Let's be real. The Beltway press corps, especially the pundits, are actively cheering for a Republican sweep in November followed by the return in glory of Trump in 2024. They know it will be a circus. They know it will be a clusterfuck. They know it might spell the end of democracy as we know it. But they don't care. Circuses and clusterfucks are easy to write about and generate a lot of clicks. And they already have the stories written blaming Democrats for the dend of democracy.
Why didn't the Biden Administration sell this anniversary? They've got the biggest bully pulpit in the world and I wish they would make more and better use of it.
Very off topic, but I was going to let me membership run out. Trying to limit my political intake since it just makes me so angry and frustrated.
Then I was watching MSNBC, and there was an expert on a panel saying that the situation with the Polish jets was “convoluted,” but why couldn’t the Biden administration just give the jets to Ukraine. All I could think of was, you just said it was convoluted, your words. That’s not a recipe of just doing it. How do you get the jets to Ukraine. This isn’t putting some groceries in the back of your SUV and taking them to grandmas. You don’t just put jets on the back of flat bed trucks. Have Ukrainian pilots go to a US base in Germany and fly them through a number of restricted airspaces? Sure, Russia would be just fine with that. Or have US pilots fly them to Ukraine, and maybe end up in a dogfight with Russian jets – as if Russia wouldn’t be able to track all the efforts to get the jets to Ukraine. This same expert mentioned how Zelenskyy was single-handily getting Europe on his side. Yup, no help from Biden and the US. Do these experts seriously think anything would have been done but for the pressure done by the Biden administration.
After that, realized we still need to support all this effort trying to limit that damage being done by MSM. And it is damage – they are completely unable to give any support to the Biden administration. Trump got his “presidential” moment(s), but Biden just gets criticism for trying to keep the US out of WW3 while doing everything else to support Ukraine. Including making tough decisions such as the oil cutoff.
The distinction I don't see in the press is that rolling back restrictions is not the same as rejecting all mitigation and safety measure. I went to the supermarket yesterday. I wore my mask inside the store. I will continue doing it. I rarely go to restaurants outside of my immediate neighborhood. Since I'm sober (and have been for a while), I'm not jonesing to go to any happy-hours or parties to get plastered. I'll continue working from home until my boss demands I actually be there. In that case, I'll try to negotiate some sort of hybrid weekly schedule because, honestly, I don't need to be there to get things done. I don't give a damn whether real estate companies in Manhattan need to make money or to spend $10 minimum on a lunch I can make cheaper at home. None of these things are important enough for me to get sick or make my wife sick.
The "end" of Covid as a pandemic might happen this year or next year, but ending restrictions because members of the press are itching to go bar-hopping and then wake up next to someone the next morning feeling ashamed is not a good enough reason for it.
But if we get another variant that causes an uptick, the DC political media brothel--the chief chucktodd of them all, madam; Margaret Brennan, executive director of not following up on questions--will blame him for it. Guaranteed.
We've been through a period of covid schmovid and it didn't turn out well. I hope we're not there again. I don't trust mutations to stop. Still, better news is better news. For now.
Every time the tv news does a segment on the national average price of gas. I think it's $4.23 a gallon now. They will show some gas station where gas is like 6 or 7 dollars a gallon. I don't know where those gas stations are. I'm guessing CA or something. That's not my local station. We are $3.89 a gallon. I live in CO. Why do they show these outlier gas stations? I believe it's intentional. Yes the reporters says what the national average, but they show something very different. Images tend to be more powerful and impactful, then the words you hear.
I too have been appalled that the media coverage of Biden’s handling of covid has been unfairly and relentlessly negative. Google the world map of covid hotspots and you will see that the US is doing far better now than a large section of Europe and Asia. You would never know that from the media coverage. I don’t think this link is behind the Times’s paywall. Scroll down for the world map of hotspots:
However I strongly disagree with this explanation: “it’s more compelling and likely more alluring to news consumers”. As I have posted before there is now good evidence that people are actually more likely to pay attention to stories about solutions to problems than they are to negative stories problem-centered stories.
That study was done in several media markets and is good proof that the the claim that most people prefer negative stories is not true. I suspected it never has been. I remember when local media decided to switch to the “if it bleeds it leads” approach to local news. At that time it was clear that the big reason was that it was cheaper to produce than more substantive stories.
At some point before the midterms, the Biden Administration one of those tick-box lists of accomplishments, and I expect that our Failed Political Press ™ will either ignore it entirely or frame it as a desperate attempt to prove efficacy.
Our media really is a no-win operation for this administration.
Can’t the press handle two big stories at the same time; walk, chew gum? Wall to wall coverage of Putin’s war has eclipsed everything else that is reported. Truly, the war is horrific and good coverage of the facts, human suffering, atrocities etc. is what the press should do but, as Eric states, what the hell ever happened to COVID? Good news for Biden is good news for the country when it comes to Covid. I guess it’s just not that interesting for the msm to give kudos to Biden for a job well done. BORING. And covid is far from over. If only to be a fly on the wall in the media bubble msm occupies when news editors meet and decide what they think the public SHOULD know rather than what we must know.
The press roots for the anti-democrats. The first thing trump would do if armageddon comes to pass is silence the press and replace the entire industry with OAN. On a happier note, I have no doubt that PressRun is required reading in the nation's most influential news outlets, and our words do matter. Hold Fast.
In lieu of my usual cynicism, a query: I wonder just how large the audience for the media spew of this kind of coverage and how that group overlaps with voters. I know, polls suggest it can be influential but I really wonder, at least in this case, whether the BS will stick electorally.
But I have to say, the contrast between the Biden/Covid coverage and the Trump/Covid coverage kind of cracks me up given the non-stop passes the latter gets despite his response has been literally deadly.
The Beltway Buffoons are more interested in filling the airwaves with cynicism, despair & hopelessness when it comes to the Biden administration since any good news coming would mean they would have truthfully report that a "boring" leader is better than an unhinged, bigoted, conspiracy spewing, authoritarian, corrupt, and all-around awful person who mainly supplies those jackasses with 24-7 content to attract clicks & views.
Let's be real. The Beltway press corps, especially the pundits, are actively cheering for a Republican sweep in November followed by the return in glory of Trump in 2024. They know it will be a circus. They know it will be a clusterfuck. They know it might spell the end of democracy as we know it. But they don't care. Circuses and clusterfucks are easy to write about and generate a lot of clicks. And they already have the stories written blaming Democrats for the dend of democracy.
Why didn't the Biden Administration sell this anniversary? They've got the biggest bully pulpit in the world and I wish they would make more and better use of it.
Very off topic, but I was going to let me membership run out. Trying to limit my political intake since it just makes me so angry and frustrated.
Then I was watching MSNBC, and there was an expert on a panel saying that the situation with the Polish jets was “convoluted,” but why couldn’t the Biden administration just give the jets to Ukraine. All I could think of was, you just said it was convoluted, your words. That’s not a recipe of just doing it. How do you get the jets to Ukraine. This isn’t putting some groceries in the back of your SUV and taking them to grandmas. You don’t just put jets on the back of flat bed trucks. Have Ukrainian pilots go to a US base in Germany and fly them through a number of restricted airspaces? Sure, Russia would be just fine with that. Or have US pilots fly them to Ukraine, and maybe end up in a dogfight with Russian jets – as if Russia wouldn’t be able to track all the efforts to get the jets to Ukraine. This same expert mentioned how Zelenskyy was single-handily getting Europe on his side. Yup, no help from Biden and the US. Do these experts seriously think anything would have been done but for the pressure done by the Biden administration.
After that, realized we still need to support all this effort trying to limit that damage being done by MSM. And it is damage – they are completely unable to give any support to the Biden administration. Trump got his “presidential” moment(s), but Biden just gets criticism for trying to keep the US out of WW3 while doing everything else to support Ukraine. Including making tough decisions such as the oil cutoff.
The distinction I don't see in the press is that rolling back restrictions is not the same as rejecting all mitigation and safety measure. I went to the supermarket yesterday. I wore my mask inside the store. I will continue doing it. I rarely go to restaurants outside of my immediate neighborhood. Since I'm sober (and have been for a while), I'm not jonesing to go to any happy-hours or parties to get plastered. I'll continue working from home until my boss demands I actually be there. In that case, I'll try to negotiate some sort of hybrid weekly schedule because, honestly, I don't need to be there to get things done. I don't give a damn whether real estate companies in Manhattan need to make money or to spend $10 minimum on a lunch I can make cheaper at home. None of these things are important enough for me to get sick or make my wife sick.
The "end" of Covid as a pandemic might happen this year or next year, but ending restrictions because members of the press are itching to go bar-hopping and then wake up next to someone the next morning feeling ashamed is not a good enough reason for it.
From Mother Jones’ “Leaked Kremlin Memo to Russian Media: It Is “Essential” to Feature Tucker Carlson”
Glenn Greenwald is both furious and green with envy!
But if we get another variant that causes an uptick, the DC political media brothel--the chief chucktodd of them all, madam; Margaret Brennan, executive director of not following up on questions--will blame him for it. Guaranteed.
We've been through a period of covid schmovid and it didn't turn out well. I hope we're not there again. I don't trust mutations to stop. Still, better news is better news. For now.
Every time the tv news does a segment on the national average price of gas. I think it's $4.23 a gallon now. They will show some gas station where gas is like 6 or 7 dollars a gallon. I don't know where those gas stations are. I'm guessing CA or something. That's not my local station. We are $3.89 a gallon. I live in CO. Why do they show these outlier gas stations? I believe it's intentional. Yes the reporters says what the national average, but they show something very different. Images tend to be more powerful and impactful, then the words you hear.
I too have been appalled that the media coverage of Biden’s handling of covid has been unfairly and relentlessly negative. Google the world map of covid hotspots and you will see that the US is doing far better now than a large section of Europe and Asia. You would never know that from the media coverage. I don’t think this link is behind the Times’s paywall. Scroll down for the world map of hotspots:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
However I strongly disagree with this explanation: “it’s more compelling and likely more alluring to news consumers”. As I have posted before there is now good evidence that people are actually more likely to pay attention to stories about solutions to problems than they are to negative stories problem-centered stories.
https://sjn-static.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithGeiger2020.pdf
That study was done in several media markets and is good proof that the the claim that most people prefer negative stories is not true. I suspected it never has been. I remember when local media decided to switch to the “if it bleeds it leads” approach to local news. At that time it was clear that the big reason was that it was cheaper to produce than more substantive stories.
Ps. Gas prices went down to under $100 per gallon, 8%. Let’s see how this gets handled in the msm.
At some point before the midterms, the Biden Administration one of those tick-box lists of accomplishments, and I expect that our Failed Political Press ™ will either ignore it entirely or frame it as a desperate attempt to prove efficacy.
Our media really is a no-win operation for this administration.
Can’t the press handle two big stories at the same time; walk, chew gum? Wall to wall coverage of Putin’s war has eclipsed everything else that is reported. Truly, the war is horrific and good coverage of the facts, human suffering, atrocities etc. is what the press should do but, as Eric states, what the hell ever happened to COVID? Good news for Biden is good news for the country when it comes to Covid. I guess it’s just not that interesting for the msm to give kudos to Biden for a job well done. BORING. And covid is far from over. If only to be a fly on the wall in the media bubble msm occupies when news editors meet and decide what they think the public SHOULD know rather than what we must know.
The press roots for the anti-democrats. The first thing trump would do if armageddon comes to pass is silence the press and replace the entire industry with OAN. On a happier note, I have no doubt that PressRun is required reading in the nation's most influential news outlets, and our words do matter. Hold Fast.
In lieu of my usual cynicism, a query: I wonder just how large the audience for the media spew of this kind of coverage and how that group overlaps with voters. I know, polls suggest it can be influential but I really wonder, at least in this case, whether the BS will stick electorally.
But I have to say, the contrast between the Biden/Covid coverage and the Trump/Covid coverage kind of cracks me up given the non-stop passes the latter gets despite his response has been literally deadly.
The Beltway Buffoons are more interested in filling the airwaves with cynicism, despair & hopelessness when it comes to the Biden administration since any good news coming would mean they would have truthfully report that a "boring" leader is better than an unhinged, bigoted, conspiracy spewing, authoritarian, corrupt, and all-around awful person who mainly supplies those jackasses with 24-7 content to attract clicks & views.
It's a real simple equation: GOP victory + resultant Chaos = ratings $.