Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

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

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

He really is that stupid.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Our Media ‘Betters’ Open Thread

Our Media ‘Betters’ Open Thread

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But why doesn’t the White House take us SERIOUSLY?!?


Wikipedia:

The Skimm (styled theSkimm) is an American media company, founded in 2012 by Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, providing a subscription-only newsletter. The newsletter is a digest of news stories intended to be simple and easy to read…

In the fall of 2016, theSkimm interviewed 12 of the major candidates for U.S. President and registered 110,000 people to vote in the 2016 election…

In October 2018, theSkimm announced that they have over 7 million subscribers…

Yes, but can *they* get multiple, one-on-one interviews with TFG?…

Well, we’ll show *him*!…

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  2. 2.

    Suzanne

    Everyone here dunks on Maggie Haberman a lot, and for good reason, but Ross Douthat is the one that just fills me with burning hot lava rage.

  4. 4.

    Dangerman

    I haven’t heard a really good Fuck ‘em lately.

    So, for the Bettors (intentionally spelled, as they seem to have an interest in the outcome), FUCK ‘EM.

    /efg

  7. 7.

    bbleh

    They’re courtiers, and they’re no less shallow, venal, hypocritical, bootlicking, or bewilderingly self-satisfied than courtiers of any other era.

    The OTHER people at TNYT and WaPo actually seem to be doing pretty good work these days.  I consider my subscription worthwhile for that.  There’s no denying that the international coverage of TNYT is good.

    But the political coverage is as broken as half (a particular half) of the system it covers.  About all they’re good for is the occasional juicy tidbit, and even that has to be taken with a shaker of salt because it more likely than not has multiple agendas behind it.

  10. 10.

    TaMara

    For those still stressing about the polls, here’s an interesting segment on Joy Reid (it may have already been posted, but I’ve been busy and may have missed it.)

  13. 13.

    dexwood

    Biden will always be damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Our media is fucked. He is doing a great job. Biden will be in my town tomorrow. I received a generic invitation to attend. Wish i could, but the care of 94 year old parents comes first.

  14. 14.

    cain

    @TaMara: The beltway has always been suckers for GOP propaganda – their higher ups all are ready to listen to these clowns.

    They should realize that if we sink into political violence, it won’t be the left wingers you’re going to have to worry about.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    @cain: Every time I read one of his pieces (I know I should stop), I just want to spit at his smug, ugly, self-righteous, self-important mug. He sucks.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    Guys:  click on Peter Baker’s story about Biden’s speech tonight.  You might, might get a survey from the NY Times on their political reporting.  I kid you not.  A lot of questions about trust and bias.  I let them have it.

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/02/us/elections-midterms

    Interesting to me they are surveying that.  They have also cut off reader comments on the political stories; they monitored comments before, so it’s not just that they were trying to skip obvious trolls and sewage.

  22. 22.

    Jackie

    All polls are worthless. Ignore them and GOTV. Next Tues and beyond are the polls that matter. I’m sensing loud panicked screeching from the GQP as Nov 8 gets closer – which gives me hope.

  23. 23.

    Tony G

    @Suzanne: Ross Douthat is one of the worst human beings on the planet.  The fact that the New York Times has been paying him to write his theocratic drivel for more than 13 years is a good indication of how worthless that newspaper has become.

  24. 24.

    Anoniminous

    @WereBear: ​

    Some people see women as human beings.

    Other people say they are chattel that need to be kept barefoot and pregnant.

    So opinions differ and it’s impossible to say, really.

  25. 25.

    Al Rennick

    @Martin:

    @HinTN:

    The N.Y. Times is performing an important public service by documenting Biden’s ongoing mental decline and you’re both in deep denial.

    The BJ community needs to stop the nonsense of pretending that there’s nothing to see here.  Biden’s mental acuity is eroding right in front of you.  Wake up and accept this inconvenient truth.

    After Election Day, Barack and Michelle Obama, Pelosi, and Schumer need to hold an intervention and convince Joe not to seek re-election.

    # Where’s Jackie Walorski?

  29. 29.

    eachother

    Because elections are so awful, rigged, fraudulent and messed up, republicans should not vote.  Stand down and stay home.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @cain:  I just wish I could turn him into a sunflower.

    I’m trying to decide — is this a euphemism for burying his corpse in a field? I seem to recall something similar from the Ukrainians, earlier this year.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    @Princess:  I have never seen anybody get as much pushback as Will in the WaPost reader comments today.  LOL.  They are clear eyed about who should actually retire.

  38. 38.

    cain

    @Ken:

    I’m trying to decide — is this a euphemism for burying his corpse in a field? I seem to recall something similar from the Ukrainians, earlier this year.

    Nope, I just want to turn him into a plant – generally a bright sunny happy plant. I’d like to do that with D’Souza as well.

  39. 39.

    cain

    @Tony G: Does the guy actually generate any kind of sum for them? Who the fuck reads that guy – it’s not MAGA that’s for sure. They are too busy having starbursts looking at DeSantis while drawing “election was stolen” in green crayon.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @Princess: As I recall, George Will was the one who counted the use of “I” in various speeches, and concluded that Obama was a narcissist.

    That was one of my data points for my pet theory: It’s not that every accusation is a confession. It’s that the Republican party is cursed, and every accusation immediately becomes true, except of a Republican and amplified a thousand-fold.

  41. 41.

    RaflW

    Woman who sat on important facts about fpotus for an extended period to be able to juice her book sales has feels about how the current president does his press avails. Huh.

  43. 43.

    Narya

    I refuse to read anything that Mags writes. Meanwhile my Phillies are dealing w a pitcher taking a no hitter into the 8th.

  44. 44.

    gwangung

    @TaMara: Since at least 2016, polls have gotten AT LEAST one major thing wrong about their elections.

    They’re going to be majorly wrong on one thing this election. We’ll find out what it is on Tuesday.

  46. 46.

    cain

    @gwangung: Can’t wait for their fucking post analysis – which will just move on to “they may have won this, but there are still so many challenges that Dems are failing at.”

  47. 47.

    piratedan

    @RaflW: you know, after TFG brought in all those “reputable” press folks (Jim Hoft, the dumbest man on the internet) and the proclivity of all of these reputable journos to sit on the crap that they observed in order to write and sell a book in lieu of actual reporting, I have no problem with Handsome Joe sending the message that if you’re just gonna report whatever you”re gonna report with whatever frame they’ve already chosen, why bother.

    TFG never felt compelled to make his case on MSNBC and since the NYT has already made their position known with how they’ve skewed their reporting (I don’t have a problem with fair, I do have an issue selective narratives), why should Joe cater to them?

    If the NYT wants to figure out why their influence is declining, they need to examine how their reporters have been inserting their biases into their reporting and their editors in what they consider not only to be news, but in how the job is done, if not what the job is in itself.

  50. 50.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Al Rennick: The N.Y. Times is performing an important public service by documenting Biden’s ongoing mental decline and you’re both in deep denial.

    So you’ve never really watched Joe Biden give a policy speech have you. Gripping stuff. The man is truly a creature of the Senate. His deliberate style frustrated me at first but I think I’ve seen a lot of it pay off over time.

    But when he’s up there gabbing he’s all in his details. The speeches are stilted. Check out a press conference or be patient for a less scripted moment in a debate.

  51. 51.

    Kropacetic

    Hello to all blog lords. I’m trying on a new nym and have some comments in moderation. I’d be much obliged for some assistance

    The moderation notice disappeared. They may have been deep sixed.

  52. 52.

    Shalimar

    @Al Rennick: Joe Biden was making public gaffes 50 years ago.  It is part of who he is.  There isn’t an ongoing decline.  He actually doesn’t seem as bad as he was in the early ’90s, but that is probably just having a huge comms team to help him.

  54. 54.

    Ken

    Molly White’s blog reports that an Australian bitcoin mining firm is close to bankruptcy. They borrowed over a hundred million dollars to buy mining computers, but those bring in only about two million dollars a month, less than their loan payments of seven million a month.

    My first though was “what sort of financial idiot borrows huge amounts of money to buy something, not realizing that it won’t even have enough income to cover the loan payments?” Then I remembered a similar recent deal.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    Where is this being broadcast? Certainly not on any non-cable standard network. I’m looking for it on @NBCNews @ABC @CBSNews and @NewsHour and see nothing. It’s an absolute abdication of the media’s civic purpose.

    The media has rarely recognized any civic purpose and has become totally overcome by their cynicism. I think sometimes that the media is split between those who refuse to believe that our democracy could ever fall, and those who welcome autocracy.

    Maggie Haberman@maggieNYT

    The sitting president hasn’t given an interview to any of the three major news outlets, but his office did submit answers to questions from the Skimm

    This just makes me love Biden more and more. I continue to be disgusted by Haberman’s recent Stenographer’s Tale book tour. No one I saw ever asked her about the conflict of interest in “reporting” on Trump while hoarding nuggets for her book.

    Anyway, traditional media is running on fumes. It is sad to see Haberman acknowledge reality, that there are only three newspapers in the US that matter anymore, presumably the NY Times, WaPo and the WSJ. But fewer and fewer people turn to them for news. OTOH, I have never heard of Skimm before.

  56. 56.

    CaseyL

    My opinion of the MSM has trended downward since Bill Clinton’s Presidency, when they ran with every boneheaded RW story they could; plummeted during W’s stretch (starting before it began, in fact, when Jeff Greenfield, who I had once respected, celebrated SCOTUS stealing the election for W by saying At least there aren’t any tanks in the streets); and went subterranean during Clickbait’s reign of terror.  I still subscribe to WaPo online, but otherwise get my news from a vast selection of outlets.  (Except local news, which we still have in Seattle, after a fashion.)

    If young people are way ahead in finding better, more intelligent and credible news sources, good for them.

  57. 57.

    Splitting Image

    @Ken:

    My first though was “what sort of financial idiot borrows huge amounts of money to buy something, not realizing that it won’t even have enough income to cover the loan payments?” Then I remembered a similar recent deal.

    The same sort of idiot who would lend someone like that the money, knowing that the borrower is going in over his head.

  58. 58.

    JaySinWA

    I was in a hospital waiting room during my wife’s hip replacement. They had KOMO Seattle on IIRC and they carried at least some of this live. I wasn’t focused on it but it was a local station with the president on live.

    My wife’s hip replacement went well BTW

    ETA KOMO hyped the “Is Seattle dying” narrative

    ETA 2 they also had a bunch of law and disorder fear mongering on the news.

  59. 59.

    Kathleen

    I heard Joe Biden on the Ricky Smiley Morning Show yesterday. I’ve also heard Kamala Harris and other government officials on that program. The interviewers are well prepared and ask thoughtful, substantive questions unlike most of the Mainslime Media. Good for Biden and Harris for taking their case straight to the people on outlets that promote enlightenment  and not “gotcha”.

  60. 60.

    J R in WV

    I agree with Cole, I know women are pissed, their partners are pissed, and more of them will be voting for what matters to them.  I will be shocked if this election is not a blue wave, with the Democrats taking the Senate and increasing their margins in the House.

    Then we get to see the MSM attempt to explain their distorted pro-Republican slant over the past 2 years!! That show will be hilarious for weeks!

  61. 61.

    SeattleDem

    @JaySinWA: KOMO is owned by Sinclair Media, so the fear segments are probably national distribution add-ons that are required by the owners. Those propaganda segments are a big reason I stopped watching KOMO.

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