I remember that interview between Wolf Blitzer and Nancy Pelosi. Nancy basically ripped him a new one after he made that outrageous claim. She told him the House had passed a bill back in May (2020) which by then months had passed as Wolf stood there stammering like Ralph Kramden. I'm sure the press will soon be touting how the Dems passing through relief that 83 percent of America favors will ring the death knell for them in the midterm elections. Republicans and the DC press have become so predictable. After four years of Trump and coming within an inch of losing our democracy you would think the press would get a clue and change. I guess not.
All everyone has to remember is one simple thing now. Today’s republicans stand for WTF = white supremicist, terrorism & fascism. Democrats stand for all other things.
Yes Eric! I immediately thought of Press Run as the DC press and NYT rolled out these stories. For example, "Congress passes Covid relief." No, Democrats passed the relief bill with ZERO R support. In fact President Biden and WH staff had to wrestle one of their own to the floor.
I have been turning to Jen Psaki for some hope recently. She gets it. "Bipartisan" doesn't mean both sides of Congress. Bipartisan means voters from both parties. And if Psaki gets it, I am hopeful the whole administration gets it.
Let the chatterers chatter. Head down, do the work, reap the benefits.
You can bet Psaki is using that term because Biden’s communications team chose that approach which is how effective communications strategies work. She isn’t the only one in the adminstration saying that.
Yes, and I hope that every Dem hammers on this point - that ZERO Republicans voted for it, but the bill is bipartisan because of the broad voter support for it that crossed party lines. I'd keep saying over and over again how popular this bill is with Republican voters, not just Democratic voters.
Underlying today’s post is one of the things I keep ranting about: On important matters, the establishment press doesn’t inform but only gives the appearance of informing, leaving the audience less informed than had they ignored the reporting. The irony is that the term fake news would be useful except Trump trumped (to coin a phrase) the phrase by using when the press factually criticized him.
And then there’s another of my rants: the same establishment press— not just Fox — actively propagandizes for the GOP. Their leader is literally a killer: not reported. GOP policies and positions have been harmful for the overwhelming majority of the nation’s people: never reported. Honest reporting on the economy: never.
I think the real problem is the establishment political press. They NY Times has been awful for a very long time while at the same time publishing many great investigative pieces making the Times simultaneously excellent and terrible. Ditto for the WaPo.
The Times gets points for being the gold standard everyone copies from but the entire mainstream is awful and being awful has done actual harm to the nation. The reason no one source attracts at least a plurality — that is, they’re all niche outlets — is because they’re all crap.
Gail Collins and Brett Stephens had their weekly comedy duo act at The NY Times today. They both seemed thrilled at idea of Cuomo being replaced by a Republican because “government works better when it’s split between the two parties.” Stephens was also aroused by the idea of a female Governor hitting on male staff members...
Clueless and oblivious - that’s the mainstream media.
How do they get there? The Lt. Gov is a Democrat and NY is not likely to elect a Republican. You're right, too. Splitting power usually means a deadlock on anything important.
They pointed to Massachusetts and Maryland as examples of states where a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature has worked out. Romney was also a decent governor of Massachusetts. However I think the big problem with Cuomo is that the media was impressed by his bullying style just like so many were with Trump’s, at least at first.
I vividly recall Chuck Grassley making change after change to the ACA, getting the Dems to agree to those changes, and then voting against the bill HE amended, and whining to the press that the Republicans had been shut out of the legislative process. The hypocrisy would be breathtaking if it weren't so common. I'm not sure which is worse: that the media remains blind to it, or simply refuses to see and report it.
They refuse to report it. They are neither blind nor dumb. For some reason that entirely escapes me they continue to give the GOP the benefit of the doubt while always hammering on the Democrats.
Most people don’t remember that Republicans did the same thing to Bill Clinton’s health care proposal after they had admitted our system was broken and needed to be reformed. Republicans had been saying they would propose their own bill but then Bill Krystal, still a media fave, told them deny Clinton any bill, to reject it sight unseen so that they could use it against him and win the midterms. Bob Dole then did a 180 and declared our system wasn’t broken after all. None of this behavior is new, it’s just more pervasive and the media prefers to forget about past bad behavior of Republicans.
The Beltway Propatainers are in mourning, along with their Rethug heroes Rand Paul and Pick Any Republican. Every time a starving child is fed and a poor sick child is healed Rand and Chuck Todd pull a wing off of an angel.
Beside's Alterman's blogging and magazine writing, his Sound & Fury, on the Washington DC political punditry brothel, is must reading.
I've noticed that Pope Francis doesn't seem to think papal infallibility is a thing. That just leaves journalistic infallibility, even including the wonderful Marty Baron.
I am not sure that Francis doesn’t believe in infallibility but our right wing US Bishops who openly contradict him suddenly don’t. Actually infallibility only pertains to very rare pronouncements. The last one was made in 1950. Those Bishops have no respect for the Pope’s authority even though they profess to believe it comes from God even if he isn’t speaking under the condition of infallibility. Right wing Christians are like that — they clearly think they are smarter than Jesus who never once spoke about homosexuality or abortion. They clearly believe they know better about what the real threats are.
Not enough people realize that while John Paul II certainly did some great things, he also was to the political right of Attila the Hun, and it showed in his appointments to high church positions.
For me, the moment that will always define Chuck Todd is when he had the privilege of asking the very first question of newly inaugurated Barack Obama at Obama's first White House press conference, and the question he chose to ask was "If Democrats pass a healthcare bill with no Republican votes, will you veto it in the interests of bipartisanship?”
This is always the position of our failed political press, who seem to be the only people who care about bipartisanship. No one, absolutely no one recalls the vote totals on any bill.
The press only cares about bipartisanship when Democrats are in power. They never ask Republicans about it, or if they do (rare) they wonder why Democrats won't play along with the GOP. Ugh, is so frustrating that the media continues to be so terrible about this! Why are they so afraid of the GOP? I don't get it.
I've been saying for years that when Democrats gain power, the media demands that they "pivot to the center," "reach across the aisle," and "seek bipartisan solutions." When Republicans gain power, the media shrugs and says that they can do what they want because they won. This is why Joe and Chuck get no credit for pushing this through but it's okay for Mitch to make his entire caucus work in lockstep attempting to block progress.
Yep. When the GOP wins, no matter how slim the margin, they have a mandate and don't need to work with Dems, but when the Dems win by a lot more, they are supposed to give into the GOP, not just work with them.
Yesterday's front page at Washpo had the triumph for Dems story right after the failure for Dems story on the same topic: passage in the Senate. Makes you wonder if two editors were scrambling for one job.
“Square One” was exactly the song I needed to hear to start my day today. Thanks for this. Getting back to my roots and giving it my best shot feels like a bittersweet victory indeed.
It also feels like Joe Biden and reminds me of what we as a country are experiencing at this moment, starting over, beginning to find peace, or at least “normal,” getting our feet back under us and working to make things right. Excellent song choice.
The Post and Times used to have public editors/ombudsman who tool readers’ complaints and often addressed them. The Post’s Margaret Sullivan used to have that position at the Times. She still responds to emails, at least sometimes. In fact all the Post’s reporters emails are available — just click on their names post with their articles. Some of them also respond. Greg Sargent, like Sullivan, often criticizes the media so they may give you some suggestions which hopefully you will share with the rest of us.
I've gone around and around in my own head about the persistence of Bothsidesism and the cult of bipartisanship, and then one day in despair I pulled out Occam's Razor and started swinging. Todd and Blitzer and the NYT editorial page trolls are all wealthy (mostly white) conservatives whose personal material interests align with the GOP; keep income taxes low, my investments safe and domestic help cheap and plentiful. These folks in turn work for big media companies whose material interests as corporate entities demand deregulation, union-busting and impunity for the Wall St. casino. And even though I enjoyed the job Pelosi did on Wolf, it's worth noting that she and and a big part of the Dem leadership elite are members of the 1% and materially benefit from the GOP policies they decry in public....
I remember that interview between Wolf Blitzer and Nancy Pelosi. Nancy basically ripped him a new one after he made that outrageous claim. She told him the House had passed a bill back in May (2020) which by then months had passed as Wolf stood there stammering like Ralph Kramden. I'm sure the press will soon be touting how the Dems passing through relief that 83 percent of America favors will ring the death knell for them in the midterm elections. Republicans and the DC press have become so predictable. After four years of Trump and coming within an inch of losing our democracy you would think the press would get a clue and change. I guess not.
it was at really bad interview bc Blitzer took the WH bait pretending there *was* a proposal....days later Trump himself trashed it
All everyone has to remember is one simple thing now. Today’s republicans stand for WTF = white supremicist, terrorism & fascism. Democrats stand for all other things.
and voting unanimously against Covid relief actually helps Dems highlight contrast
Adam--I may that one.
Yes Eric! I immediately thought of Press Run as the DC press and NYT rolled out these stories. For example, "Congress passes Covid relief." No, Democrats passed the relief bill with ZERO R support. In fact President Biden and WH staff had to wrestle one of their own to the floor.
I have been turning to Jen Psaki for some hope recently. She gets it. "Bipartisan" doesn't mean both sides of Congress. Bipartisan means voters from both parties. And if Psaki gets it, I am hopeful the whole administration gets it.
Let the chatterers chatter. Head down, do the work, reap the benefits.
You can bet Psaki is using that term because Biden’s communications team chose that approach which is how effective communications strategies work. She isn’t the only one in the adminstration saying that.
Yes, and I hope that every Dem hammers on this point - that ZERO Republicans voted for it, but the bill is bipartisan because of the broad voter support for it that crossed party lines. I'd keep saying over and over again how popular this bill is with Republican voters, not just Democratic voters.
Underlying today’s post is one of the things I keep ranting about: On important matters, the establishment press doesn’t inform but only gives the appearance of informing, leaving the audience less informed than had they ignored the reporting. The irony is that the term fake news would be useful except Trump trumped (to coin a phrase) the phrase by using when the press factually criticized him.
And then there’s another of my rants: the same establishment press— not just Fox — actively propagandizes for the GOP. Their leader is literally a killer: not reported. GOP policies and positions have been harmful for the overwhelming majority of the nation’s people: never reported. Honest reporting on the economy: never.
And here we are.
I think the real problem is the establishment political press. They NY Times has been awful for a very long time while at the same time publishing many great investigative pieces making the Times simultaneously excellent and terrible. Ditto for the WaPo.
The Times gets points for being the gold standard everyone copies from but the entire mainstream is awful and being awful has done actual harm to the nation. The reason no one source attracts at least a plurality — that is, they’re all niche outlets — is because they’re all crap.
Gail Collins and Brett Stephens had their weekly comedy duo act at The NY Times today. They both seemed thrilled at idea of Cuomo being replaced by a Republican because “government works better when it’s split between the two parties.” Stephens was also aroused by the idea of a female Governor hitting on male staff members...
Clueless and oblivious - that’s the mainstream media.
How do they get there? The Lt. Gov is a Democrat and NY is not likely to elect a Republican. You're right, too. Splitting power usually means a deadlock on anything important.
They pointed to Massachusetts and Maryland as examples of states where a Republican governor with a Democratic legislature has worked out. Romney was also a decent governor of Massachusetts. However I think the big problem with Cuomo is that the media was impressed by his bullying style just like so many were with Trump’s, at least at first.
I vividly recall Chuck Grassley making change after change to the ACA, getting the Dems to agree to those changes, and then voting against the bill HE amended, and whining to the press that the Republicans had been shut out of the legislative process. The hypocrisy would be breathtaking if it weren't so common. I'm not sure which is worse: that the media remains blind to it, or simply refuses to see and report it.
They refuse to report it. They are neither blind nor dumb. For some reason that entirely escapes me they continue to give the GOP the benefit of the doubt while always hammering on the Democrats.
Probably because the Dems don't fight back like the GOP does.
Most people don’t remember that Republicans did the same thing to Bill Clinton’s health care proposal after they had admitted our system was broken and needed to be reformed. Republicans had been saying they would propose their own bill but then Bill Krystal, still a media fave, told them deny Clinton any bill, to reject it sight unseen so that they could use it against him and win the midterms. Bob Dole then did a 180 and declared our system wasn’t broken after all. None of this behavior is new, it’s just more pervasive and the media prefers to forget about past bad behavior of Republicans.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/radical-republican-opposition-is-not-new/361536/
The Beltway Propatainers are in mourning, along with their Rethug heroes Rand Paul and Pick Any Republican. Every time a starving child is fed and a poor sick child is healed Rand and Chuck Todd pull a wing off of an angel.
Beside's Alterman's blogging and magazine writing, his Sound & Fury, on the Washington DC political punditry brothel, is must reading.
I've noticed that Pope Francis doesn't seem to think papal infallibility is a thing. That just leaves journalistic infallibility, even including the wonderful Marty Baron.
I am not sure that Francis doesn’t believe in infallibility but our right wing US Bishops who openly contradict him suddenly don’t. Actually infallibility only pertains to very rare pronouncements. The last one was made in 1950. Those Bishops have no respect for the Pope’s authority even though they profess to believe it comes from God even if he isn’t speaking under the condition of infallibility. Right wing Christians are like that — they clearly think they are smarter than Jesus who never once spoke about homosexuality or abortion. They clearly believe they know better about what the real threats are.
Not enough people realize that while John Paul II certainly did some great things, he also was to the political right of Attila the Hun, and it showed in his appointments to high church positions.
For me, the moment that will always define Chuck Todd is when he had the privilege of asking the very first question of newly inaugurated Barack Obama at Obama's first White House press conference, and the question he chose to ask was "If Democrats pass a healthcare bill with no Republican votes, will you veto it in the interests of bipartisanship?”
This is always the position of our failed political press, who seem to be the only people who care about bipartisanship. No one, absolutely no one recalls the vote totals on any bill.
Vote totals stand out on these 3 bills: Obama Stim Package, Obamacare, and now CV-19 relief: Total GOP votes in favor of all three - ZERO.
Clinton health care reform rejected sight unseen so that R’s could win the midterms:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/radical-republican-opposition-is-not-new/361536/
That was the genius Bill Kristol’s idea.
My response to that would have been: “Is that a serious question?” And then I would have moved on to someone else.
Jeez. These people.🙄
Wow I don’t remember that Todd is awful
The press only cares about bipartisanship when Democrats are in power. They never ask Republicans about it, or if they do (rare) they wonder why Democrats won't play along with the GOP. Ugh, is so frustrating that the media continues to be so terrible about this! Why are they so afraid of the GOP? I don't get it.
I've been saying for years that when Democrats gain power, the media demands that they "pivot to the center," "reach across the aisle," and "seek bipartisan solutions." When Republicans gain power, the media shrugs and says that they can do what they want because they won. This is why Joe and Chuck get no credit for pushing this through but it's okay for Mitch to make his entire caucus work in lockstep attempting to block progress.
Yep. When the GOP wins, no matter how slim the margin, they have a mandate and don't need to work with Dems, but when the Dems win by a lot more, they are supposed to give into the GOP, not just work with them.
How does the public get to express outrage to these hacks? It’s just infuriated that these rags can print GOP propaganda!
Yesterday's front page at Washpo had the triumph for Dems story right after the failure for Dems story on the same topic: passage in the Senate. Makes you wonder if two editors were scrambling for one job.
“Square One” was exactly the song I needed to hear to start my day today. Thanks for this. Getting back to my roots and giving it my best shot feels like a bittersweet victory indeed.
It also feels like Joe Biden and reminds me of what we as a country are experiencing at this moment, starting over, beginning to find peace, or at least “normal,” getting our feet back under us and working to make things right. Excellent song choice.
I’m so frustrated by this. What can we do? I share Pressrun with everyone but it’s David vs Goliath.
The Post and Times used to have public editors/ombudsman who tool readers’ complaints and often addressed them. The Post’s Margaret Sullivan used to have that position at the Times. She still responds to emails, at least sometimes. In fact all the Post’s reporters emails are available — just click on their names post with their articles. Some of them also respond. Greg Sargent, like Sullivan, often criticizes the media so they may give you some suggestions which hopefully you will share with the rest of us.
As usual Eric, you totally nailed it with this one.
thanks. I appreciate it
I've gone around and around in my own head about the persistence of Bothsidesism and the cult of bipartisanship, and then one day in despair I pulled out Occam's Razor and started swinging. Todd and Blitzer and the NYT editorial page trolls are all wealthy (mostly white) conservatives whose personal material interests align with the GOP; keep income taxes low, my investments safe and domestic help cheap and plentiful. These folks in turn work for big media companies whose material interests as corporate entities demand deregulation, union-busting and impunity for the Wall St. casino. And even though I enjoyed the job Pelosi did on Wolf, it's worth noting that she and and a big part of the Dem leadership elite are members of the 1% and materially benefit from the GOP policies they decry in public....