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Jen Psaki should remind the gaggle that President Biden doesn't personally profit from his trips as The Former Guy did...shamelessly charging the Secret Service for accommodations at Trump owned properties.

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yep! I believe the Trump bill totaled $110M

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Psaki is a real pro, par excellence. Think Spicey.

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Thanks for linking the Mary Trump article. It is a must read if you're not yet convinced of the danger our democracy is in. She too points out the abrogation of the msm, and the dire effect it will have in the months and (few) years ahead.

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Thanks for sharing the Mary Trump article.

I have said it here before: The L word for the nontillionth of a cent streetwalkers who comprise the DC political media brothel and its branches across the country is not Liberal. It is Lazy. They want to become Woodward and Bernstein without actually doing the work.

I also recur to a Russell Baker review of Paul Krugman, and his comment in a related interview that today's reporters did not, as he did, grow up in a time of economic privation and end up covering people exponentially wealthier than they are. So today's reporters are more interested in the social issues that got their attention when they were starting out. Now it's become what I might call the Tony Gwynn principle.

What? Well, Gwynn was, for those not into baseball (and what's WRONG with you?), a great player. And he said too many younger players didn't work on fundamentals of the game because they realized they got more attention--ESPN and social media--for making or trying to make big plays and not making small plays. And that's the political media.

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They fixate on this, after four years of giving Trump a complete pass on not only spending more than a quarter of his presidency away from the WH but sending us the bill payable to his own business.

Proof, once again, that Both Sides does not mean both sides.

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So sad. Obama’s birthday party was another no news, hit the Dems story that ran for days. It’s a commentary on the shallowness of msm questions during these terrible times for the country. Regrettably the impression these ‘reporters’ leave is that they lack the preparedness and depth of knowledge to cover a president with heft, no drama, and important policy achievements these same people of the msm declared dead over and over and over again. 24/7 news coverage has not served them, nor us, well.

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Oh yep good pt re: Obama party. NYT def treated that like breaking news for days

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Thinking that a whole lot of people are now being turned off by MSM. I sure hope so.

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I hope so too.

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Doing PR for the GOP means slagging every Democrat one can as often as possible. Been that way since Carter and here we are.

Thank you, mainstream media, for your fine service to the nation.

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after Trump, press determined they can be “tough” on a Dem, too

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No, what I said: goes back to Carter. Bad as he was, he was not the failure as reported at the time. Dunno a Dem POTUS who got passes from the press the way Reagan and the Bush’s did. Same for lower offices.

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Read Jonathan Alter’s bio of Carter. I heard Alter interviewed about the book. He said he had expected to find that Carter had been a mediocre president but a great ex-president but was surprised to discover all of Carter’s impressive accomplishments as president. I find it very disturbing that a top political journalist like Alter woudn’t have known about Carter’s achievements, just the distorted image the media painted of him.

Carter pushed hard for good government reforms. (The media loved to deride people who fought for those kinds of reforms as “goo-goos”. ) It was Carter who enacted the inspector general law. His energy independence and environmental programs were impressive. He brokered the Camp David accords which put an end to the constant wars between Israel and Egypt that had been going on for 30 years.

The media treated Carter even worse than they now treat Biden, (though not as bad as they treated Hillary). The media has always looked down on Carter as a country bumpkin. It drove be crazy that they kept calling him a peanut farmer, making it clear that it was not a compliment. They later did the same thing to Bill Clinton, calling him Bubba. The incompetent Dubya got more respect from the media than either Carter or Clinton did.

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The media looked down on Carter firstly because he was a Democrat IMO. Come 1980, their love for Reagan was palpable.

Then again, the role of the mainstream is first and foremost to support the establishment. And when you get the corruption and disregard for the well-being of the nation that we have now, it’s a problem.

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Reagan was a B movie actor, and notably, former prez of the Screen Actors Guild, a Union for pete's sake. Bad enough, but then they elected a reality(really?) show character with a history of corruption and endless lies and narcissistic self promotion...as in con man...and the mainstream beltway press treated both as legit. We're doomed without an aggressive truth movement.

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Well, the mainstream only cares about the truth incidentally. Not really in the truth telling business.

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I wish that Mary Trump could run for office, perhaps NY Governor.

Or become a regularly contributing journalist. She understands the importance of the media, she's smart, she can connect dots.

Mary Trump for Opinion Columnist! Where do we vote?

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Hahaha...I just saw this from Mark Knoller (former correspondent from CBS) and spewed (retweeted by deplorable Ashley Parker of the Wapo)...."Biden Weekend Scoreboard

-14 weekends at home in Wilmington, DE

-8 weekends at Camp David

-6 weekends at the WH

-1 overseas/Cornwall, England G7" The fall of Kabul is about to happen and THIS is what they are talking about??????

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This is Biden's reward for running a clean and competent government.

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The thing that bugs me is just how pervasive this wacky non-issue story manufacturing is. The AP, CBS, McClatchy, AP again, AP yet again, AP one more time, CNN, and of course, Faux News.

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At these press briefings Jen should say to the person who asked a stupid question, I have a question from a voter who wants to ask you something. Start asking them to respond to the American people have a group waiting on the phone. Questions asked by people never interviewed when their out on the street. Just a thought

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That’s essentially C-Span.

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Reading about the press fixation on Biden's travels and the search for anything to fluff into a negative for drama/clicks/eyeballs, Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" starting playing in my mental soundtrack.

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The song came out in 1982, but if anything it's truer than ever. See the lyrics here: https://genius.com/Don-henley-dirty-laundry-lyrics

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It might as well be the unofficial anthem of Press Run...

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Just listened to Dirty Laundry. Fabulous. Nothing has changed. I vote yes to use it as PR anthem.

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Thanks Eric. I listened to the tail end of the presser the other day and who the hell was the reporter pressing Jen Psaki about Biden's GRANDCHILDREN? COME ON!!! They must be kidding....she put that one down promptly. They have nothing else.

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Seems like the press briefings are less and less about bringing the public up to speed about their representative's work product. MSM need to take some time off to clear some brush, as it were.

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The media has never been about informing the public about what Democrats accomplish. The media repeatedly predicts that they won’t succeed in getting something passed then move on to the next crisis rather than focus on successes and things that are actually working. Jennifer Rubin recently wrote about this issue, slamming the media for its cynicism and crisis mentality.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/11/biden-defies-expectations-again/

For years I have been frustrated by the media’s ignoring of successful policies (especially those enacted by Democrats). The explanation seemed to be that people would be bored by that kind of reporting. A study done last year disproves that assumption. People surveyed reacted more favorably to news coverage of solutions than they did to the typical crisis “if it bleeds it leads” reporting. Of course that kind of reporting takes a lot more work.

https://sjn-static.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithGeiger2020.pdf

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What I find particularly galling is the tendency of the MSM to label Manchin and Sinema "moderate Democrats." Not only does that mis-characterize their conservatism, but it implies that every other Dem is *extreme* (i.e., not moderate). That's a branding win for the GOP.

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Excellent Rubin piece. Wish all msm would read, take notes, learn from a pro. She’s a truth teller par excellence. Eric too, of course.

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Just a quibble Mr. Boehlert.

I object to you including McClatchy & Fox as 'Media". They both are part of the RW Media & their goal is to create a "scandal" for President Biden. Of course they're going to try to hammer President Biden on his travel.

I have to admit I haven't seen any articles on President Biden's travel "scandals".

If a question is asked at the Press Conference and it isn't reported, does it make a sound?

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ha good pt. I think the fact they’re still asking Delaware questions in August suggests there’s something out of whack

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True enough.

If it’s RW Media; it’s a matter of trying to create a scandal. Did you hear there’s a SECOND Hunter Biden laptop?

If it’s mainstream news; then boredom suggests itself.

Boring is good but not for news services.

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The public prefers more substantive, solution-focused news according to a recent study:

https://sjn-static.s3.amazonaws.com/SmithGeiger2020.pdf

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I have never thought of McClatchy as right wing. As far as I know they still own my paper, The Charlotte Observer, which I would rank as center left. The editorial board regularly endorses Democratic candidates as well as some business-oriented Republicans. And McClatchy’s Washington bureau is ranked center-left and high on factual content which ic clearly not a right wing characteristic.

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Me neither; after all, they were one of the few who got the reporting on the Iraq war correct. And they did that while every other outlet was following Judith Miller around like she was the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Did things change after Landay left?

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indeed, the GOP is embracing fascism and Biden WH still getting questions abt Delaware trips

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The media never had that much of a problem with Bush’s many vacations at his ranch where he could pretend to be a manly cowboy just like Reagan did. (He bought that ranch when he decided to run for president and sold it after leaving office.) You know they hated being there, too. They just didn’t want to admit it.

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Yes they have.

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