I’m an Addiction Medicine physician and I work via telehealth in TN. Most of my patients are not vaccinated for COVID19. Yesterday I spoke with one patient who’s 42 year old son in law died of COVID19. She scoffed that he died of pneumonia not COVID19 and they’re just blaming COVID19. Then another patient told me they’d had four family members die of COVID19 but they still won’t get vaccinated. I’ve seen a shift over the past few weeks. More people are getting vaccinated but not nearly enough. I had a colleague who made fun of a patient who had COVID19 to other staff, made a joke about a patient being lazy and not coming into the office because they were “hacking up a lung.” This pivot towards sanity is really hard for those who followed an insane bigot in the White House blithely for five years. Thanks for speaking truth to power. And thanks to Soledad O'Brien for always backing sanity over all the crazy. Ida Santana, MD
By giving Trump supporters so much attention the media has given them far more influence and power than they should have. In contrast the media ignored all those women who supported Hillary and were heartbroken at her loss. Who cares about women? They are only over 50% of our population. And who cares that an openly misogynistic, incompetent, con man destroyed our first chance at a woman president — and a highly qualified one at that? It’s the Trump voters that matter.
These days the media is giving far more attention to statements from the anti-vax governors than they are to this statement by WVa’s not- crazy Republican governor Jim Justice:
Excellent assessment. Interesting to note that the Florida "governor's" response to calls for vaccines and mandates is to restrict reporting of statistics on Covid hospitalizations and deaths, among the other idiotic actions he's perpetrated to insure the pandemic is still raging during the run-up to the mid terms. Where is the press on this and other news from the blood red (and gasping) states?
My concern with the failure of mass media is greater than ever, and I think it's because we need mass media more than ever. I read about all this money and funding these far right groups have, how they are trying to take over local politics. How many billionaires are actively supporting the far right views. It's alarming, especially at the local level.
We need the mass media to counter balance that far right funding, to defeat the large amount of propaganda being spread by the far right. Instead, the mass media organizations are both siding us to potential destruction.
What some of these Republican politicians are doing is not logical. It's not Democrats are doing this, Republicans are doing that, we'll write that both are just two sides of reasonably handling a problem. The Republican politicians and their supporters are actively putting in place policies or spreading lies that are directly causing the death of people, including children. That is not one side of the coin.
No former president continues to get as much media attention. TFG plays a willful media. Why not ask Bush, Clinton or Obama what their plans are for Saturday night? Can we graduate from HS and grow up? A brainwashed electorate is supported by brainwashed "both sides media" funded by dark $ and they don't want to be left out on what conservative media is covering. Thank you for your work, Eric
Your lede should be etched into a monument somewhere (with slight verb tense change). That way future generations might understand the madness that ruined the nation. As for the media, the fawning coverage of Trump voters is all the more remarkable when one considers their widely held belief (no, psychosis) that the election was stolen and that the insurrectionists were patriots. Maybe interviewing people who are grotesquely deluded about so many things isn't a good idea.
I'm beginning to think that it's more than just the fear of being labeled as liberally biased. Billionaires control the mainstream media and have more to lose in a land of progressive agendas. Keeping Republicans in power, no matter how corrupt, is likely the reasoning for this constant coddling. If sales of newspapers and electronic subscriptions is the media's goal then why wouldn't they want to be selling to us, the 70 to 75 percent that are sane, don't like war, want nice roads, healthcare for all, a fixed climate, and are vaccinated. Something simply doesn't add up when you look at how much attention the media gives to Trump supporters and the wacky Republican platform in general.
And I am sick and tired of seeing how the CCCP (Corporate Controlled Conservative Press) endlessly wants to talk with Trump voters in Ohio or Northwestern PA.
It would be nice if JUST ONCE they talked to Hillary or Joe voters...
At this point they (trumpers/gop/covid deniers) would argue the merits of 2+2=4 or present 'another view' if it was presented to them by a Democrat or woman or person of color or someone from another country.
There is something remarkable in The NY Times on the eve of 9/11. Multiple opinion columns are noting that the real threat to America that emerged after that day is the Republican Party. Paul Krugman is particularly scathing in his indictment of the GOP.
Of course, the Times also had to run one that calls Biden’s vaccine mandate a mistake.
“[T]he Trump voter coverage deliberately failed to pull back the curtain and reveal even small glimpses of today’s manic, anti-mask and anti-vaccine mobs.”
If anyone has a stomach for it, Politico Playbook is now blaming Joe Biden for NOT declaring a mandate sooner:
"The only group of people that has disappointed JOE BIDEN more than the Afghan national army is unvaccinated Americans.
“Our patience is wearing thin,” Biden said last night of the 80 million Americans who haven’t received a shot, “and your refusal has cost all of us.”
"We don’t mean to make light of the Taliban takeover or the Covid pandemic, but in both cases Biden has responded to policy failures by placing most of the blame outside the White House.
"On Thursday, Biden was unsparing about the burdens that the unvaccinated have thrust onto the rest of us: thousands more dead, overflowing hospitals, a rebounding economy showing signs of retreat.
"Pandemic politics, as Biden called it, are not simple. But eight months into the crisis, any new set of rules offered by the president raises an obvious question: Why didn’t he do this already?...
"When press secretary JEN PSAKI was asked about Ivey’s comment on July 23, she responded, “Well, I don’t think our role is to place blame.” A reporter followed up wondering if it was time for vaccine mandates. “That’s not the role of the federal government,” Psaki said.
"How many lives could have been saved if it hadn’t taken two more months for Biden to reverse those stubborn views?"
I’m an Addiction Medicine physician and I work via telehealth in TN. Most of my patients are not vaccinated for COVID19. Yesterday I spoke with one patient who’s 42 year old son in law died of COVID19. She scoffed that he died of pneumonia not COVID19 and they’re just blaming COVID19. Then another patient told me they’d had four family members die of COVID19 but they still won’t get vaccinated. I’ve seen a shift over the past few weeks. More people are getting vaccinated but not nearly enough. I had a colleague who made fun of a patient who had COVID19 to other staff, made a joke about a patient being lazy and not coming into the office because they were “hacking up a lung.” This pivot towards sanity is really hard for those who followed an insane bigot in the White House blithely for five years. Thanks for speaking truth to power. And thanks to Soledad O'Brien for always backing sanity over all the crazy. Ida Santana, MD
By giving Trump supporters so much attention the media has given them far more influence and power than they should have. In contrast the media ignored all those women who supported Hillary and were heartbroken at her loss. Who cares about women? They are only over 50% of our population. And who cares that an openly misogynistic, incompetent, con man destroyed our first chance at a woman president — and a highly qualified one at that? It’s the Trump voters that matter.
These days the media is giving far more attention to statements from the anti-vax governors than they are to this statement by WVa’s not- crazy Republican governor Jim Justice:
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1435635717078671362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1435635717078671362%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigbysblog.net%2F
Call me crazy but it seems to me that it might be helpful for people to hear from Justice more than from DeSantis and Abbott.
Excellent assessment. Interesting to note that the Florida "governor's" response to calls for vaccines and mandates is to restrict reporting of statistics on Covid hospitalizations and deaths, among the other idiotic actions he's perpetrated to insure the pandemic is still raging during the run-up to the mid terms. Where is the press on this and other news from the blood red (and gasping) states?
My concern with the failure of mass media is greater than ever, and I think it's because we need mass media more than ever. I read about all this money and funding these far right groups have, how they are trying to take over local politics. How many billionaires are actively supporting the far right views. It's alarming, especially at the local level.
We need the mass media to counter balance that far right funding, to defeat the large amount of propaganda being spread by the far right. Instead, the mass media organizations are both siding us to potential destruction.
What some of these Republican politicians are doing is not logical. It's not Democrats are doing this, Republicans are doing that, we'll write that both are just two sides of reasonably handling a problem. The Republican politicians and their supporters are actively putting in place policies or spreading lies that are directly causing the death of people, including children. That is not one side of the coin.
No former president continues to get as much media attention. TFG plays a willful media. Why not ask Bush, Clinton or Obama what their plans are for Saturday night? Can we graduate from HS and grow up? A brainwashed electorate is supported by brainwashed "both sides media" funded by dark $ and they don't want to be left out on what conservative media is covering. Thank you for your work, Eric
The QAnon idiots we deal with at work screaming that Medicare won't reimburse them for Ivermectin...
Quick note: for some reason the audio doesn't work for today's podcast version of column. Apologies.
Your lede should be etched into a monument somewhere (with slight verb tense change). That way future generations might understand the madness that ruined the nation. As for the media, the fawning coverage of Trump voters is all the more remarkable when one considers their widely held belief (no, psychosis) that the election was stolen and that the insurrectionists were patriots. Maybe interviewing people who are grotesquely deluded about so many things isn't a good idea.
I'm beginning to think that it's more than just the fear of being labeled as liberally biased. Billionaires control the mainstream media and have more to lose in a land of progressive agendas. Keeping Republicans in power, no matter how corrupt, is likely the reasoning for this constant coddling. If sales of newspapers and electronic subscriptions is the media's goal then why wouldn't they want to be selling to us, the 70 to 75 percent that are sane, don't like war, want nice roads, healthcare for all, a fixed climate, and are vaccinated. Something simply doesn't add up when you look at how much attention the media gives to Trump supporters and the wacky Republican platform in general.
And I am sick and tired of seeing how the CCCP (Corporate Controlled Conservative Press) endlessly wants to talk with Trump voters in Ohio or Northwestern PA.
It would be nice if JUST ONCE they talked to Hillary or Joe voters...
"Biden & Republicans Spar Over New Vaccine Requirements" is a headline on MTP Daily. Is there anything more that says our MM media is broken?
At this point they (trumpers/gop/covid deniers) would argue the merits of 2+2=4 or present 'another view' if it was presented to them by a Democrat or woman or person of color or someone from another country.
Even after the election was over, the reporters were back in the diner to see how these salt of the earth Americans were coping.
There is something remarkable in The NY Times on the eve of 9/11. Multiple opinion columns are noting that the real threat to America that emerged after that day is the Republican Party. Paul Krugman is particularly scathing in his indictment of the GOP.
Of course, the Times also had to run one that calls Biden’s vaccine mandate a mistake.
“[T]he Trump voter coverage deliberately failed to pull back the curtain and reveal even small glimpses of today’s manic, anti-mask and anti-vaccine mobs.”
If anyone has a stomach for it, Politico Playbook is now blaming Joe Biden for NOT declaring a mandate sooner:
"The only group of people that has disappointed JOE BIDEN more than the Afghan national army is unvaccinated Americans.
“Our patience is wearing thin,” Biden said last night of the 80 million Americans who haven’t received a shot, “and your refusal has cost all of us.”
"We don’t mean to make light of the Taliban takeover or the Covid pandemic, but in both cases Biden has responded to policy failures by placing most of the blame outside the White House.
"On Thursday, Biden was unsparing about the burdens that the unvaccinated have thrust onto the rest of us: thousands more dead, overflowing hospitals, a rebounding economy showing signs of retreat.
"Pandemic politics, as Biden called it, are not simple. But eight months into the crisis, any new set of rules offered by the president raises an obvious question: Why didn’t he do this already?...
"When press secretary JEN PSAKI was asked about Ivey’s comment on July 23, she responded, “Well, I don’t think our role is to place blame.” A reporter followed up wondering if it was time for vaccine mandates. “That’s not the role of the federal government,” Psaki said.
"How many lives could have been saved if it hadn’t taken two more months for Biden to reverse those stubborn views?"