Until I started teleworking last month, I had never watched or heard in real time a Trump covoid 19 presser. I heard one such press conference last week, and I told my husband to turn the TV off or change the channel. (He went to the bedroom to finish watching the hot mess just because.) The amount of crap that came from his mouth just blew me away.
I think I know why the press loves to cover Trump 24/7, even before covoid 19 hit this country: It's because of his unpredictable nature and the wild things he's bound to say. It's exactly like that scene in the Howard Stern biopic, "Private Parts," where the WNBC producer (who was gloriously played by Paul Giamatti) wants to fire Howard. An associate tells the producer that Howard's ratings are very high. When the producer expresses shocked by the high ratings, it is explained to him that the ratings are high for two reasons. One, half of the audience are actual Stern fans. Two, the other half of listeners tune in to hear the next outrage. President Obama would of course never behave this way, hence his ratings didn't include folks who turned in to see a shitshow, unlike Stern and Trump. It's breathtaking to see - and not in a good way at all.
I couldn't read much of the Albuquerque article, it's behind a paywall. But, the little bit I could see made me happy I couldn't see the rest. No, newspaper editors, not showing trump's daily rallies in real time is not censoring him. It's stunning that you have to tell people that, you would think, have a grasp of the first amendment since their profession is named in it, would know what it means. But, I guess they skipped that day in journalism school.
I have a hard time watching or listening to that idiot anyway, so I tended to turn it off and then just catch recaps later on. But, now I won't watch a network that shows an empty podium in anticipation of his ranting - it's almost like they didn't learn the lesson of 2016.
Networks never want to show a calm, reasonable, intelligent 5 minute talk from Obama. They want a 90 minute plus train wreck. They don't want to show cars on the highway getting from point A to point B safely, they want the 10 car pile up. Les Moonves should never be forgotten for saying that trump may be bad for America, but he sure is good for CBS.
'Television news' compulsion today to air All Things Trump is not new. Right after Trump was inaugurated they invented the idea that all White House press briefings should carried live, because they were such big news! There was never any reason given for why, after 20 years of not airing daily press briefings, the cable news channels all decided simultaneously to essentially air every Trump White House briefing live, and usually in its entirety. Early on, the cable news channels aired 93 percent of the Trump White House press briefings live, after having aired just three percent of Obama press briefings live, according to Media Matters. '
Damn straight it is. Trump has been 'disassembling' the soundness of Our country since day one! I have been waiting for someone, anyone to finally see this. In my view, nearly Every move he has made, from firing the heads of EVERY key institution of our government, to undermining the world view of USA, to delaying covid response, to bullying , then threatening, then destroying anyone in his way, has weakened Us, has confused Us, has normalized crazy. All of his "apparently" random incompetence really has one laser focus point...
The Albuquerque Journal op-ed you link to (which I thought was a link to the petition itself) says the briefings should remain live broadcasts, and that it would "behoove" Trump to steer clear of politics and petty fights, and stick to the scientific facts. This is a shockingly tone-deaf request of this careless president at this late date, not to mention just critically lazy. The whole reason there is even a petition in the first place is Trump is entirely unable and unwilling to steer clear of politics and petty fights, or sticking to scientific facts in these drawn out briefings. He has proven it time and time again, and has even ramped it up and dragged it out in recent weeks. It's just pathological denial to expect Trump would even consider an about-face on style at this point, because, *checks notes*, we really want him to. What useless zombie editorializing.
It should be crime to air a president who continually lies and call this 🎪 journalism. I would give a reporter a 100.00 to call him a pathetic liar and turn around and walk out. Maybe we could start a Go Fund me page.
If he still continues to push his drug of choice then if someone dies from cardiac arrest,he should be liable. He's not a doctor.
Dear Mr. Boehlert, it would be great to establish a 1 day delayed coverage of these press briefings with commnts of the TV station who researched the messages (true/false/fakenews) to weighten the responsibility of the medias getting things rooted on facts. I doubt, ask Governor Arlnod Schwarzenegger how to address this ;-)
Gee, maybe having the mass media run by companies whose only goal is maximizing profit wasn't the best idea (for the non-wealthy). Historical fact I like to bring up: until the '70s/'80s "deregulation" craze, U.S. TV news was run at a loss. The networks did it as a public service, with pressure from the FCC.
This is not about this topic but about how the media still pretending that both sides are equally at fault in this case when it comes to preparing for disasters. On Saturday the Washington Post published an article by Dan Balz claiming that that we are have never been prepared to respond to disasters. He says “the devastation from Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 exposed serious gaps in the government’s disaster response and emergency management systems.”
Mr. Balz surely knows that after the disastrous response by FEMA under GHW Bush to Hurricane Andrew Bill Clinton made sure that office was run by a top professional in disaster response and elevated his position to cabinet level. FEMA’s response to disasters like the Northridge earthquake was widely praised, even by Republicans. When GW Bush came into office weakened FEMA by putting a political crony with no qualifications in charge. We saw the result of that with Hurricane Katrina.
Instead of being honest about the repeated failures by Republicans to take the threat of disasters seriously Balz goes on to give implicit praise to both Bush senior and junior. The only credit he gives to a Democrat is to Obama’s response to Ebola. Balz talks about how Bush I had a lot of power over his agencies because they were so loyal to him yet does not explain why that didn’t avert FEMA’s incompetent response to Hurricane Andrew. He doesn't mention that Bush II ignored multiple warnings over months that Bin Laden was going to attack. Instead he quotes Bush’s chief of staff Joshua Bolten saying “ It’s especially hard for government to be prepared for the unexpected or the unpredicted. That was certainly true in 9/11. “
Because the attack by Bin Laden was unexpected or unpredicted? What a colossal lie.
Balz then gives Bush credit for creating a pandemic response strategy but doesn’t give Clinton credit for creating the national emergency stockpile. Nor does he mention that it was Bush’s man John Bolton who dismantled that team.
This whole article completely ignores the fact that we have a political party that has done all it could to dismantle our government and to destroy faith in our government.
Is anyone going to cover the plan? It looks to me that trump and the gop are gutting the country. First with the tariff BS, then the tax, then the Coronavirus response and the abject voluntary decimation of our military safety relative to the virus. It looks like a take over. The Russian plan brought supplies to the us that was paid jointly? The ‘Us’ And ‘ours’ reference seems to involve the Russian + GOP. They’re blocking the states and outbidding them with fema dollars. It looks like trump WANTS people to die. Just like when he abandoned the Kurds and put our troups in jeopardy as he ‘visited’ on Xmas day a while back. He was giving away their position.
’The stockpile is reserved and has a shipment promise to help Russia when the time comes. Now as with the brexit plot, they’re calling for calexit. Putin owns the White House outright and is using it to gut everything that makes the country great so Russia could be the world leader. He is open about it and blatantly forging forth. Most of us are alsleep.
Stockpile inventory is also being given to red/swing states and to companies run by Trump's buddies to resell. Obvious subtext: show loyalty and you'll get helped out. If you don't, go die.
Perhaps the networks are hoping that medical experts will speak and that is why they air them. If Fauci is not present they should cut away. I keep hoping that Dr Fauci can tap into Bloomberg’s money and buy major chunks of airtime to broadcast truthful, accurate info. Trumps briefings are a substitute for his MAGA rallies that embolden his base. It’s sickening that during the worst crisis in modern times this man is our “ leader.” I simply cannot fathom it.
unfortunately as yesterday’s briefing showed, even with Fauci present it’s debacle—a reporter asked him to weigh in on Trump’s miracle cure Ave Trump told Fauci not to answer Q
I believe that there will always be a disparity between media coverage of Democrats and Republicans - a clown show may be an added incentive, but it's not required for that disparity to show. To appropriate someone else's comment, the concept is that Washington is "wired for Republicans", and Democrats should know "it's not their town".
The question is why should this be true? Money is an obvious factor, but is that all it takes? Bullying the press is another factor, but there's no exclusive on that. May I suggest coordinated bullying from the Democrat side? Democrats are not, in the generic sense, coordinated, but that does not preclude a subset from doing the work. I can't imagine a petition having much, if any, effect.
Re the comment above about Putin owning the the White House: maybe - I'm sure he has inordinate influence, but there are other players and other interests. With enough data points, a speculation that all the screwups are not entirely accidental isn't unreasonable, but what's the intended end state? It seems that the assumption that elections will be held this year is largely unquestioned - IOW, baked in. Norm Ornstein cites provisions in the Constitution that require it, but how many provisions in the Constitution have been ignored/violated so far? I don't think it's a given, and I'd like to get out in front of it if possible. To condense that thought, what's Bill Barr doing while DJT is running cover for him? He's not one to remain idle and his desired outcome has been public knowledge for some time.
Obama couldn't wear a tan suit without it being a "scandal" to the press. They treat Dems very differently. Best way to interpret it is Dems are seen, by everyone, as being the party of women, PoC, other marginalized groups deemed a servant class while the GOP reps straight white men. You know, the group that is supposed to be in charge, where individuals within it are more apt to judged as individuals and not reflections of the whole group, and are more apt to be forgiven mistakes, "youthful indiscretions", lack of consideration for others, etc.
IMHO this is a big part of why "working the refs" isn't as easy for Dems as the other side. Note the contemptuous tone reporters and pundits take toward liberals criticizing coverage as opposed to the deference shown to conservative complaints. Partly this is due to money, as they are hoping to capture some conservative market share, since they already have liberals loyally supporting them with our money and eyeballs. But I believe it mainly goes back to reflexive reverence for Important White Men. In politics, most of them are in the GOP. The only leverage liberals have is our money but we refuse to use it like we sometimes do with corporations behaving offensively. Most of us treat the mainstream press as a religious institution that must be supported, including tithed to, no matter what.
If only Obama had worn a clown suit with big clown shoes, a flower in his lapel that squirted water, and a huge red nose, he no doubt would've been rewarded with more airtime. Whatever else you say about Spanky, he holds the (proper demographic's) viewers' attention, which I guess is all that really matters.
Until I started teleworking last month, I had never watched or heard in real time a Trump covoid 19 presser. I heard one such press conference last week, and I told my husband to turn the TV off or change the channel. (He went to the bedroom to finish watching the hot mess just because.) The amount of crap that came from his mouth just blew me away.
I think I know why the press loves to cover Trump 24/7, even before covoid 19 hit this country: It's because of his unpredictable nature and the wild things he's bound to say. It's exactly like that scene in the Howard Stern biopic, "Private Parts," where the WNBC producer (who was gloriously played by Paul Giamatti) wants to fire Howard. An associate tells the producer that Howard's ratings are very high. When the producer expresses shocked by the high ratings, it is explained to him that the ratings are high for two reasons. One, half of the audience are actual Stern fans. Two, the other half of listeners tune in to hear the next outrage. President Obama would of course never behave this way, hence his ratings didn't include folks who turned in to see a shitshow, unlike Stern and Trump. It's breathtaking to see - and not in a good way at all.
I think the shock factor is key and before deadly pandemic it was kind of ‘fun’ fir press to be amazed by Trump’s utterances
Spot on.
I couldn't read much of the Albuquerque article, it's behind a paywall. But, the little bit I could see made me happy I couldn't see the rest. No, newspaper editors, not showing trump's daily rallies in real time is not censoring him. It's stunning that you have to tell people that, you would think, have a grasp of the first amendment since their profession is named in it, would know what it means. But, I guess they skipped that day in journalism school.
I have a hard time watching or listening to that idiot anyway, so I tended to turn it off and then just catch recaps later on. But, now I won't watch a network that shows an empty podium in anticipation of his ranting - it's almost like they didn't learn the lesson of 2016.
Networks never want to show a calm, reasonable, intelligent 5 minute talk from Obama. They want a 90 minute plus train wreck. They don't want to show cars on the highway getting from point A to point B safely, they want the 10 car pile up. Les Moonves should never be forgotten for saying that trump may be bad for America, but he sure is good for CBS.
they’ve loved that Train wreck for 30 yrs...except now people are dying
(By Eric Boehlert, article)
'Television news' compulsion today to air All Things Trump is not new. Right after Trump was inaugurated they invented the idea that all White House press briefings should carried live, because they were such big news! There was never any reason given for why, after 20 years of not airing daily press briefings, the cable news channels all decided simultaneously to essentially air every Trump White House briefing live, and usually in its entirety. Early on, the cable news channels aired 93 percent of the Trump White House press briefings live, after having aired just three percent of Obama press briefings live, according to Media Matters. '
"Could the unthinkable be true??"
Damn straight it is. Trump has been 'disassembling' the soundness of Our country since day one! I have been waiting for someone, anyone to finally see this. In my view, nearly Every move he has made, from firing the heads of EVERY key institution of our government, to undermining the world view of USA, to delaying covid response, to bullying , then threatening, then destroying anyone in his way, has weakened Us, has confused Us, has normalized crazy. All of his "apparently" random incompetence really has one laser focus point...
FYIW, I'd even rather watch Chuck Todd than Individual-1.
The Albuquerque Journal op-ed you link to (which I thought was a link to the petition itself) says the briefings should remain live broadcasts, and that it would "behoove" Trump to steer clear of politics and petty fights, and stick to the scientific facts. This is a shockingly tone-deaf request of this careless president at this late date, not to mention just critically lazy. The whole reason there is even a petition in the first place is Trump is entirely unable and unwilling to steer clear of politics and petty fights, or sticking to scientific facts in these drawn out briefings. He has proven it time and time again, and has even ramped it up and dragged it out in recent weeks. It's just pathological denial to expect Trump would even consider an about-face on style at this point, because, *checks notes*, we really want him to. What useless zombie editorializing.
It should be crime to air a president who continually lies and call this 🎪 journalism. I would give a reporter a 100.00 to call him a pathetic liar and turn around and walk out. Maybe we could start a Go Fund me page.
If he still continues to push his drug of choice then if someone dies from cardiac arrest,he should be liable. He's not a doctor.
Dear Mr. Boehlert, it would be great to establish a 1 day delayed coverage of these press briefings with commnts of the TV station who researched the messages (true/false/fakenews) to weighten the responsibility of the medias getting things rooted on facts. I doubt, ask Governor Arlnod Schwarzenegger how to address this ;-)
I’d happy with even a six hour delay....
Gee, maybe having the mass media run by companies whose only goal is maximizing profit wasn't the best idea (for the non-wealthy). Historical fact I like to bring up: until the '70s/'80s "deregulation" craze, U.S. TV news was run at a loss. The networks did it as a public service, with pressure from the FCC.
CNN *profited* more than $1B last year
This is not about this topic but about how the media still pretending that both sides are equally at fault in this case when it comes to preparing for disasters. On Saturday the Washington Post published an article by Dan Balz claiming that that we are have never been prepared to respond to disasters. He says “the devastation from Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 exposed serious gaps in the government’s disaster response and emergency management systems.”
Mr. Balz surely knows that after the disastrous response by FEMA under GHW Bush to Hurricane Andrew Bill Clinton made sure that office was run by a top professional in disaster response and elevated his position to cabinet level. FEMA’s response to disasters like the Northridge earthquake was widely praised, even by Republicans. When GW Bush came into office weakened FEMA by putting a political crony with no qualifications in charge. We saw the result of that with Hurricane Katrina.
Instead of being honest about the repeated failures by Republicans to take the threat of disasters seriously Balz goes on to give implicit praise to both Bush senior and junior. The only credit he gives to a Democrat is to Obama’s response to Ebola. Balz talks about how Bush I had a lot of power over his agencies because they were so loyal to him yet does not explain why that didn’t avert FEMA’s incompetent response to Hurricane Andrew. He doesn't mention that Bush II ignored multiple warnings over months that Bin Laden was going to attack. Instead he quotes Bush’s chief of staff Joshua Bolten saying “ It’s especially hard for government to be prepared for the unexpected or the unpredicted. That was certainly true in 9/11. “
Because the attack by Bin Laden was unexpected or unpredicted? What a colossal lie.
Balz then gives Bush credit for creating a pandemic response strategy but doesn’t give Clinton credit for creating the national emergency stockpile. Nor does he mention that it was Bush’s man John Bolton who dismantled that team.
This whole article completely ignores the fact that we have a political party that has done all it could to dismantle our government and to destroy faith in our government.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/america-was-unprepared-for-a-major-crisis-again/2020/04/04/df85c0da-75d9-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html
yeah that WP framing was unfortunate. I.e. “America“ wasn’t prepared....again.
Is anyone going to cover the plan? It looks to me that trump and the gop are gutting the country. First with the tariff BS, then the tax, then the Coronavirus response and the abject voluntary decimation of our military safety relative to the virus. It looks like a take over. The Russian plan brought supplies to the us that was paid jointly? The ‘Us’ And ‘ours’ reference seems to involve the Russian + GOP. They’re blocking the states and outbidding them with fema dollars. It looks like trump WANTS people to die. Just like when he abandoned the Kurds and put our troups in jeopardy as he ‘visited’ on Xmas day a while back. He was giving away their position.
’The stockpile is reserved and has a shipment promise to help Russia when the time comes. Now as with the brexit plot, they’re calling for calexit. Putin owns the White House outright and is using it to gut everything that makes the country great so Russia could be the world leader. He is open about it and blatantly forging forth. Most of us are alsleep.
agreed, i wrote abt this last week and will likely return. "Media's taboo topic: Why is Trump doing this?"
Stockpile inventory is also being given to red/swing states and to companies run by Trump's buddies to resell. Obvious subtext: show loyalty and you'll get helped out. If you don't, go die.
and China
Perhaps the networks are hoping that medical experts will speak and that is why they air them. If Fauci is not present they should cut away. I keep hoping that Dr Fauci can tap into Bloomberg’s money and buy major chunks of airtime to broadcast truthful, accurate info. Trumps briefings are a substitute for his MAGA rallies that embolden his base. It’s sickening that during the worst crisis in modern times this man is our “ leader.” I simply cannot fathom it.
unfortunately as yesterday’s briefing showed, even with Fauci present it’s debacle—a reporter asked him to weigh in on Trump’s miracle cure Ave Trump told Fauci not to answer Q
I believe that there will always be a disparity between media coverage of Democrats and Republicans - a clown show may be an added incentive, but it's not required for that disparity to show. To appropriate someone else's comment, the concept is that Washington is "wired for Republicans", and Democrats should know "it's not their town".
The question is why should this be true? Money is an obvious factor, but is that all it takes? Bullying the press is another factor, but there's no exclusive on that. May I suggest coordinated bullying from the Democrat side? Democrats are not, in the generic sense, coordinated, but that does not preclude a subset from doing the work. I can't imagine a petition having much, if any, effect.
Re the comment above about Putin owning the the White House: maybe - I'm sure he has inordinate influence, but there are other players and other interests. With enough data points, a speculation that all the screwups are not entirely accidental isn't unreasonable, but what's the intended end state? It seems that the assumption that elections will be held this year is largely unquestioned - IOW, baked in. Norm Ornstein cites provisions in the Constitution that require it, but how many provisions in the Constitution have been ignored/violated so far? I don't think it's a given, and I'd like to get out in front of it if possible. To condense that thought, what's Bill Barr doing while DJT is running cover for him? He's not one to remain idle and his desired outcome has been public knowledge for some time.
Obama couldn't wear a tan suit without it being a "scandal" to the press. They treat Dems very differently. Best way to interpret it is Dems are seen, by everyone, as being the party of women, PoC, other marginalized groups deemed a servant class while the GOP reps straight white men. You know, the group that is supposed to be in charge, where individuals within it are more apt to judged as individuals and not reflections of the whole group, and are more apt to be forgiven mistakes, "youthful indiscretions", lack of consideration for others, etc.
IMHO this is a big part of why "working the refs" isn't as easy for Dems as the other side. Note the contemptuous tone reporters and pundits take toward liberals criticizing coverage as opposed to the deference shown to conservative complaints. Partly this is due to money, as they are hoping to capture some conservative market share, since they already have liberals loyally supporting them with our money and eyeballs. But I believe it mainly goes back to reflexive reverence for Important White Men. In politics, most of them are in the GOP. The only leverage liberals have is our money but we refuse to use it like we sometimes do with corporations behaving offensively. Most of us treat the mainstream press as a religious institution that must be supported, including tithed to, no matter what.
If only Obama had worn a clown suit with big clown shoes, a flower in his lapel that squirted water, and a huge red nose, he no doubt would've been rewarded with more airtime. Whatever else you say about Spanky, he holds the (proper demographic's) viewers' attention, which I guess is all that really matters.
sad but true? competence isn’t as “fun”
Or a tan suit