US Politics, September 2024 -- “I’m Not Going to Apologize For Posting a Joke”

because it hurts their bottom line

I mean I think it's true that the main MSM bias is in favor of drama, they love shifting narratives and drama, if they stated the obvious that one of the two candidates literally cannot answer a single policy question it would upset the balance they're trying to strike

that said it really is so fucking irriating to see, like Biden took so much shit for saying things like "we defeated Medicare" at the debate that he was basically forced to drop out, well guess what Trump says shit like that every time he opens his mouth

that thing the other day where trump was talking about people in new hampshire voting for biden in this election...

don't remember if someone put that clip on here.

Alexa stanning for Harris

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant has caused an uproar among conservatives after viral videos showed the device giving supportive answers about voting for Kamala Harris, while refusing to respond to similar questions about Donald Trump.

The issue was due to a software update intended to improve the quality of Alexa’s functions and its artificial intelligence operations, according to leaked documents obtained by the Washington Post.

When asked why someone should vote for Harris, videos showed the device listing positive qualities of the Democratic nominee. Asked the same question about Trump, Alexa gave a stock answer that it could not promote or give answers about specific political candidates.

at some point we need to accept that the simplest explanation is that the NYT (institutionally and at the individual reporter level) wants trump to win. i don't know why people tie themselves in knots to avoid that when they're happy to assume it about CNN or Fox News or the WSJ or whatever.

to be fair Trump does not really have a single positive quality, in fact it's actually difficult to imagine a worse human being, unless you looked at say his running mate

well guess what Trump says shit like that every time he opens his mouth

To what extent is this the same ol' literally-but-not-seriously / seriously-but-not-literally divide?

Similarly, shit like why most major American political media just sounds like upper-middle class types talking to other upper-middle class types.

Part of these reasons would probably relate to why they just can’t say that Trump’s been in obvious decline or that it’s a big sign of massive problems across all system-wide that our ruling class types are all senescent.

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Friday, September 6, 2024 1:54 PM (forty-three

Actually, even Morning Joe has devoted two consecutive shows to "this guy is losing it" this week

Trump's mental incapacity would get more coverage if Republicans were the ones pointing it out, because then the story would be "Senator So-and-so breaks with Trump," which would be a surprising, exciting news story and would allow the media to air the idea without having to bring it up themselves (and subject themselves to accusations of liberal bias). On the other hand, if Trump is saying crazy stuff, and Democrats are the only ones getting worked up about it, then that's the status quo and seen as not newsworthy.

Actually, even Morning Joe has devoted two consecutive shows to "this guy is losing it" this week

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, September 6, 2024 1:40 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

its not even the "we're gonna deport 13 million people on Day 1" stuff anymore it's him turning simple questions about abortion and the budget into long rants about Venezuelan crime gangs and how he's been treated worse than every president in history

Indeed, there's been so much additional media coverage of his rambling lately that Trump felt compelled to issue a defense, the Theory of the Weave, which purportedly greatly impressed his alleged coterie of English professors.

lol that was in response to YMP's post actually

I'm not invested in the Greg Sargent and Jay Rosen takes because I do consume some media and, yes, while Peter Baker-type hacks still cling to their on the one hand/on the other hand reporting style, shows like, as I pointed out, "Morning Joe" devote 15 minutes to showing, "Here's Kamala Harris addressing tax policy, you may disagree but she sounds coherent; now here's Donald Trump, who sounds like a sixth grader faking his way through a book report of a book he didn't read." That was just this morning (I happened to be flipping channels as I exercised).

MSNBC shows are a pretty notable exception to that rule

People younger than me don't watch Lester Holt -- they're on TikTok. I've no idea how they consume news or if they care. So I don't know who needs convincing. The Trump-is-crazy-don't-you-SEE approach has an overtone of pleading. Hence the success of the Harris campaign -- they're pointing out his insanity without asking why. "Here it is, aren't they WEIRD?"

I'm not saying the media needs to make the case that Trump is insane, I'm saying they need to present what the man is actually saying. Do not write headlines like "Trump reveals his plans for curbing inflation" to cover a press event where he rambled about crowd sizes and Hannibal Lecter for 90 minutes and then said some bullshit about tariffs where he gets all the facts exactly wrong. Cover him the same way they did Biden!

OK, maybe Jon Tester is running the right kind of campaign for Montana after all. He held an event in Bozeman (the state's most expensive and newcomer-stuffed city) yesterday alongside Planned Parenthood Action Fund President & CEO Alexis McGill Johnson and said this:

“We’re all here tonight because of freedom. That’s what’s on the ballot. If there’s one thing that makes you a Montanan, it’s your love of freedom. You don’t want a politician, or a bureaucrat, or a judge, telling you – especially if you’re a woman – what health care decisions you’re gonna make. Roe v. Wade being overturned was the biggest reduction of freedom in my lifetime, and yours too. But we’ve got some things we can do about it: We’ve gotta go to the polls this November and vote. Elections matter.”

The only way this video from last night's meeting of the Saline County GOP could have been any better would be if a vagabond squirrel had started the fight by jumping onto the head of one of the participants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSBLPyfxwGk

Okay so apparently Overalls Guy said "go polish your nose ring" to a woman named Kandi Cox. Pink Shirt guy rose in defense of Cox, and believes himself to have been acting in self-defense when he threw the first punch. He later blogged, "I am like country music—I’m here to stay."

But I agree a squirrel would have improved things.

incredible story. tbf “go polish your nose ring” is both an objectively funny thing to say and also acknowledged as fightin’ words in all 50 states iirc - yet somehow not the most legendary thing to be said that evening

man that is a beautiful punch. he has to jump to land it, which isn't ideal, but he plants both feet first, he's thinking two steps ahead, and he drops the guy like a sack of potatoes.

tired - "go get your shine box"
wired - "go polish your nose ring"

Enjoying all the tut-tutting in this piece:

https://www.bentoncourier.com/news/fight-breaks-out-at-saline-county-republican-committee-meeting-saline-county-officials-call-for-abolition/article_0031132a-6c66-11ef-b3ae-fb0095165179.html

If you want to know what kind of guy Overalls Guy is, well, unsurprising:

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2023/04/18/things-got-wacky-in-fight-over-childrens-books-at-saline-county-quorum-court-meeting

Ha, I've been to Saline County. My ex-gf's mom used to ask me to drive to the next county to buy beer... I think there was 'Last Chance Liquors' on one side of the road, and 'County Line Liquors' on the other

The creativity of the species at work.

how is Kandi Cox not a porn name

It’s hard to know how much of the “media needs to talk about Trump’s incoherence more” talk is reacting to a real thing and how much is just an expression of frustration at how little any negative framing of what Trump does seem to matter. And then how much of the issue is a feedback-loop mixture of the two: we’re perceiving the media not bothering to focus on the issue much because they don’t feel like their attempts will be received as newsworthy.

It’s useful to compare with the media coverage of Vance, which feels more relentlessly negative. I wonder if it actually is, or it’s just that we and the media implicitly acknowledge that by them writing and us reading these takedowns we are joining hands in a project of defining who this person “is” for political purposes - so what feels like a harsher tone is really just an awareness of potential real world impact. I think if Vance had said the exact same thing about gender affirmation surgery in schools it would have been a much bigger story.

Regardless of tone, coverage of Trump’s awfulness always has a world-weary feel to it. “Trump said this awful thing, if you even care.”

at some point we need to accept that the simplest explanation is that the NYT (institutionally and at the individual reporter level) wants trump to win. i don't know why people tie themselves in knots to avoid that when they're happy to assume it about CNN or Fox News or the WSJ or whatever.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, September 6, 2024 2:30 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is not true and I can’t figure out why someone would think it was true.

Which part seems untrue to you? The Times has a ton to gain from another Trump term: chaos sells subscriptions, Trump has a weird parasocial bond with Maggie Haberman which ensures them a steady flow of interviews (unlike Biden and Harris, who have frozen them out), the owners are rich and will benefit from Trump's presumed tax policies...

yeah I totally believe the NYT publishers are looking forward to another Trump term, it's pretty fucking obvious

Maybe the money people but the statement was that the reporters want Trump too, which is just bullshit

Dunno how good it is for Harris that the most evil VP in recent US history is supporting her over Trump but maybe it will convince some conservative fence sitters to not vote for Trump

yeah, was thinking the same.. maybe it'll give permission for more of the old guard to follow suit

I was more surprised that Liz Cheney endorsed Colin Allred over Ted Cruz.

no one fucking likes Ted Cruz

She'd endorse Bernie Sanders over that toad

Well, yeah.

Cruz also a huge J6 guy who talked a ton of shit about her & Kinzinger.

Maybe the money people but the statement was that the reporters want Trump too, which is just bullshit

i talked about that on one of these monthly threads. how they just shrugged their shoulders at trump's "wacky" "hyperbole" from day one. any other candidate would have been taken 100% seriously. he was a cartoon. and treated like one. that was the fatal mistake.

anyone else would have immediately been asked "where do you get these numbers that 20 million murderers and rapists are coming into the country illegally. can you show us where you get this information." but trump just gets to repeat this shit for 9 years.

yeah he lost three billion dollars because of Kamala in San Francisco, but he didn't care, didn't care

he was a cartoon. and treated like one. that was the fatal mistake.

yeah tbh the libs ate that heel act up as well

It’s hard to know how much of the “media needs to talk about Trump’s incoherence more” talk is reacting to a real thing and how much is just an expression of frustration at how little any negative framing of what Trump does seem to matter. And then how much of the issue is a feedback-loop mixture of the two: we’re perceiving the media not bothering to focus on the issue much because they don’t feel like their attempts will be received as newsworthy.

we know that Trump is corrupt, evil, racist, etc., we know conservatives don't give a shit because they believe their kind should be able to get away with everything, none of that is new. but there's another story that the media just seems to launder, that he's genuinely saying the kind of shit that would get you to put your parents in a home, he cannot answer a single question, there probably is not a single job on the planet he's qualified to do right now, much less the goddamn President of the United States. instead of reporting on this the media writes shit like "Trump delivers contentious remarks on the economy"

we know that Trump is corrupt, evil, racist, etc., we know conservatives don't give a shit because they believe their kind should be able to get away with everything, none of that is new. but there's another story that the media just seems to launder, that he's genuinely saying the kind of shit that would get you to put your parents in a home, he cannot answer a single question, there probably is not a single job on the planet he's qualified to do right now, much less the goddamn President of the United States. instead of reporting on this the media writes shit like "Trump delivers contentious remarks on the economy"

I just watched the pundits-go-back-and-forth segment on PBS NewsHour, where David Brooks and a "liberal" (usually Jonathan Capehart, but tonight it was Kimberley Atkins Storr of the Boston Globe) talk about the issues, and Storr hammered on the idea that Trump's brain is broken, that he can't finish a sentence, that he can't answer the simplest questions — she said "child care is a gimme question, everyone on the campaign trail gets asked about it" — without rambling out some bullshit. She said that if the Democrats had to have a family sit-down after Biden made one or two low-level mistakes, that it's long past time for the Republicans to talk about their candidate's mental state. Brooks completely sidestepped the question.

Do you have some other source of information for what they believe in their hearts than the endless articles they write that excuse or normalize trump, or grade him on a curve?

Maybe the fact that about 90% of the people who work in the news media are Democrats, which is why it’s so ridiculously easy to get them to treat Republicans with kid gloves so they won’t be accused of bias.

Not talking about the news media. Talking specifically about the politics desk at the New York Times.

I'm not going to harp on this point, but I know or have known several NYT Beltway reporters, all Dems, some with gay or trans kids -- but who cannot, will not, get away from how J-school taught them that Both Sides Matter. It's as simple as that.