very same! And the same one that had Walter Durant doing verbal gymnastics for Josef Stalin.
Eta: Duranty, sorry. I was close.
J R in WV
@David š āThe Establishmentāš Koch:
Of course it is!Ā I was shocked when I looked up Times reporting on “Mr. Hitler” from the early days of “Mr. Hitler’s” career in German politics. Amazeballs!!!
David š āThe Establishmentāš Koch
A year ago there was a recall election in California. (this isn’t ancient history)
538 said the recall would lose by 15 points. Real Clear Politics said it would lose by 15 points. It lost by 24 points. When you’re wrong by 9 points that’s a big error. If you predict tomorrow’s weather to be 72 degrees and it turns out to be 81 degrees or 63 degrees, that’s a big error. The error occurred because they overestimated republican turnout. You can see above they’re doing the same thing, again.āā
Aussie Sheila
At this point the FTFNYT should sack all their leader writers and political journalists and just hire dougj. The savings would be immense and no one would ever know. They could even let dougj continue to twitter as a means of free on line advertising.
Christ that paper is terrible on US politics, and I donāt even live there!
Cameron
Haven’t seen Easy Ed’s name in quite a while.Ā I remember years ago a buddy of mine who was a cop working in City Hall told me it was generally thought that when Ed was mayor, most of his buddies were Republicans.Ā And in Philadelphia, that’s really saying something.
Cacti
Democrats must lose the midterm.Ā That’s the narrative.Ā The narrative is never wrong.
Mo Salad
https://twitter.com/LFC19673841/status/1585427886357741568?t=Gfv58oaoF4M0EqAxtbDnVw&s=19
My lawn decorations are finally complete.
Baud
@Mo Salad:
Hahaha.
Bill Arnold
@Cacti:
But it can be falsified.
Suzanne
They have a pro-drama bias more than absolutely anything. It overrides all other concerns. Remember the missing plane? OMG. Nonstop. For weeks. Thatās not an exaggeration. Weeks of breathlessness over N O T H I N G.
If the plane had crashed into a diner in Ohio, it would have been an event horizon for the media.
Kathleen
@MattF: I maintain that’s a big reason why the media’s coverage of Democrats is particularly vile and vicious. They (and of course many voters) hate that Black people wield power and influence as voters, party leaders, and government officials. No one can disabuse me of that notion.
Betsy
Letās take that word by word.
– voters
that means the electorate in general, those who vote
– outvote
that means to vote more than, to vote in greater numbers
– President Bidenās party
that means the Democratic Party, in other words voters registered as Democrats
– even in the bluest parts of the us
that means California, Vermont, Massachusetts, Colorado, etc and chunks of other states
So if we look at what these hacks have written, it means that
Voters, taken as a group, will cast more votes [for unspecified outcome or candidate] than Democrats
Yes? Donāt {ALL VOTERS} always āoutvoteā {VOTERS THAT ARE REGISTERED DEMOCRATS}? In what strange otherworldly election are democratic voters more numerous than all who vote?
Also note the subtle framing ā itās David-Brooks-worthy, really ā that {voters generally} somehow does not Ā include the group {Democratic voters}
In other words thereās everyone, and then thereās Democrats. Itās us, everyone! and Democrats ā you know, *them*, the weird minority party.
Sounds to me like someone in charge and GOP-affiliated knows theyāre damn well in the minority nationally, and they want to do that āevery accusation is a confessionā thing.
Suzanne
Somehow deleted the e from the end of my name and got a comment stuck in moderation, my bad.
SpaceUnit
@Betsy:
Yeah, that line is why I’m not worrying.
ETA: Ā Assholes.
Kathleen
@Aussie Sheila: They wouldn’t even have to do that. I propose that every media platform replace all of its political propagandists (think of the money they would save) with an avi/bot Bucky The Snarky Squirrel who would tweet propaganda
ETA DougJ would be great too! We wouldn’t see any difference at all.
Suzanne
Whatever.
The media’s primary bias is pro-drama, even more so than right-wing. They treat real actual life like Must-See TV. Remember when that plane disappeared? They turned that into weeks of dramatics. And there was N O T H I N G to see.
If the plane had crashed into an Ohio diner, it would be an absolute event horizon.
Delk
Dems are not in disarray, pollsters are in disarray.Ā
citizen dave
I caught a minute of the execreble NBC News–lester holt (no he doesn’t deserve capitalization) edition–and they were doing the same thing.Ā Andrea Mitchell involved again–the PA debate; she also mentioned how team red was moving in new york, and the R Gov. candidate is “within striking distance” of Hochul.Ā The same old bullshit.
I take comfort from know the recent actual votes turned out for blue–the Cali recall as mentioned in comment #14; and earlier here someone recalled the Kansas Question was polling at 50/50, but the actual result was 59% to 41%.Ā Looked it up.Ā Margin of 165,000 votes out of 922,000 total votes.Ā LFG!!!
brantl
@Parfigliano: If that were guaranteed, it might start us on the way back from despotism.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: All better now!
Betsy
Iām so glad I donāt have a television.
SpaceUnit
Tomorrow the NYT editors are all gonna sit down around table with a ouija board. Ā Then we’ll get some straight answers.
Chetan Murthy
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): There’s a term for what FTFNYT does: “agnosis”.Ā And a field of study of purveyors of agnosis: “agnotology”.
Geminid
@citizen dave: My hypothesis is that the Republicans more or less maxed their vote out in 2020 while the Democrats have added voters. Although Biden-voter defections could be a problem if they are substantial.
I guess I’ll find out in two weeks.
NeenerNeener
OT: on Twitter, based on a picture of her with Trump on a private jet, people are speculating that Alina Habba will be Trump’s 4th wife.
Suzanne
I have decided that I want a stupid Halloween costume so I am looking for a sexy turkey costume.
Betsy
@Betsy: The other thing I meant to add and ran out of edit time is that
the whole sentence Ā falls apart on the simplest examination.
It predicts nothing. It says nothing. It means nothing. Itās a Ā nullity, either Ā as opinion or as reporting.
But itās scary sounding
and it succesfully āothersā Democrats.
In other words, it consists of meaninglessness,
fear-mongering,
and bullying.
Gee, which party could this piece have come from?
RaflW
I’ve seen claims on Musker (er, I mean Twitter) that Fetterman raised $2M after this debate. Is that covered in any of the TV performance criticism we’ve been handed today?
Betsy
@SpaceUnit: Hahaha, exactly.
citizen dave
@Geminid: Yes.Ā Also thinking the covid deaths took out many more Red voters than Blue voters.
steve g
I can understand someone being uncomfortable with Fetterman. Not because of the stroke, but because he is brash, and outspoken, and not empathic towards everyone, especially people different from him. But I can’t understand how anyone would pick Oz instead. Oz is a slimy huckster, and I would not let him enter my house or touch anything that belonged to me.
Jackie
Just read a headline that TFG is going to rally for Rubio. But not DeathSantis. LOL!
Betsy
@Danielx: I think itās partly because if you just wrote a normal story with facts and analysis, it would be overwhelmingly favorable to Ā Democrats and Republicans would sound like the nihilistic racist kackasses they are. Ā Canāt just run Ā articles like that all the time!
It maybe would be comparable to writing a novel or movie where: everyone is good, nothing bad ever happens, there is no plot conflict, and happy happy joy joy is the whole thing. Thatās not how novels are supposed to work. No one would read it.
John S.
@RaflW:
Not until they find a way to spin Fetterman raising $2M as a bad or lackluster thing.
Old Dan and Little Ann
The only news I’ve read in recent weeksĀ has been right here on this blog.Ā I can’t believe it went from “Don’t believe the doomsayers” to “WE’RE ALL DOOMED” in less about 24 hours.Ā Even my wife said to me today, I heard Fetterman did terribly.Ā Ugh.Ā I quote the great Public Enemy.Ā DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE!
RaflW
@David š āThe Establishmentāš Koch: Didn’t the Kansas abortion referendum result also seem to come out of nowhere, as if the press has had no idea that women are furious and motivated?
prostratedragon
Rendell is still around? Reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who starts a low growl whenever he appears on the tv box.
Cameron
@Suzanne: I don’t have the energy.Ā Might paint some whiskers on an N95 and go out as the Covid Cat.
Betsy
@citizen dave: Youād think. But when you run the numbers, sadly, no.
Baud
@Jackie:
I’m a little surprised Rubio needs the help.
Has Rubio given up on his presidential ambitions?
eversor
This drives me nuts.Ā I slur, contantly.Ā I have a head injury due to my service.Ā It’s not 24/7 but at times it does crop up and I feel silly.Ā I do not present in meetings because of this.Ā Ā I get that this is needed for us to nail the meeting, I also get that it’s discrimination, I also feel it’s an excuse just not to do something I frankly don’t like doing.Ā I warn people going into job situations “I have an injury and I swear like a sailor” and most people just roll with it.Ā Good at what I do.Ā Also an extrovert and if I get lost for a moment that’s no real issue.
Oz is, obviously, a bad doctor.Ā Him side swiping someone for a strokeĀ is bad, while they trot out Walker is worse.Ā There are a lot of us that have to stop for a moment and calibrate because the words just can’t come out.Ā And it’s odd.Ā It’s humiliating.Ā You just smile.Ā And then 20 seconds later you can go a mile a second and just laught it up and then… you… stop…
I still can’t hear in one ear fuck Oz.
Mike in NC
Many years ago I dated a woman in Newport, RI whose idea of a fun Sunday was to buy the New York TimesĀ and hang out for a few hours in a coffee shop. Never understood the appeal.
Cameron
@Baud: It might just be another grift like Trump ran in AZ: “I’m here on behalf of Li’l Marco.Ā Give what you can and he’ll get a nickel out of every dollar raised!”
RaflW
@Baud: He’s certainly given up on having any self esteem.
Baud
@Cameron: It’s always a grift.
@RaflW: He doesn’t deserve esteem.
Betsy
@citizen dave: To be more specific, the death rates *were* higher for Republican voters, but when you zoom out to the electorate at large, the differential in death rates made (at most) a 0.02 of a percentage point difference. Ā Thatās two one-hundredths of a percent, or said another way, 2 voters per 10,000.
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid: Yes this has occurred to me as well. The trump vote in 2020 seemed to me the result of millions of previous non voters being dragged to the polls, not an uptick in traditional republican voter enthusiasm. Whereas the Biden vote looked like the Dems maximising their real vote strength.
I continue to hope, (with no evidence whatsoever natch), that the Dem vote is improving its propensity to vote every election, and that the low info nihilist vote of trumpism subsides without him on the ticket.
Weāll see I guess.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Phys.org:
They’re small studies, subject to further revision and understanding, but it’s something worth thinking about nonetheless.
People are complicated, and they’re always dragging their past along with them.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@Mo Salad: Love it. Hope your neighbors appreciate it, most of mine wouldnāt.
I also have a red hat I donāt feel comfortable wearing anymore. Itās woolen and shaped something like Robin Hoodās hat. But it is the same bright red as a MAGA hat and I donāt want to be misidentified.
Cameron
@Ohio Mom: You could be Maid Melania to Robin Trump!
Jackie
@Baud: I didnāt read the article. I hope it means – as weāve speculated – the pollsters donāt know š©!
Salty Sam
āReality has a liberal bias.ā Ā Stephan Colbert
PJ
@Suzanne:Ā https://beyondthebedroomevents.com/thanksgiving-sex-tip/turkey/
Don’t worry, it’s safe for work
Suzanne
@Cameron: I hate dressing up. If I do, I want to do something utterly absurd.
Salty Sam
My SILās mom has the Sunday NYT delivered to her door here in Austin. Ā As an excuse, she has alcoholic dementia in her favorā¦
MobiusKlein
@PJ:Ā ā
My corporate overlords beg to differ.
Ohio Mom
@Cameron: Oh, nope.
When I read up thread that there is a rumor that the fourth Mrs. Trump may have been identified, my immediate reaction was relief for Melania. And I hate her guts. There isnāt anything admirable or likeable about her. But thatās how overwhelminglyrepulsive Trump is to me.
Suzanne
This evening, I have gotten text messages from Beto, Fetterman, Mark Kelly, and the PA Dem Party. I am tired, y’all.
Jojo
JFC that NYT story with the “moderate” from Waukesha. Waukesha County is one of the most Republican counties in Wisconsin and Waukesha itself has long been a white flight community. An honest reporter with any brains or skill should treat a self-described “moderate” from Waukesha with extreme skepticism. Did anyone do that? Did the reporter or someone at the NYT check this woman’s background, how she voted in the past, anything at all? Or did she just tell the reporter “I’m a moderate voter!” and that was enough?
Mo Salad
@Ohio Mom: I am ready to piss some of them off.
My wifi address is BidenIsOURPresidentDealWithIt.
Also, my house is a rental.
SpaceUnit
Kremlin press release tomorrow:
Russian troops are pressing their advantage deep into Ukrainian territory ahead of the winter, competing for ground amid signs that their fighters may overcome Zelenskyy’s forces even in the most resistant parts of the country.
Ohio Mom
@Mo Salad: Go to it! I am sure my neighbors roll their eyes at my yard signs for Democractic candidates.
But wouldnāt it be nice to live among kindred souls? Iāve promised myself my next house will be in a blue neighborhood.
James E Powell
@Suzanne:
Funny how that pro-drama bias never seems to be harmful to Republicans. President’s daughter & son-in-law getting rich while working in the White House? Not a story. Woman who Trump hired when she was a teenage model goes to work in the White House, reportedly to keep the president calm? No drama there. Why look into it?
I could go on, but you know all this and much much more.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne: you think thatās bad? I crossed a state line to have dinner in Nebraska! And on my way out stumbled upon Nebraska tourism trade show. Talk about a pointless job!
But I may bring the family out to go tankingā¦.
chrome agnomen
“The people who get paid to write for the NYTimes, and more importantly the people who pay them, are secure (incorrectly, IMO) in their conviction that nothing bad will happen to them, personally, if our commonwealth is destroyedā¦”
I agree with the parenthetical here. Ā I believe that if the commonwealth were to be destroyed, there would be a very real likelihood of something bad happening to them personally.
Suzanne
@James E Powell: The pro-drama bias is less harmful to Republicans because their voters are utterly craven, cynical people who donāt give even the most lifeless, floppy, lie-back-and-think-of-England fuck about ethics. Herschel Walker gets nonstop shitty press and it doesnāt matter because there is nothing that can be uncovered about him that will matter.
citizen dave
@Betsy: Thanks for this information of the covid mortality/votes issue.Ā It puts it in perspective.Ā Law of large/small numbers–something like that, I guess.
marklar
@Another Scott: I’d like to see some stronger methodology. The study had two parts…the first was simply correlational (those reporting experiencing more bullying were more likely to hold conspiracy beliefs).Ā Ā The second used a manipulation that is questionable (i.e., “imagine yourself being bullied”) before assessing belief in conspiracy theories.
I’d have preferred to see some other manipulation…perhaps something along the lines of ‘cyberball’ (a virtual reality game where people toss around a ball, and then start excluding somebody; this procedure can easily be altered to include an element of bullying) or a procedure where people play an in=person game (e.g., Cards against Humanity) with some confederates who start teasing them (of course, getting that through an IRB might be a bit tough but doable if the intensity isn’t too strong and the debriefing is handled correctly).
Wanna give me a grant?
James E Powell
@Suzanne:
You make a good point.
cintibud
LOL, I’m a Dayton Flyer fan. Their primary color is red. I like red. However I had to buy new hats using the secondary blue color because of TFG.
catclub
@citizen dave:Ā ā
not enough total deaths and relatively small bias means this is a very small effect, i wish it were larger
catclub
@prostratedragon:Ā ā
our tiny tabby does this when the UPS truck stops at our house. … then hides under the bed.
Jackie
Lawrence OāDonnell (MSNBC) has a good show tonight. Winston Churchillās stroke while PM. FDRās health issues while in officeā¦ you see where heās going.
Leto
Florida vote by mail ballot rejection
TheTruffle
Well…WaPo has a Dems in Disarray piece. I cancelled my subscription. Screw this.
I thought Fetty was pretty well-liked in PA.
Anne Laurie
Knew someone who showed up for Halloween in a brown leotard & leggings, with a headband of construction-paper ‘leaves’, and told anyone who asked she was a TREE.
Matt McIrvin
@marklar: It did occur to me that a correlation might go in the other direction: people who are really into conspiracies might present as socially weird in ways that invite bullying from the kind of people who will harass anyone who’s visibly different.
Could go both ways too. Cults often make their adherents do embarrassing, confrontational things as a control measure: the hostility they provoke from outsiders works to convince the members that the world is bad and the cult is their only refuge. Something similar could be happening on an individual basis–a vicious cycle.
Kayla Rudbek
@Matt McIrvin: Iād be interested to see similar studies examining home or school bullying, and authoritarian religion as well. I would bet an expensive dinner that there would be correlations to belief in conspiracy theories (heck, I would argue that authoritarian religion is a conspiracy theory)
Matt McIrvin
@Kayla Rudbek: I am pretty sure that my having been bullied frequently as a kid contributed, not to a belief in conspiracy theories, but to a persistent gut feeling that sooner or later the mob is coming for me.