The minute Amy Klobuchar started getting some traction in the 2020 nomination race, the stories of how she was mean to her Senate staff started to appear. A male boss can be demanding, but when a female boss does the same thing she is deemed mean, or even bitchy...often by female reporters. One of the worst misogynists in the MSM is Maureen Dowd, whose specialty is the feminization of Dem men. Recall she once said that Al Gore was "practically lactating," and she likened Barack Obama to a debutante..."O'Bambi." And her Hillary hatred goes without say.
I apologize for constantly repeating myself Eric, but thank you for your astonishingly excellent work in succinctly pointing out the misogynistic coverage that is daily served up towards women like Kamala Harris. We older women, especially, are so weary of a lifetime of being dismissed, demeaned, and worse, that we tend to internalize the abuse, while fighting on. Your reminders of these unfair and cheap journalistic attacks on the VP by The NY Times and other media outlets helps us gird our loins for the ongoing battles ahead. I will be sending your article to every woman I know.
This is the standard way they report on female politicians, at least ones who are Democrats — boring and bitchy.
Off topic but I just read a WaPo article by Dana Milbank about how overwhelmingly negative the reporting about the economy has been — from right wing media. Funny how just a while ago Milbank wrote an article that said the mainstream media coverage of Biden has been as negative as that of Trump’s. It seems to me that his bosses must have reined him in or maybe the criticism he took from his peers has made him return to the “blame right wing media” fairytale.
Until the mainstream media faces the fact that they have played a big role in the bamboozling of the American public and decided to make objectivity not faux balance their creed our democracy will continue to collapse.
VP Harris presents a trifecta for our terrible political press: Black/Asian/Woman.
While a male boss will always be presented in some sort of competent, “firm but fair” way, the same behaviors will be presented for women as a cat fight, “difficult to work with,” or just plain old bitchy.
Last point I want to make is that it is not unusual for talent to leave the low-paying civil service jobs and go to the private sector, and in some cases VP Harris’ staff are leaving to get more women elected to office: I read that some are leaving to work on Stacy Abrams run for Georgia Governor. Our press had notably not asked any of these recent departures where they are going, only where have they been.
Eric, I'm shocked, shocked that you didn't mention the $600 the Veep spent on good cookware in France. Dems aren't supposed to have quality things—not when so many Americans "are suffering." (The holiday economic numbers of course tell a different story.) No matter that anyone who likes to cook knows the importance and value of getting good cookware. The Veep loves to be in the kitchen, so her purchase made perfect sense. That could have been the angle of the story, tying together French culinary traditions, our longstanding ties to France, and the then upcoming Thanksgiving holiday together. But instead, the press took the cheap shot, following the lead of the "conservative" Washington Free Beacon. (Beltway journalists really are lemmings.) I'd roll my eyes at the stupidity but for the obvious double standard and how it was and is meant to damage the VP.
Their coverage of VP Harris has been appalling. It's a triple whammy—they hurt her and weaken her image among voters, smack Biden for making a "bad choice" picking her, and make the administration look feckless with someone like her in charge. Of course Beltway press denies they are singling her out or even giving her bad coverage, though on Twitter, one reporter responding to another claimed it's their job to mock the Veep regardless of party (can't remember who because it was a while ago now). Gah.
Misogyny, racism pure and simple. Kamala couldn’t have gotten where she has gotten had it not been for her talents, brains, determination and appeal DESPITE the bad press and the forces that are hard against her, beginning w/the cheap, unimaginative notion that she slept her way to the top in CA. Embarrassingly obvious press bashing of a formidable and enviable woman.
We would be far better informed on the actual state of the country, especially the actual behavior of Republicans if the odious Maggie Haberman was gone. More than almost any other working reporter, she values access to Republicans and the circles of power and influence they occupy more than any value she places on journalistic integrity.
Misogyny. Harris is portrayed as bitchy to her staff, "clumsy" in her interactions on the world stage, not very smart and of course, having a slutty past where she has been alleged to have "slept her way to the top." Throughout her career, she's had to overcome the most disgusting innuendoes and yet, she has admirably succeeded.
Recently one of Harris' top aides left the administration. Even though it was agreed that she would serve only one year, the Washington Post wrote it up as a situation where it was Harris' "style" as a boss that not only drove the woman away but was threatening to see an "exodus" of staff fleeing the evil Kamala Harris. No such exodus happened.
This is why I have come to believe we'll never have a woman as president. Look what the press did to Hillary.
Glad to see Margaret Sullivan getting mentioned in this post's Good Stuff. She appears to be a genuine journalist versus a narrative-driven storyteller, and does some excellent work for WaPo. I keep an eye on the paper's Media section to catch her byline.
It's the United States of America or as some refer to it - White Men In Control and They Want To Keep It That Way. In nature when a species is threatened, it will do anything to survive. In human society today, minorities are growing. The US being as diverse as it is, and truly what makes it special, is a threat to the dominant "species" of white men who are slowly losing their power. Apparently the press, predominantly run by white men, feels the threat is real and is doing what it can to marginalize women and people of color. When you combine those two traits of our Vice President Kamala Harris, watch out! The MSM is never going to give her the coverage she deserves. Sadly it's the same game that has been played out throughout human history - divide and conquer. Make the folks you are most fearful of out to be the boogie men, pushing them back a step or two. This country (and the world) is changing. We are now going through the growing pains of change. I predict things will get worse before they get better but they will get better. It's only a matter of time regardless of how the press cares to portray it. There, that's my New Year's hope for a better future. LOL!
Racism Misogyny mash up. Are they pro-Trump or pro ratings and clicks? Or both. Nothing much else explains it, since she's doing her job perfectly well.
“The Vice President was particularly struck by the description of Napoleon's military technique in Charles de Gaulle's discourse on war,” the Times reported, …”
Just take a moment to parse this construction, which our media use constantly, and ponder where they got this information. I’ll give you a hint—it rhymes with Blan Sail.
“… stressing Quayle was “keen on self-improvement.”
Imagine saying this about Kamala Harris. The fiddling-while-Rome-burns takes would be coming even more thickly than they already are. There would be calls for her resignation.
Unfortunately, if a candidate or elected official has an enemy or just someone looking to gain an advantage, they use the press, whispering in journalists' ears about "staff defections" or "rumor has it so and so is really mean to their assistants" or some other stupid thing and the lazy ass journalists, catching a whiff of clickbait, run with it. Often the reporters don't care, sometimes they cover it with glee. I think the latter is the case with Biden and especially Kamala. She is so much smarter than they are. (I miss her on the Senate judiciary committee for sure.) She's genuine—from her Chucks to her sophisticated style to that infectious laugh and full smile—and they loathe that. I have a friend who worked on her campaign in Iowa and spent a lot of time with her. He adores her! Of course she isn't perfect; who is? But the country is in good hands with her and she couldn't have a better teacher/partner than Joe.
The pattern is clear, but the corporate media tripped itself up. Desperate to avoid being too obvious in it's anti-Democrat narrative, and confounded by their need to not say anything good about our First Black President, they were a bit too supportive of his White VP, and missed their chance to trash Biden enough, paving the way for the current administration. It would have been insanely clear how contradictory their perspective on Ol' Joe was between his time as VP and his turn as the Democrat Candidate in 2016, but fortunately for them they got the safe harbor of piling on a woman nominee.
The American mainstream media is part of the problem why the 'Murica doesn't have a female commander-in-chief.
It seems the (usually) old white men who run the media companies are unable to see the possibility of a woman leading the country.
This misogynistic mindset that a woman cannot be president has somehow entered the minds of the men (and women) covering politics that anytime a female politician (usually Democrat) enters the public consciousness, the scrutiny over her performance is put under a microscope.
The minute Amy Klobuchar started getting some traction in the 2020 nomination race, the stories of how she was mean to her Senate staff started to appear. A male boss can be demanding, but when a female boss does the same thing she is deemed mean, or even bitchy...often by female reporters. One of the worst misogynists in the MSM is Maureen Dowd, whose specialty is the feminization of Dem men. Recall she once said that Al Gore was "practically lactating," and she likened Barack Obama to a debutante..."O'Bambi." And her Hillary hatred goes without say.
I apologize for constantly repeating myself Eric, but thank you for your astonishingly excellent work in succinctly pointing out the misogynistic coverage that is daily served up towards women like Kamala Harris. We older women, especially, are so weary of a lifetime of being dismissed, demeaned, and worse, that we tend to internalize the abuse, while fighting on. Your reminders of these unfair and cheap journalistic attacks on the VP by The NY Times and other media outlets helps us gird our loins for the ongoing battles ahead. I will be sending your article to every woman I know.
This is the standard way they report on female politicians, at least ones who are Democrats — boring and bitchy.
Off topic but I just read a WaPo article by Dana Milbank about how overwhelmingly negative the reporting about the economy has been — from right wing media. Funny how just a while ago Milbank wrote an article that said the mainstream media coverage of Biden has been as negative as that of Trump’s. It seems to me that his bosses must have reined him in or maybe the criticism he took from his peers has made him return to the “blame right wing media” fairytale.
Until the mainstream media faces the fact that they have played a big role in the bamboozling of the American public and decided to make objectivity not faux balance their creed our democracy will continue to collapse.
VP Harris presents a trifecta for our terrible political press: Black/Asian/Woman.
While a male boss will always be presented in some sort of competent, “firm but fair” way, the same behaviors will be presented for women as a cat fight, “difficult to work with,” or just plain old bitchy.
Last point I want to make is that it is not unusual for talent to leave the low-paying civil service jobs and go to the private sector, and in some cases VP Harris’ staff are leaving to get more women elected to office: I read that some are leaving to work on Stacy Abrams run for Georgia Governor. Our press had notably not asked any of these recent departures where they are going, only where have they been.
Eric, I'm shocked, shocked that you didn't mention the $600 the Veep spent on good cookware in France. Dems aren't supposed to have quality things—not when so many Americans "are suffering." (The holiday economic numbers of course tell a different story.) No matter that anyone who likes to cook knows the importance and value of getting good cookware. The Veep loves to be in the kitchen, so her purchase made perfect sense. That could have been the angle of the story, tying together French culinary traditions, our longstanding ties to France, and the then upcoming Thanksgiving holiday together. But instead, the press took the cheap shot, following the lead of the "conservative" Washington Free Beacon. (Beltway journalists really are lemmings.) I'd roll my eyes at the stupidity but for the obvious double standard and how it was and is meant to damage the VP.
Their coverage of VP Harris has been appalling. It's a triple whammy—they hurt her and weaken her image among voters, smack Biden for making a "bad choice" picking her, and make the administration look feckless with someone like her in charge. Of course Beltway press denies they are singling her out or even giving her bad coverage, though on Twitter, one reporter responding to another claimed it's their job to mock the Veep regardless of party (can't remember who because it was a while ago now). Gah.
Misogyny, racism pure and simple. Kamala couldn’t have gotten where she has gotten had it not been for her talents, brains, determination and appeal DESPITE the bad press and the forces that are hard against her, beginning w/the cheap, unimaginative notion that she slept her way to the top in CA. Embarrassingly obvious press bashing of a formidable and enviable woman.
We would be far better informed on the actual state of the country, especially the actual behavior of Republicans if the odious Maggie Haberman was gone. More than almost any other working reporter, she values access to Republicans and the circles of power and influence they occupy more than any value she places on journalistic integrity.
Misogyny. Harris is portrayed as bitchy to her staff, "clumsy" in her interactions on the world stage, not very smart and of course, having a slutty past where she has been alleged to have "slept her way to the top." Throughout her career, she's had to overcome the most disgusting innuendoes and yet, she has admirably succeeded.
Recently one of Harris' top aides left the administration. Even though it was agreed that she would serve only one year, the Washington Post wrote it up as a situation where it was Harris' "style" as a boss that not only drove the woman away but was threatening to see an "exodus" of staff fleeing the evil Kamala Harris. No such exodus happened.
This is why I have come to believe we'll never have a woman as president. Look what the press did to Hillary.
Glad to see Margaret Sullivan getting mentioned in this post's Good Stuff. She appears to be a genuine journalist versus a narrative-driven storyteller, and does some excellent work for WaPo. I keep an eye on the paper's Media section to catch her byline.
It's the United States of America or as some refer to it - White Men In Control and They Want To Keep It That Way. In nature when a species is threatened, it will do anything to survive. In human society today, minorities are growing. The US being as diverse as it is, and truly what makes it special, is a threat to the dominant "species" of white men who are slowly losing their power. Apparently the press, predominantly run by white men, feels the threat is real and is doing what it can to marginalize women and people of color. When you combine those two traits of our Vice President Kamala Harris, watch out! The MSM is never going to give her the coverage she deserves. Sadly it's the same game that has been played out throughout human history - divide and conquer. Make the folks you are most fearful of out to be the boogie men, pushing them back a step or two. This country (and the world) is changing. We are now going through the growing pains of change. I predict things will get worse before they get better but they will get better. It's only a matter of time regardless of how the press cares to portray it. There, that's my New Year's hope for a better future. LOL!
Racism Misogyny mash up. Are they pro-Trump or pro ratings and clicks? Or both. Nothing much else explains it, since she's doing her job perfectly well.
“The Vice President was particularly struck by the description of Napoleon's military technique in Charles de Gaulle's discourse on war,” the Times reported, …”
Just take a moment to parse this construction, which our media use constantly, and ponder where they got this information. I’ll give you a hint—it rhymes with Blan Sail.
“… stressing Quayle was “keen on self-improvement.”
Imagine saying this about Kamala Harris. The fiddling-while-Rome-burns takes would be coming even more thickly than they already are. There would be calls for her resignation.
Nothing has really changed with the Corporate Controlled Conservative Press.
They've always looked down on strong black women.
Unfortunately, if a candidate or elected official has an enemy or just someone looking to gain an advantage, they use the press, whispering in journalists' ears about "staff defections" or "rumor has it so and so is really mean to their assistants" or some other stupid thing and the lazy ass journalists, catching a whiff of clickbait, run with it. Often the reporters don't care, sometimes they cover it with glee. I think the latter is the case with Biden and especially Kamala. She is so much smarter than they are. (I miss her on the Senate judiciary committee for sure.) She's genuine—from her Chucks to her sophisticated style to that infectious laugh and full smile—and they loathe that. I have a friend who worked on her campaign in Iowa and spent a lot of time with her. He adores her! Of course she isn't perfect; who is? But the country is in good hands with her and she couldn't have a better teacher/partner than Joe.
The pattern is clear, but the corporate media tripped itself up. Desperate to avoid being too obvious in it's anti-Democrat narrative, and confounded by their need to not say anything good about our First Black President, they were a bit too supportive of his White VP, and missed their chance to trash Biden enough, paving the way for the current administration. It would have been insanely clear how contradictory their perspective on Ol' Joe was between his time as VP and his turn as the Democrat Candidate in 2016, but fortunately for them they got the safe harbor of piling on a woman nominee.
The American mainstream media is part of the problem why the 'Murica doesn't have a female commander-in-chief.
It seems the (usually) old white men who run the media companies are unable to see the possibility of a woman leading the country.
This misogynistic mindset that a woman cannot be president has somehow entered the minds of the men (and women) covering politics that anytime a female politician (usually Democrat) enters the public consciousness, the scrutiny over her performance is put under a microscope.