Speaking in front of Republican fat cats this weekend, Trump openly mused about disguising American warplanes with Chinese markings and "bombing the shit" out of Russian troops in Ukraine. "Then sit back and watch." Yeah, he was doing one of his stream of consciousness raps, but this isn't the drunk at the end of the bar, this is the head of the Republican party and a guy for whom the presidential nomination in 2024 is his for the taking. It underscores once again how astoundingly unfit for office this illiterate clown is, and THAT should be the focal point of every news item about him. Obviously the GOP is not bothered by his corruption, but one would think his profound ignorance on virtually all topics would be a disqualifier.
I hope the 30-40 percent of Americans for Trump are taking a good hard look at what is happening in Russia and Ukraine. This is the future United States they will be voting for. Sadly, they probably know it and feel more comfortable with a future more in line with Russia's vs. living along side of liberals, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. As for the media, their actions of constantly normalizing Trump and the right wing and claiming the next fart is another crises for Biden is also angling us toward an ominous Russian future right here at home. They better wake up before one day soon some of our journalists find themselves behind bars or worse.
All you have to do is look at what my brainwashed relatives post on Facebook. It was bad enough that they slobber over the ground Trump walks on. Now they proclaim Putin to be a man of Gawd. Oh and they are following the command of Pulpit Pimp Franky Graham Cracker who told them to pray for Putin.
You have my sympathy, Lou. My bunch of idiots now reside in the Q Singularity convinced that there will be a big red wave in 2022 that will lead to the impeachment and removal of Joe & Kamala and House Speaker Trump will be restored to his rightful place as God's Anointed King over us.
The big red wave. My God. If they only knew or cared about how much everyone mocks them. And when the big red wave turns out to be merely a stagnant pond, they’ll simply believe the next asinine propaganda their anointed one scams them into believing to keep them on the hook. I’ve given up on trying to reason with these people and had to accept that they are destined to be left behind while the rest of the world moves on without them.
The media is runned by old white men who are willing to do anything for money. Trump we no wants to be king/dictator, the only problem is he's not smart enough. If putin continues on the path he's on America could be next. Trumps followers who scream about their rights won't be saying s%%t to Putin before shot or jailed. The only people who will come out on top are the rich. So America we have to decide what we are going to do to save our democracy and country
According to The NY Times Trump has already lucked out with the Manhattan DA who has refused to bring charges even against the recommendation of more experienced people on his team (according the The NY Times). That has to embolden Trump even more.
It is insane that Manhattan DA is an elected position. To get elected and stay in power in that distreict the candidate would have to kowtow to powerful Wall Streeters who don’t want to see financial crimes prosecuted. The previous Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, had solid evidence that Ivanka and Don Jr had blatantly committed real estate fraud but he let them slide, too. Only when the spotlight was on him did Vance go after the Trump org. That’s another story the media ignored.
I think he already has. When Trump got himself banned from social media platforms, it was a direct test of the limits of free speech vs. private enterprise. Now that he has his own platform, he’s going to see what actual libel is when he inevitably, without doubt publishes actionable content re: a specific person or business.
You have 6 corrupted dictators on the Supreme Court hell bent on imposing their Dominionist crap on the rest of us. Just wait till they kill Roe for starters.
Trump's dream of (absolute) control of the press was high on his agenda for his second term (which I also believe he would have tried to end the two-term limit on the presidency) right after he abandoned NATO. We certainly dodged a kill shot there...
The problem with this plan, that even Putin doesn’t seem to grasp that is unique about America, is that Trump cannot do any of these things without legislation passed through both the House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats. And even with Republicans in the majority, it would be near impossible to pass. The presidency is the least powerful position in terms of actual legislation and policy of any leadership role in the federal government. He wouldn’t even be able to sign the bill into law without Congress passing it first. And Executive Orders are not binding or enforceable if challenged. And Democrats would for sure challenge any of these Trump fever dreams.
TFG is Putin minus the total autocratic powers. They are one and the same; malignant narcissists hell bent on ruling the world, and even that hypothetical accomplishment will fail to fill the black holes that substitute for their souls. MSM wake up! This is not a gotcha game anymore. The horrors and impact of Putin’s evil motives are previews of the worst that can happen to us if we are not more vigilant. The press is enabling TFG’s re-election. Be very careful what you wish for 🇺🇦.
Will Dean Baquet of the New York Times finally have that horrifying nightmare over the loss of press freedom in America under Trump & the GOP that he wakes up jittering & sweaty from the thought and type up an editorial memo that they will officially state Trump's disinformaton as lies?
Honestly, I doubt this will happen to him and the other spineless idiots in American mainstream media because they're somehow convinced in their delusional minds that it won't happen in the good ol' U.S. of A.
Really wondering what will it take for the American mainstream media establishment to realize that many of them aren't doing their job of actual reporting, and are too busy writing negatively-slanted & clickbait-y headlines portraying Biden as a Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford combo rather than ACTUALLY looking into what his administration has accomplished & its current challenges such dealing with Russia's unjustified & unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Baquet will be gone by then. He is expected to announce his resignation sometime this year, most likely after the midterms or shortly before. He'll stay around long enough to punch Dems on last time during an important election season. But don't get your hopes up for change. Not going to happen if the current man ed takes over as seems to be the case.
I remember that my favorite editorial name, Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, said that he spent more time as The Washington Post's top editor worrying about the First Amendment than he would have preferred. Interestingly, his successor there and his counterpart at The New York Times obviously do not worry about it, because they still don't grasp that if republicans gain control again in 2025, it. Will. Happen. Here.
And it won't matter whether it is Orange Hitler. This is the republican party.
He was a character, and he backed his people. At the same time, there's reason to believe he and the rest of the DC political media went a bit easier on Reagan over Iran-Contra, which should have led to his impeachment, trial, and conviction, because of something that Bradlee once said: Watergate would have been so much easier if Nixon had been a Democrat, because republicans were always claiming bias.
I like to say that working the refs works in the NBA and in DC. Now, THAT said, by that time I think they'd figured out it was hard to lay a glove on Reagan anyway!
As a nation, we created the notion of a free press when Jefferson lead the war of 1800 against the Federalists and, among other things, their Alien and Sedition laws and put new substance on the words in the First Amendment. There has been much discussion about Trump's incompetence and fear that a competent Trump would get away with more. Probably true. Yet, the notion of a free press is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche that I doubt anyone can succeed in killing it. Certainly Trump went far, but the press reacted too. If I thought that they did a great job, I would not be a very loyal Press Run subscriber. As annoying as the MSM can be, in the end they protect the basic right to say what they want without fear of imprisonment or official censorship. We may limp from time-to-time but we will run again. Be well, everyone; we are still in difficult times.
The importance of the press is behind every comment made on PressRun. We gripe about the press when it behaves badly, but the value of the press is the foundation of every gripe. Eric's piece today grabs that principle well.
“Trump’s team is finding ways to shrewdly approximate Putin’s capacity to shape narratives and create alternative realities,” noted Vanity Fair in 2017.
Wow. That sure is a mouthful when one word would have sufficed: Propaganda. I will never get over the hoops the media jumped through to avoid calling Trump a liar and a propagandist. To avoid using the words “liar” and “propaganda,” when that is exactly what it is and it is in the public’s best interest to be informed of this fact. And I am astounded the media has not learned its lesson and are not treating this latest assault more aggressively. I know Trump is great for ratings and clicks, but does the media really think that’s worth sacrificing democracy and ushering in a new crop of dictators, at home and abroad?
Without a doubt, the RW is itching to change the laws protecting the media, including Sullivan v. NYT, making the practice of real journalism even more precarious (anyone remember the Red Lion v. ABC trial)?
But not every conservative judge feels the same as the Thomases and Alitos, thank goodness, and though they are embattled, press freedoms still do exist and will, at least for a while. I absolutely agree Trump wants control, but he won't be as blatant as Putin because he needs the press as much as they need him. He needs an enemy to keep his base—which thrives on hate—fired up. Having an albeit weakened oppositional media is the ideal enemy.
Trump absolutely would weaken the press the way he always does, through the courts, using an AG even more pliant and amoral than Billy Barr. While many of these lawsuits will inevitably fail for the reason stated above, Trump will still win. He will use a judgment against him to drum up more hatred: "I am surrounded by enemies everywhere." A few of these cases will be successful, and ultimately harm the press. and that's scary. What is also scary is that there will be no difference in the "reporting" his base see on Fox et al, so Trump and the GOP can say, see? The lame stream media is lying. We aren't limiting the media's freedom, when in reality, they will be.
"Right before traveling to Helsinki in 2018 to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump went off on a tirade, declaring much of the U.S. media to be the 'enemy of the people.'"
Warning: My usual rant's coming, but first: On those rare occasions the right's correct about something, it's for the wrong reason. Trump complains about the media on the relatively rare occasion that they make a serious effort to hold him accountable. Meanwhile, real enemy of the people media fails is ignoring that a couple hundred Covid deaths are due to Trump's refusal to engage with a health crisis. He's literally a killer, by definition, and now his party is as well. Query what the results would be electorally if that reality had been reported in the run up to 2020 election. I'd guess it wouldn't ave been a vote getter. But like an actual enemy of the people, it couldn't be reported because protecting the GOP was the priority, not honest reporting.
Meanwhile:
We have CNN and MSNBC running in the background here and a conservative estimate is 90% of what they're spewing is pure fact-free propaganda. There's one way the Ukrainian crisis ends -- submission -- but you'd never know it. Nor that sanctions are not assured -- make that possible -- to raise the cost to Russia for invading so high that they'll have to withdraw. (Not an endorsement or anything I say with joy. Just that there's no other outcome.) Nor, for that matter, that Russia can impose counter-sanctions and reduce the amount of gas and oil shipped to Western Europe. And so on and so forth. Oh, bonus: Our government's efforts to brand Russia war criminals for killing civilians is limited because we are literally killing civilians in Yemen as a service for our leaders' favorite allies, the Saudis.
Which, I guess, is a segue: I can't get all that bothered about the state-repressed media in Russia when our own privately-owned media are doing the same thing for no better reason that it's good for their business. That it's not as good for us or the nation or the world is clearly not a concern.
And for full disclosure: Something I contemplate is how well a state serves its people, that is the most important way to judge a nation and not by the nature of its government. So we have Russia which has gotten its economic house in great order in the last couple of years -- that is, it's served its people -- albeit possibly as a protection from a sanctions regime exactly such as being imposed now in response to the invasion. That is, the economic policies quite possibly weren't imposed for the good of the people but as war reparation. Meanwhile, the greatest democracy the world has ever known has essentially banned the federal government from imposing any nationwide responses to a global pandemic and has established something of a right for state governments to subvert elections and worse.
Russia has a pathetically small gdp for such a large a country with rich resources. Saudi Arabia’s murderous leader has done much more to diversify its economy.
Again, the mystery for me is how life is for the working, middle and professional lives.
As for GDP, the nation with one of the biggest GDPs has ~25% of full-time workers failing to be paid full-time wages among numerous other shortcomings. The self-proclaimed greatest democracy the world has ever known has a de facto one party state. As a practical, real world matter, a Venn diagram of what the two parties actually do other than lip service has at best way too much overlap.
So the relevance of GDP in this area is questionable.
As for Saudi Arabia, last I know is that while money is being reinvested (in part pursuant to the cycling of petro-dollars), it's still a de facto apartheid nation with oppressed class being migrant workers. The media repression in Russia that Eric discusses today is much, much worse there in the US' number one ally. Meanwhile, again, our media choose to repress themselves for $$.
As for Russia needing foreign tech and stuff: Not going to deny that historically it's been net-backward, literally forever. Meanwhile, here in a beacon unto the world, our federal government has been banned from implementing anti-Covid policies on a nationwide basis.
So pot/kettle and all that.
And to be clear: To the extent I may be appearing to praise Russia, it's strictly limited to the issue around my question about how well a state provides for the "little people".
A de facto one party state? That's just pure BS. So tired of the "both sides are the same." That got us W in 2000 and Trump in 16 thanks to all the third party voters and nonvoters.
Dems are actually trying to make people's lives better. Unfortunately, we don't have a large enough majority in the Senate to make that happen. How can you possibly write "here in a beacon unto the world, our federal government has been banned from implementing anti-Covid policies on a nationwide basis" when this is a direct result of the GOP pushing through Federalist judges on SCOTUS? That sentence itself gives lie to "both sides the same."
You're praising Russia for how well a state provides for the little people? It's a kleptocracy. Putin and his cronies have been stealing from ordinary Russians for years.
So disagreeing with you and pointing out that the Dem bills that have passed and they want to pass will actually help people is just a DNC press release. That's a hollow argument and just tossing out a dismissive insult.
It would help if more people actually understood how laws are passed. Do you want Biden to just toss out executive orders? No one liked it when Trump did, and that's not how a democratic government actually works. Hatred and willful false belief is what unite the far left and the far right.
Ghandi, I believe, said, "I believe in equality for all except reporters and photographers!" In a bizarre way, the US media, or the frantic shark, pretends to cover news while devouring soundbites and news like sharks in a feeding frenzy. It just so happens that Trump provides the bait so that they can eat incessantly in order to provide them with 'news.'
It's not breaking news. It's filth. That is the problem with the US's big three media conglomerates: they report sludge, information that is smeared with decadent waste depending on whose mouth it is coming from.
The actions of the US media are not surprising. They are owned by the archangels of greed, corrupt billionaires and corporations. The media is not interested in covering mews, but rather in making money; how can we make the most money by pretending to cover news?
The soup created by the billionaires will result in a government of wolves and the likes of Trump.
Just watched a bit. Seems like Putin didn't get much serious espionage action in the KGB during his posting in Dresden at the time when the Soviet Union was in decline.
Fascinating ‘accidental presidency’. The fact that he was an unknown (and it worked to his benefit!) - Everyone just projected onto him what their hopes and desires were… (explains why people with track records do NOT fare as well lately…)!
I am so weary of all things Trump, and the fact that we're still cringing in dread whenever his name is mentioned. Yes, the press did a cowardly job of covering his malignant presidency, but at least we still have a Constitution that protects freedom of the press. Trump would not be able to shut down media outlets and throw journalists in prison. Otherwise, he would have done so during his toxic reign.
The 2024 Republican nomination, imho, is not a slam-dunk for Trump. At his last fundraiser dinner he regaled his moneyed guests with the same old Trump shtick, which was pretty stupid of him considering the excellent health the economy is in on Biden's watch. I read that his speech was 80 minutes long, contained the usual incoherent whining, and that guests began leaving halfway through it. There have been several runoff elections in red states where Trump-endorsed candidates were defeated. I watch but I'm not buying into the "be very afraid" stuff.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. For all his rants about the press, Trump never even tried to shut down a newspaper, TV station or anything else. And don't be too sure that the SC would do his bidding. None of them can be removed from the bench no matter what, so they have no reason to kowtow to a dictator.
There is a push coming from the right to weaken press protection from libel suits and many legal scholars think the Supreme Court may well go along with it.
The people funding Sarah Palin’s appeal of her lawsuit against The NY Times want to use it to get the Supreme Court to overturn The NY Times vs Sullivan. That would make journalists much more vulnerable to lawsuits and would have a chilling effect.
Interesting how the right made it harder to sue doctors for malpractice.
You're not being objective here. You want the courts to protect journalists from right wing libel suits. But generally, the press is protected by high priced legal representation and the First Amendment, which has not been repealed yet. I have no problem with dropping protections for journalists whose reporting is less than honest. Chilling effect? Where? And where does the right to privacy give way to the rights of journalists to violate that privacy?
Last question: Who are your "many legal scholars"?
I have been reading about this for years and I am not going to take the time too give you all the sources I have read. But here is one — Dahlia Lithwick — a highly respected lawyer who has reported on the Supreme Court for years. I rely on the opinions of people who know a lot more than I do, not my own “bias”. I have mixed feeling about some of the protections because I would like to see more people sue people like Tucker Carlson but I have also seen how lawsuits like the one Food Lion brought against ABC or the tobacco lawsuit against CBS have resulted in less hard-hitting investigative reports. Lawyers for media companies push back against taking those kinds of risks because of the costs even if the lawsuits are won by the journalists.
I see nothing wrong with challenging the claims of commenters. If you're not comfortable with it, then don't respond. This blog is beginning to look more and more like a closed circle where everyone must agree or face hostility. And by the way, you didn't respond to the questions I asked.
I so often see the ghost of Fred Trump hovering over Donald. I imagine Fred yelling and punishing Donald, then giving him what he wants. Right after Trump took office he had Jim Acosta of CNN removed from a press briefing, no doubt to make an example of him, a journalist who asked questions Trump didn't like. But from then on, Trump showed open disdain for the press while playing to them and using them to his advantage. This worked to make the press fear him while they were also fascinated by his power. Ironically, that groveling fascination protects both Trump, and the press, from each other. Trump needs them, and they need him.
Donald watched his father destroy his older brother and decided to play his dad’s game. I was appalled by the description of how Fred was impressed by a very young Donald bullying his little brother.
However I think Donald is also evil, at least according to my personal definition with is anyone who enjoys and causing pain and destruction because it makes them feel superior and powerful.
That whole family was so vile and toxic that it was breathtaking to read about them. People like Trump aren't created in a vacuum. They're very adept at using even their adversaries to their own advantage. Trump has lived his whole life in symbiotic relationships even with those he hates - like the news media. It's why, as he told Katie Couric, he calls them liars - it's his way of staying in control of them. It proved to be simple but effective.
Speaking in front of Republican fat cats this weekend, Trump openly mused about disguising American warplanes with Chinese markings and "bombing the shit" out of Russian troops in Ukraine. "Then sit back and watch." Yeah, he was doing one of his stream of consciousness raps, but this isn't the drunk at the end of the bar, this is the head of the Republican party and a guy for whom the presidential nomination in 2024 is his for the taking. It underscores once again how astoundingly unfit for office this illiterate clown is, and THAT should be the focal point of every news item about him. Obviously the GOP is not bothered by his corruption, but one would think his profound ignorance on virtually all topics would be a disqualifier.
and this is same Trump who press refused to question his mental health for 4 yrs
The head of the party where his acolytes continue slandering Joe Biden as "sleepy Joe"...
And treated the assessment Dr. Harold N. Bornstein gave of Trump like it was a serious medical assessment.
Yet it was completely relaxed, business as usual… strange.
Barr basically called her m a stupid psycho and then proceeded to say he would vote for him if he ran again. That party is a stink bomb of corruption.
The fearlessness about it is what scares me…
There Trump goes acting out The Hunger Games again. JFC.
He’s nothing if not entertaining..
And shallow enough to believe entertaining equals success.
I hope the 30-40 percent of Americans for Trump are taking a good hard look at what is happening in Russia and Ukraine. This is the future United States they will be voting for. Sadly, they probably know it and feel more comfortable with a future more in line with Russia's vs. living along side of liberals, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. As for the media, their actions of constantly normalizing Trump and the right wing and claiming the next fart is another crises for Biden is also angling us toward an ominous Russian future right here at home. They better wake up before one day soon some of our journalists find themselves behind bars or worse.
All you have to do is look at what my brainwashed relatives post on Facebook. It was bad enough that they slobber over the ground Trump walks on. Now they proclaim Putin to be a man of Gawd. Oh and they are following the command of Pulpit Pimp Franky Graham Cracker who told them to pray for Putin.
Wow, we might be related. I have the same relatives Joe!
You have my sympathy, Lou. My bunch of idiots now reside in the Q Singularity convinced that there will be a big red wave in 2022 that will lead to the impeachment and removal of Joe & Kamala and House Speaker Trump will be restored to his rightful place as God's Anointed King over us.
The big red wave. My God. If they only knew or cared about how much everyone mocks them. And when the big red wave turns out to be merely a stagnant pond, they’ll simply believe the next asinine propaganda their anointed one scams them into believing to keep them on the hook. I’ve given up on trying to reason with these people and had to accept that they are destined to be left behind while the rest of the world moves on without them.
NOT the Singularity /s
My relatives are the same.
Your relatives sound awful! Please tell them they’ve been ratioed by the Boehlert faithful.
You can't engage in a battle of wits with brainwashed Jesusbots.
The media is runned by old white men who are willing to do anything for money. Trump we no wants to be king/dictator, the only problem is he's not smart enough. If putin continues on the path he's on America could be next. Trumps followers who scream about their rights won't be saying s%%t to Putin before shot or jailed. The only people who will come out on top are the rich. So America we have to decide what we are going to do to save our democracy and country
I wouldn't think this would be possible in the US if not for the right wing Justices on the SC. Does the First Amendment even mean anything to them?
I’m sure Trump would like to test it
According to The NY Times Trump has already lucked out with the Manhattan DA who has refused to bring charges even against the recommendation of more experienced people on his team (according the The NY Times). That has to embolden Trump even more.
It is insane that Manhattan DA is an elected position. To get elected and stay in power in that distreict the candidate would have to kowtow to powerful Wall Streeters who don’t want to see financial crimes prosecuted. The previous Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, had solid evidence that Ivanka and Don Jr had blatantly committed real estate fraud but he let them slide, too. Only when the spotlight was on him did Vance go after the Trump org. That’s another story the media ignored.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-ivanka-trump-and-donald-trump-jr-avoided-a-criminal-indictment
I think he already has. When Trump got himself banned from social media platforms, it was a direct test of the limits of free speech vs. private enterprise. Now that he has his own platform, he’s going to see what actual libel is when he inevitably, without doubt publishes actionable content re: a specific person or business.
You have 6 corrupted dictators on the Supreme Court hell bent on imposing their Dominionist crap on the rest of us. Just wait till they kill Roe for starters.
Trump's dream of (absolute) control of the press was high on his agenda for his second term (which I also believe he would have tried to end the two-term limit on the presidency) right after he abandoned NATO. We certainly dodged a kill shot there...
The problem with this plan, that even Putin doesn’t seem to grasp that is unique about America, is that Trump cannot do any of these things without legislation passed through both the House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats. And even with Republicans in the majority, it would be near impossible to pass. The presidency is the least powerful position in terms of actual legislation and policy of any leadership role in the federal government. He wouldn’t even be able to sign the bill into law without Congress passing it first. And Executive Orders are not binding or enforceable if challenged. And Democrats would for sure challenge any of these Trump fever dreams.
TFG is Putin minus the total autocratic powers. They are one and the same; malignant narcissists hell bent on ruling the world, and even that hypothetical accomplishment will fail to fill the black holes that substitute for their souls. MSM wake up! This is not a gotcha game anymore. The horrors and impact of Putin’s evil motives are previews of the worst that can happen to us if we are not more vigilant. The press is enabling TFG’s re-election. Be very careful what you wish for 🇺🇦.
The Russian police arresting demonstrators are calling them enemies of the people.
Will Dean Baquet of the New York Times finally have that horrifying nightmare over the loss of press freedom in America under Trump & the GOP that he wakes up jittering & sweaty from the thought and type up an editorial memo that they will officially state Trump's disinformaton as lies?
Honestly, I doubt this will happen to him and the other spineless idiots in American mainstream media because they're somehow convinced in their delusional minds that it won't happen in the good ol' U.S. of A.
Really wondering what will it take for the American mainstream media establishment to realize that many of them aren't doing their job of actual reporting, and are too busy writing negatively-slanted & clickbait-y headlines portraying Biden as a Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford combo rather than ACTUALLY looking into what his administration has accomplished & its current challenges such dealing with Russia's unjustified & unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
They really don't care. Their sins are of commission, not omission.
Baquet will be gone by then. He is expected to announce his resignation sometime this year, most likely after the midterms or shortly before. He'll stay around long enough to punch Dems on last time during an important election season. But don't get your hopes up for change. Not going to happen if the current man ed takes over as seems to be the case.
Baquet playing the BillBarr role here…?!$@
When it comes to that sleazy Presstitute Dean Baquet? He'll double down on the Republican propaganda.
It’s about the paycheck in the end.
I remember that my favorite editorial name, Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, said that he spent more time as The Washington Post's top editor worrying about the First Amendment than he would have preferred. Interestingly, his successor there and his counterpart at The New York Times obviously do not worry about it, because they still don't grasp that if republicans gain control again in 2025, it. Will. Happen. Here.
And it won't matter whether it is Orange Hitler. This is the republican party.
He was the Real Deal. Not a hollowed -out corporate figurehead, if I’m not mistaken…? Man I’m down today- (yeesh)
He was a character, and he backed his people. At the same time, there's reason to believe he and the rest of the DC political media went a bit easier on Reagan over Iran-Contra, which should have led to his impeachment, trial, and conviction, because of something that Bradlee once said: Watergate would have been so much easier if Nixon had been a Democrat, because republicans were always claiming bias.
Gee, nothing new under the sun there.
W O W - back then(!)
I like to say that working the refs works in the NBA and in DC. Now, THAT said, by that time I think they'd figured out it was hard to lay a glove on Reagan anyway!
I suspect this new edict from Putin will have no impact on Fox News: Professional Courtesy dictates an exception for them.
As a nation, we created the notion of a free press when Jefferson lead the war of 1800 against the Federalists and, among other things, their Alien and Sedition laws and put new substance on the words in the First Amendment. There has been much discussion about Trump's incompetence and fear that a competent Trump would get away with more. Probably true. Yet, the notion of a free press is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche that I doubt anyone can succeed in killing it. Certainly Trump went far, but the press reacted too. If I thought that they did a great job, I would not be a very loyal Press Run subscriber. As annoying as the MSM can be, in the end they protect the basic right to say what they want without fear of imprisonment or official censorship. We may limp from time-to-time but we will run again. Be well, everyone; we are still in difficult times.
The importance of the press is behind every comment made on PressRun. We gripe about the press when it behaves badly, but the value of the press is the foundation of every gripe. Eric's piece today grabs that principle well.
“Trump’s team is finding ways to shrewdly approximate Putin’s capacity to shape narratives and create alternative realities,” noted Vanity Fair in 2017.
Wow. That sure is a mouthful when one word would have sufficed: Propaganda. I will never get over the hoops the media jumped through to avoid calling Trump a liar and a propagandist. To avoid using the words “liar” and “propaganda,” when that is exactly what it is and it is in the public’s best interest to be informed of this fact. And I am astounded the media has not learned its lesson and are not treating this latest assault more aggressively. I know Trump is great for ratings and clicks, but does the media really think that’s worth sacrificing democracy and ushering in a new crop of dictators, at home and abroad?
Without a doubt, the RW is itching to change the laws protecting the media, including Sullivan v. NYT, making the practice of real journalism even more precarious (anyone remember the Red Lion v. ABC trial)?
But not every conservative judge feels the same as the Thomases and Alitos, thank goodness, and though they are embattled, press freedoms still do exist and will, at least for a while. I absolutely agree Trump wants control, but he won't be as blatant as Putin because he needs the press as much as they need him. He needs an enemy to keep his base—which thrives on hate—fired up. Having an albeit weakened oppositional media is the ideal enemy.
Trump absolutely would weaken the press the way he always does, through the courts, using an AG even more pliant and amoral than Billy Barr. While many of these lawsuits will inevitably fail for the reason stated above, Trump will still win. He will use a judgment against him to drum up more hatred: "I am surrounded by enemies everywhere." A few of these cases will be successful, and ultimately harm the press. and that's scary. What is also scary is that there will be no difference in the "reporting" his base see on Fox et al, so Trump and the GOP can say, see? The lame stream media is lying. We aren't limiting the media's freedom, when in reality, they will be.
"Right before traveling to Helsinki in 2018 to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump went off on a tirade, declaring much of the U.S. media to be the 'enemy of the people.'"
Warning: My usual rant's coming, but first: On those rare occasions the right's correct about something, it's for the wrong reason. Trump complains about the media on the relatively rare occasion that they make a serious effort to hold him accountable. Meanwhile, real enemy of the people media fails is ignoring that a couple hundred Covid deaths are due to Trump's refusal to engage with a health crisis. He's literally a killer, by definition, and now his party is as well. Query what the results would be electorally if that reality had been reported in the run up to 2020 election. I'd guess it wouldn't ave been a vote getter. But like an actual enemy of the people, it couldn't be reported because protecting the GOP was the priority, not honest reporting.
Meanwhile:
We have CNN and MSNBC running in the background here and a conservative estimate is 90% of what they're spewing is pure fact-free propaganda. There's one way the Ukrainian crisis ends -- submission -- but you'd never know it. Nor that sanctions are not assured -- make that possible -- to raise the cost to Russia for invading so high that they'll have to withdraw. (Not an endorsement or anything I say with joy. Just that there's no other outcome.) Nor, for that matter, that Russia can impose counter-sanctions and reduce the amount of gas and oil shipped to Western Europe. And so on and so forth. Oh, bonus: Our government's efforts to brand Russia war criminals for killing civilians is limited because we are literally killing civilians in Yemen as a service for our leaders' favorite allies, the Saudis.
Which, I guess, is a segue: I can't get all that bothered about the state-repressed media in Russia when our own privately-owned media are doing the same thing for no better reason that it's good for their business. That it's not as good for us or the nation or the world is clearly not a concern.
And for full disclosure: Something I contemplate is how well a state serves its people, that is the most important way to judge a nation and not by the nature of its government. So we have Russia which has gotten its economic house in great order in the last couple of years -- that is, it's served its people -- albeit possibly as a protection from a sanctions regime exactly such as being imposed now in response to the invasion. That is, the economic policies quite possibly weren't imposed for the good of the people but as war reparation. Meanwhile, the greatest democracy the world has ever known has essentially banned the federal government from imposing any nationwide responses to a global pandemic and has established something of a right for state governments to subvert elections and worse.
May we live in interesting times indeed.
Russia has a pathetically small gdp for such a large a country with rich resources. Saudi Arabia’s murderous leader has done much more to diversify its economy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/how-saudi-propaganda-machine-came-me/626566/
Russia even has to depend on Western companies just to extract their oil and gas because their technology is not good enough.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/how-saudi-propaganda-machine-came-me/626566/
True about the Russian GDP.
Again, the mystery for me is how life is for the working, middle and professional lives.
As for GDP, the nation with one of the biggest GDPs has ~25% of full-time workers failing to be paid full-time wages among numerous other shortcomings. The self-proclaimed greatest democracy the world has ever known has a de facto one party state. As a practical, real world matter, a Venn diagram of what the two parties actually do other than lip service has at best way too much overlap.
So the relevance of GDP in this area is questionable.
As for Saudi Arabia, last I know is that while money is being reinvested (in part pursuant to the cycling of petro-dollars), it's still a de facto apartheid nation with oppressed class being migrant workers. The media repression in Russia that Eric discusses today is much, much worse there in the US' number one ally. Meanwhile, again, our media choose to repress themselves for $$.
As for Russia needing foreign tech and stuff: Not going to deny that historically it's been net-backward, literally forever. Meanwhile, here in a beacon unto the world, our federal government has been banned from implementing anti-Covid policies on a nationwide basis.
So pot/kettle and all that.
And to be clear: To the extent I may be appearing to praise Russia, it's strictly limited to the issue around my question about how well a state provides for the "little people".
Again, none of which answers my question.
A de facto one party state? That's just pure BS. So tired of the "both sides are the same." That got us W in 2000 and Trump in 16 thanks to all the third party voters and nonvoters.
Dems are actually trying to make people's lives better. Unfortunately, we don't have a large enough majority in the Senate to make that happen. How can you possibly write "here in a beacon unto the world, our federal government has been banned from implementing anti-Covid policies on a nationwide basis" when this is a direct result of the GOP pushing through Federalist judges on SCOTUS? That sentence itself gives lie to "both sides the same."
You're praising Russia for how well a state provides for the little people? It's a kleptocracy. Putin and his cronies have been stealing from ordinary Russians for years.
Thanks for the DNC press release. Reality and more so the last ~30-odd years beg to differ.
Lip service with minimal actual delivering is a proven electoral failure.
So disagreeing with you and pointing out that the Dem bills that have passed and they want to pass will actually help people is just a DNC press release. That's a hollow argument and just tossing out a dismissive insult.
It would help if more people actually understood how laws are passed. Do you want Biden to just toss out executive orders? No one liked it when Trump did, and that's not how a democratic government actually works. Hatred and willful false belief is what unite the far left and the far right.
You’re misreading history and me both. But we’re neither going to persuade each other so let’s quit while we’re just a little bit behind, as it were.
Ghandi, I believe, said, "I believe in equality for all except reporters and photographers!" In a bizarre way, the US media, or the frantic shark, pretends to cover news while devouring soundbites and news like sharks in a feeding frenzy. It just so happens that Trump provides the bait so that they can eat incessantly in order to provide them with 'news.'
It's not breaking news. It's filth. That is the problem with the US's big three media conglomerates: they report sludge, information that is smeared with decadent waste depending on whose mouth it is coming from.
The actions of the US media are not surprising. They are owned by the archangels of greed, corrupt billionaires and corporations. The media is not interested in covering mews, but rather in making money; how can we make the most money by pretending to cover news?
The soup created by the billionaires will result in a government of wolves and the likes of Trump.
Fantastic Frontline piece on Putin’s background (abt 4 years old). Riveting:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9igTqTx9s&pp=QAFIAQ%3D%3D
Was hoping you’d see this, Eric Barcelon
Just watched a bit. Seems like Putin didn't get much serious espionage action in the KGB during his posting in Dresden at the time when the Soviet Union was in decline.
Fascinating ‘accidental presidency’. The fact that he was an unknown (and it worked to his benefit!) - Everyone just projected onto him what their hopes and desires were… (explains why people with track records do NOT fare as well lately…)!
I am so weary of all things Trump, and the fact that we're still cringing in dread whenever his name is mentioned. Yes, the press did a cowardly job of covering his malignant presidency, but at least we still have a Constitution that protects freedom of the press. Trump would not be able to shut down media outlets and throw journalists in prison. Otherwise, he would have done so during his toxic reign.
The 2024 Republican nomination, imho, is not a slam-dunk for Trump. At his last fundraiser dinner he regaled his moneyed guests with the same old Trump shtick, which was pretty stupid of him considering the excellent health the economy is in on Biden's watch. I read that his speech was 80 minutes long, contained the usual incoherent whining, and that guests began leaving halfway through it. There have been several runoff elections in red states where Trump-endorsed candidates were defeated. I watch but I'm not buying into the "be very afraid" stuff.
I agree that hid nomination is not a given but our right wing SC justices may very are weaken press protection from lawsuits.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. For all his rants about the press, Trump never even tried to shut down a newspaper, TV station or anything else. And don't be too sure that the SC would do his bidding. None of them can be removed from the bench no matter what, so they have no reason to kowtow to a dictator.
There is a push coming from the right to weaken press protection from libel suits and many legal scholars think the Supreme Court may well go along with it.
https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2021/07/15/the-supreme-court-may-be-poised-to-weaken-libel-protections-for-the-press
The people funding Sarah Palin’s appeal of her lawsuit against The NY Times want to use it to get the Supreme Court to overturn The NY Times vs Sullivan. That would make journalists much more vulnerable to lawsuits and would have a chilling effect.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/2022/02/23/sarah-palin-lost-her-new-york-times-lawsuit-libel-still-threat-first-amendment-nyt/6892973001/
Interesting how the right made it harder to sue doctors for malpractice.
You're not being objective here. You want the courts to protect journalists from right wing libel suits. But generally, the press is protected by high priced legal representation and the First Amendment, which has not been repealed yet. I have no problem with dropping protections for journalists whose reporting is less than honest. Chilling effect? Where? And where does the right to privacy give way to the rights of journalists to violate that privacy?
Last question: Who are your "many legal scholars"?
I have been reading about this for years and I am not going to take the time too give you all the sources I have read. But here is one — Dahlia Lithwick — a highly respected lawyer who has reported on the Supreme Court for years. I rely on the opinions of people who know a lot more than I do, not my own “bias”. I have mixed feeling about some of the protections because I would like to see more people sue people like Tucker Carlson but I have also seen how lawsuits like the one Food Lion brought against ABC or the tobacco lawsuit against CBS have resulted in less hard-hitting investigative reports. Lawyers for media companies push back against taking those kinds of risks because of the costs even if the lawsuits are won by the journalists.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/07/justice-scalia-sets-his-sights-on-new-york-times-co-v-sullivan.html
I see nothing wrong with challenging the claims of commenters. If you're not comfortable with it, then don't respond. This blog is beginning to look more and more like a closed circle where everyone must agree or face hostility. And by the way, you didn't respond to the questions I asked.
Agreed - he was playing them - masterfully (see: NYC/80’s)! Or at least it was a training ground.
I so often see the ghost of Fred Trump hovering over Donald. I imagine Fred yelling and punishing Donald, then giving him what he wants. Right after Trump took office he had Jim Acosta of CNN removed from a press briefing, no doubt to make an example of him, a journalist who asked questions Trump didn't like. But from then on, Trump showed open disdain for the press while playing to them and using them to his advantage. This worked to make the press fear him while they were also fascinated by his power. Ironically, that groveling fascination protects both Trump, and the press, from each other. Trump needs them, and they need him.
( Funny you should say that- Mary T emphasizes that FRED was in fact, the evil one…).
Donald watched his father destroy his older brother and decided to play his dad’s game. I was appalled by the description of how Fred was impressed by a very young Donald bullying his little brother.
However I think Donald is also evil, at least according to my personal definition with is anyone who enjoys and causing pain and destruction because it makes them feel superior and powerful.
That whole family was so vile and toxic that it was breathtaking to read about them. People like Trump aren't created in a vacuum. They're very adept at using even their adversaries to their own advantage. Trump has lived his whole life in symbiotic relationships even with those he hates - like the news media. It's why, as he told Katie Couric, he calls them liars - it's his way of staying in control of them. It proved to be simple but effective.