The Washington Post breathlessly covered Hillary Clinton’s emails in the same way; they buried the announcement of her exoneration in the back of the A section.
Margaret Sullivan earns her pay over at the Washington Post. Jennifer Rubin earns it too, as evidenced by her recent piece on the border hysteria issue and media reaction to it.
Thank you for writing about this! Jennifer Rubin is the one exception to the media’s relentless hyping of the border crisis. She has an article up showing just how quickly the Biden administration has has improved the situation. I was gobsmacked to read just how much better things are because all I have heard recently from the media is how low Biden’s approval ratings are on this issue. The press likes to pretend they have had nothing to do with that negative opinion.
Maybe it’s my bias but from what I have seen over the years the media gives a pass to Republicans for all kinds of mistakes but hypes their successes. In fact the media is even willing to create a false impression of success. They did this with their framing of Reagan as an economic genius despite his crackpot supply-side ideology. I waited for years to see the media admit that Reagan nearly tripled our national debt with this tax cuts and spending.
In contrast the media buries real accomplishments of Democrats. I have been reading Jonathan Alter’s bio of Carter “His Very Best”. Alter has said he was surprised to find that Carter had had a lot of accomplishments as president and he was right. I have always known about some of them. Carter’s energy policies were very effective and forward-looking in contrast to Reagan’s yet the media rarely points that out.
The exception to this preference for ignoring Democrats’ accomplishments is media coverage of Biden’s handling of COVID but that is something that is personally important to journalists, unlike the situation of migrants and refugees.
The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent and Paul Walkman have been great, too. The Post’s actual media critic, Erik Wemple, not so much. Too often he focuses on insider media issues that the public could care less about rather than risk upsetting the powers that be.
Margaret Sullivan and Jennifer Rubin are truth tellers and journalistic gems. Hair on fire negativity about the successful Dems seems to be the only approach taken by some in the press. Biden is still pressed to call conditions on the border a ‘crisis’ seemingly asked by msm to confirm their own misrepresentation of the work the administration has done there from the get go. It’s as though the press has forgotten the mess left there by Biden’s predecessor. Back story please. It’s the press that labeled border conditions a crisis and now they’re walking away from their own inventions with no mea culpas. Thanks for this piece, Eric, so important, so maddening.
"We don't want to become the story" is news-speak (pun intended) for "We don't want to admit our mistakes". Factual corrections don't bother them, if trivial and buried deeply enough, but confessing to inventing scandals and framing things to make Democrats look bad, or Republicon policies look responsible, is not on the table.
I am still waiting for the Times to apologize for repeatedly pushing fake scandals about Bill Clinton that were fed to them by right wing operatives. I also want them to acknowledge and apologize for partnering with Steve Bannon and his henchman Peter Schweitzer to smear the Clinton Foundation by printing the false claims and innuendo from Schweitzer’s book “Clinton Cash”.
Well, I've been waiting for 17 years to see an apology from the New York Times and ESPECIALLY that liar Fred Hiatt at the Post for lying any lie to go to war in Iraq--the war that killed thousands including my son.
I've resigned myself to the fact that the Corporate Controlled Conservative Press will always push anything the Republican Party demands.
I have always believed that had the media paid a price for the lies they were willing to help spread during the 90s they might have been less willing to keep spreading right wing propaganda. Ditto for the media giving GHW Bush a pass for giving Saddam a green light to invade Iraq, then selling the war by hiring the tobacco pushing PR firm Hill & Knowlton to win over the public with lies about Iraqi soldiers throwing Kuwait babies out of incubators. There are serious consequences for having no consequences for the media’s lack of objectivity. People like your son die as a result of media not being honest and objective yet they still have not paid the price for helping Republicans spread their propaganda.
Sorry for your loss. The press is just a greed organization that follows anyone with a sensational story to tell and by that I mean a lie. One thing I remember my grandmother saying is if you lie you'll steal, the GQP the newspapers IJS.
Goodness, I'm terribly sorry for you son as well as all the other people who died due to that useless and worthless war. To this day I have no idea what the NYT thought they were doing championing that foolishness.
According to Mother Jones Steve Bannon left the bouncing baby Hunter Biden computer op in a basket on the doorstep of the New York Post with a note which said, "Please share custody of this scandal with my dear friends Axis Maggie and Ken Vogel at the New York Times. They will feed and nurture it from its randy youth to old age.
I think I saw that CNN piece. One of the points they made (IIRC) was there were two agencies who did not automatically report after Biden was sworn in - his administration, in order to find out what current status is, had to <s>chase after</s> reach out for the information. One agency was a part of Defense and the other was the Border agency. Turns out, their staff was severely reduced in 2020 so they were overwhelmed (even more) by immigrants at the south border. I'd like to see mainstream media mention that a time or two instead of this apparent panic. It's as though they were informed that Biden's administration got in touch with the Border people so they have to get their stories in quickly, sort of cover over the realities to control the narrative. But for who? For what?
The best contemporary take down of the press is still Stephen Colbert in 2006 at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. It's depressing how relevant it still is.
CNN had a segment about how authoritarian the Republican Party has become. Of course they did not mention the fact that their endless pro-Trump bias in 2016 was one of the main reasons Orange Foolius was able to get in.
I'm a subscriber - and proud to be so despite my limited income - but there's one thing I wish you'd incorporate into your media analyses/criticism, and that's an activist piece. Doesn't need to be a whole movement, just a link or email address of who to contact to voice OUR opinion of what the media outlet has done, and our own thoughts about it. Please consider it. It would make your work all the more valuable and, one would hope, even more effective.
A doctor friend of mine just yesterday went on a mini rant about how Kamala Harris, who he calls, her, has abandoned the border and is doing nothing. Then he said, I know where you stand, Biden is a TERRIBLE president. I am his patient and his friend. I do not go on political tirades. My point: it is working. What gave us Trump, looking at you Zucker, and both sided an almost return to the active Confederacy, where my people are from, is working because corporate media wants it to for pure greed. The New York Post writer story was red meat for the MAGA base and gave mainstream cover to write whatever about Biden. Harris is being scapegoated as the other in broad daylight.
The irony being that Sullivan is a columnist for one of the worst opinion sections you can find, if only because Fred Hiatt prattles on about all that is wrong with society but still has traitors Marc Thiessen and Hugh Hewitt writing for him.
The Post is a great newspaper, and sometimes greater than The Times. And as I like to say, if you're great and going to claim to be great, you need to be called out when you get it wrong. I don't think The Post quite ranks with The Times in believing in its own infallibility, but it comes close.
I agree. My only real problem with WaPo is political coverage, with the exception of Jennifer Rubin and a few others. I can't thing of one print newspaper or broadcast outlet that has decent political reporting. It's like they keep all their pundits locked up in cryogenic sleeping pods where they receive subliminal messages voiced by Donald Trump.
I differentiate for the most part between the pundits and the reporters, but they're doing a virtual interview with Josh Hawley and promoting it with their slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." The whole place needs a mirror or an enema.
And I wish I could disagree, but I don't: That's why I call it the DC political media brothel.
And I call it the Beltway Political Propatainment Complex. BTW, were you a fan of the MediaWhoresOnline? How I miss that site, though Eric's criticisms are just as good (but I do miss MWO's invective)
If the WPO gives up the illusion that brown thugs with guns and knives are coming to rob and rape Lily-white Americans, how can they possibly prolong the idea that Biden is inept? Biden is disarming the Republican talking points at an historic rate. This scares the crap out of the Beltway Press who can't break out of the mold of both sides do it. At some point, they will be forced to conclude that the battle in America is right vs. wrong, not blue vs. red. Because there is a Republican Party doesn't mean their ideas (what ideas?) have any merit. The WPO, NYT, live in a fantasy world of the 1980s and 1990s where there was a debate of liberal vs. conservative ideas. They need to wake the f#!k up!
Can’t cite which print media source (?) but a very good article y’day about Sunday shows and the parade of lying Rs, think Ron Johnson, who appear as guests and none is asked about their role in Jan 6, the big lie etc. and yet they continue to be booked; is this their version of ‘fair and balanced?’
Subscribed. I can't really afford news services, but I paid $29 for a year of WAPO, that will increase to $100 in January. I'd rather have a service that provides truth, rather than garbage to get people worked up. This one podcast, and a recommendation, from Mary Trump were all the convincing needed.
The Washington Post breathlessly covered Hillary Clinton’s emails in the same way; they buried the announcement of her exoneration in the back of the A section.
Margaret Sullivan earns her pay over at the Washington Post. Jennifer Rubin earns it too, as evidenced by her recent piece on the border hysteria issue and media reaction to it.
yes, both are excellent
Thank you for writing about this! Jennifer Rubin is the one exception to the media’s relentless hyping of the border crisis. She has an article up showing just how quickly the Biden administration has has improved the situation. I was gobsmacked to read just how much better things are because all I have heard recently from the media is how low Biden’s approval ratings are on this issue. The press likes to pretend they have had nothing to do with that negative opinion.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/02/hey-what-happened-border-crisis/?itid=ap_jenniferrubin
Maybe it’s my bias but from what I have seen over the years the media gives a pass to Republicans for all kinds of mistakes but hypes their successes. In fact the media is even willing to create a false impression of success. They did this with their framing of Reagan as an economic genius despite his crackpot supply-side ideology. I waited for years to see the media admit that Reagan nearly tripled our national debt with this tax cuts and spending.
In contrast the media buries real accomplishments of Democrats. I have been reading Jonathan Alter’s bio of Carter “His Very Best”. Alter has said he was surprised to find that Carter had had a lot of accomplishments as president and he was right. I have always known about some of them. Carter’s energy policies were very effective and forward-looking in contrast to Reagan’s yet the media rarely points that out.
The exception to this preference for ignoring Democrats’ accomplishments is media coverage of Biden’s handling of COVID but that is something that is personally important to journalists, unlike the situation of migrants and refugees.
The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent and Paul Walkman have been great, too. The Post’s actual media critic, Erik Wemple, not so much. Too often he focuses on insider media issues that the public could care less about rather than risk upsetting the powers that be.
Follow the money?
Yup. Would be revealing I'm sure.
Margaret Sullivan and Jennifer Rubin are truth tellers and journalistic gems. Hair on fire negativity about the successful Dems seems to be the only approach taken by some in the press. Biden is still pressed to call conditions on the border a ‘crisis’ seemingly asked by msm to confirm their own misrepresentation of the work the administration has done there from the get go. It’s as though the press has forgotten the mess left there by Biden’s predecessor. Back story please. It’s the press that labeled border conditions a crisis and now they’re walking away from their own inventions with no mea culpas. Thanks for this piece, Eric, so important, so maddening.
Ps. Erik Wemple at Wapo another good piece y’day re: CNN/Santorum.
Press labels. Not a part of speech. Infuriating.
I'm waiting for the press to ever apologize for anything they write outside of a Page 16 paragraph or a years late, "Oh, well. Bygones."
press not very good at coming clean
"We don't want to become the story" is news-speak (pun intended) for "We don't want to admit our mistakes". Factual corrections don't bother them, if trivial and buried deeply enough, but confessing to inventing scandals and framing things to make Democrats look bad, or Republicon policies look responsible, is not on the table.
I am still waiting for the Times to apologize for repeatedly pushing fake scandals about Bill Clinton that were fed to them by right wing operatives. I also want them to acknowledge and apologize for partnering with Steve Bannon and his henchman Peter Schweitzer to smear the Clinton Foundation by printing the false claims and innuendo from Schweitzer’s book “Clinton Cash”.
Something tells me I will wait forever.
Well, I've been waiting for 17 years to see an apology from the New York Times and ESPECIALLY that liar Fred Hiatt at the Post for lying any lie to go to war in Iraq--the war that killed thousands including my son.
I've resigned myself to the fact that the Corporate Controlled Conservative Press will always push anything the Republican Party demands.
I have always believed that had the media paid a price for the lies they were willing to help spread during the 90s they might have been less willing to keep spreading right wing propaganda. Ditto for the media giving GHW Bush a pass for giving Saddam a green light to invade Iraq, then selling the war by hiring the tobacco pushing PR firm Hill & Knowlton to win over the public with lies about Iraqi soldiers throwing Kuwait babies out of incubators. There are serious consequences for having no consequences for the media’s lack of objectivity. People like your son die as a result of media not being honest and objective yet they still have not paid the price for helping Republicans spread their propaganda.
You are so right Theodora30.
Sorry for your loss. The press is just a greed organization that follows anyone with a sensational story to tell and by that I mean a lie. One thing I remember my grandmother saying is if you lie you'll steal, the GQP the newspapers IJS.
Goodness, I'm terribly sorry for you son as well as all the other people who died due to that useless and worthless war. To this day I have no idea what the NYT thought they were doing championing that foolishness.
I am so sorry.
According to Mother Jones Steve Bannon left the bouncing baby Hunter Biden computer op in a basket on the doorstep of the New York Post with a note which said, "Please share custody of this scandal with my dear friends Axis Maggie and Ken Vogel at the New York Times. They will feed and nurture it from its randy youth to old age.
I think I saw that CNN piece. One of the points they made (IIRC) was there were two agencies who did not automatically report after Biden was sworn in - his administration, in order to find out what current status is, had to <s>chase after</s> reach out for the information. One agency was a part of Defense and the other was the Border agency. Turns out, their staff was severely reduced in 2020 so they were overwhelmed (even more) by immigrants at the south border. I'd like to see mainstream media mention that a time or two instead of this apparent panic. It's as though they were informed that Biden's administration got in touch with the Border people so they have to get their stories in quickly, sort of cover over the realities to control the narrative. But for who? For what?
FWIW, today's Press Run impelled me to do a write-up at Daily Kos: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/3/2028724/-About-that-crisis-at-the-border-Why-it-s-always-good-news-for-Republicans-but-not-Democrats
The best contemporary take down of the press is still Stephen Colbert in 2006 at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. It's depressing how relevant it still is.
https://youtu.be/6ZnuYKKtpxg
Oh gosh yes, that was a classic!
Great piece by u xaxnar.
CNN had a segment about how authoritarian the Republican Party has become. Of course they did not mention the fact that their endless pro-Trump bias in 2016 was one of the main reasons Orange Foolius was able to get in.
I'm a subscriber - and proud to be so despite my limited income - but there's one thing I wish you'd incorporate into your media analyses/criticism, and that's an activist piece. Doesn't need to be a whole movement, just a link or email address of who to contact to voice OUR opinion of what the media outlet has done, and our own thoughts about it. Please consider it. It would make your work all the more valuable and, one would hope, even more effective.
A doctor friend of mine just yesterday went on a mini rant about how Kamala Harris, who he calls, her, has abandoned the border and is doing nothing. Then he said, I know where you stand, Biden is a TERRIBLE president. I am his patient and his friend. I do not go on political tirades. My point: it is working. What gave us Trump, looking at you Zucker, and both sided an almost return to the active Confederacy, where my people are from, is working because corporate media wants it to for pure greed. The New York Post writer story was red meat for the MAGA base and gave mainstream cover to write whatever about Biden. Harris is being scapegoated as the other in broad daylight.
The irony being that Sullivan is a columnist for one of the worst opinion sections you can find, if only because Fred Hiatt prattles on about all that is wrong with society but still has traitors Marc Thiessen and Hugh Hewitt writing for him.
The Post is a great newspaper, and sometimes greater than The Times. And as I like to say, if you're great and going to claim to be great, you need to be called out when you get it wrong. I don't think The Post quite ranks with The Times in believing in its own infallibility, but it comes close.
I agree. My only real problem with WaPo is political coverage, with the exception of Jennifer Rubin and a few others. I can't thing of one print newspaper or broadcast outlet that has decent political reporting. It's like they keep all their pundits locked up in cryogenic sleeping pods where they receive subliminal messages voiced by Donald Trump.
I differentiate for the most part between the pundits and the reporters, but they're doing a virtual interview with Josh Hawley and promoting it with their slogan, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." The whole place needs a mirror or an enema.
And I wish I could disagree, but I don't: That's why I call it the DC political media brothel.
And I call it the Beltway Political Propatainment Complex. BTW, were you a fan of the MediaWhoresOnline? How I miss that site, though Eric's criticisms are just as good (but I do miss MWO's invective)
If the WPO gives up the illusion that brown thugs with guns and knives are coming to rob and rape Lily-white Americans, how can they possibly prolong the idea that Biden is inept? Biden is disarming the Republican talking points at an historic rate. This scares the crap out of the Beltway Press who can't break out of the mold of both sides do it. At some point, they will be forced to conclude that the battle in America is right vs. wrong, not blue vs. red. Because there is a Republican Party doesn't mean their ideas (what ideas?) have any merit. The WPO, NYT, live in a fantasy world of the 1980s and 1990s where there was a debate of liberal vs. conservative ideas. They need to wake the f#!k up!
PS Thank you for calling this out!
yr welcome
I maintain that the WaPo actually owes readers an apology, and I stop just short of suggesting penance.
Can’t cite which print media source (?) but a very good article y’day about Sunday shows and the parade of lying Rs, think Ron Johnson, who appear as guests and none is asked about their role in Jan 6, the big lie etc. and yet they continue to be booked; is this their version of ‘fair and balanced?’
Subscribed. I can't really afford news services, but I paid $29 for a year of WAPO, that will increase to $100 in January. I'd rather have a service that provides truth, rather than garbage to get people worked up. This one podcast, and a recommendation, from Mary Trump were all the convincing needed.