The CCCP--Corporate Controlled Conservative Press put Trump in the White House the same way they did for Dumbya in 2000 and Pruneface Reagan in 1980.
Endless times the CCCP locked the TV cameras on empty Trump podiums waiting for their anointed one to address the crowds whipped up to a frenzy by the CCCP's 24/7 continual character assassination of Hillary Clinton.
Note how the New York Times continues to try to kneecap Joe Biden. Nothing will stop that propaganda rag from their goal of keeping Trump in the White House.
What needs to be done is that the FCC must reinstate the equal time and Fairness Doctrine rules. Then The FCC must reinstate ownership limits to break up the five corporations that control the media to break the hold of the Republican brainwashing.
I hope the history rewrite fails in the Information Age. As you artfully point out, many of the current republican anti-trumpers have statements (with links) documenting what they actually said during 2015-16. There is also the 2017 body of evidence (with links) capturing many who declared those "presidential moments." We all need honest admissions about these mistakes as you know, and you have called for numerous times.
The NYT at the time wrote: "Over the course of the campaign, he has earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention, about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history. It is also twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton, the next best at earning media, took in." ($2 Billion Worth of Free Media, NYT 3/16/2016) The ratings partying carried on with no regard for outcomes.
I would put trump's candidacy and presidency in the same category as this nation's other horrible mistakes. I see similarities in the refusal to admit what happened, address the responsibility of those who participated, make changes and go forward. And it is happening in real time now as right-wing media joins him by ignoring science and advocating sending children back to school in the middle of a raging pandemic.
I admire your commitment to pointing out the gas-lighting.
Excellent post Eric! I wake up every day to Morning Joe (and Mika) because they have taken up the mantle of Trump's wrong doing, bizarre, incoherent, and mostly dangerous behavior. However, it has not become lost on me of how much they enjoyed ratings based on their chummy exchanges with Trump that happened often during the campaign. More recently, Mika grilled Joe Biden over an alleged sexual assault that has since completely unraveled. Where was this intense scrutiny four years ago when they consistently teed up softballs for Trump prior to the election? Hillary Clinton, love her or hate her, was the most prepared candidate to be president perhaps in history. That doesn't mean she would have been a great president but there was nothing about how government is supposed to work that she did not know. Yet Mika and Joe never failed to bash her whenever they saw fit. Trump is the anti Hillary. What Trump's base got through a faulty electoral system is what they feared they would have gotten had Hillary won. That's the fault of the media and Joe and Mika share quite a bit of that blame.
I will never forgive the media for what they did to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Not only were they complicit in every single thing Trump is doing to us now, but they continue to give him cover while not learning from or even acknowledging or correcting their mistakes.
Real justice would be for Joe Biden to choose Hillary Clinton as his VP, and then step down after 3-4 years to give her the presidency.
Willie Geist should not get a pass. At last Joe and Mike call out Trump today. Geist still calls Trump's actions "political" or miscalculations, and if there is a story about Ivanka or Jared, Willie Geist is johnny-on-the-spot defending them and bringing up something "but the Democrats.
Geist was also friends with Trump. Geist's wife and he may hold their noses when they vote again for Trump this year, or perhaps they write in Nikki Haley this year.
Seriously. It seemed every time Hillary's name came up on AM Joe during the 2016 campaign, you could bet your next paycheck that Mika would say, "But those emails," or "I want to see what's in those emails." (Imagine the tsk tsk.) Anyway, it got annoying, I don't recall Clinton being on the show ever, but I stopped watching bc the gushing over "the donald" got to be too much. Always wondered what caused Mika to be so anti-Hillary--esp. by the woman-centered "Know Your Value" advocate.
Eric great column as always, thank you so much for not only point out Mika's blatant gaslighting but also documenting Hillary Clinton's warnings about Trump presidency. With so much media animus then/now directed at Hillary, it still surprises how so few acknowledge the accuracy of her predictions about Donald.
And how Mika & Joe normalized Trump until they too got burned...
"... temperamentally unfit to hold an office" sounds like it came directly out of his niece's book.
Mika is always promoting herself as a champion of women, writing books and giving advice telling women how to stand up for themselves. She doesn’t seem to understand that she is the child of a prominent, highly respected man and That the Brzezinski name has given her a tremendous advantage. She clearly believes the reason NBC decided to increase her salary to match Joe’s was her skill at negotiating, not the fact that she has been a member of the club her entire life.
Meanwhile the media is giving a ton of attention to Mary Trump but conveniently ignoring the fact that she puts a lot of blame on the media, especially the New York media, for enabling Trump for decades. Here criticisms don’t pull any punches:
“In the 1970s........the New York media picked up the baton and began disseminating Donald’s hype. “ p. 11
In 1975 Donald gave a press conference where he showed his architect’s plan for the Grand Hyatt implying that he had already won the contract. The media printed that claim as true.
P. 105
“.... his exaggerated assessment of himself was simultaneously fueled by banks that were throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at him and a media that lavished him with attention and unwarranted praise.” P. 137
The more New Yorkers wanted spectacle the more the media were willing to provide it. Why bore them with hard-to-follow articles about his convoluted bank transactions? The distractions and sleights of hand benefitted Donald enormously while giving him exactly what he wanted: the adulation of the media that focused on his salacious divorce and alleged sexual prowess. If the media could deny reality so could he.” P.138
During the primaries and even after he became the nominee “......the national media treated his pathologies (his mandacity, his delusional grandiosity), as well as his racism and misogyny as if they were entertaining idiosyncrasies beneath which lurked maturity and seriousness of purpose.“ P. 198-199
I have yet to see or hear anyone in the media address these spot on accusations or the fact that there were journalists like the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett and the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Cay Johnston who did cover Trump’s corruption for decades - reporting they chose to ignore in favor of entertaining themselves.
We saw clearly what Mika and Joe were doing by giving then-candidate tRump free media attention and bashing Hillary on a regular basis. This disgusting attempt to gaslight us is infuriating but not at all surprising from them...
This is so on point. The only thing is the media continues to support him in the same way. No one is sounding the bells for what they are. We have a national security breach. Our military is completely compromised. Putin is joining the UN and Trump is causing America’s human right violations to invite foreign involvement. That’s one way to invade. At the same time Putin is changing the leading World exchange currency which was the dollar for US advantage. The Russians are unraveling the country on multiple fronts. Alarms should sound at every news desk as Pearl Harbor everyday as this is literally 100 times worst.
Thanks for calling them out on their hypocrisy. Mika was almost unwatchable in that pre-election period as she was embarrassingly flirting and revoltingly coy. Having grown up in the NYC area, everyone knew what a con Trump was and that was Mika's milieu ~ she knew better but she was fawning for Joe. Too, feel like their epiphany conveniently began when Trump spotlighted cosmetic surgery she may/may not have undergone ~ how petty. Finally, women gaslighting other women is a special kind of low, and for a woman who continually hawks herself as a women's champion, she is transparently opportunistic.
Hillary did everything short of taking off her clothes and burning them on air to get your attention, but you were too busy bashing her to jear. That's not her faukt, you didn't take the time to be objective.
Thank you Eric for this piece. It still burns me up how badly the press treated Hillary Clinton as if she were the one with zero experience, cheated on her spouse on numerous occasions, speaks in incomplete sentences and so and and so forth. They continue to not call out the lies Trump tells on a daily basis. It's just sad and terrible. They should all be ashamed of themselves. Keep calling them out Eric. ✊🏽
Mika and Joe are ethically challenged opportunists. They certainly are not journalists in any sense of the word.
I see Mika & Joe as reality show hosts, not journalists.
The CCCP--Corporate Controlled Conservative Press put Trump in the White House the same way they did for Dumbya in 2000 and Pruneface Reagan in 1980.
Endless times the CCCP locked the TV cameras on empty Trump podiums waiting for their anointed one to address the crowds whipped up to a frenzy by the CCCP's 24/7 continual character assassination of Hillary Clinton.
Note how the New York Times continues to try to kneecap Joe Biden. Nothing will stop that propaganda rag from their goal of keeping Trump in the White House.
What needs to be done is that the FCC must reinstate the equal time and Fairness Doctrine rules. Then The FCC must reinstate ownership limits to break up the five corporations that control the media to break the hold of the Republican brainwashing.
Thank you Eric.
I hope the history rewrite fails in the Information Age. As you artfully point out, many of the current republican anti-trumpers have statements (with links) documenting what they actually said during 2015-16. There is also the 2017 body of evidence (with links) capturing many who declared those "presidential moments." We all need honest admissions about these mistakes as you know, and you have called for numerous times.
The NYT at the time wrote: "Over the course of the campaign, he has earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention, about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history. It is also twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton, the next best at earning media, took in." ($2 Billion Worth of Free Media, NYT 3/16/2016) The ratings partying carried on with no regard for outcomes.
I would put trump's candidacy and presidency in the same category as this nation's other horrible mistakes. I see similarities in the refusal to admit what happened, address the responsibility of those who participated, make changes and go forward. And it is happening in real time now as right-wing media joins him by ignoring science and advocating sending children back to school in the middle of a raging pandemic.
I admire your commitment to pointing out the gas-lighting.
Thanks again.
Excellent post Eric! I wake up every day to Morning Joe (and Mika) because they have taken up the mantle of Trump's wrong doing, bizarre, incoherent, and mostly dangerous behavior. However, it has not become lost on me of how much they enjoyed ratings based on their chummy exchanges with Trump that happened often during the campaign. More recently, Mika grilled Joe Biden over an alleged sexual assault that has since completely unraveled. Where was this intense scrutiny four years ago when they consistently teed up softballs for Trump prior to the election? Hillary Clinton, love her or hate her, was the most prepared candidate to be president perhaps in history. That doesn't mean she would have been a great president but there was nothing about how government is supposed to work that she did not know. Yet Mika and Joe never failed to bash her whenever they saw fit. Trump is the anti Hillary. What Trump's base got through a faulty electoral system is what they feared they would have gotten had Hillary won. That's the fault of the media and Joe and Mika share quite a bit of that blame.
I will never forgive the media for what they did to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Not only were they complicit in every single thing Trump is doing to us now, but they continue to give him cover while not learning from or even acknowledging or correcting their mistakes.
Real justice would be for Joe Biden to choose Hillary Clinton as his VP, and then step down after 3-4 years to give her the presidency.
Willie Geist should not get a pass. At last Joe and Mike call out Trump today. Geist still calls Trump's actions "political" or miscalculations, and if there is a story about Ivanka or Jared, Willie Geist is johnny-on-the-spot defending them and bringing up something "but the Democrats.
Geist was also friends with Trump. Geist's wife and he may hold their noses when they vote again for Trump this year, or perhaps they write in Nikki Haley this year.
Seriously. It seemed every time Hillary's name came up on AM Joe during the 2016 campaign, you could bet your next paycheck that Mika would say, "But those emails," or "I want to see what's in those emails." (Imagine the tsk tsk.) Anyway, it got annoying, I don't recall Clinton being on the show ever, but I stopped watching bc the gushing over "the donald" got to be too much. Always wondered what caused Mika to be so anti-Hillary--esp. by the woman-centered "Know Your Value" advocate.
Eric great column as always, thank you so much for not only point out Mika's blatant gaslighting but also documenting Hillary Clinton's warnings about Trump presidency. With so much media animus then/now directed at Hillary, it still surprises how so few acknowledge the accuracy of her predictions about Donald.
And how Mika & Joe normalized Trump until they too got burned...
"... temperamentally unfit to hold an office" sounds like it came directly out of his niece's book.
The ones that i know that voted for him are just silent
“Both Joe and Mika have frequently spoken about socializing with the billionaire off set and he frequently came in for softball interviews in 2015.“
https://www.thewrap.com/mika-brzezinski-recalls-unbelievably-inappropriate-hug-from-donald-trump-on-set-video/
Mika is always promoting herself as a champion of women, writing books and giving advice telling women how to stand up for themselves. She doesn’t seem to understand that she is the child of a prominent, highly respected man and That the Brzezinski name has given her a tremendous advantage. She clearly believes the reason NBC decided to increase her salary to match Joe’s was her skill at negotiating, not the fact that she has been a member of the club her entire life.
Meanwhile the media is giving a ton of attention to Mary Trump but conveniently ignoring the fact that she puts a lot of blame on the media, especially the New York media, for enabling Trump for decades. Here criticisms don’t pull any punches:
“In the 1970s........the New York media picked up the baton and began disseminating Donald’s hype. “ p. 11
In 1975 Donald gave a press conference where he showed his architect’s plan for the Grand Hyatt implying that he had already won the contract. The media printed that claim as true.
P. 105
“.... his exaggerated assessment of himself was simultaneously fueled by banks that were throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at him and a media that lavished him with attention and unwarranted praise.” P. 137
The more New Yorkers wanted spectacle the more the media were willing to provide it. Why bore them with hard-to-follow articles about his convoluted bank transactions? The distractions and sleights of hand benefitted Donald enormously while giving him exactly what he wanted: the adulation of the media that focused on his salacious divorce and alleged sexual prowess. If the media could deny reality so could he.” P.138
During the primaries and even after he became the nominee “......the national media treated his pathologies (his mandacity, his delusional grandiosity), as well as his racism and misogyny as if they were entertaining idiosyncrasies beneath which lurked maturity and seriousness of purpose.“ P. 198-199
I have yet to see or hear anyone in the media address these spot on accusations or the fact that there were journalists like the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett and the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Cay Johnston who did cover Trump’s corruption for decades - reporting they chose to ignore in favor of entertaining themselves.
We saw clearly what Mika and Joe were doing by giving then-candidate tRump free media attention and bashing Hillary on a regular basis. This disgusting attempt to gaslight us is infuriating but not at all surprising from them...
This is so on point. The only thing is the media continues to support him in the same way. No one is sounding the bells for what they are. We have a national security breach. Our military is completely compromised. Putin is joining the UN and Trump is causing America’s human right violations to invite foreign involvement. That’s one way to invade. At the same time Putin is changing the leading World exchange currency which was the dollar for US advantage. The Russians are unraveling the country on multiple fronts. Alarms should sound at every news desk as Pearl Harbor everyday as this is literally 100 times worst.
Thanks for calling them out on their hypocrisy. Mika was almost unwatchable in that pre-election period as she was embarrassingly flirting and revoltingly coy. Having grown up in the NYC area, everyone knew what a con Trump was and that was Mika's milieu ~ she knew better but she was fawning for Joe. Too, feel like their epiphany conveniently began when Trump spotlighted cosmetic surgery she may/may not have undergone ~ how petty. Finally, women gaslighting other women is a special kind of low, and for a woman who continually hawks herself as a women's champion, she is transparently opportunistic.
Hillary did everything short of taking off her clothes and burning them on air to get your attention, but you were too busy bashing her to jear. That's not her faukt, you didn't take the time to be objective.
Thank you Eric for this piece. It still burns me up how badly the press treated Hillary Clinton as if she were the one with zero experience, cheated on her spouse on numerous occasions, speaks in incomplete sentences and so and and so forth. They continue to not call out the lies Trump tells on a daily basis. It's just sad and terrible. They should all be ashamed of themselves. Keep calling them out Eric. ✊🏽