WaPo’s Manufactured “Landslide”
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
When a distinguished professor of journalism calls out the Washington Post on its bullshit, you’d hope WaPo would take note and make a correction in its direction:
One Democratic senator who is noted for being to the right end of the Democrats’ political spectrum apparently constitutes a landslide in Democratic Party opinion.
If Democrats stood on Sen. Michael Bennet’s side of the boat we’d be Republican Lite sinking the boat.
What’s truly disgusting about WaPo’s skewed priorities is that another event of far more import than Bennet’s lone opinion took place last evening and hasn’t received the scrutiny it should have.
Nicole Sandler wrote a thread summarizing Donald Trump’s campaign rally. I’m not going to post the entire thread, just posts 2 and 3 from a 10-post thread:
The entire thread begins at this link.
This synopsis spares you Trump’s droning whine as he reels out over an hour of white Christian nationalist/supremacist grievance using an absurd number of lies.
I listened to this nauseating dreck this morning and it’s awful. If this man is elected and allowed to act on his hatred relying on the Roberts’ court’s presidential immunity, no one who is a person of color or LGBTQ+ will be safe let alone other marginalized groups.
The rotting cherry on the top of this ugliness: this was a campaign rally held at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami.
In other words, Trump laundered campaign funds which paid for this event, transferring it to his Trump org-owned golf course and eventually into his own pocket.
The Secret Service was surely charged by the course for what resources it used to protect him at the course — this money went directly to the course and into Trump’s pocket.
GOP presumptive presidential nominee Trump was grifting right under the noses of his supporters and what little media was present, while airing so much hateful screed as a campaign speech.
But a “landslide” of one Democratic senator was more important and featured on WaPo’s front page.
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Thanks.
The front page of the Washington Post places the innuendo filled article about Biden and his “waning” support directly in the center of the page, with the photo, a long range shot, diminishing Biden to a tiny little figure on a stage, decorated with NATO imagery, flags, etc. (This makes Biden look insignificant.) This is sandwiched between articles about India’s embrace of Putin and the other about Ukraine. It’s no news that India has always played the game of being “independent” of American power, using its freedom to play Russia off against the U.S. To place such importance as noting Biden’s remarks to Modi during his visit, with Modi’s independence of what Biden thinks, shows the usual lack of education in history which I find, constantly, in news reporting.
You are as outraged as I am, and I am grateful for your pointing out the hypocrisy and the jump on the bandwagon behavior of or elected officials in Washington. The habit of placing motivations or hidden meanings on statements by Pelosi is especially galling.
*facepalm* George Clooney added his name and star power to the “expel Biden” landslide.
It seems Stephen Colbert did too. My husband won’t let us watch the show because he’s so depressed and angry.
Colbert, much more than Clooney, prides himself on his humility. If he did make this move, it reveals the paradoxical hubris at the heart of such self-belief. I’m sure, having visited the White House a time or two, these guys feel like they know Biden. Like they are insiders. But they don’t know the byzantine complexities that would be involved in fulfilling their requests. The person who does is Joe Biden, and as the actual nominee it is his judgment (and judgment call) that controls.
Watched Colbert last night, he was barely funny. The audience didn’t laugh at all sometimes, which is unusual.
Meant to say watched his opening monologue. Dropped it midway, kinda awkward.
Even Colbert knows he went too far and lost his audience.
Trump was an hour late, keeping both his fans in dangerous heat. Nobody at that rally thinks being indicted, “is a lot of fun.” Especially when you’re convicted on 34 felony counts.
A “no holds barred” debate is not a debate. As you say, it would be a shouting match that would favor the guy who lies for a living. Donald is projecting when he says “Biden” doesn’t know what a synagogue is, notwithstanding how many were attacked by Trump’s Fascist zealots. Donald’s obsession with electricity – and windmills that produce it – should be covered as part of his dementia. And why would he hold a rally in heat-stroke alley Florida, the world’s leader for shark attacks?
He also had Barron go on stage before him; my gut says he’s going to try to use his son as a media shield. Apparently he saw the press react to shots at Barron when he was President.
Unlike certain other presidential offspring.
Joe Biden should say he doesn’t play golf with guys who cheat on every hole and every wife. He wouldn’t desecrate a wife’s burial ground by hitting a ball a few feet in front of her buried coffin. Or enable Trump’s grift by holding a golf outing at one of Trump’s own clubs.
How droll for a multimillionaire to lament, while speaking at his own golf club, at an event paid for by the others, including indirectly the USG, that America is becoming a Communist country.
As for Donny not being old or demented, he “read his teleprompter cue to speak quickly out loud,” as if it were part of his speech. To add another rotten cherry onto the signs of his dementia, he claimed that he would rather take money from small dollar donors than the wealthy. It’s either one of his more obvious lies or his decision not to accept help from Marco Rubio’s $37 billion dollar donor.
Trump yesterday: “I don’t want to take money from millionaires.”
Trump a month ago: “MILLIONAIRES, I NEED MONEY! If you give it to me, I’ll give you whatever you want as President!”
To oil industry CEOs, every one of them a multimillionaire, in effect, “Give me a billion dollars for my campaign [and, sotto voce, my legal bills], and as president, I’ll give you whatever policies you want.”
Donny doesn’t sound hesitant to take money from millionaires – or anybody else. In fact, he’s been doing it his whole life.
I’ve been promoting the idea that a climate billionaire – Bloomberg, Gates, Steyer, even Elmo – should offer $2 billion to get Trmp to change his position on climate and the environment. It would call his bluff.
Not that Trmp would keep to any such agreement.
The problem, at least in the eyes of those calling for President Biden to withdraw from the race, is that he isn’t making the kind of statements you (and they, and I) think he should make. Or to the limited degree when he does, he’s not very clear about it.
Excellent piece, thank you.
Re: “I listened to this nauseating dreck this morning and it’s awful.”
I wish you ‘mind buds’, a conceptual equivalent to ear buds.
Listening to this stuff, not unlike moderating, can take its toll.
I’m sorry to do this to everyone, but if there’s a single statement that shows how far GONE Donald Trump is a this point, it’s this one:
“He said someone told him that he looks “great in a bathing suit.” Barf.”
Beauty—and veracity—are in the eye of the beholder, but I’d probably go with “like an uncooked turducken.”
Well, that “Depends” on what else he may or may not (ewww!) be wearing.
When Donald Trump uses “someone said,” he means Donald Trump said. As for how he looks in a bathing suit, even one from 1910, Trump didn’t say when “someone” said that. Fifty years ago, it might have been true.
You know, I am inclined to believe that someone told him that. I mean, I have learned, via this very blog, that he has a person on staff to follow him around and print out news articles praising him, which he reads.
Of course there are people who tell him he looks great in a bathing suit.
And let me stipulate that nobody my age or older looks great in a bathing suit. Some look “ok”. You know, “not bad for his age”. Nobody looks “great”.
Well, I’m in my 40’s, but I am overweight, and I would NEVER wear a bathing suit. Hell, I never wear shorts!
Fat guys NEVER look good in shorts.
LOL. That Trump has a paid courtier, making little more than minimum wage, tell him what he wants to hear, that’s not an opinion, it’s a script written by Trump.
I believe ToldainDarkwater is referring to something that came out during the trial; reporters noticed a woman in court who would keep coming up and handing Trump slips of paper, so, assuming she was a defense lawyer or an advisor or something, they went to figure out who she was. And what they found it is that she’s an ex-Russia Today reporter Trump hired for a single job; to surf the Internet, find stories about how awesome he is, and hand them to him on an hourly basis so he has a constant stream of “YOU ARE THE GREATEST!” stories coming every day.
Then ToldainDarkwater should say that. But your argument proves my point.
They asked Pelosi about Biden, and she told them she was backing him, and it was *his decision”.
https://mas.to/@[email protected]/112763065552784836
link to image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GSIhlWjXUAA5XP7?format=jpg&name=small
Yep, and the NYT is already using this as “proof” the Dem leadership is trying to force Joe out. Proof?
“Nancy said they’re talking about it!”
A full misquote of what she actually said, but based on the last week, it appears misquotes and lies aren’t a problem fo the Times anymore. And Pelosi’s already ripping them on social media for it.
Also observed by Prof. Jeff Jarvis.
The folks who teach journalism are regularly noting these gross abuses by media and yet the media refuses to change their practice. Is the entire profession under attack by its members at NYT and WaPo?
Nicolle Wallace’s lead off panel (Maya Gay and Matt Dowd) did a hit on Biden.
Gay said she was feeling so uncomfortable, poor thing.
Both Jeff Bezos and the Sulzberger Family, owners of the WAPO and NYTimes, respectively, have turned their respective newspapers into replicas of the National Enquirer.
I’m surprised David Pecker doesn’t yet have an ownership interest in both papers; then again, maybe he has an ownership agreement that is not in writing.
And the writers at both papers, especially writers like Sanger and Dowd at the NYTimes, have become political prostitutes looking for one last hurrah before retiring. And when they retire, I’m betting each will spend most of their retired time outside the US.
As for Senator Michael Bennett, he’s coveted being president for a while now. Unfortunately, his latest comments are premature, ham-handed and amateurish.
And George Clooney, I hope he had the courage and integrity to speak to Biden privately about his decision to publicly state Biden should abandon his campaign. If he didn’t, shame on him.
George Clooney is a lightweight. He has about as much authority in his persona as a bed of seaweed. Commercial success in Hollywood is not a crucible by fire, such as being President of the United States of America.
When he has something of credit to offer the free world other than the famous waggle of his head, I’ll listen to him…Hell will freeze over in the meantime.
This validates my decision to cancel my WaPo subscription. And I don’t agree with Dems making any change decisions until they get assurances from WaPo, NY Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN that a replacement would be treated more fairly than previous Democrats, and that those media will finally hold Trump accountable for what he has done and what comes out of his mouth.
Also, I would like to do an informal survey. Are the inequities in today’s mainstream media political coverage more the product of laziness or management policy?
It’s both.
Add to that access to power and, in some cases perhaps, fear.
A refreshing take on the campaign to oust Biden. But it doesn’t explain the obsession displayed by the NYT and the WaPo.
“Why the Bid to Push Out Biden Is Losing: It’s perceived, rather correctly, as coming from an out-of-touch elite donor class without public legitimacy.”
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-07-09-why-bid-to-push-out-biden-is-losing/
Because most of the higher ups at the NYT and the WaPo hobnob with and mostly cover said out-of-touch elite donor class, and weigh their opinions more highly than they really should.
I remember it being noted in 2016 that the Beltway media has insulted itself in a bubble where they are the higher ups, proclaiming from on high how things are. And the message they took from missing Trump in 2016 is that they hadn’t asked enough conservatives in red state diners to weigh in.
There’s also another big problem with that article; it’s written by an ex-Beltway insider, and the entire thrust of it is that EVERYONE is out of touch and should donate to a random “grassroots” group that suddenly appeared a couple of days ago to demand Joe and Kamala both drop out in favor of… An unnamed candidate.
And the suggestion given partway down the article, that the Dem party doesn’t get money from average Americans anymore… Just WHAT? WTF is this guy talking about?
You’re probably the first person to call David Dayen an “ex-Beltway insider.”
His point is fundamentally that the grassroots need a voice at the table. Unlike the elite campaign to quite Joe, Dayen admits that there’s no apparent successor to Biden, or even a process to replace him.
He’s not asking for donations to a week-old group. He’s saying the Democratic elites focus more on fundraising from elites than the rank and file, and they should rethink that. Traditional corporatist Democrats, like Adam Schiff, who successfully opposed Katie Porter, illustrates his point.
Dayen 7/9/24:
The story he links to is from The Western Journal: Camera Catches Sign Begging Joe to Step Aside RIGHT BEHIND HIM at ‘I’m Running’ Speech 7/5/24
What does he mean by that “coy”? More about that sign:
He Told Biden to ‘Pass the Torch.’ It Cost Him His Role in a State Campaign. Clint Keaveny, an outspoken volunteer, was removed from a Democratic congressional campaign for holding up a protest sign at a Biden rally. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/09/us/biden-democrats-pass-the-torch-sign.html July 9, 2024
Photo caption:
As Bob Dylan so famously said, “Money doesn’t talk; it screams.”
Wherever this stuff is coming from, it amounts to a form of hysteria which has its generation in a numbing of the intellect by reading Editorials and political analysis by lightweight thinkers. But, when even the likes of Paul Krugman pile on, one wonders, have they lost their minds?
If any one of these “serious” people stopped to think for themselves, could they at least imagine how much glee Putin is getting out of this? It seems downright un-American to want to discard the will of the People who voted for Biden in the Primaries. Have they even considered how this avalanche of
repetitive behavior is disruptive to the entire Democratic Process, guaranteed by the Constitution? It’s as if they have already started the 2025 engine before Trump could even be elected!
I am beyond outraged! Doesn’t anybody in power and influence care about Democracy?
Nope, because they already have it. (some exceptions)
A little OT but related.
When news and social media fall for propaganda sourced from RU:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c72ver6172do
https://www.wlrn.org/florida-news/2024-05-30/once-a-sheriffs-deputy-in-florida-now-a-source-of-disinformation-from-russia
“A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.
A former Florida police officer who relocated to Moscow is one of the key figures behind it.” -BBC
From Reuters, yesterday:
“US Justice Department says it disrupted Russian social media influence operation”
[snip]
The Justice Department secured court approval to seize two domain names and search nearly 1,000 social media accounts allegedly associated with the effort.
“With these actions, the Justice Department has disrupted a Russian-government backed, AI-enabled propaganda campaign to use a bot farm to spread disinformation in the United States and abroad,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-justice-dept-says-it-disrupted-russian-social-media-influence-operation-2024-07-09/
Makes me want to punch that ex-cop, selling out his country like that.
Of course they had to bring an American turncoat into this. Their first attempt was obvious to anyone with a functioning brain.
First question that would have popped into a thinking American’s brain: “If this is an American newspaper, why does it seem unusually obsessed with the President of Ukraine?”
This is an example of why we need to stress critical thinking in our education system. The loss of print media to the masses means that folks won’t be able to do what we did as students in the late 1950s: sit down with a newspaper, a blue pencil and a red one. Use the blue one to underline the obvious facts. Use the red one to underline opinion or editorializing, not backed by facts. These days, an exercise such as this would mean an awful lot of red pencil. I still do this, mentally, as I read and listen to news reports.
Skepticism is a very valuable tool.
This is the perfect time to donate to the Biden campaign.
I don’t know if this TPM piece is paywalled, but it has some pretty convincing reader pushback on the “let’s ride with Joe, we’ll be fine” camp that Josh and David Kurtz have been propping up.
The Do-Something Caucus Responds In Force
I have to admit to vacillating wildly on this. I really think the damage is done (the debate no one can unsee).
Oh, this is the kind of response which verifies my statement above. Lightweight “thinking” making opinions about things of which they have no direct knowledge.
Yes, the Debate was a failure. The format was not adhered to, with a rebuttal of facts to counter Trump’s lies. Are you protesting that? And, if you are to judge a man such as Biden on one performance under the stress of multiple international trips and a cold, you might ask yourself if you would liked to be judged incompetent at your job based on one bad day.
A combination of Democrat politicians opining that Biden should step down perpetuates media coverage of the issue and is self fulfilling prophecy of failure that diminishes the possibility of a Biden win. These Democrats wouldn’t be competent poker players.
Replying to Magbeth4
July 10, 2024 at 5:05 pm:
Verdad.
By law, Media Literacy education is now a requirement in CA K-12.
Lucky California. Florida’s excuse for a Governor, DeSantis, thinks “Critical Thinking” means “wokeness.”