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The story I've been expecting to see is a variation on this theme, and it goes like this:

"Republicans in Disarray, and That is Bad for Democrats."

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As an aside, I also see it from the far left if only on social media and news forums. The number of times I've had people come at me because I dared say something dumb like Joe Biden gets to choose and no one else. No one he picks is good enough for the that end of the spectrum. It's going to be years of Joe Biden getting slammed from both sides although the media will be only too happy to tow the right wing talking points.

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That's why even though Trump will be gone after January 20th, don't throw away your Tums just yet. The press will continue to infuriate Dems because it apparently works for them. It's about sales and ratings. Until consumers of news wakeup and see this unfair sideshow that has been going on since the Reagan years, it will be business as usual for the MSM. With no incentive to change, the press will continue the narrative. In a true democracy, the people must participate and that is a main reason why we are in the mess we find ourselves one fifth the way through the 21st century. A bright spot is the voter turnout. That must continue. Look at all the transgressions that Trump committed the last four years. Not even impeachment could stop him. What did was left leaning, passionate, and disgusted voters who now recognize how many Americans are so disenfranchised. That must continue or Biden's victory will be a brief rest stop on the road to authoritarianism.

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The Dems will have a tough balancing act with the addition of refugees from the other side. (Think Steve Schmidt.) Pick just one faction and the coalition falters. That tension should make news, but unbiased and free of tired old story lines. It's the press that's more often in disarray. Laziness abounds. These pages are a useful tool.

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The thing I don’t get about this Dems in disarray scandal-ridden shock jock journalism is that it is was sooo pre-2016. The majority of Americans keep proving to us that they want integrity in journalism, reporting that is vetted and fact-checked, actual non-partisan fair and balanced, reality-based journalism that doesn’t tolerate, much less report, outright lies. And Americans are really sick of scandal and doom and gloom all the time. Why is it the media can’t see this and adjust their format?

Outstanding song choice. You can never go wrong with James Brown. Merry Christmas!

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I knew there was a good reason I decided to be a paid subscriber to Press Run. I've never knocked "the press" or the "mainstream media" or "_________ media" as a monolithic entity that behaves the same and has the same motives, etc. etc. However, so many of them, even my preferred outlets (I'm paid for digital WaPo and watch MSNBC daily) cannot seem to help themselves by creating stories out of nothing with colorful language. They speak like people that are handicapping someone else's fantasy football picks. They act like Chuck Todd whose questions to guests are mostly designed to tease out some theory that Chuck has come up with in his Chuck Todd political algorithm. You can imagine CT riffing over beers about how dynamic X and conventional wisdom Y have intersected with motive Z that must be true given that there's deadline E or else there will be outcome C in which case that would lead to transformation K, and thus we get: "Interesting when you look at both candidates in some ways one not taking the virus seriously enough at all, and one if there's a criticism is he taking it too seriously at least when it comes to campaigning?"

I think our challenge with rooting out the crap that Eric is pointing out is that the offenses don't have a unique name/category/term. It's only, 'look at what they are doing here' and that seems to be all we can do.

Machiavellian

Schadenfreude

Potemkin village

Tautology

Jumping the shark

duplicitous

Spam

clickbait

All these things when said instantly make their point. Every dishonest, overwrought, salacious, exaggerated, superlative laden utterance ought to have a category it falls into so that it can be measured and displayed beyond the ridiculous words and the explanation needed to point out the pattern of shit.

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Bad enough that the Corporate Controlled Conservative Press pushes the "Democrats in disarray" BS 24/7. They're also pushing the "let bygones be bygones and move on" crap that they got away with in 1992 and 2000.

Which is why I hope Joe will name Richard Painter to be a special prosecutor to go after Republican corruption. And start with Kavanagh at the Court. Include all the bribes Clarence Thomas and his crooked wife rake in. Go after Nunes and the Eight Traitors who celebrated July 4th in Moscow with Putin. Go after every damn bit of Republican corruption and if the CCCP whines go after how they lie any lie for the Republican Party!

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I'm sure many in the MSM are wringing hands because they're certain Biden is pandering to "those people" with his appointments (and I'm not talking about Fox). They also love to play the "but Bernie Sanders/AOC/XYZ said..." as if there is a substantive reason why the opinions of The Pures are important enough to warrant special consideration by the national media, other than, of course, to use them as a cudgel to batter Biden.

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Cuing Claude Rains ....

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Amazing how "leftists" like Jimmy Dore and Tulsi sound just like the wackos at Newsmax and OANN...

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Every administration faces challenges in choosing cabinet members who are competent in their new roles, bring much needed new perspectives and who challenge the ideals of some part of the elected party - it happened in the Bush administration, Obama, etc. The Hunter Biden investigation - while representing "a story" - isn't surprising. The media has a responsibility to report information people should know but they need to manage their competitive instincts to one-up their rivals by trying to accentuate the obvious OR the inevitable. If I see one more "Exclusive...." or "Breaking News" on either publicly released information (thus NOT exclusive) or stories that are hours hold (thus NOT breaking news). UGH!!!

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Dems in Disarray continues. Today's example from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/us/politics/vilsack-usda-small-farmers.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage. Any nominee will have opponents, but the Biden Administration will need experienced people to rebuild these agencies. The soy bean markets were single-handedly ripped apart by the Trump Administration and yet we get a quote about a potential for too much regulation. Bottom line: Tom Vilsack was popularly elected twice in a state that went for Trump, has good progressive credentials throughout his career, is the reason that Iowa generates more electricity per capita from wind than any other state in the country and was the longest-serving cabinet official in the Obama Administration.

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Washington Post has been so bad I can not get my head around why they are so intent upon creating these false narratives! I’m completely disgusted with them.

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Two quick points:

The DC press corps has happily supported the GOP since Reagan; no failing or crisis too great for them to minimize as much as possible. Trump didn’t get bad press until he lost the election. Maybe some bad, which is to say honest, press from the beginning literally would have saved tens of thousands of lives this year and avoided mass impoverishment (the scope which the press is minimizing.

As for the Hunter thing: In the real world, Biden has an easy out (publicized thanks to Fat Billy Barr): Hunter is already being investigated by a US Attorney who wasn’t appointed by Biden and who has no loyalty to Biden. You know; about as fair and impartial as you get. That that’s insufficient for or doesn’t matter to the press says everything.

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Everyone can express an opinion. But opinions are not "news" nor "facts". Eric's opinions are provocative, but are they useful? I think not. I flag him under the same moniker I use for Hannity and Fox News.

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