Eric, this piece is spot on except for one glaring omission - the misogyny behind the harsh and ridiculously critical coverage of our first female vice president. It might be tiresome to talk or write about, but it's there. Whenever there is an article on Harris, it portrays her as inept, weak, confused, clumsy - the opposite of the sure-footed, confident presidential candidate and former Attorney General of California. And comments never fail to come from bitter and spiteful men who insist Harris "slept" her way to the top (because heaven forbid a woman, especially one who is not white, should actually earn a promotion based on merit). At the same time, the sexual behavior of male politicians, especially the former president, barely gets discussed.
I only skim articles on Harris now, for this reason. I just can't stand that feeling of powerless anger. And I also think, at this rate it's going to be a very long time before we elect a female president.
The fact that the media hasn’t breathed a sigh of relief now that we have an administration that attends to serious issues but it is clear they are bored by that. They are clearly a bunch of excitement/conflict junkies who hype conflict and problems rather than report on boring substance or, heaven forfend!, good news.
I was taken aback when I ran across this article in Business Insider:
“One gobsmacking chart shows how Biden's economy is doing way, way better than all the others”
I follow economic news pretty closely but I had not idea that we have the best post-covid economy of all because we had a much bigger stimulus. You would think the fact that our economy is larger now than it was before covid. Biden has a better economy than Trump did yet all the media focuses on is inflation. Trump’s economy just continued the strong growth of Obama’s second term, growth that was also better than other countries because we had a larger stimulus than they did. Biden’s strong economy is the direct result of his actions, not just the continuation of a trend as Trump’s was.
Instead of reporting on the strong economy the media obsesses over inflation, blaming it on the stimulus, not temporary supply-chain issues. Then they hammer Biden and the Democrats for not “messaging” effectively. Yesterday afternoon Biden finally got live coverage of his speech about his efforts to reduce gas prices by releasing our petroleum reserves and getting other countries to do the same. He is also asking the FTC to look into possible illegal price gouging by oil companies, proving he isn’t afraid to take them on.
The WaPo didn’t cover that story until hours later, and then not in a prominent article which was gone by this morning. The NYT’s article was more immediate and prominent but only for a few hours. Now the top article at their site is how inflation is complicating the Biden agenda.
Harris is being Hillaried, it's that simple. Why are white men so fearful of powerful competent women? Did they have bad mothers? These same men love to objectify women though. Their image of the perfect women is someone who looks like a model who can also cook, clean the house, sew, and mostly keep quiet. You know - how women were viewed in the 1950s. Ah, for these men, the good old days. Seriously however, the fact that the media did not make more of the fact that we had a women President, even for just a couple of hours, is telling. Those little boys on the Hill and in the press must have simply been terrified. It's amazing how infantile the press can be.
As I posted before, my friends in France don't understand what is going on with the American press. When Kamala was in France she got extremely positive press from them while at the same time the Spiniochios and Spinderellas in the US media endlessly trashed her visit.
It all goes back to who owns the press and once you see who owns it you get your answer why they are endlessly reciting Republican propaganda.
Whew! I was waiting for this one. Of course, any chance the press gets no matter how made up something is they are ready to pounce on Madame VP Harris. We ain't ever heard anything about what Pence was doing (cuz it wasn't s*it) to make the world better. Listen the bottom line is that white men feel inadequate when presented with a woman of color in a place of power. Let's be real a woman of color period they feel insecure. And don't let her be smarter than them in every way. It's all too much for them to handle. Thank you Eric for always shining a light. I did watch you live on The Reid Out the other day. Always great to see you.
One of FDR's vice presidents - Jack Garner -speaking to Lyndon Johnson, famously said, “The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit.” Not much has changed, with the exception of Dick Cheney muscling the ill equipped GW Bush out of the way to start the endless war on terror. The media was so busy carrying water for Cheney that his usurpation of the presidency was ignored. The media also "forgot" to hector the laughably unqualified Jared Kushner when the Former Guy tasked him with everything from peace in the Middle East to "reinventing government." What do Cheney and Kushner have that Kamala doesn't? Most notably, the Y chromosome.
Biden made it clear that, as Obama did with him, he was giving her a large and important portfolio. But instead of reporting on what she’s actually doing, all we get is 8th-grade level gossip column BS. The LAT has devoted reporting to her that they just began—which makes sense because of her importance and centrality to the state. It’s very fair—and stories mention the unfair coverage she gets.
It is frustrating that the media do a piss poor job actually reporting on real issues then blame the Dems for “bad messaging”—a narrative that has been picked up by commenters here and across the spectrum. They really have their knives out for the Democrats and I honestly don’t where the hatred originated.
As for the success of GOP “messaging” they have no real agenda to push. All they have are lies and increasingly threatening rhetoric. They are nihilists and the media consistently gives them a pass and instead blame dems. I was joking this morning that next they may say Santa Claus is a communist/socialist because he doles out free stuff to kids and gets them dependent on him for goodies. It’s easy to tear down—death panels, death tax, war on Christmas—etc when the media keep giving them the mics to spread such nonsense and rarely challenge their lies.
To put an exclamation point at the end of Eric’s premise today, see (or don’t). Matt Lewis in current Daily Beast, “Kamala Harris on her way to being next Dan Quayle.” I haven’t read anything past the headline. Enraging.
It always feels like the right wing media's super power is that they are treated as a legitimate if "slightly slanted" news source. The regular trickle of outrage from Fox to Politico to the New York Times leads to this kind of coverage. The right has moral clarity, yes bad morals, but still lots of clarity. Harris is an uppity black woman who deserves constant criticism to put her in her place. It's not about a $400 piece of cookware. If it hadn't been that it would have been a pair or shoes or a croissant. It was a story that was going to be written no matter what. Now that story will float up to the Times as a "Harris who is always a little of out touch with regular Americans" frame. Since the media so studiously holds the "we must be neutral frame" they are like naïfs constantly sucked into the clear moral outrage of the right. They have no moral clarity, no clear boundaries to guide coverage. The Right "knows" they deserve whatever they have and don't care where McConnell spends his vacations. They also "know" Democrats deserve nothing, only more so a black woman Democrat; and so every ice cream, every haircut, every pair of shoes is a perfect vehicle for outrage. It seems like a hopeless loop we are destined to repeat considering the leadership at the major outlets.
Yesterday the Atlantic posted a piece saying that one of Harris' staff is leaving. Even though it mentioned that the staffer had planned to depart after a year, the article still has all the old tropes - that there is unhappiness, infighting, and dissatisfaction in working for Harris, who is portrayed as the Wicked Witch of the West. And of course that everyone in Washington despises her. This is the misogyny in full bloom.
Eric, I think it's high time for pushback delivered DIRECTLY to each of these malefactors--and what I'd propose (if you had unlimited time and an extra intern or two, yeh like THAT's going to happen) is to end each of these pieces with names and emails, AND names and emails of the reporters/commentators bosses (or in the case of broadcast media, their producers and show bookers), so that each of your readers can decide which media whore(s) to write to (respectfully and civilly, of course) in order to convey disappointment with their willful distortion of events to fit "narratives" of lies. I sure as hell would do it. I'm sure many of your other subscribers would too, because we'd love the opportunity to explain to each of them how much this shallow performative punditry is endangering our democracy. I'm sure that's not why you set up "Press Run," i.e. to function as a clearing house for public commentary, but I sure wish someone in the media-critique line would do this. (Let me know if someone is, in case I've missed it!) And thanks for your work!
No doubt about it. Many prominent women had her back in the run up to the election and it worked. Fortunately among the young women I know, 20 somethings, they won’t put you with the crap heaped on the likes of Kamala. They push back. But your point is well taken.
Gee a prominent woman politician who has been attacked relentlessly for months is being "defensive" I can't imagine why that might be or whether there are any other examples of this in the past few years.
What fun it must be to attack the first woman, first woman of color to EARN the position of US VP. Cheap shots, inane drivel, shallow nonsense no one is interested in other than the msm. Junior High much? How about we cover 24/7 and pick apart every one of msm members to see how their jobs compare w/ the day to day experiences of Kamala. I think msm is happy to slap down another woman so the writers can feel better about themselves. There is no sense of the historic place she holds nor the success of the work she is doing.
And Harris just released a statement on the Arbery case, so any moment we'll be hearing that she's "sticking her nose in" and being "divisive" and "inflammatory."
Eric, this piece is spot on except for one glaring omission - the misogyny behind the harsh and ridiculously critical coverage of our first female vice president. It might be tiresome to talk or write about, but it's there. Whenever there is an article on Harris, it portrays her as inept, weak, confused, clumsy - the opposite of the sure-footed, confident presidential candidate and former Attorney General of California. And comments never fail to come from bitter and spiteful men who insist Harris "slept" her way to the top (because heaven forbid a woman, especially one who is not white, should actually earn a promotion based on merit). At the same time, the sexual behavior of male politicians, especially the former president, barely gets discussed.
I only skim articles on Harris now, for this reason. I just can't stand that feeling of powerless anger. And I also think, at this rate it's going to be a very long time before we elect a female president.
The fact that the media hasn’t breathed a sigh of relief now that we have an administration that attends to serious issues but it is clear they are bored by that. They are clearly a bunch of excitement/conflict junkies who hype conflict and problems rather than report on boring substance or, heaven forfend!, good news.
I was taken aback when I ran across this article in Business Insider:
“One gobsmacking chart shows how Biden's economy is doing way, way better than all the others”
https://www.businessinsider.com/chart-us-economic-recovery-beats-other-advanced-economies-gdp-rebound-2021-11
I follow economic news pretty closely but I had not idea that we have the best post-covid economy of all because we had a much bigger stimulus. You would think the fact that our economy is larger now than it was before covid. Biden has a better economy than Trump did yet all the media focuses on is inflation. Trump’s economy just continued the strong growth of Obama’s second term, growth that was also better than other countries because we had a larger stimulus than they did. Biden’s strong economy is the direct result of his actions, not just the continuation of a trend as Trump’s was.
Instead of reporting on the strong economy the media obsesses over inflation, blaming it on the stimulus, not temporary supply-chain issues. Then they hammer Biden and the Democrats for not “messaging” effectively. Yesterday afternoon Biden finally got live coverage of his speech about his efforts to reduce gas prices by releasing our petroleum reserves and getting other countries to do the same. He is also asking the FTC to look into possible illegal price gouging by oil companies, proving he isn’t afraid to take them on.
The WaPo didn’t cover that story until hours later, and then not in a prominent article which was gone by this morning. The NYT’s article was more immediate and prominent but only for a few hours. Now the top article at their site is how inflation is complicating the Biden agenda.
But, but, but, Kamala's emails... Oh, wait.
Harris is being Hillaried, it's that simple. Why are white men so fearful of powerful competent women? Did they have bad mothers? These same men love to objectify women though. Their image of the perfect women is someone who looks like a model who can also cook, clean the house, sew, and mostly keep quiet. You know - how women were viewed in the 1950s. Ah, for these men, the good old days. Seriously however, the fact that the media did not make more of the fact that we had a women President, even for just a couple of hours, is telling. Those little boys on the Hill and in the press must have simply been terrified. It's amazing how infantile the press can be.
As I posted before, my friends in France don't understand what is going on with the American press. When Kamala was in France she got extremely positive press from them while at the same time the Spiniochios and Spinderellas in the US media endlessly trashed her visit.
It all goes back to who owns the press and once you see who owns it you get your answer why they are endlessly reciting Republican propaganda.
Whew! I was waiting for this one. Of course, any chance the press gets no matter how made up something is they are ready to pounce on Madame VP Harris. We ain't ever heard anything about what Pence was doing (cuz it wasn't s*it) to make the world better. Listen the bottom line is that white men feel inadequate when presented with a woman of color in a place of power. Let's be real a woman of color period they feel insecure. And don't let her be smarter than them in every way. It's all too much for them to handle. Thank you Eric for always shining a light. I did watch you live on The Reid Out the other day. Always great to see you.
One of FDR's vice presidents - Jack Garner -speaking to Lyndon Johnson, famously said, “The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm spit.” Not much has changed, with the exception of Dick Cheney muscling the ill equipped GW Bush out of the way to start the endless war on terror. The media was so busy carrying water for Cheney that his usurpation of the presidency was ignored. The media also "forgot" to hector the laughably unqualified Jared Kushner when the Former Guy tasked him with everything from peace in the Middle East to "reinventing government." What do Cheney and Kushner have that Kamala doesn't? Most notably, the Y chromosome.
Biden made it clear that, as Obama did with him, he was giving her a large and important portfolio. But instead of reporting on what she’s actually doing, all we get is 8th-grade level gossip column BS. The LAT has devoted reporting to her that they just began—which makes sense because of her importance and centrality to the state. It’s very fair—and stories mention the unfair coverage she gets.
It is frustrating that the media do a piss poor job actually reporting on real issues then blame the Dems for “bad messaging”—a narrative that has been picked up by commenters here and across the spectrum. They really have their knives out for the Democrats and I honestly don’t where the hatred originated.
As for the success of GOP “messaging” they have no real agenda to push. All they have are lies and increasingly threatening rhetoric. They are nihilists and the media consistently gives them a pass and instead blame dems. I was joking this morning that next they may say Santa Claus is a communist/socialist because he doles out free stuff to kids and gets them dependent on him for goodies. It’s easy to tear down—death panels, death tax, war on Christmas—etc when the media keep giving them the mics to spread such nonsense and rarely challenge their lies.
To put an exclamation point at the end of Eric’s premise today, see (or don’t). Matt Lewis in current Daily Beast, “Kamala Harris on her way to being next Dan Quayle.” I haven’t read anything past the headline. Enraging.
It always feels like the right wing media's super power is that they are treated as a legitimate if "slightly slanted" news source. The regular trickle of outrage from Fox to Politico to the New York Times leads to this kind of coverage. The right has moral clarity, yes bad morals, but still lots of clarity. Harris is an uppity black woman who deserves constant criticism to put her in her place. It's not about a $400 piece of cookware. If it hadn't been that it would have been a pair or shoes or a croissant. It was a story that was going to be written no matter what. Now that story will float up to the Times as a "Harris who is always a little of out touch with regular Americans" frame. Since the media so studiously holds the "we must be neutral frame" they are like naïfs constantly sucked into the clear moral outrage of the right. They have no moral clarity, no clear boundaries to guide coverage. The Right "knows" they deserve whatever they have and don't care where McConnell spends his vacations. They also "know" Democrats deserve nothing, only more so a black woman Democrat; and so every ice cream, every haircut, every pair of shoes is a perfect vehicle for outrage. It seems like a hopeless loop we are destined to repeat considering the leadership at the major outlets.
Yesterday the Atlantic posted a piece saying that one of Harris' staff is leaving. Even though it mentioned that the staffer had planned to depart after a year, the article still has all the old tropes - that there is unhappiness, infighting, and dissatisfaction in working for Harris, who is portrayed as the Wicked Witch of the West. And of course that everyone in Washington despises her. This is the misogyny in full bloom.
Eric, I think it's high time for pushback delivered DIRECTLY to each of these malefactors--and what I'd propose (if you had unlimited time and an extra intern or two, yeh like THAT's going to happen) is to end each of these pieces with names and emails, AND names and emails of the reporters/commentators bosses (or in the case of broadcast media, their producers and show bookers), so that each of your readers can decide which media whore(s) to write to (respectfully and civilly, of course) in order to convey disappointment with their willful distortion of events to fit "narratives" of lies. I sure as hell would do it. I'm sure many of your other subscribers would too, because we'd love the opportunity to explain to each of them how much this shallow performative punditry is endangering our democracy. I'm sure that's not why you set up "Press Run," i.e. to function as a clearing house for public commentary, but I sure wish someone in the media-critique line would do this. (Let me know if someone is, in case I've missed it!) And thanks for your work!
No doubt about it. Many prominent women had her back in the run up to the election and it worked. Fortunately among the young women I know, 20 somethings, they won’t put you with the crap heaped on the likes of Kamala. They push back. But your point is well taken.
Gee a prominent woman politician who has been attacked relentlessly for months is being "defensive" I can't imagine why that might be or whether there are any other examples of this in the past few years.
What fun it must be to attack the first woman, first woman of color to EARN the position of US VP. Cheap shots, inane drivel, shallow nonsense no one is interested in other than the msm. Junior High much? How about we cover 24/7 and pick apart every one of msm members to see how their jobs compare w/ the day to day experiences of Kamala. I think msm is happy to slap down another woman so the writers can feel better about themselves. There is no sense of the historic place she holds nor the success of the work she is doing.
The lowest of the low, Fox is the reincarnation of the Nazi propaganda machine that ruined Germany for generations. Except that its goal is not so much the domination of the world, but rather the pursuit of gold for its owners at any expense. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/03/how-nazi-propaganda-encouraged-the-masses-to-co-produce-a-false-reality.html Thanks to HCR, this article from March, 2017 will help with perspective.
And Harris just released a statement on the Arbery case, so any moment we'll be hearing that she's "sticking her nose in" and being "divisive" and "inflammatory."