The galling thing is that, as you pointed out, we knew in real time that this was happening. A lot of us raised hell. And yet it happened anyway. Anyone writing a book about news-media coverage of the Trump era would have to devote a hefty chapter to this episode. Indeed, it might be worthy of a book on its own.
“Cover-Up Guy Hired to Cover-Up Covers Up” is not a headline we will ever see, sadly I guess. Thanks for collating these failures, Eric. Great work as slways.
Thanks Eric. Yes we knew at the time. Barr actually said, "collusion," at his presser, and Mueller tried to fix the lies in real time.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson is the third Federal Court Judge to call Barr a liar, though these judges use words like "disingenuous" and "misrepresent," and we knew every time what Barr was doing. That's the thing with trumpers--they don't even try to hide the illegality.
Barr’s belief in the absolute power of the presidency was evident long before Trump. His history with Bush Sr. showed that. He’s also devoted to an strict sect of Christianity, along with Pompeo. Anyone who thought he would be ok because he was a traditionalist, a word I heard used often, hadn’t been paying attention. I just hope the John Mitchell cell is still available
That the beltway press was so fooled by him is another problem they have to answer for.
The last five years have been nothing less than an attempted coup. It almost worked but still has the potential of succeeding. The Big Lie won't go away as Arizona is obviously playing games with the ballots in an attempt to show that the Dems rigged the election. Now we have this Bill Barr memo that will be released based on a federal judge ruling. More and more evidence of corruption is being uncovered and yet the press still treats it all with kid gloves. Coups generally fail on the first attempt. But as the bad actors involved continue to beat down the public, a second attempt will be more successful. This is where the press is failing our democracy. Have they learned their lesson? Will the coverage of this memo get the ink and pixels it deserves? So far, no. It's not on the NY Times digital front page but does appear on the WPO front page but only after the first big ad and in the CNN opinion section. This story should be getting more attention than a Chinese booster rocket crashing back down to earth and the first Baltimore Orioles no hitter since 1969. Here lies the problem when the media is owned by a handful of billionaires who do not see democracy as being in their best interest.
Bill Barr's audition for the AG post was an unsolicited memo declaring, among other things, that a sitting president could not be indicted...exactly what Trump wanted to hear. Barr's eagerness to get the job (and flatter Trump) was a screaming red flag that the media ignored because it chose to believe that Barr, unlike Sessions and the clown who sat in the chair for a couple of months (Whitaker), was qualified and competent. Instead of political reporters, the "liberal media" should have assigned reporters with law degrees to cover the story. Predictably, the political reporters saw Barr's message as a "win" for Trump, and felt no need to look at the messenger.
As a long time denizen of the blogosphere, the phrase that comes to mind about the way the press covers things like this is “It’s always good news for Republicans.”
It takes a lot of brass —as Bill Clinton once said— to have only one job and to get it so entirely wrong. If my boss gave me an assignment and I whiffed it as badly as Our Failed Political Press ™ did on this big, public-facing story, I’d be fired at my next review. How the pundits manage to keep their jobs after being so completely and publicly wrong remains a mystery.
This shoddy kowtowing by the press can change and does change the political trajectory of the national narrative. This misinformation/lying? and shallow, inaccurate reporting work against the strong, elemental argument made by msm and belies their cries for press freedom. The NYT et al undercut their own dedication to the truth by short cutting their reporting processes and then make fools of themselves in hindsight and many of its news consumers.
Great piece. I thought I should say that before answering the question in your headline.
NO.
Once upon a time, there was a great baseball umpire named Silk O'Loughlin who once responded to a player questioning him by saying, "The pope for religion, O'Loughlin for baseball. Both infallible." He left out The Times. Just ask the people who work there, especially those involved in what should not be called political "coverage." Maybe The Habes could get us some gossip on the issue.
I absolutely love your writing and your spot-on takedowns of the press and its failures. But I can’t be the only person who finds rampant typos, missing words, misspellings, etc. There are several of these in this column, including the misspelling of an NBC reporter’s name. I don’t understand why you can’t proofread. Hell, I’ll do it for free! It’s inexcusable for you to complain about the press being irresponsible when your articles wouldn’t and shouldn’t pass the muster of a high school newspaper editor.
Years ago, I had my words twisted by a BC newspaper. There was no defamation, just a deliberate slant on the story that insulted me. The BC Press Council heard my complaint and the newspaper had to write an accurate story, not just a third-page correction.
Does the US have a body like the Canadian Press Council?
Everything this man is saying is total trash . The FISA Warrant was all gotten on a false dossier . He is feeding all listeners a total box of lies and I hope he gets sued .
The galling thing is that, as you pointed out, we knew in real time that this was happening. A lot of us raised hell. And yet it happened anyway. Anyone writing a book about news-media coverage of the Trump era would have to devote a hefty chapter to this episode. Indeed, it might be worthy of a book on its own.
“Cover-Up Guy Hired to Cover-Up Covers Up” is not a headline we will ever see, sadly I guess. Thanks for collating these failures, Eric. Great work as slways.
Thanks Eric. Yes we knew at the time. Barr actually said, "collusion," at his presser, and Mueller tried to fix the lies in real time.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson is the third Federal Court Judge to call Barr a liar, though these judges use words like "disingenuous" and "misrepresent," and we knew every time what Barr was doing. That's the thing with trumpers--they don't even try to hide the illegality.
Barr’s belief in the absolute power of the presidency was evident long before Trump. His history with Bush Sr. showed that. He’s also devoted to an strict sect of Christianity, along with Pompeo. Anyone who thought he would be ok because he was a traditionalist, a word I heard used often, hadn’t been paying attention. I just hope the John Mitchell cell is still available
That the beltway press was so fooled by him is another problem they have to answer for.
The last five years have been nothing less than an attempted coup. It almost worked but still has the potential of succeeding. The Big Lie won't go away as Arizona is obviously playing games with the ballots in an attempt to show that the Dems rigged the election. Now we have this Bill Barr memo that will be released based on a federal judge ruling. More and more evidence of corruption is being uncovered and yet the press still treats it all with kid gloves. Coups generally fail on the first attempt. But as the bad actors involved continue to beat down the public, a second attempt will be more successful. This is where the press is failing our democracy. Have they learned their lesson? Will the coverage of this memo get the ink and pixels it deserves? So far, no. It's not on the NY Times digital front page but does appear on the WPO front page but only after the first big ad and in the CNN opinion section. This story should be getting more attention than a Chinese booster rocket crashing back down to earth and the first Baltimore Orioles no hitter since 1969. Here lies the problem when the media is owned by a handful of billionaires who do not see democracy as being in their best interest.
Bill Barr's audition for the AG post was an unsolicited memo declaring, among other things, that a sitting president could not be indicted...exactly what Trump wanted to hear. Barr's eagerness to get the job (and flatter Trump) was a screaming red flag that the media ignored because it chose to believe that Barr, unlike Sessions and the clown who sat in the chair for a couple of months (Whitaker), was qualified and competent. Instead of political reporters, the "liberal media" should have assigned reporters with law degrees to cover the story. Predictably, the political reporters saw Barr's message as a "win" for Trump, and felt no need to look at the messenger.
the NYT never apologizes, and almost never issues corrections. As infallible as the Pope.
As a long time denizen of the blogosphere, the phrase that comes to mind about the way the press covers things like this is “It’s always good news for Republicans.”
It takes a lot of brass —as Bill Clinton once said— to have only one job and to get it so entirely wrong. If my boss gave me an assignment and I whiffed it as badly as Our Failed Political Press ™ did on this big, public-facing story, I’d be fired at my next review. How the pundits manage to keep their jobs after being so completely and publicly wrong remains a mystery.
This shoddy kowtowing by the press can change and does change the political trajectory of the national narrative. This misinformation/lying? and shallow, inaccurate reporting work against the strong, elemental argument made by msm and belies their cries for press freedom. The NYT et al undercut their own dedication to the truth by short cutting their reporting processes and then make fools of themselves in hindsight and many of its news consumers.
Great piece. I thought I should say that before answering the question in your headline.
NO.
Once upon a time, there was a great baseball umpire named Silk O'Loughlin who once responded to a player questioning him by saying, "The pope for religion, O'Loughlin for baseball. Both infallible." He left out The Times. Just ask the people who work there, especially those involved in what should not be called political "coverage." Maybe The Habes could get us some gossip on the issue.
I absolutely love your writing and your spot-on takedowns of the press and its failures. But I can’t be the only person who finds rampant typos, missing words, misspellings, etc. There are several of these in this column, including the misspelling of an NBC reporter’s name. I don’t understand why you can’t proofread. Hell, I’ll do it for free! It’s inexcusable for you to complain about the press being irresponsible when your articles wouldn’t and shouldn’t pass the muster of a high school newspaper editor.
Years ago, I had my words twisted by a BC newspaper. There was no defamation, just a deliberate slant on the story that insulted me. The BC Press Council heard my complaint and the newspaper had to write an accurate story, not just a third-page correction.
Does the US have a body like the Canadian Press Council?
https://www.mediacouncil.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Board-Governance-Policy-Manual-December-3-2020.pdf
And the Canadian Association of Journalists Ethics Guidelines?
https://caj.ca/ethics-guidelines
Uncle😋former school principal 👌
Everything this man is saying is total trash . The FISA Warrant was all gotten on a false dossier . He is feeding all listeners a total box of lies and I hope he gets sued .