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You are here: Home / Politics / We Are Running Out of Saviors, dammit!

We Are Running Out of Saviors, dammit!

by WaterGirl|  March 28, 20241:50 pm| 179 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics

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The courts won’t save us, and neither will corporate media.  We are running out of saviors, dammit!

Politics is information warfare, and too many Democrats are content to outsource our messaging to the folks who think Ronna McDaniel is worth hiring.

I was struck by that comment from Dan Pfeiffer – who is arguably the smartest of the Obama Bros – in his latest article:

On one level, who cares that much about how NBC News wants to spend $300,000 a year? They are a big network owned by an even bigger mega-corporation. The line items for pastries in the green room is likely larger than McDaniel’s salary.

The whole Ronna fiasco shows that people who call the shots in the media aren’t coping with the reality of covering Donald Trump and an extremist movement prone to violence.

What was NBC thinking? Did they believe that someone publicly defenestrated by Trump possessed special insight into his campaign and possible future White House? Did they hope paying McDaniel would buy them credibility with Republican viewers or politicians? Maybe they thought McDaniel had some special insight or talent never previously demonstrated in countless media appearances.

They didn’t think it all. NBC hired McDaniel because that’s what they have always done.

.

NBC — and most of the press — have yet to accept the reality that this is not a normal election between a Republican and a Democrat. Donald Trump and his enablers represent an extraordinary threat to democracy.

This industry, which prizes objectivity above all else, is incapable of accurately covering an election where one candidate is a normal politician and the other is a dishonest, corrupt insurrectionist.

To accurately portray events would make the press out to be biased and they would rather stumble into autocracy than take a side.

At the end of the day, traditional media outlets are line items in the P&L sheets of larger corporations. Despite the democracy-saving work done by many journalists in often dangerous situations, their bosses are only judged on whether they make money for a parent company.

.

Politics is information warfare, and too many Democrats are content to outsource our messaging to the folks who think Ronna McDaniel is worth hiring.

Mainstream media can make us crazy because we think they should care about Democracy.  The days of the media being the fourth leg of the stool – the one that allowed the rest of the system to work – are long gone.  Now it’s about making money and promoting the party line, and unfortunately for all of us, the mainstream media people consider them part of the elites.

Funny thing, though, the actual elites know that they are not.  They are simply pawns.

What alternative media do you guys go to now that old media has lost its way?  Talking Points Memo is the only one I support with my dollars.  How about you guys?  What sources do you think are worth paying for?  Other good sources that are free?

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    179Comments

    1. 1.

      Baud

      March 28, 2024 at 1:52 pm

      You still got me.

      Reply
    2. 2.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 1:53 pm

      @Baud: No one takes Baud for granted!

      Reply
    3. 3.

      Baud

      March 28, 2024 at 1:57 pm

      @WaterGirl:

      How I wish that were true.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      trollhattan

      March 28, 2024 at 1:57 pm

      Tony Jay will rightly laff but my first source for international and by extension, domestic US news is BBC. They retain the ability and resources for deep-dive journalism, have resources embedded literally around the globe, but also show Tory handprints, very noticeable in their lack of nuance covering and understanding of US politics.

      I’ve shed broadcast network news, local broadcast news, cable news as flawed, shallow, literal propaganda mills (pick 2). Local news”paper” we subscribe but mostly for gleaning restaurant openings and such. Their news staff seems like three people with iphones.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 1:59 pm

      @Baud: Well, no one on BJ.  I can’t speak for to life outside BJ. :-)

      Reply
    6. 6.

      H.E.Wolf

      March 28, 2024 at 2:01 pm

       WaterGirl: What alternative media do you guys go to

      Electoral Vote blog. 1 multi-topic post every morning. Mon-Fri news, Sat Q&A, Sun mailbag.

      2 writers: V and Z, who write on different days during the week and share the weekend duties. V is older and a bit more pessimistic. I prefer Z (the historian). However, overall they both refrain from freaking out about current political news, which I appreciate.

      https://electoral-vote.com/ – current day’s post is at the top of the page.

      https://electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Info/welcome.html – general information about the blog.

      https://electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Info/votemaster-faq.html – biographical info about V and Z.

      Reply
    7. 7.

      TBone

      March 28, 2024 at 2:01 pm

      Heather Cox Richardson is in my inbox every morning, she always covers what’s important and gives context and historical perspective.  I feel like I’ll never miss anything important in the news dept.  (But of course I go all over the map after that, reading lots of different sources and opinions.). Heather Digby Parton & friends at Hullabaloo is good too.

      For instance, I didn’t know this:

      Grenell’s globe-trotting has sparked deep concern among career national security officials and diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and jeopardizes U.S. interests in service of Trump’s personal agenda. In the process, Grenell is openly charting a foreign policy road map for a Republican presidential nominee who has found common cause with authoritarian leaders and threatened to blow up partnerships with democratic allies.

      https://digbysblog.net/2024/03/28/the-shadow-presidency/
      “I don’t know what laws can be deployed to stop this unprecedented behavior but you would think there would be something you could do about a person who had a top security clearance as the Director of National Intelligence running around the world in opposition to the elected US Government. If there isn’t, there should be.
      This person will be hugely important in a new Trump administration. Just think of it.”
      – Digby

      Reply
    8. 8.

      Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

      March 28, 2024 at 2:03 pm

      I do a combo of things in the Anglosphere – the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, CBC, BBC, Sky.  Haaretz can be helpful.  Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and LA Times can do good work, too.  Depending on topic, I find Jen Rubin to be a decent weathervane, and I mostly like the curmudgeonly takes of Tom Nichols and Rick Wilson. Even Joe Walsh has some useful stuff.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      H.E.Wolf

      March 28, 2024 at 2:03 pm

      Every now and then I check the Wake Up To Politics blog, written by a college student who has been doing daily political round-ups since his early teens.

      https://www.wakeuptopolitics.com/
      https://www.wakeuptopolitics.com/about/

      Reply
    10. 10.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:03 pm

      @TBone: Paid or not paid?

      Reply
    11. 11.

      The Golux

      March 28, 2024 at 2:07 pm

      The problem that the failed NBC hire demonstrates is that the mainstream media is bending over backwards to appeal to people who don’t agree with reality, instead of simply telling the goddam truth.  They can’t do that, because the truth deters readers they believe they need.

      As a wise man frequently said – fuckem.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      TBone

      March 28, 2024 at 2:08 pm

      @WaterGirl: free !

      Reply
    13. 13.

      frosty

      March 28, 2024 at 2:13 pm

      Besides this site I send money to TPM and Wonkette. Ms F has a subscription to WaPo and the York Dispatch. I have a trial subscription to the Baltimore Banner – a non-profit for local news that started when the Baltimore Sun went south after the Tribune (and now a hedge funder) bought them.

      Most of my news comes from B-J thanks to the excellent links from Anne Laurie, Betty Cracker, and you, WG. I don’t feel like I’m missing much.

      ETA I forgot the Guardian/Grauniad/FTFGuardian (h/t Tony Jay)​
      ETA2: The inbox. Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, James Fallows​

      Reply
    14. 14.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:14 pm

      @The Golux: I’m not sure they see us as readers or watchers, as people who count on them for facts.

      SUBSCRIBERS

      Just dollars to them.  That they didn’t see the problem with this hire says everything.  they have no problem with disinformation, as long as it brings them eyeballs.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Chris

      March 28, 2024 at 2:14 pm

      To me, the biggest problem with the mainstream media remains the fact that people think it’s liberal.

      None of the crap about Biden’s Age or Hillary’s Emailz would’ve made all that much of a dent if it was just Fox News pushing it – people, even conservatives to some extent, expect that from Fox News and think “well, they’re going to say it’s true whether or not it is.”  The fact that whatever the right-wing crisis of the day is, outlets like the New York Times or NPR will instantly pick them up and run with them is a much bigger problem, because people see that and think “OMG, EvenTheLiberal media thinks it’s a problem!  It must be true if even they’re talking about it!”

      And I have no idea what it’s going to take to break that, especially if something as blatant as 2016 didn’t.

      Reply
    16. 16.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:15 pm

      @frosty: Yeah, I have thought about donating to Wonkette, a voice I appreciate, but haven’t done it yet.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      ewrunning

      March 28, 2024 at 2:16 pm

      Digby’s Hullabaloo is good (and free). Steve M’s No More Mister Nice Blog is free, but getting to be a bit of a depressing read, since he seems convinced Biden will lose. I read Daily Kos’s abbreviated pundit round up. I pay to read TPM, Charlie Pierce at Esquire and New York magazine’s Daily Intelligencer. I check Memorandum for breaking news and to keep up with what’s going on in the hive mind.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      brendancalling

      March 28, 2024 at 2:16 pm

      Saviors don’t exist.

      Reply
    19. 19.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:17 pm

      @Chris:

      And I have no idea what it’s going to take to break that, especially if something as blatant as 2016 didn’t.

      I don’t know either.  Even the big red wave that didn’t happen didn’t disabuse them of their bullshit.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      catclub

      March 28, 2024 at 2:18 pm

      This industry, which prizes [the appearance of] objectivity above all else, is incapable of accurately covering an election

      FTFY

      Reply
    21. 21.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:18 pm

      @brendancalling: The title should have  been “we have run out of saviors, or at least the illusion that there are saviors.”

      Reply
    22. 22.

      ewrunning

      March 28, 2024 at 2:19 pm

      I forgot one more. The Maddowblog that Steve Benen does. It’s free, covers most political news on weekdays, though he has a few tics that get a bit repetitious.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:20 pm

      @catclub: I suppose this would be too much?

      This industry, which prizes THE APPEARANCE OF objectivity above all else, is incapable of accurately covering an election

      Reply
    24. 24.

      frosty

      March 28, 2024 at 2:20 pm

      @WaterGirl: Re: Wonkette. My donations haven’t put a dent in Editrix’s money blegs yet LOL.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      Telsiree

      March 28, 2024 at 2:20 pm

      Judd Legum. Aaron Rupar. Radley Balko. Parker Molloy. Erin Haines. And of course, Greg Sargent.

      These are my main sources of information these days, and I try to support them as much as I can.

      RIP Eric Boehlert, your voice is sorely missed these days.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      Marcopolo

      March 28, 2024 at 2:21 pm

      So, yeah, a lot (maybe all) of the corporate news media is shitty as hell because they are more interested in $$ than in accurately informing their viewers. I’ve actually half come around to the idea this is a two way street: they are bad because they are chasing clicks/eyeballs BUT they know what their audience wants! What we want is to be entertained, not educated.  So they serve it up.  It’s the Pogo “We have met the enemy & the enemy is us” moment.

      But to answer your question.  I am a TPM subscriber.  I also subscribe to the Atlantic, but they have their shitty moments on occasion.  I look at DailyKos but there’s much less worthwhile stuff there than there used to be—not sure why.  DRVolts does good coverage of energy issues.  I think Taniel does pretty good election coverage (lots of local race info) work at his place.  Mostly what I do, though, is I find intelligent critical folks (not necessarily reporters) who are already swimming around in the information ocean and I see what they are seeing. A lot of this involved figuring out work around to view shitter posts (am not and will not ever create an account there, lol, so it can be a challenge) but Josh Marshall & Tom Nichols & Mueller, She Wrote & Elie Mystal & some other folks still post good stuff there.  Hell I do look at Yglesias (don’t always agree w/ him but he is curious about so many issues (and he’s good at links) he often leads me to good reporting on them.  I check out Popehat & Nycsouthpaw on Bsky. Also on shitter I look at Aaron Frischner (congressional staffer) for his takes on Congress.  A guy named Conor Sen for Econ takes.

      So in a nutshell over the years I’ve IDed folks i view as trusted sources & let them do the “hard” work of sifting info wheat from chaff. It’s very idiosyncratic & probably wouldn’t work for most folks.

      Last but not least, my fellow posters here often share good stories & info!  Thanks all y’all.  Pretty much the only way I read articles, though I do read a lot—not a podcast person at all— is through someone else reading them first & posting a link.

      Reply
    27. 27.

      cain

      March 28, 2024 at 2:21 pm

      Propublica – of which Clarence Thomas is most unhappy with. The investigative journalism they have been doing is invaluable.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:21 pm

      @ewrunning:

      Oh, I gave up on the Maddowblog after Steve moved over there.  I could never find it.  

      Reply
    29. 29.

      frosty

      March 28, 2024 at 2:22 pm

      @Telsiree: I’d like to follow Greg Sargent but I don’t do podcasts. Just write it down!!!

      Reply
    30. 30.

      TxTiger

      March 28, 2024 at 2:23 pm

      I support (financially) the following news sources:

      • Talking Point Memo
      • ProPublica
      • Texas Tribune
      • The 19th – https://19thnews.org/, independent reporting on gender and politics
      • Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson
      • Lucid, by Ruth Ben Ghiat
      • Popular Information by Judd Legum
      • Citation Needed by Molly White
      • Balloon-Juice
      • Hullaballoo by digby
      • Various podcasts from MSW Media including Daily Beans/Jack and Aisle45
      • NYTimes & Washington Post and my local paper as well as the local free independent paper

      And probably others! After reading On Tyranny, I decided that it matters to support news sources that report the truth and I needed to do that as much of that as I could. Mostly $5/month or the minimum annual buy in, but after ProPublica came out with the Clarence Thomas exposes, I bumped them to $15/month. I pay for TPM’s Prime AF level because they are that good.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      Chris

      March 28, 2024 at 2:23 pm

      @trollhattan:

      I’ve shed broadcast network news, local broadcast news, cable news as flawed, shallow, literal propaganda mills (pick 2). Local news”paper” we subscribe but mostly for gleaning restaurant openings and such. Their news staff seems like three people with iphones.

      This is actually the worst development in terms of media and politics, because it’s made it so goddamn hard to follow local politics.  I mean, have you tried even just googling your candidates at election time?  It’s fucking ridiculous!  At least a third of them have literally nothing about them anywhere.  No wonder the more local the election is, the lower the turnout.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      Marcopolo

      March 28, 2024 at 2:24 pm

      @TBone: Oops forgot about HCR.  She’s great!

      Also propublica.  Some great comments here.

      For MO state news, The Missouri Independent.  My local NPR station is the best place for local news (yes, Ira Glass, I am a paying member).

      Reply
    33. 33.

      cain

      March 28, 2024 at 2:24 pm

      @The Golux:

      Remember this is about the bottom line and also journalist celebrityship – so the people most willing to spend dollars that pay the bottom line are older conservatives. Fox News makes money because their viewers are zombies and have it on 24/7. CNN and MSNBC want those kinds of people as it is great for their bottom line.

      So if you get a Ronna McDaniel – maybe some of those people will tune in.

      Liberal viewers tend to be younger and don’t watch the telly that much.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      hrprogressive

      March 28, 2024 at 2:25 pm

      Even the above take is way too generous to the corporate media.

      I need people like Dan to understand, realize, and elucidate out loud, and with frequency that it is not just “a failure” of the media to cover the Fascist Threat to the Republic.

      The media actively wishes to help usher in the Fascist Trump Reich and the destruction of the Republic because they believe it would benefit them.

      That’s the entire point.

      This isn’t about both sides nonsense. The Coup is coming from all sides.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      catclub

      March 28, 2024 at 2:25 pm

      @Chris: agreed.

       

      Can someone help me with the name of the news aggregator who was ‘ the MSM’s assignment editor’

      All I can remember was that he wore a fedora.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      MattF

      March 28, 2024 at 2:26 pm

      @frosty: Transcripts are a recent new feature of the Apple podcast app, so you can skip over the dumb stuff.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      catclub

      March 28, 2024 at 2:27 pm

      @WaterGirl: Thanks!  Better.

      Reply
    38. 38.

      Steve in the ATL

      March 28, 2024 at 2:27 pm

      @catclub: ​
       Matt Drudge?

      Reply
    39. 39.

      gene108

      March 28, 2024 at 2:29 pm

      @WaterGirl:

      That they didn’t see the problem with this hire says everything. they have no problem with disinformation, as long as it brings them eyeballs.

      Eyeballs and access to Trump and Republicans, in general.

      I’ve decided the national DC political media are gossip columnists focused on politicians, instead of Hollywood celebrities. Their coverage of politics is “what’s trending” by conducting polls, versus celebrity gossip that’ll look at TikTok views for a viral video to cover or see what actresses wear to awards ceremonies.

      There’s the whole “who’s up, who’s down” regarding horse race coverage of anything in DC, like a politicians popularity in their party, whether a bill can or cannot pass, etc. Celebrity gossip pretty much does this with their “who’s hot, who’s not” segments.

      Explaining things clearly to people not in the DC politics fandom isn’t what they do.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Jackie

      March 28, 2024 at 2:29 pm

      The Hunger games between NBC and MSNBC executives re Ronna McDaniel is entertaining. Who’s head(s) are gonna roll?

      https://www.rawstory.com/hunger-games-at-nbc-news-new-mcdaniel-revelations-have-enraged-staffers-report-says/

      Meanwhile all is quiet on MSNBC programs: I don’t think anyone has mentioned McDaniel’s name since Tues? They all raised hell, made their displeasure loudly heard, and won.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      Zzyzx

      March 28, 2024 at 2:29 pm

      The Israeli Supreme Court did come through today.

      This is a bit inside baseball but this decision no longer lets the ultra orthodox push for wars but not have to fight in them and it could break up Netanyahu’s collation.

      https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/ignoring-pms-extension-request-ag-tells-high-court-haredi-draft-should-start-monday/

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Ruckus

      March 28, 2024 at 2:30 pm

      @trollhattan:

      I use selected bits of the internet. I don’t even get broadcast TV. When I first moved where I live now there is line of site with the broadcast towers in the San Gabriel mountains so I bought one of those wall mounted antennas. (Live in an apartment so no roof antenna) I took it down and threw it away the second day because it wasn’t worth the cost to watch commercial TV. The antenna cost just less than $10. Might be considered the worst $10 I’ve ever spent.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      catclub

      March 28, 2024 at 2:30 pm

      @Steve in the ATL: Yes! Thanks.

      The drudge report of conservative catnip.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:30 pm

      @gene108: They have lost the plot. They are no longer even aware of the role they are supposed to play.

      Access and eyeballs, that all the care about.  Truth?  Whats that?

      Reply
    45. 45.

      glc

      March 28, 2024 at 2:31 pm

      Reference

      Reply
    46. 46.

      Urza

      March 28, 2024 at 2:32 pm

      The cultists are not just a threat to democracy this year.  Regardless of the number of losses they endure there are now enough of them to form a new Lost Cause stream in American politics.  Like Goldwater and the LaRouchies.  The fascists that planned to take down FDR.  Their ideology is laughed at and thought defeated but keeps coming back and growing despite all sensibility.  They will be a problem for democracy for at least as long as anyone here is alive, making every election just as important as this one.  And since many of them or their enablers own primary news sources they can keep spreading.

      Reply
    47. 47.

      Chris

      March 28, 2024 at 2:32 pm

      @gene108:

      “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people.”

      Reply
    48. 48.

      catclub

      March 28, 2024 at 2:33 pm

      @Zzyzx: draft-should-start-monday/

       

      Monday! wow. First day of Passover.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      Kathleen

      March 28, 2024 at 2:36 pm

      @WaterGirl: Or puts Baud in a corner. ETA Can’t believe I agree with an OBro. He’s absolutely right about our unrealistic expectations of Mainslime Media.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:36 pm

      @Zzyzx: Whoa!  Starting on Monday?  Like in 4 days?

      Impressive.  I wonder how many cases of bone spurs there will be?

      Reply
    51. 51.

      Zzyzx

      March 28, 2024 at 2:36 pm

      @catclub: Passover is next month.

      It’s a leap month year so it’s separated from Easter.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:37 pm

      @Kathleen: :-)

      Reply
    53. 53.

      ewrunning

      March 28, 2024 at 2:37 pm

      @WaterGirl: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog

      Reply
    54. 54.

      Old School

      March 28, 2024 at 2:38 pm

      @WaterGirl:

      Oh, I gave up on the Maddowblog after Steve moved over there.  I could never find it.  Do you have a link?

      MaddowBlog

      Reply
    55. 55.

      Zzyzx

      March 28, 2024 at 2:39 pm

      OK it’s the AG not the SC, but – if I understand correctly – it opened because the court refused to allow an extension to the hearing.

      I’m not going to pretend to be a complete expert here but this could be huge.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      ewrunning

      March 28, 2024 at 2:40 pm

      @gene108: This is the mentality of the “villagers” who worship at the altars of the late David Broder and Cokie Roberts.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:42 pm

      @ewrunning: @Old School:

      Thank you.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Kathleen

      March 28, 2024 at 2:43 pm

      @TBone: You’re right. Professor Cox Richardson’s painstaking parsing is a reminder that media do produce newsworthy information but she does the heavy lifting by researching, aggregating,  analyzing and providing context from both the past and the present. She’s an invaluable resource.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 2:45 pm

      @Zzyzx: I would think so!

      Put your money where your mouth is.

      Put your BODY into harms way, where your mouth is [for other people!]

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Spanky

      March 28, 2024 at 2:46 pm

      We have met our savior, and he is us.

      Vote. Get others out to vote. Do what you can to demoralize MAGAs. Left you local Dems running for office know they appreciated and supported.

      Remember Obama’s “Fired up! Ready to go!” story?

      Reply
    61. 61.

      zhena gogolia

      March 28, 2024 at 2:51 pm

      Balloon Juice (Patreon), Aaron Rupar, Heather Cox Richardson, NYT, WaPo, Guardian, Atlantic, New Yorker.

      Of these, the only one I actually read is Balloon Juice.

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Kathleen

      March 28, 2024 at 2:51 pm

      @Chris: Exactly. That’s why I believe the so called “liberal” media outlets are more toxic harmful than Fox or Sinclair. You know you’re getting right wing propaganda from them and their ilk. But when mainslime media just recycle and “both sides” it’s not right wing propaganda anymore.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Bill Arnold

      March 28, 2024 at 2:53 pm

      I go broad, using the news.google.com feed, with World, US, Science, and Health tabs left open in a browser.
      The auto-classified current news categories can be opened in their own tab, and sorted by date for finding the newest story in some category, e.g. right now, Russia vetoing North Korea sanctions monitors.
      Generally, there is a variety of sources in a category, include left, right, left/right nutcase, and from some other spectrum entirely. Exceptions include; India-related stories, and stories being pushed by RW USA propagandists. It includes paywalled sources, which is annoying, but usually some links work.
      Also, Reuters Fact Check is helpful, with several checks per day: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/
      (and https://www.factcheck.org/ is helpful, though not updated as often.)
      Plus a variety of other blogs/sources. Nothing Right Wing, though. Can’t be bothered(arsed) to fact check every other sentence.

      Reply
    64. 64.

      frosty

      March 28, 2024 at 2:54 pm

      @zhena gogolia: Of these, the only one I actually read is Balloon Juice.

      It was an impressive list though!

      Reply
    65. 65.

      Bard the Grim

      March 28, 2024 at 2:54 pm

      I subscribe or give money to:

      Washington Post

      ProPublica

      Mother Jones (surprised nobody’s mentioned them yet)

      Daily Kos (for their Ukraine coverage)

      A nearly top 10,000 blog run by a lovable curmudgeon

      Reply
    66. 66.

      O. Felix Culpa

      March 28, 2024 at 2:54 pm

      @Spanky: Exactly. Thank you.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      tomtofa

      March 28, 2024 at 2:58 pm

      Richardson has been mentioned a few times, rightly so because of her ability as an historian to put current events into perspective. Another newsletter I find valuable is Joyce Vance’s. She covers legal matters, especially the ongoing Trump trials.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      ewrunning

      March 28, 2024 at 3:02 pm

      Emptywheel (free) is also valuable, albeit extremely granular, on the various Trump and Hunter Biden legal cases. I particularly appreciate her persistence in pointing out the offenses of Barr and John Durham.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Sister Golden Bear

      March 28, 2024 at 3:03 pm

      Erin in the Morning for keeping up on the latest in Republican trans genocide.

      Joe.My.God is a good news aggregator — including what’s going on MAGA World, so you don’t have to follow the Republican wing nuts yourself — and has a good LBGTQ coverage

      I pay for TPM, and follow Digby’s (free) blog. Also follow various people on Bluesky and the hellsite (there’s trans folks who aren’t on Bluesky).

      Also Stonekettle’s (irregular) blog and on Bluesky.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      TBone

      March 28, 2024 at 3:04 pm

      @cain: that’s a good one!

      Reply
    71. 71.

      geg6

      March 28, 2024 at 3:05 pm

      TPM is almost the only one I pay for, but I read Salon even though they have some real doofuses writing there. But I now know who they are and just skip over their stuff. But Digby and Marcotte still write there and some of their entertainment and lifestyle stuff is good. I also still scroll through GOS, though I only read the stuff their paid staff write. The community stuff is just…well…amateurish, to be extremely generous. And I’ll catch Lawrence O every now and again on MSNBC. I don’t think he gives a shit if they fire him. I’m guessing he’s still raking in residuals from The West Wing that are enough to keep him until he dies. I still watch the local news pretty religiously and I keep it to the CBS owned channel as I like their weather people and sports desk (I went to high school with their main sports anchor). Oh, and I have an Apple News subscription, so I can read stuff that interests me in the major national media now and again, and I also still subscribe to Vanity Fair because I always have and I like a lot of their articles and, especially, their Hollywood coverage.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Almost Retired

      March 28, 2024 at 3:10 pm

      A shout out to my hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, which is quite good as MSM outlets go.  In particular, my favorite columnist, Michael Hiltzik, is always spot-on, extraordinarily insightful and not afraid of speaking the truth.  Also an engaging writer.  And many of the comics are in color!

      Reply
    73. 73.

      Sister Golden Bear

      March 28, 2024 at 3:12 pm

      Speaking of no saviors, the latest Stonekettle post is on point.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Frankensteinbeck

      March 28, 2024 at 3:13 pm

      @Zzyzx:

      Holy shit.

      For anyone not aware, this is seismic.  The ultra-orthodox have a privileged position in Israel that American evangelicals can only dream of.  Two of the biggest pillars of that privilege, which together mean that the Israeli government pays the ultra-orthodox to skip out on national service everybody else has to do, are gone at the end of this school term.

      This has been a gigantic source of tension in Israeli politics, and it just swung around the other way.  I don’t know what will happen, but this is big.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      trollhattan

      March 28, 2024 at 3:15 pm

      @WaterGirl:

      “I’m sorry to learn of your disability, how did it happen?”
      “I lost my shin chasing a West Bank Palestinian farmer off of my land.”
      “Your land?”
      “Bastard was growing olives on it.”
      .

      Reply
    76. 76.

      Hildebrand

      March 28, 2024 at 3:15 pm

      We pay for Defector, Dan Pfeiffer’s newsletter (he really is the best of the Obama bros), Balloon Juice, and WaPo (mainly out of habit – we started reading the Post when we lived in DC back in the early 90s – we’ve maintained some kind of subscription ever since.  We are going to bump our subscription status to paid for Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter – she does phenomenal work.

      For brilliant and caustic writing, read Marina Hyde’s columns at the Guardian.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Baud

      March 28, 2024 at 3:15 pm

      @Frankensteinbeck:

      How do you say “All we are saying is give peace a chance” in ancient Hebrew?

      Reply
    78. 78.

      Citizen Alan

      March 28, 2024 at 3:16 pm

      @Chris:  I was dumbstruck with delight when the Great State of California sent me a big thick booklet listing every candidate for office in my district in the recent primary, including their policy positions and links to their websites. So glad to be a functioning democracy instead of “Somalia for White Folks.”

      Reply
    79. 79.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 28, 2024 at 3:17 pm

      Currently supporting:

      TPM (I’m Prime AF)
      Mother Jones
      The American Prospect
      BoltsMag (that’s Taniel’s (aka Daniel Nichanian (sp?)*) joint, lots of good info about winnable local races)
      Ballotpedia

      *How many sets of parentheses can I embed inside one another? ;-)

      Reply
    80. 80.

      trollhattan

      March 28, 2024 at 3:17 pm

      @Frankensteinbeck: One wonders why (in addition to his own, ahem, legal issues) Bibi was so hellbent on his legislation defanging their courts?

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Bill Arnold

      March 28, 2024 at 3:17 pm

      @Zzyzx:
      Here’s one found in a quick search:
      Israel’s High Court endorses IDF haredi draft, calls to freeze yeshiva funding (YONAH JEREMY BOB, ELIAV BREUER, MARCH 28, 2024)

      Reply
    82. 82.

      TBone

      March 28, 2024 at 3:18 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear: I dig Stonekettle too, thanks for the link. I read at that link but he’s not posting as much lately.

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Martin

      March 28, 2024 at 3:18 pm

      So, here is my philosophy of institutions.

      Institutions do not care about people. That’s not their job, and assigning that to them leads to a lot of disappointment. Institutions are a mechanism for organizing people to solve problems that we cannot solve individually (this can be government or businesses). You still rely on the people in that institution to care about people, because that’s the real source of it.

      You design institutions to do a given job. If you’re a business, that job is to make money – in the short term/in the long term. If you’re a government, that job (should be) to serve the voters. Sometimes that job is to consolidate power. Sometimes it’s to make money for yourself (graft).

      Remember: ‘‘Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets’

      If the system gets corruption, it was designed to get corruption. Someone did that. Someone made it that way. Democrats like to believe that government institutions have neutral designs. It’s a different kind of hagiography for the founders that liberals tend to believe that the constitution is this divine machine that will always spit out neutral results if only people stop fucking with it, when the only reason it spits out neutral results is because people within and without the institution demand that it do so. USSC is not departing from what the Supreme Court is supposed to do with decisions like Dobbs, because the only thing it really ever can do is a be a vehicle for the judgement of its members to inform lesser courts how to act. Its members are how the machine works.

      What then matters with the design of the institution is how you identify the right people to work within it and how the institution gives them agency to do good work. This is a double-edged sword because that same agency usually allows bad work to be done as well – with the difference being found in who you invite into the institution. So how you qualify people for the job is incredibly important. If the qualification is you must be a white male lawyer, well, you’re going to get a very specific set of outcomes. if the qualification is the you represent a different part of society and have experience in public facing, ideally hands-on policy, you’ll get a very different set of outcomes. In the end we’re responsible for that, not just in how we individually vote, but in how we culturally shape who is qualified. If ‘government should be run like a business’, that will shape how people select. If ‘government needs to support the needs of the people’, that will shape it very differently. Democrats are very shy about expressing their theory of qualification. They need to unlearn that. It’s most of the game here. Democrats also need to get real about how to wield institutions and stop pretending that they will naturally, of their own accord, revert to some mean of civility. That only ever happens when the people in the institution agree to do that. If half of them don’t agree, the other half need to respond to that, and stop pretending that they do agree. This is the lesson of ‘tire rims and anthrax’. Not everything can be negotiated. Some things need to be coerced (and there are good and bad ways to coerce an outcome).

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Ruckus

      March 28, 2024 at 3:20 pm

      Folks, there maybe a smallish problem.

      The population of LA County and CA in general is growing faster than anyone is making new humans. I’m not sure that it isn’t people giving where they lived the finger and moving on. The population of LA county is larger than 40 states and growing at what might be considered rather fast. If I’m correct – and I have zero knowledge if I am or am not, some of those states may get what they seem to want, a more unified and paler population than in the past. If my suspicions have any truth to them this could make this a less united group of states. Others have been sounding alarms of this for a bit, I’m just wondering what others think and wondering if there is anything that might change this path if I’m actually correct. Which of course I’ve never been before so……

      My actual point is that if this has any truth to it, what if anything can be done, because I’m not sure that the state of CA is capable of housing/feeding/etc half the current population of the US. And I’m betting that half the US population doesn’t actually want to live here because I’ve been to 46 of the states, lived in a few of them for at least a while and most of them are actually pretty nice.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      HumboldtBlue

      March 28, 2024 at 3:21 pm

      @trollhattan: ​ 

      That’s by design, hedge fund money men went throughout the state buying up every small newspaper including here on the North Coast and then proceeded to milk them for every dollar they can squeeze all the while cutting staff and services until you are literally left with three people and the iPhones doing the news.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      geg6

      March 28, 2024 at 3:22 pm

      @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: ​
       
      I forgot about Jen Rubin. I get her newsletter.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      Pennsylvanian

      March 28, 2024 at 3:22 pm

      Cute tiger triplets in St. Louis:

      https://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/the-saint-louis-zoos-new-tiger-triplets-are-the-best-thing-ever/Slideshow/42196722/42197018

      Reply
    88. 88.

      Citizen Alan

      March 28, 2024 at 3:23 pm

      @Urza:  Yeah, I’m pretty much resigned to every Presidential election for the rest of my life being Russian Roulette.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Zelma

      March 28, 2024 at 3:23 pm

      I decided years ago that it was important to support alternative outlets.  I’ve got a huge list.

      Of course, Ballon Juice.  But also the Bullwark, TPM, The Atlantic, the New Republic, Daily Kos, Wonkette, The Washington Monthly, Alternet, Pro Publica, Charlie Pierce, Heather Cox Richardson, two Ukrainian centered sites, Mother Jones, the Guardian, The Washington Post, and the NYT.  Also New Yorker and the New York Review of Books.

      I’m also on Twitter.  I also read other sites that I don’t send money to – at least I don’t think I do.

      I guess it’s clear how I spend my time in retirement.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 28, 2024 at 3:28 pm

      @HumboldtBlue:

      That’s by design, hedge fund money men went throughout the state buying up every small newspaper including here on the North Coast and then proceeded to milk them for every dollar they can squeeze all the while cutting staff and services until you are literally left with three people and the iPhones doing the news.

      Or if a newspaper bought up by a hedge fund happened to own the space where they produced the newspaper, and that space was more valuable than any income stream the paper would ever generate, they’d fire the staff and shut down the paper in order to sell the building.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      lowtechcyclist

      March 28, 2024 at 3:30 pm

      @Zelma:

      two Ukrainian centered sites

      That reminds me, I have a monthly contribution to the Kyiv Independent – forgot about that one upthread.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 3:31 pm

      @Hildebrand: Is Defector the same as Dan’s Message Box?

      Reply
    93. 93.

      Fair Economist

      March 28, 2024 at 3:33 pm

      This site, TPM, Kyiv Independent, and the Guardian. My husband subscribes to the LA Times. I was subscribing to Noah Smith on SubStack until SubStack decided it liked nazis.

      Reply
    94. 94.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 3:36 pm

      @Pennsylvanian: Big yawn!

      (referring to the top photo at your link, not dissing your link!)

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Fair Economist

      March 28, 2024 at 3:36 pm

      @Citizen Alan: I think journalism, as a public good, is going to have to be supported by the state. The CA ballot reports are a good example.

      I’m aware there are a lot of issues with government supported press, but I don’t see an alternative.

      Reply
    96. 96.

      Dangerman

      March 28, 2024 at 3:36 pm

      @brendancalling: And the Evangelicals lost their way. It is NOT praise the lard ass.

      Reply
    97. 97.

      BR

      March 28, 2024 at 3:36 pm

      @Martin:

      I agree, and that was so well put. Thanks Martin. Someone should repost that on the front page.

      Reply
    98. 98.

      geg6

      March 28, 2024 at 3:38 pm

      @ewrunning:

      I’ve tried and tried to read her stuff but just find her tedious.  I know she does good work but I can’t stand her writing.

      Reply
    99. 99.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 3:38 pm

      @Fair Economist:

      …until SubStack decided it liked nazis.

      Can you say more?  That sounds vaguely familiar but I don’t remember any details.

      Reply
    100. 100.

      Marcopolo

      March 28, 2024 at 3:38 pm

      OT but has anyone noted that earlier today SBF was sentenced to 25 years + an 11 billion dollar fine?

      Just a reminder that our justice system does work, albeit imperfectly.

      link

      Reply
    101. 101.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 3:41 pm

      @geg6: I think empty wheel is valuable.  But I can only get so far and then sometimes my eyes glaze over and I bail.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      trollhattan

      March 28, 2024 at 3:41 pm

      @lowtechcyclist: Sacramento Bee, the flagship McClatchy paper, moved their wee remaining editorial office to a rental and having already sold off the parking lot for mixed retail-apartments, sold the rather vast HQ and printing plant across the street for…mixed retail-apartments.

      Not only did they once print The Bee, they contract-printed many, many other regional papers. Newsprint was delivered by rail, they went through so much.

      Reply
    103. 103.

      geg6

      March 28, 2024 at 3:44 pm

      @WaterGirl:

      That’s exactly the problem I have.  She’s just not a very good writer.  A good writer can make drying paint interesting.

      Reply
    104. 104.

      Baud

      March 28, 2024 at 3:44 pm

      @geg6:

      If it can’t be said in 25 words, it’s not worth saying.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      Barbara

      March 28, 2024 at 3:45 pm

      @ewrunning: As an actual lawyer, even I find the granularity of her analysis to be incredibly difficult to get through.  I really value people who can step back and give me sufficient detail to follow the subject, but in a way that spells out the importance of the point that is being made.

      There is so much bullshit that occurs on a daily basis during the course of these kinds of cases that it can be easy to drown in the details and lose the overall point of what is going on.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      Baud

      March 28, 2024 at 3:46 pm

      @geg6:

      “The eggshell was drying that day, my friends.”

      Reply
    107. 107.

      Hildebrand

      March 28, 2024 at 3:47 pm

      @WaterGirl: Oops, nope – my punctuation/sentence structure was a bit unclear there, sorry about that.  Defector is the sports/entertainment/politics site run by the former Deadspin crew.  Brilliant writing on every subject they tackle.

      I honestly had forgotten the name of Dan’s newsletter – but he really is the most helpful of the Obama bros.  I like their podcasts, but, yeesh, the other three can lapse into ‘don’t pick on the NY Times and other journalists’ far too often.  They spend a lot of time undermining the very stuff that Dan says is important.

      Reply
    108. 108.

      karen marie

      March 28, 2024 at 3:47 pm

      This industry, which prizes objectivity above all else

      Fact not in evidence. They prize cash above all else.

      “This industry” defines “objectivity” as “ignore reality.”

      Reply
    109. 109.

      mrmoshpotato

      March 28, 2024 at 3:49 pm

      The Professional Left with driftglass and bluegal

      Also, as bliegal has said before, it’s perfectly fine to unplug from the news if you need a few days for your mental health.  (Oh the amount of Dump coverage I’ve just gone “NOPE!” to!)

      Reply
    110. 110.

      Kosh III

      March 28, 2024 at 3:49 pm

      I check
      Propublica, Mother Jones, AlJazeera, The Intercept, BBC, Times of India, Sydney Morning Herald, Nashville Scene(local arts and stuff and occasional hard news story) Toronto Sun, Alternet, Jacobin and a few others from time to time.
      We ignore cable news and network news, we watch the slanted local Fox affiliate news because it follows Jeopardy and has the better weather report.
      The last good tv reporters were Chet Huntley and Walter Cronkite. (am I showing my age?)

      Reply
    111. 111.

      cain

      March 28, 2024 at 3:49 pm

      @Zzyzx: Blows my mind that the people crying out for war don’t get to have the chance to fight in them. I mean look at Iraq, so many of those warmongers fought in it.. oh wait.

      Reply
    112. 112.

      JPL

      March 28, 2024 at 3:50 pm

      @Frankensteinbeck: According to the Guardian, younger members are threatening to leave the country.   Good, fewer votes for Bibi.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      JCNZ

      March 28, 2024 at 3:54 pm

      @The Golux: Did a person make the hiring decision? Or just “NBC”? These people shouldn’t be let off so easily.

      Reply
    114. 114.

      karen marie

      March 28, 2024 at 3:54 pm

      @frosty: She provides health care for staff writers. I’ve been sending my pittance to Wonkette for many years now. They often cover stories you don’t see elsewhere. Send moar munnie!

      Reply
    115. 115.

      gvg

      March 28, 2024 at 3:57 pm

      @JPL: It would be good for them to leave. Broaden their perspective. But where would they go?

      Reply
    116. 116.

      ewrunning

      March 28, 2024 at 3:59 pm

      @WaterGirl: I’m pretty much the same, I confess. Sometimes I have to click back to the summary on the home page to remind myself of the point that made me open the article. I do amuse myself by thinking about how much more thoroughly she reads the legal record than many of the journalists who so glibly write about it

      Reply
    117. 117.

      karen marie

      March 28, 2024 at 3:59 pm

      @Chris: I had a brief email chat with the publisher of an alleged “local paper,” and was told that Congressional candidates are not covered because they’re not “local.”  I was stunned.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      VFX Lurker

      March 28, 2024 at 4:01 pm

      Right now, I pay for an online subscription for The Los Angeles Times. It has good coverage of Los Angeles County and California.

      For political coverage, I follow Balloon-Juice and a few Twitter feeds (eclecticbrotha, charles_gaba and admiralmpj). I often see TPM’s Josh Marshall retweeted there.

      My library also gives me access to The Washington Post and several other papers if I need it.

      I used to subscribe to TPM, and Josh Marshall’s work there was excellent. I got turned off by another writer there, but maybe I’ll resubscribe to support Marshall.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      JCNZ

      March 28, 2024 at 4:01 pm

      @Kosh III: Jonathan Katz of The Racket is terrific. He’s the guy who dug into Katie Britt’s post- SOTU Mexican sex trafficking bs. His writing about Gaza was right from the get-go.

      Reply
    120. 120.

      thruppence

      March 28, 2024 at 4:06 pm

      I support TPM, and this here blog, for starters

      Reply
    121. 121.

      catclub

      March 28, 2024 at 4:07 pm

      @Almost Retired: my favorite columnist, Michael Hiltzik

       

      Yes!

      Reply
    122. 122.

      JPL

      March 28, 2024 at 4:08 pm

      @gvg: Younger ultra conservative members who don’t want to be drafted like the rest of the populace.   They’d probably come here

      Many want GAZA destroyed, they just don’t want to fight.

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 4:09 pm

      I keep up with international news through Laura Rozen. She is a good aggregator of sound reporting by varied sources throughout the day, in addition to writing longer pieces for Substack.

      I first found Laura Rozen through Cheryl Rofer. I follow her on Twitter as @lrozen, and she also posts as lkrozen threads and on Blue Sky as lkrozen.bsky.

      Tom Watson Twitter is a good source for news on New York state politics. He lives in Westchester County, and has been covering the Jamaal Bowman/George Latimer primary contest for the 16th CD nomination. Watson is in Latimer’s corner.

      My other follows include Turkish Middle East Eye correspondent Ragip Soylu and Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky.

      Einat Wilf is a very good source on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. With the exception of Haredi military service (emphatically for), Wilf steers clear of most current Israeli political controversies. Wilf was a Knesset member early in the last decade, in Ehud Barak’s party, and I think she intends to sit in the next Knesset.

      Reply
    124. 124.

      David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

      March 28, 2024 at 4:17 pm

      We say hello to the 149ᵗʰ season of major league baseball.🌭🥨🍺🍿🙌

      PLAY BALL⚾

      Reply
    125. 125.

      TBone

      March 28, 2024 at 4:25 pm

      @HumboldtBlue: same thing with medical offices/practices. It’s frightening.

      Reply
    126. 126.

      Mousebumples

      March 28, 2024 at 4:30 pm

      I subscribe to The Recombobulation Area for Milwaukee/Wisconsin based news. I pay for it, but free subs are available.

      I also follow Bolts on bsky, which I appreciate.

      And a variety of podcasts.

      Reply
    127. 127.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 4:34 pm

      @Baud: I used to work for a boss who liked to say:

      Why say a word when a paragraph will do?

      Reply
    128. 128.

      schrodingers_cat

      March 28, 2024 at 4:36 pm

      Daily read: Balloon Juice, Washington Post, PBS Snooze Hour, carefully curated Twitter feed. If I am interested in a certain topic I will do a deep dive

      I tend to follow politicians, field matter experts and reporters rather than opinion writers and analysts

      For news from India I follow opposition leaders, historians and rank and file party workers. I also follow politics of my birth state (Mahrastra and Mumbai pretty closely in Marathi).

      Reply
    129. 129.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 4:37 pm

      @Hildebrand: Thanks for clarifying!

      Yeah, “don’t pay attention to polls, especially this early, and hey, here’s our new Podcast / show called Poller Coaster where we talk about polls all the time.”

      And don’t get me started on how often they talk about how old Biden is.  JUST STOP.

      WTF?

      I do, however, like the irreverent Jon.  Not necessarily for political stuff, I just think he’s fun.

      Reply
    130. 130.

      Poe Larity

      March 28, 2024 at 4:38 pm

      Objectively, pro-Insurrection is one of the goalposts in national discourse today so it wouldn’t be prudent to exclude. How can you be fair and balanced when only one side can have touchdowns?

      Reply
    131. 131.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 4:40 pm

      @JPL: That just shows the hypocrisy. Going to war for thee, but not for me.

      Reply
    132. 132.

      SomeRandomGuy

      March 28, 2024 at 4:48 pm

      I came up with an idea recently that I think summed up the issue.

      I saw someone who lectured how NBC wants to hire people who will bring in viewers from a different viewpoint, and that’s just good business.

      The reason that’s not true is, journalism is about reporting facts – not about providing paid political propaganda.

      Now, since the 90s, and GOPAC, the Republican Party has been all-in on:
      1) always saying Democrats are the enemy of America, and wrong about everything
      2) the President is weaponizing the government against his enemies(D)
      3) the President is an amazing hero with awesome superpowers and the only reason people are upset with the abject cruelty is, they disagree on matters of BORING OLD POLICY, not the clear evidence of evil(R)

      So: since the 90s, if the Rs want to complain about a “draconian” mandate, all it means is, they want to use a big, powerful, word like “draconian”. It doesn’t mean the policy is, in any way, “draconian”.

      Okay, but, as many have noted, this sort of thing is good clickbait. It’s good for business. It is, in fact, so good for business that a lot of the media knows damn well they’re printing juicy gossip, not journalism.

      So you’re right: journalism is failing us, because their old rule, “we don’t provide paid political content for free,” is no longer operative. Running a political gossip column is better paying than having to weigh facts.

      Politics is also corrupt. For example, in Texas, some Rasshole bragged that he drew districts not to harm *Black* and *Hispanic* people, but to harm *Democrats*. So: said Rasshole was not trying to serve the people first, but was instead trying to serve his own interests, and his party interests, first.

      Now, that’s pretty obviously corrupt, but, if you say that, you lose access to that Rasshole and similar Rassholes. And while politicians need *you* more than you need *them*, when you’re publishing journalism, the reverse is true when you’re publishing gossip.

      In short, hiring McDaniel was about getting juicy gossip, but too many of the NBC journalists still think enough of journalism that they refused a blatant propagandist gossip.

      That’s good, but the underlying problem remains the same: gossip pays more than honest journalism, so dishonest gossip gets play, while dull truth gets discarded as unimportant.

      Reply
    133. 133.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 4:50 pm

      @JPL: One Haredi leader claimed they would emigrate if forced to serve, but other Israelis said this was unlikely because then they’d have to go to work and they are poorly educated.

      Treasury Minister Belazel Smotrich got booed off the stage at an economic conference in Eilat yesterday. The audience didn’t like his economic policies- Smotrich is a dunderhead- but a lot of the jeering was because his 20 year-old son is sitting out the war in a yeshiva.

      Israelis are argumentative people, and the Haredi draft question is a very hot topic on Israeli Twitter. One post:

         My cousins were very much liberals but “wait until after the war” [for elections] kind of people, but after their service was extended and more exceptions given out to Bibi’s extremist allies that are causing trouble in the West Bank, they are done with him. People are mad mad.

      Reply
    134. 134.

      Roberto el oso

      March 28, 2024 at 4:52 pm

      In the last 2 decades the only time I’ve ever turned on the local news is if a personal friend makes an appearance (museum openings, things like that), or if there’s a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. I love the Weather Channel when it’s someplace else, but the level of over-the-top hysteria when anything happens on the Gulf Coast makes you think that if you haven’t already packed the car with the pets and loved ones and driven towards the middle of the state then you might as well just turn off the lights and wait to die.

      Reply
    135. 135.

      Ken In Hogtown

      March 28, 2024 at 4:55 pm

      I have a go-to blog, Political Wire.  TPM is great also.  Wonkette, Crooks and Liars, The Guardian.  I don’t watch anything.  Good luck!

      Reply
    136. 136.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 4:58 pm

      @Roberto el oso: I get good information on the short, “top and bottom of the hour” CBS radio newscasts. I can also pull in WTOP out of Washington, DC and they cover a lot of national and international news.

      Reply
    137. 137.

      UncleEbeneezer

      March 28, 2024 at 4:59 pm

      @Marcopolo:

      I’ve actually half come around to the idea this is a two way street: they are bad because they are chasing clicks/eyeballs BUT they know what their audience wants! What we want is to be entertained, not educated.  So they serve it up.

      This! ONE THOUSAND PERCENT!!!  The actual market for common-sense, objective, responsible news coverage only appeals to a tiny fraction of the overall market.

      “Biden/Dems >>> Trump/GOP (In Every Possible, Fucking Way” is BORING to most viewers and also doesn’t fit the BothSides™ dogma they have been indoctrinated to believe.  Or it offends them because it speaks badly about their MAGA co-workers who they like to join for happy hours.  So the market breaks down into:

      Frothing At the Mouth MAGA– who will only watch Fox, OAN, NewsMax…only want to see Dems bashed

      Clueless Independents– who desperately cling to the notion that all media are biased in favor of Dems, and take pride in not paying attention to politics, because they are so much smarter than the rest of us…but are ok with media here and there so long as it bashes Dems…

      NPR Totebag Liberals/NeverTrumpRepublicans/ConservaDems– who prefer Dems (or just hate Trump) but have internalized the BothSides™ narrative, are petrified of any appearance of Liberal Bias and want to treat Republicans with more respect than they deserve so they prefer media that pretends Republicans aren’t Fascists, but even if they are, Dems are somehow just as bad and must be bashed…

      Progressives– whose appetite for Dem-bashing is second only to MAGA Republicans and are only interested in odious stuff like TheYoungTurks or MSM voices like Mehdi Hassan, Joy Ann Reid, Ellie Mystal and others who are willing to bash Dems.

      People Like Us Here– who are sensible and can be anywhere on the Independent-Liberal-Progressive political spectrum but value good, honest reporting with proper context instead of clickbait.  But sadly we are what…5% of the overall market, at most?

      So the result is exactly what we see.  Relentless Dem-bashing for a multitude of reasons.

      Reply
    138. 138.

      Fair Economist

      March 28, 2024 at 5:00 pm

      @WaterGirl: The Atlantic (not some obscure commentor) called out 16 explicitly Nazi blogs. Substack refused to deplatform them. “Free speech”.

      It’s now “free” in the sense “I’m not paying for it.”

      Reply
    139. 139.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      March 28, 2024 at 5:00 pm

      I’ve been saying this for over a decade; corporate news is all for the $$$. They will gladly report that nukes are falling right now and tell you what the weather will be like tomorrow in your area. You come to them looking for information and after listening to them you know less than you did before. They deliberately obfuscate and leave context out in order to leave you paralyzed, not knowing what is really happening or what you can do about it.

      Corporate news is garbage and a waste of time. You can learn more about what is going on by watching effluent flowing into a sewage plant than you can by watching or reading our major news outlets.

      Reply
    140. 140.

      Barbara

      March 28, 2024 at 5:02 pm

      @Geminid: This is the part that truly gets me — those who are provoking further settlement incursions are the same people who have sought and obtained exemptions for their own military service.  I don’t think that’s widely understood in the U.S. — that Israel has officially sanctioned draft dodgers, so to speak, and these are the very same people who are most hawkish about the use of military force against Palestinians, and probably others.

      Reply
    141. 141.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 5:02 pm

      @WaterGirl: One reason Ultra-Orthodox leaders don’t want their young men serving in the IDF is that they come back with dangerous, modern ideas.

      Reply
    142. 142.

      Fair Economist

      March 28, 2024 at 5:05 pm

      @UncleEbeneezer: I don’t think the media is doing it for the clicks. There’s lots of clicks for talking about blatant outrages of Republican but they spend their time clouds ‘n shadowing trivial Dem issues like email server retention practices – which they have to yammer about for months just to get people to care. They don’t grab the easy clicks; instead they spend vast amounts of time and money altering public interests. The media answers the demand of their owners to support Republicans.

      The entertainment part is a distraction to keep you from noticing.

      Reply
    143. 143.

      Old School

      March 28, 2024 at 5:06 pm

      Speaker Mike Johnson informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that the House will send the impeachment articles against Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10, according to a letter obtained by CNN, the next step in having an impeachment trial in the upper chamber.

      …

      Johnson signed the letter with the House Republicans he selected as his impeachment managers, which include House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green of Tennessee and Reps. Michael McCaul of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Ben Cline of Virginia, Michael Guest of Mississippi, Andrew Garbarino of New York, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgie, August Pfluger of Texas, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming and Laurel Lee of Florida.

      Reply
    144. 144.

      Fair Economist

      March 28, 2024 at 5:09 pm

      @Geminid:

      One Haredi leader claimed they would emigrate if forced to serve, but other Israelis said this was unlikely because then they’d have to go to work and they are poorly educated.

      In this era of immigrant hatred, what place besides Israel would take those poorly educated Haredi with moral codes millennia out of date and a lot of responsibility for worsening the Palestinian problem?

      Reply
    145. 145.

      Matt McIrvin

      March 28, 2024 at 5:10 pm

      @Ruckus: Huh? I thought the population of California was shrinking (conservatives make a huge deal out of this– if you look at population growth alone, it sure looks like people are fleeing liberal states and want to live under shithole conservative governments).

      Reply
    146. 146.

      sdhays

      March 28, 2024 at 5:10 pm

      @gvg: I hear Russia is welcoming young male immigrants with no education.

      They might want to read the fine print, though.

      Reply
    147. 147.

      eclare

      March 28, 2024 at 5:12 pm

      Mississippi Free Press does good work, I follow them on Twitter.  For news sites, The Guardian, WaPo, and my local paper.  And of course I am grateful for the hive mind here, posting all kinds of links.

      Reply
    148. 148.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 5:13 pm

      @Fair Economist: ugh. thank you.

      Reply
    149. 149.

      Redshift

      March 28, 2024 at 5:13 pm

      @HumboldtBlue:

      That’s by design, hedge fund money men went throughout the state buying up every small newspaper including here on the North Coast and then proceeded to milk them for every dollar they can squeeze all the while cutting staff and services until you are literally left with three people and the iPhones doing the news.

      Yes and no. Yes, they are hollowing out the newspapers they buy, but not because that’s what they care about. For Alden Capital (one of the biggest offenders), they take over local papers because they own valuable real estate, which they kick the staff out of and redevelop. They keep a skeleton crew running presumably to lessen the pushback they’d get trying to make their purchases if it was known they were buying it just to kill it, but that’s it.

      Reply
    150. 150.

      WaterGirl

      March 28, 2024 at 5:14 pm

      @Geminid: They have a lot in common with homeschoolers, it seems.

      Reply
    151. 151.

      JPL

      March 28, 2024 at 5:17 pm

      @sdhays: Do they provide a stipend, because I think that’s necessary.

      Reply
    152. 152.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 5:18 pm

       

       

      @Barbara: On October 7, Einat Wilf, the Israeli author/politician I referred to at #123, expressed her fury at the distortions of Israeli defense policy that enabled the debacle:

         Abandon those who live within the borders of the State of Israel, and its sovereign territory, those entitled to the protection of the state and its army, for those who jump on hills outside the borders of the state. The lack of a clear border in the West Bank and the collection of delusional messiahs who are only trying to stretch the borders are a disaster for Israel.

      Reply
    153. 153.

      sixthdoctor

      March 28, 2024 at 5:20 pm

      I support TPM, Baltimore Banner, Balloon Juice, and Slate.

      Slate wore me down because of the paywall and they had enough articles that justified it to me at the time, though if I were to drop one it’d probably be that. But just renewed last month for the year…

      Reply
    154. 154.

      trollhattan

      March 28, 2024 at 5:21 pm

      @Matt McIrvin:

      IIUC the state is holding steady at a little under 40 mil, while enough growth in the former confederacy meant they got some of our House seats last census.

      How metro LA has fared during that stretch I have not clue one, they’re kind of their own enclave within greater California. IIUC the Bay Area had a net population drop.

      TBH I find little reason for megacities in nations that have a lot of livable space. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      Reply
    155. 155.

      Ken B

      March 28, 2024 at 5:26 pm

      @JPL:

      The irony is that the army doesn’t particularly want them (harredi). Most of them are pig ignorant about anything other than ultra-conservative religious teachings, undisciplined, and viewed as bad for unit cohesion and discipline.

      They also tend to be racist and misogynistic.

      I think they should be required to serve, but I also think they need to be made to live in the real world before and after their service.

      And the military will need to come down really hard on the ones that step out of line.

      (Edited for clarity)

      Reply
    156. 156.

      Brachiator

      March 28, 2024 at 5:34 pm

      I have been super busy today and just ran across this interesting post. I will come back later and review the comments because I am very interested to learn more about people’s favorite news sites.

      The courts won’t save us, and neither will corporate media. …

      At the end of the day, traditional media outlets are line items in the P&L sheets of larger corporations.

      That the media is run by corporations is not the problem. The press typically represents the establishment. Whether they also have a larger vision depends on the perspectives of individual publishers and editors.

      Anyway. A few quick notes.

      I never really followed people on Twitter and have finally abandoned the service because I detest Elon Musk. However I do pay attention to threads referenced here.

      I still look at mainstream news sites like CNN and the BBC, but do so very critically.

      I don’t watch Sunday panel shows.

      I avoid the main NPR shows, but do follow specialty programs like Make Me Smart and Marketplace.

      Here in Los Angeles, public radio station KPCC is an excellent source for national and local news, particularly the program Air Talk.

      I will look at individual stories on Politico. I don’t follow any political pundit sites other than Balloon Juice.

      I will look at Business Insider and other business focused sites for news about economics.

      I will read stuff from traditional news sites, but try to understand their biases.

      A special note about BBC News. I followed their BREXIT coverage and found that they were often accurate when describing the details of BREXIT and stuff like the issue of borders between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, their political analysis of BREXIT negotiations was deliberately misleading and dishonest, and their analysis of the economic issues relating to BREXIT was non-existent. But from comments reporters made on a BREXIT podcast, it was clear that they understood the larger issues, but either chose or were told not to report on it.

      Apart from the Financial Times, you could not count on any UK news source for unbiased reporting. And this includes the Guardian.

      The US is not quite as bad, but we may be getting there.

      Reply
    157. 157.

      Melancholy Jaques

      March 28, 2024 at 5:35 pm

      @Odie Hugh Manatee:

      I disagree to some extent. I have no way to prove this, but if publishing and broadcasting from a left perspective  (I mean real left not newspeak left) would gain significant audience, I believe the corporate media would not do so. They promote a pro-rich, pro-corporate, anti-left point of view.

      And I think when we (not everyone but most of us) talk about “the media” we are really talking about the NYT, the WaPo, and the cable shows. I don’t know that we keep up with local TV news, which is where most people get their news. Depending on the market, they can range from annoyingly centrist to hard core right-wing.

      Reply
    158. 158.

      SomeRandomGuy

      March 28, 2024 at 5:40 pm

      @geg6: Keep in mind, you might not know *why* an author is writing. Emptywheel’s writing presents as good to me, but I’m also looking only for exposition. You’re right, viewed as a blog entry, intended to inform, entertain, or educate, it’s not always that good.

      Still, when I’ve read it as a good journalist’s notes and thoughts, it reads much better for me. So I protest a bit at judging writing ability by the blog… while acknowledging that, I, also, don’t often want all that information :-).

      Reply
    159. 159.

      UncleEbeneezer

      March 28, 2024 at 5:42 pm

      @Fair Economist: Every group I mentioned except the last is addicted to BothSides nonsense in some form or another.  Simply reporting the horrors of Trump/Republicans would only make MAGAs, Independents, NPRLiberals and Progressives tune out for different reasons.  The majority of viewers only want their news to be provided within a BothSides framework.  If a newscast is too honest about Trump/The GOP, it immediately loses MAGA viewers.  If it doesn’t balance that with a story about the threat of Woke/CRT, it loses NPRLiberals.  If it doesn’t talk about “yeah Biden is just as bad on Gaza, Immigration etc.,” it loses Progressives.  People like us are a minority that is so small that it makes no sense for media companies to chase us.   Not to mention, the biggest group is probably: people who don’t really want to hear/think about politics at all.

      Reply
    160. 160.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 5:42 pm

      @WaterGirl: Yes, but these are young men of age to work and/or serve in the military and they are paid ostensibly to study the Torah. The exemptions and subsidies extend into their 30s. They lack the solid education needed to compete in a modern economy, and are dead weight the rest of the nation has to drag along.

      I read that up until the Likud governments of the late 1970s and 1980s, most Ultra-Orthodox youth served in the IDF. Menachim Begin started the practice of widespread draft exemptions for the Haredi, and those have expanded along with the Haredi population which is now 13% of Israeli citizens. Israeli Arabs are also exempt from the draft* although some volunteer, so less than 70% of the population is carrying the burden of defending the country.

      *Arabs comprise slightly under 20% of Israel’s population, and they are not drafted. The few who volunteer are integrated into regular units, except those in the Bedouin regiment that has been part of the IDF since 1948.

      Israel’s 150,000 Druze citizens speak Arabic but are a distinct people who supply many of the IDF’s career soldiers and officers. They are subject to the draft as are members of the smaller Circassian community.

      Reply
    161. 161.

      NoraLenderbee

      March 28, 2024 at 5:47 pm

      @Zzyzx: ​
        It’s about time!

      Reply
    162. 162.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 5:48 pm

      @Fair Economist: Those Haredi aren’t going anywhere. Their leaders are bluffing. Besides, the two Ultra-Orthodox parties need their votes.

      Reply
    163. 163.

      jackmac

      March 28, 2024 at 5:53 pm

      Nope. No saviors. Just us.

      On Stephanie Miller’s radio show this morning I think it was a guest (I don’t recall) that said the only thing that is going to save us is US — the voters.

      Reply
    164. 164.

      Madeleine

      March 28, 2024 at 6:03 pm

      @Ken B: someone I read a couple days ago thought the haredi would be difficult to integrate into the military because of poor education, cultural difference and too great a willingness to shoot Palestinians. That person—an Israeli don’t remember who—thought it might be best to use them as truck drivers and cooks.

      Reply
    165. 165.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 6:21 pm

      @Madeleine: There are certainly support jobs for Haredi soldiers, but the IDF can still probably make good combat soldiers out of some of them. There are plenty of observant Jews in the IDF they can learn from. There would be economic and social benefits from service in the IDF, both for the nation and for the individual soldiers.

      Those are features that attract Arab volunteers. And some tell journalists that they enlist because they identify as Israeli and want to help defend their country.

      Reply
    166. 166.

      Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

      March 28, 2024 at 6:29 pm

      @Zzyzx: Good. It’s hilarious that some of them were threatening to leave. Like they’d be paid to study any place but there? Like the secular Israelis would be sad to see them go?

      Reply
    167. 167.

      geg6

      March 28, 2024 at 6:32 pm

      @SomeRandomGuy:

      My mother was an award winning journalist.  She would have more criticism for emptywheel than I do.  A good journalist should write to inform the reader.  If what you write is too dense and difficult to understand without footnotes, you’re not a very good journalist.  And she doesn’t even provide footnotes that I’ve seen.  If she was an actual lawyer, I’d cut her a break and describe her blog as a legal journal, but she’s not.  An actual lawyer would provide footnotes.

      Reply
    168. 168.

      Martin

      March 28, 2024 at 6:35 pm

      @trollhattan: The main argument for density is that it’s cheaper on taxpayers than sprawl. Every mile of road needs a tax base to support. You can have one person at the end of that mile of road, and have one taxpayer, or you can have 1000 people, and have 1000 taxpayers. Either way, the cost of the road isn’t that different.

      There are a lot of small cities that are steadily going bankrupt because they have built out so much road infrastructure that they can’t afford to maintain. Parking lots generally don’t produce taxes, but they do consume taxpayer dollars. So you have cities spending more on road maintenance than education, and tax revenues falling because we tied road budgets to how many gallons of gas a person would consume, and the cost of roads is going up while the consumption of gas is going down.

      LA is a pretty terrible example of a city, it kind of does everything wrong, but there is some awareness of this problem and some effort to address it. But LA needs housing, and it has more land area reserved for car parking than for housing. That’s a major problem.

      In rural areas, you have a different problem. In about 80% of the country, transportation costs have grown beyond housing costs, and people didn’t really notice. So people spend more money on their truck than they do on their house, and they think the economy is terrible when really they quietly agreed to double or triple the fraction of their budget they devote to cars.

      So yes, we have a lot of space, but we don’t have a taxation system that can make that space actually livable. The rural population is falling as fast as ever, because it’s unaffordable. LA isn’t the answer, but there are reasons why it’s endured. If nothing else it has jobs – lots of them.

      Reply
    169. 169.

      SomeRandomGuy

      March 28, 2024 at 7:01 pm

      @geg6: My mother was an award winning journalist. She would have more criticism for emptywheel than I do.

      Is your mom the kind of asshole who goes around saying “this writing – I didn’t pay for it, I didn’t have it shoved at me (I chose to read it) – I JUST DON’T LIKE IT THE AUTHOR IS BAD AT WRITING!!!!”?

      If so, your mom’s a bit of a dick. Not every piece that an author puts down on paper is polished work – being an author doesn’t make your rough drafts and random thinking into gold. Calling a writer bad because her writing-for-herself doesn’t suit you, means you’re being a dick – her writing-for-herself isn’t for you.

      I’m sorry – I didn’t just invent this rule. Making nasty comments, when you don’t even know what you’re critiquing, *is* dickish.

      Reply
    170. 170.

      geg6

      March 28, 2024 at 7:09 pm

      @SomeRandomGuy:

      FYI, my mother is dead.  And your mother must be a dick to have spawned a rude asshole like you.  Jesus, first you assume I don’t understand what the job of a journalist is and then you call my dead mother a dick.  Fuck off.

      ETA: I do know what I’m talking about.  I think it’s you that is ignorant.  She’s not writing for herself or she wouldn’t post it on a fucking blog meant for the public, asshole.

      Reply
    171. 171.

      Tehanu

      March 28, 2024 at 7:19 pm

      Roy Edroso on Substack & Charlie Pierce at Esquire, monthly. Occasional contributions to you (Balloon Juice), Lawyers Guns & Money, Slacktivist (Fred Clark) on Patreon, Tom Tomorrow, The Rude Pundit, No More Mr Nice Blog, and Stonekettle.  I used to read more online but I’ve pretty much winnowed it down to these. We still get the L.A. Times on paper, mostly for local coverage and comics, to be honest.

      Reply
    172. 172.

      Quadrillipede

      March 28, 2024 at 7:22 pm

      Here’s Bill Palmer, about 2-3 weeks ago on the topic of the MSM:

      I just make a point of pushing back whenever the media and pundit class tries to convince us that the odds are far more against us than they are, which of course is most of the time. The political media nearly always tells us we’re in worse shape than we are, because that’s what keeps you glued to your screen and drives ratings.

      https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/meanwhile-back-in-the-real-world-4/54814/

      Reply
    173. 173.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 7:27 pm

      @SomeRandomGuy: A ridiculous comment.

      Or rather, ri-dick-ulous. I happen to respect Marcy Wheeler and her work product but with friends like you she doesn’t need enemies.

      Reply
    174. 174.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 7:43 pm

      @Ken B: I don’t think the IDF will draft too many Haredi to begin with. And they’ll draft from the 18 year olds in the current draft class and not mess with the older ones. And the Attorney General’s decision pits the process off for a couple months and could be superceded by legislstion.

      Early in the war, the IDF formed a battalion out of volunteers from the West Bank “hilltop youth.” They had to disband it after a month or so. These might be the ones that the Israeli you speak of said were too trigger happy.

      I think there were problems generally with the resevists. Around the time IDF casualties reached 150 a study was leaked saying that 20% of the casualties were from friendly fire. That’s a lot. Not long after, the IDF started demobilizing reserve units, and now most if not all the brigades fighting in Gaza are regular units.

      Reply
    175. 175.

      Geminid

      March 28, 2024 at 8:45 pm

      @Geminid: That would be “about the time IDF KIA’s reached 150,” not casualties.

      Reply
    176. 176.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      March 28, 2024 at 9:25 pm

      @Melancholy Jaques:

      I agree with you on coverage from the real left (not media left) and interest and I agree with you that’s not on the agenda for our corporate media.

      So we’re in agreement. :)

      Reply
    177. 177.

      BellyCat

      March 28, 2024 at 9:51 pm

      To accurately portray events would make the press out to be biased and they would rather stumble into autocracy than take a side.

      Pfieffer is brutally good.

      Reply
    178. 178.

      nickdag

      March 29, 2024 at 6:52 pm

      I really like the opinions of The Editorial Board. And, they’re small and need support.

      https://www.editorialboard.com/

      Reply
    179. 179.

      The Lodger

      March 30, 2024 at 11:33 pm

      @Bill Arnold: Glad to see Israel’s Supreme Court is still on the job. I thought Bibi had eliminated them.

      Reply

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