Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

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

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

How stupid are these people?

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / When Reporting Is Really an Attempt To Control and Discourage You (Open Thread)

When Reporting Is Really an Attempt To Control and Discourage You (Open Thread)

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Things we do not know:

  • Who will win the presidency in November
  • Which party will control the House of Representatives in the next congress
  • Which party will control the Senate in the next congress
  • How the jury will vote in the trial in Justice Merchan’s court?
  • Whether everyone on the jury is acting in good faith

Things we do know:

  • Anyone who pretends to know any of the above is full of shit
  • A lot of “reporting” is simply an attempt to influence the outcome
  • We cannot control the outcome; we just have to do the work

This has been another episode of stay the course and do not fall into the trap of believing reporting that is not reporting at all.

Oh, and Henry says ‘hey’. He has important things on his mind, like whether you prefer him with shorter hair or longer hair.

Hodgepodge, Mishmash or Smorgasbord?

Also, ears or no ears?

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  3. 3.

    sab

    Henry is vile. Everytime I see him I know that. He cannot be honest even about his preferred hairlength. Some weeks he wants shaved. Other weeks long. Cannot make up his choice. He is almost royal in his indecivenous.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Henry is magnificent.
    I’d add that you should not trust any media paid-for poll. Their sole purpose is to perpetuate the horse race narrative. Truth be damned.

  7. 7.

    MobiusKlein

    There is a word for “Reporting that is actually propaganda”
    Spin.

     

    Even the whole No Spin Zone was a meta approach to the issue – I’m rubber you are glue. Spins on you

  8. 8.

    SpaceUnit

    Somehow shorthair Henry reminds me of the Mayor of Townsville on The Powerpuff Girls.

     

    ETA:  Which, BTW, is a great cartoon!!!!!!

    Edited yet again to add more exclamation points.

  11. 11.

    Lyrebird

    Awwww WG you know how to bring in some adorableness to raise the hope level. I wish I had copied down what Omnes iirc said about hope being part of every strategy or something like that.

    If I were to let myself get completely bogged down and demoralized, thhat would let some seriously bad bad guys win in their spin.

    BTW Henry is adorable however, but I find the top photo to be extra heart-melty.

  12. 12.

    frosty

    Henry needs longer hair. I have no opinion on the ears.

    Now I’ll go see how the other jackals have voted.

  13. 13.

    Jude

    The play is to scare & suppress Dems incumbents with phantasm polls that make them too worried about their own elections to share their largess with others who are in competitive races. It worked like a charm in 2022 so they’re doing again and nothing will convince me otherwise.
    The 2025/Bannon/Rove crowd let it slip that they can steal the elections if they can get them within 3 points (and as a Wisconsinite, that’s how it looked from my window in 2016) so these are the tactics they use. What’s gets me livid is our media is tagging along for the ride. How about some effing self-preservation? Instead they’ll happily feed us to the leopards.

  16. 16.

    Joy in FL

    Henry is perfect with his hair and ears any way they are. I love seeing his sweet face : )

    Also, thanks for the other part of the post.

  17. 17.

    Mousebumples

    Reposting from downstairs before I turn on for the night –

    For any aspiring Postcarders, Postcards to Voters has addresses for an open House race – Michael Kripchak in Ohio. No idea on his chances, but for a special election? Let’s put in the work and hopefully get a future Sen. Brown voter to the polls!

    Put in the work to make their wish casting turn out to be fair!

  18. 18.

    Jackie

    Henry sports both fur styles with aplomb. Especially when he’s wearing his ears 😁

  20. 20.

    Hungry Joe

    Another thing we do not know: Which team will win the game that is about to be played. Still, the sports pundits pontificate about how Team X’s superior Whatever will surely result in a victory — unless, that is, Team Y employs …

    Just shut up, and let’s all watch the game. At the end we will definitely know who won.

  21. 21.

    Redshift

    I like longer hair Henry, but I also like the ears, and long hair/no ears looks like a package deal! It’s a conundrum.

  22. 22.

    Lyrebird

    @Hungry Joe: I’m 100% with you for sporting events.  Been muttering for years about why can’t we have Olympics broadcasting WITHOUT the talking heads, just show the events!

    For this year’s elections, I wish more of the journalists would stop treating this like a sporting event when one side is openly threatening to cheat and has already used violence to try to overthrow an election.

    For whatever little it’s worth, I think Team Biden Harris is in an even better position than they were in 4 years ago, but I fear for election workers, gay people, trans people, others who might be targeted by overheated fascist sympathizers.  The Senate is gonna be tough, for sure.  I do think the fact that Ukraine aid passed at all (no assertion that it is enough etc.,, but SOME did pass) says to me that the MAGA types do not have complete control.

  23. 23.

    Manyakitty

    Henry is perfect no matter what.

    Thanks for talking sense. We need to remember these things.

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    Just, Henry!

    In a few minutes on TCM, Metropolis, a tale from a stratified society. Beware Robot Marias!

  27. 27.

    tam1MI

    Ohio Democrats come up with a workaround to Republican bullshittery.

    The Democratic National Committee plans to hold a “virtual roll call” to nominate President Joe Biden before the party’s August convention — a tactic meant to spare Biden the increasing danger of being left off Ohio’s general election ballot.
    Biden’s campaign and the DNC announced the move Tuesday as the Legislature here opened a special session Republican Gov. Mike DeWine ordered to resolve the issue.

    The Democratic convention — where the party traditionally nominates its candidates for president and vice president — is scheduled nearly two weeks after Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline to certify candidates. GOP state lawmakers, who hold supermajorities in the House and the Senate, have been reluctant to pass a bill to relax the deadline for Biden without a vote on unrelated campaign finance legislation that Democrats have described as a “poison pill.”
    Democrats “will land this plane on our own,” DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can’t chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.”

  28. 28.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Mousebumples: For any aspiring Postcarders, Postcards to Voters has addresses for an open House race – Michael Kripchak in Ohio. No idea on his chances, but for a special election? Let’s put in the work

     I’ve got 5 addresses. This is the Ohio congressional district that borders West Virginia – let’s do our part for John Cole’s next-door neighbors.

    And yes: I’m ignoring the news and the spin and the freakouts and the reeling & writhing & fainting in coils. Just ploughing ahead with my smallest of small actions, to reach voters and send some good energy in doing so.

    Henry is awesomesauce in all his manifestations.

  29. 29.

    RevRick

    As anyone familiar with Family Systems Theory can tell you, anxiety functions like the equivalent of a blow to the head. It’s disabling, and worse, injects the dead hand of seriousness  into the conversation. The equation goes anxiety makes us serious which leads to more anxiety which leads to a system where change becomes impossible. The antidote is to not take the anxiety seriously, but to push through for more change.

    The classic case was with a schizophrenic patient in a hospital who kept on insisting on hoarding his sheets and towels. The nurses and orderlies tried all sorts of bribes, threats, and punishments to get him to stop hoarding. The solution was to make the situation ridiculous, so every day he hoarded a set, the next day he would get twice as many, and each day they would double the previous day’s hoard. Within a short time, his room was filled with sheets and towels so that he could barely move. The next day, he got rid of them and never hoarded again.

  30. 30.

    wjca

    @WaterGirl: They think we are stupid rubes who can be led around by the nose.

    Why wouldn’t they?  Only consider how many stupid rubes they already lead around by the nose.  Why would they assume the rest of us are all that different?

  31. 31.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Jude:

    What’s gets me livid is our media is tagging along for the ride.

    Our media are not tagging along, they are driving the truck.

  33. 33.

    Jackie

    For anyone interested in today’s Texas primaries:

    https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2024/texas-may-2024-runoff-election-results/

    WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

    House Speaker Dade Phelan won his runoff and survived a challenge by Texas GOP’s far-right forces.
    School voucher supporters backed by Abbott lead in several pivotal Texas House GOP runoff races.
    Craig Goldman won his Republican primary runoff against a right-wing candidate who had Attorney General Ken Paxton’s backing.
    Severe storms knocked out power at North Texas voting sites.

    More returns at the above link.

  34. 34.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I think Henry wants to keep his ears so I vote to not remove them. ;)

    On the subject: Between now and November we are going to be bombarded by conservative media that conservatives have been told is liberal. They are going to try to discourage Democratic voters in service to their paymasters. Remember that when it comes to actual journalism, not one big media outlet out there actually practices it. They are stenographers, presstitutes in service to their masters for a paycheck. They deceive people for a living.

    Eyes on the target. Vote Democrats all the way this fall and ignore the anonymous voices that big media amplifies. If there are actually Democrats saying what big media is printing then they aren’t on Team Biden and only seek to kneecap Biden because he isn’t Pure Left like they are.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    I posted earlier today, LGM covered it.

    The FTFNYT pollster put in a caveat today.

    To cover his ass when the vote results are way off from his polling,

    Turns out, most of Biden’s polling results are “always voters”.

    Most of Shartpants polling results are “never voters”.

  36. 36.

    West of the Rockies

    I like Henry long (that’s what she said), but as the owner of a sheepadoodle, I know the matting makes short fur more manageable.

    Also, not anything new, but the media wants eyes:  a horse race is in their best interests, so those are the stories we get.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    This has been another episode of stay the course and do not fall into the trap of believing reporting that is not reporting at all.

    It’s not a trap. It’s just human nature, maybe amplified by technology. Some people can’t wait for an outcome. They need speculation, gossip, oracles, fortune telling, religion, astrology, polls, predictions, computer models, AI and that bookie down the street.

    Despite all this, most people find a way to get things done. And that includes voting.

  39. 39.

    Dangerman

    Henry with ears kinda looks like the Flying Nun. Will he lift off in a good stiff breeze?

  40. 40.

    Splitting Image

    @Hungry Joe:

    Another thing we do not know: Which team will win the game that is about to be played. Still, the sports pundits pontificate about how Team X’s superior Whatever will surely result in a victory — unless, that is, Team Y employs …

    Just shut up, and let’s all watch the game. At the end we will definitely know who won.

    I know what you mean. My grandmother used to watch baseball games with the sound turned off and the radio turned up in the background. The TV announcers were just that terrible.

    It’s not really much of a surprise that sports have learned to love the betting markets. Sports reporting has for a long time been more about filling time with predictions and “Power Rankings” than about actual news about actual games.

    I guess this sort of “reporting” exists because there is a market for it, but when the commentators start crowding actual news stories out of the front page, there is a problem.

    I’m talking about sports, of course, but when political reporting works the same way and for the same reason, there is an even bigger problem.

  41. 41.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    I am basically a cat lady but Henry is truly adorable with long or short hair. I do like ears.

  44. 44.

    sab

    Late to the vote. I vote for Henry having ears. I had preferred dogs that need no grooming haircuts. Then I saw Henry.

  47. 47.

    Traveller

    I feel fairly strongly on this…for such a cute small dog, Long Hair and with Ears. Unlike the Trump Jury, Without a Doubt. Best Wishes, Traveller

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, in the UK, … Reuters.com:

    Britain’s first Black woman lawmaker, Diane Abbott, said on Wednesday she had been barred from running as a Labour candidate in the July 4 election after she was suspended more than a year ago for comments about Jews and racism.

    Abbott was first elected to parliament for Labour in 1987 and, as the country’s longest serving Black member of parliament (MP), had campaigned on issues such as racism, poverty and international affairs in her district in north east London.

    She was a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn who led the party from 2015 to 2020, when it was accused by the equalities watchdog of unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination against Jews.

    […]

    Corbyn was also barred from running as a Labour candidate after he said antisemitism in Labour had been “dramatically overstated” for political reasons, and last week decided to run as an independent candidate.

    The equalities watchdog launched an investigation into Labour in 2019 and said it had found serious failings in the way it addressed antisemitism in the left-leaning party.

    Supporters of Abbott and some opposition lawmakers said she had been treated badly by the party, after the decision to prevent her running as a Labour candidate was first reported by the Times newspaper on Tuesday.

    […]

    During her time in parliament Abbott has received high levels of online racist and sexist abuse.

    In March, a Conservative Party donor apologised for remarks in 2019 in which he said that looking at Abbott made him want to hate all Black women, and that she “should be shot”.

    !!!

    This looks really, really bad for Labour and seems to be yet more evidence that Tony Jay is right to be upset with the guys heading the party. Of course antisemitism is bad, but everything isn’t antisemitism and all comments are not intolerable criticism.

    Here’s hoping that Corbin wins his race. I ass-u-me that she is considering running as an independent as well.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Betty

    @Another Scott:  Labour has been doing these things for several years. The documentary describing this joint effort by the Tories, the media and Starmer’s crew is jaw dropping.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Tough crowd.

    The language is too close to the ‘murkin version of shouting down and punching down for my taste.  If the people who know her best kept electing her for decades, that means a lot.

    FWIW.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    I get that. But in parliamentary systems, party organizations have more top down control than in our system.  So I’m a little hesitant to export our sensibilities to their system.

  55. 55.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Sure, those with the power can do what they want to remake the party.

    One has to wonder, though, what the party leadership thinks their purpose is.  Is it to win elections and have sufficient majorities and power to implement the party policies?  Or is it something else?

    Tony Jay teaches us, and this story seems to illustrate, that the Labour leadership thinks it’s something else.  And that’s a bad thing.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    Sis

    Is there a “Henry-is-perfect-with-any-coat-length-ears-or-no-ears” category? Because that’s my vote.

  57. 57.

    wjca

    @Another Scott: The language is too close to the ‘murkin version of shouting down and punching down for my taste.  If the people who know her best kept electing her for decades, that means a lot.

    Well, maybe.  But not necessarily.  After all, her constituents keep reelecting MTG.

  58. 58.

    Annie

    Henry is adorable with either cut.  I think he looks better with longer hair (fur?) but if that makes his allergies worse then of course shorter is better.

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