I seriously don't understand why the American media establishment wants to create a narrative of failing Biden presidency. It's sickening that they're okay with turning a blind eye towards the Republican Party's embrace of authoritarianism, full-on racism & bigotry, and the destruction of the American democratic experiment as a whole. It's also sickening how they needed to create this narrative because they believe the man is "boring" and gaffe-prone that he's not "entertaining" compared to his racist, misogynist, psychopathic & idiotic predecessor whose impulsive and reckless style of governance nearly ruined your country. The antics of the Orange Palpatine were good for ratings and clicks meant that covering him was financially profitable for media outlets. The problem was that while the coverage of the Trump administration was good for the bottom line financially, the media establishment themselves should've focused more on their horrible policies rather than the reality TV antics going on inside the White House. While the Biden administration has its own flaws, they're trying to fix the mess of the previous one, but everybody seems to be giving them a hard time. The news media have seemed to have forgotten their actual duty to keep people INFORMED about the issues, and not provide entertainment.
Indeed, it's troubling that many want another Trump presidency just because covering him is easy money for their corporate overlords. I honestly believe media organizations should not be treated as a profit center or financial asset. Why aren't they considered public utilities that are offering a service that is supposed to be for the public good.
I think it's less about corporate money and more about how much FUN it was covering him. All that infighting made for juicy front-page scoops that led to pundit gigs, nice salaries, and for the very lucky few, a sweet book deal.
I'll agree with you that the Trump administration was a slow motion reality show train wreck that FUN to cover. However, the craziness somehow managed to overshadow all the horrible policy crap that it did (e.g. travel ban on several Muslim majority countries, pulling children away from parents crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, tax breaks for the super-rich, reducing the funding for social services, removing environmental protections from protected natural sites, etc.)
Somehow, their negligence & mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic seemed to be final straw that broke the camel's back in terms of how media organizations downplayed the horrible policies in favor of the reality TV style chaos.
Eric, completely agree. Fun is the word journalists themselves have used about covering TFG. Covid may have broken through because it affected them personally. They had to stay home, mask up, and saw colleagues, family, and friends get sick and sometimes die just like the rest of us. Voters were tired of that chaos and craziness and voted for sanity with Joe, so at least the coverage helped with that.
But while they hated the chaos, I wonder how many of those swing voters actually like Trump policies, which is why Youngkin—a "saner" seemingly more reasonable version of TFG, got their vote. I just don't know and won't till the election froth settles.
Indeed, as someone who lives in the Philippines (a former American colony), it's disappointing to see a country that was once seen as a beacon of democracy struggle with the rising tide of fascism and authoritarianism. My country is going through its second authoritarian leader, thirty five years after we kicked out the previous dictator. Never in my forty-two years of existence did I expect to be living in another dictatorship lead by an incompetent, incoherent, misogynistic and idiotic leader who seems to get a boner from either personally or indirectly killing people.
I am old enough to remember when the networks considered their news divisions a public service, not a profit-generating asset. That was how they met their obligation required by the licensing act to serve the public in return for free use of our airwaves. That free usage was worth untold $$$$ over the years.
Blame Roone Arledge at ABC and the Reagan Revolution for that. Roone folded news into the entertainment division to compete with CBS and NBC and Reagan's "deregulation" "freed" us from bureaucratic red tape and gave rise to unfettered capitalism and the widespread acceptance that "greed is good."
Except the narrative is wrong: it wasn't Reagan that deregulated, it was Jimmy Carter. Reagan gets the credit because policy changes take time to show effects, but the airlines, railroads, trucking, and beer were all deregulated under Carter. https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/much-of-what-youve-heard-about-carter
They're playing with fire. A second Trump presidency would lead to a curtailment of press freedom. His goon minions would be encouraged to attack journalism as they did during the insurrection.
Some of them care and would be in serious trouble. These are the journalists who take 1/6 seriously. But for many others it would just mean writing anti Dem stories every day—which really isn’t much of a leap. They will ignore Trump scandals and concentrate on his enemies and “investigations” of their “corruption” and “malfeasance.” We will see lots of stories a la “Benghazi” and “her emails.” It will look like a free press but won’t be. And for those journalists, well, they will have a job and a nice paycheck.
Remember that Howard Stringer said that Trump brings the cash in. That's all they care about. Besides, that the press has been totally co-opted by the Republican Party just as it was laid out in the memo Lewis Powell wrote for the Hunts, and Scaife back in 1971 to bring the New Right to power starting with Prop 13 in 1978 and the creation of the religious right.
As Jen Senko points out in her book "The Brainwashing of My Dad” the Powell Memo happened at the same time as Roger Ailes was in the Nixon Whitehouse and tried to make v. 1 of Fox News. These things are no coincidence.
?? Murdoch didn’t create Fox News until 1995, long after Nixon was out of office. Ailes was definitely still a big player — he ran Bush I’s race-baiting campaign against Dukakis, along with Lee Atwater.
It is remarkable how well the right followed through on all of Powell's suggestions. The memo is a brilliant piece of strategy that has worked too well for them.
It is remarkable to me that the mainstream media ignored what was going on under the radar. Of course it was only under the radar because they chose to ignore what was happening because it would have required them to acknowledge just how radical the Republicans were becoming. As I wrote above it was Saint Poppy Bush who had Roger Ailes and the dirty trick master Lee Atwater run his race-baiting campaign against Dukakis. Of course this is the same media that gave Bush a pass for his years of lying about his deep involvement in the unconstitutional Iran Contra conspiracy and his withholding of his diary of the meetings he claimed to not have attended from the Independent Counsel. Even his pardons of all his fellow co-conspirators only caused a few days of outrage, unlike the media’s long running criticism of Clinton’s pardons.
Bob Somerby's Daily Howler documented how Carlson was one of the main liars in the Bush camp for 2000 and she even confessed that the reason she did that was because Bush served lobster ravioli with a Caesar salad and white wine to her on his campaign plane and all Gore served were sandwiches and soda.
As I and other have pointed out you need to pick and choose who you watch on cable.
Last night Rachel Maddow did an in-depth segment about the fact that the historical pattern since Reagan has been that the year after the election of a new president his party has always lost BOTH the Virginia and New Jersey governorships. She slammed the media for framing this as a debacle for Democrats, pointing out that it should be looked at as a good sign given the historical record. She literally called the headlines “hysterical”. This is the same media that gives a lot of coverage to the historical record showing that the party of the current president usually loses the midterms but in this case they ignore the record in order to stay with their preferred narrative frame of Biden’s presidency being a disaster.
Maddow also did a substantive segment about the trial of the new-Nazis in Charlottesville and the testimony of an anti-semitism expert in that trial and another about the Q-Anon gathering in Dallas where people waited for JFK Jr. to make an appearance and declare he would be Trump’s running mate in 2024. For years most of the media ignored the insanity on the right as it grew ever stronger and more widespread, the acted shocked when it helped elect Trump.
These in-depth segments were not only substantive but were covering things that most of the mainstream media has ignored.
Theodora30, spot on! Thanks, I'll have to listen to the podcast version of Rachel's show last night. The JFK Jr QAnon obsession is baffling. I get they don't believe he's dead (eyerolling as it is), but why they believe the son of a Democratic icon (albeit a bit tarnished) would be running with Trump demonstrates a new level of insanity.
Here is the link to that clip. The claims are far more bonkers than I had realized. From just what I can remember Trump is the son of General Patton who is a descendant of Abraham Lincoln. JFK Jr. was going to show up at the rally and declare he would be Trump’s running mate.
Rachel was careful to say that even many Q people think this is too far out but given that hundreds showed up you can bet there are thousands more believers.
My first awareness of the JFK Jr thing was back around 1/6. It's mass delusion, and no amount of hectoring, mocking, reasoning, or facts can dissuade them of what they "just know to be true." Even if Trump said on national television tomorrow "I'm lying to bilk all of you dumbasses" they'd say he was being coerced or the video was faked. Shutting down social media and RW propaganda would help to stop the spread of lies, but it isn't going to happen.
These people need serious deprogramming, and for some, I'm not even sure that would work because they are so far down the rabbit hole.
The Q people in Dallas have closed the circle. 58 years ago they would have been hanging "JFK Wanted For Treason" signs all over Dallas and pelting LBJ and Lady Byrd with protest signs.
I agree, but I think we also need to remember that cable is not broadcast and does not have any of the same responsibilities and/or liabilities of having a broadcast license.
You are right but the networks got out of those responsibilities decades ago. The networks used the excuse of competition from cable to get stop meeting the requirement of serving the public good even though back then the network broadcasts were the ones watched the most by far and their overall profits were high, if a little dented by the competition from the new cable programs. Back then there was no Fox “News”. Reagan also dropped the Fairness Act which only applied to network broadcasts but those were the main way people got their news, not cable.
Heather Cox Richardson cited Mr. Boehlert in her daily journal, and I wanted to compliment them both. I also wanted to say that this is a reminder that the political media are a graver enemy of democracy than the republikkkan party, because the latter would not be possible without the help of the former.
Being well-off does not necessarily mean educated. Level of education, rather than economic status, has been a reliable barometer for how people vote for at least the past two decades. Have you seen the statistics about women who voted in VA? Also, well-off Long Island turned red yesterday. It’s all about fear of black people - the notion that someone darker than you is getting more than what they deserve is the motivating factor.
Well off Long Island, HQ of the "will explain how you don't need college but will forget to tell you about the booming catering hall inherited from the grand parents or the well known tiling business inherited from the parents" crowd. They love those boat parades.
I just don't get these WH press reporters seriously asking Pres Biden if it's his fault that Terry lost in VA. Like wtf?! How about what did Terry not do to secure the win? It's like doesn't the candidate have to take some responsibility? Jeez and again this outcome was in line with how it always goes historically. So all this clutching of the pearls. The WH press always seem to be out for a gotcha moment. How about highlight the racism that has been festering throughout all of these campaigns and how the Rs are literally have ZERO POLICIES yet they want to BLOCK everything that will help the regular folk. Blocking voting rights. Yet they had to cast a vote to do that. It's just so frustrating. Thanks Eric for continuing to call out their BS. They are the ones holding us back, the media. Rant over.
This "historically" stuff is loser talk. "historically" Democratics have never run against a party who attempted a coup d'etat, not to mention starting a war based on lies, collapsing the world economy in 2008, letting 911 happen, bin laden getting away and certainly not the least - being responsible for 350,000 American deaths during the pandemic. We should have gigantic majorities in congress. If I hear one more person make excuses for a pathetic performance I'm gonna throw up.
It's not as sexy and click-worthy, but a key part of the "disaster" in Virginia is the fact that 25% of the voters who turned out in 2020 stayed home in 2021. In 2020, about 4.5 million voted, this year it was about 3.3 million, and so a 10 pt. win for Biden became a 2 pt. loss for McAuliffe. The high turnout stories are based on the governor race turnout in 2017. Was it a referendum on Biden, or was it just the (sadly) usual voter apathy in non-presidential election years? The turnout *framing* says it all.
A bigger mistake than voting exhaustion is ignoring or trivializing the march to autocracy. Democrats need to pick that fight and stick with it in spite of a suck-up media climate.
I'm sorry, but bullshit. Biden has cut child poverty by 40 percent. But I guess that isn't showing enough interest in helping the poor and working classes.
The problem is left voters. The press marveled over the GOP gains in 2010, but those "gains" were because the left stayed home to "punish" Obama because wah wah wah the ACA didn't have a public option. As much as the Post article the weekend before this election drove me insane "I voted for him and the Dems to do something and they've done nothing" which of course isn't true, it's that same sorry tune.
For years, the right has come out in every single election regardless of how "disappointed" they were with their reps. They have always understood the importance of the judiciary and SCOTUS. Too many on the left just can't be bothered to care, but boy, when something they like is threatened, they wail. And it's often way too late, like now with Roe v. Wade. On Twitter yesterday (which I know isn't reality), there were lefties pleased with the election results cause "that will teach them." It's not a lesson; it's a demonstration of that old adage cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The same thing happened to Gore in Florida. However this time it looks like it was white suburban swing voters who got bamboozled by CRT lies which the media repeated instead of debunked who went back to voting R.
People blame Democrats for not messaging but Biden and Dem leaders have been constantly talking about the BBB bill. The media just ignores most of it preferring to focus on the complaints of conservatives about cost, not what is actually in the bill or its pay-for provisions.. Biden can talk til he’s blue in the face but if the media refuses to cover what he says he can’t break through the media filter. The media had no filter for Trump, they just covered his every utterance, usually live.
It's nothing short of astounding that Mitch McConnell gets 49 colleagues to join him in his crusade to kneecap the Biden presidency, and Manchin and Sinema show themselves to be corporate money whores, and the media (and many voters) blame Joe Biden for the lack of legislative progress. Not Mitch, not the other 49 GOPer puppets, and not two "look at me" Dems....Joe Biden. <sigh>
When you have Blue Dogs like Manchin, Gottheimer and Sinema sabotaging everything Joe, Chuck and Nancy try to pass people get angry because they believe nothing gets done even though the American Rescue Plan tried to help them.
Don't forget how Republican governors sabotaged the ARP by refusing to disburse rental assistance or diverting funds like Kay Ivey did in Alabama. She diverted the funds to building more prisons.
The presidency is not about issues, it's about leadership. Biden provides none. Besides that, Democrats lose because they are the most incompetent political organization in the history of the world.
Read these articles about how the mainstream media covered Gore.I know several Democrats who bought their dishonest, shallow spin. The media is still using those tactics to cover Democrats — but only Democrats.
Then read Eric’s description of how ABC’s Terry Moran responded to a poll showing the public didn’t know much about the content of the BBB bill, a clear indication that the media wasn’t giving the public that information.
Yep. Remember watching the Gore Bush debates. Then the afterspin. It was like the press watched something completely different. They have used their snark to kneecap Dems for decades. They did it to Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama to a degree (Mo Dowd and “Barry”), HRC, and Biden. They take great joy in attacking Dem candidates. Who could forget the nonsense over Gary Hart and Dean’s “The Scream.” And media, with a few exceptions, refuse to acknowledge what they do.
Uhhh… the mainstream were complicit in Tuesday disappointments (not disasters) with their gratuitous bashing of Biden over Afghanistan and kid glove treatment of Manchinema’s screwing around with the BBBA.
BTW, can’t remember when the mainstream was in any way the Dems’ “friend”. Possibly due to an aged, weakening memory but more likely due to the likelihood that it was really long ago.
This column sums it up. I refused to watch or listen to the news—with a few rare exceptions—from 7 pm Tuesday night all through yesterday. Based on previous elections, I knew it would be unbearable if the Dems lost. Thank you, Eric, for pointing out how much the media coverage has worsened in just this decade from the Obama first midterm to now.
I think part of it is MM journalists' hatred of Biden (much like they hated Gore and Clinton). They were annoyed that he was in the race, denigrated his campaign, were disgusted and astonished that he took the lead from the SC primary on, and fervently hoped he would crash and burn. The gnawed their teeth because he was boring and bitched he wouldn't answer every one of their stupid yelled questions.
Media had its first opening to hit the administration shortly after the vaccine began being distributed to the states in early spring. Morning Joe and Willie G (among others) groused about the "incompetence of the administration" vis a vis why they still had to wear masks when they had already been vaccinated (obviously among the first to get it)—even though at that time the supplies were still limited and millions like me (not old enough, not sick enough) weren't eligible to get their shot yet. (And their admonishments that he wasn't thanking Trump for the vaccine!)vThen came Afghanistan, and the flood gates opened.
It's open season now on the Dems and every day the media will hammer GOP talking points and pay even less attention to substance. Coverage will be all about "just how big the Dem defeat will be in 22." I don't have a solution for overcoming the trifecta of MM bias, RW propaganda, Russian disinformation, and the left's own ignorance and disinterest. It is heartening that more people—at least demonstrated by social media and the comments to news stories) see what is happening, so all is not lost.
But I'm not a Pollyanna; the next few months without more movement from Justice on 1/6 and/or without a big Dem legislative win will be tough.
There is no "left" in the US. stalin was a leftist and a conservative mass murderer. Leftists use gov't to oppress, rightist use the corporatocracy to oppress, fascists do both, Liberals do neither.
If the DPOTUS had any political chops, they could make the case that aspects of socialism are revered in the US, like the military, the police, public schools, the USPO, roads, the skies, democracy itself is a socialist institution, public parks, etc.
Socialism was on the ballot in Buffalo in the form of the Dem mayoral candidate India Walton. She was easily defeated by the incumbent mayor who lost the primary but ran a strong write in campaign.
to wit, "a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole". As a matter of fact, any publicly traded business is partially socialist because the public owns the company. Although economic socialism doesn't work as good as a well-regulated market, private institutions like the above don't work as well as public ones. How do you think a privately owned military would do? Private police forces?
It's surprising to see so many people in Buffalo who don't like the like the military, the police, public schools, the USPO, roads, the skies, democracy itself is a socialist institution, public parks, etc. Clearly socialism was not on the ballot, a failed candidate was.
“The Democratic Party needs to figure out ways to more actively court its base voters on a regular basis.”
Important note: if you have to "court" them, they are not your "base". Progressives are not the Democratic base for this very reason. It isn't because of their ideals, it's because of their idealism. Dems need to focus on courting independents, not just with popular policies, but with populist rhetoric. "If you don't vote for the Democrat you are a bigot." Maybe not quite so confrontational as that in wording, but that needs to be the message voters get. Because it is true.
Meh. It always takes more than the base to get elected; that is the opposite of "defining" ones *base*. Whether non-base voters consider themselves part of a "coalition" is irrelevant, and largely just a matter of how self-righteous they are.
To me, "you need to court our favor" voters might as well cut to the chase and cast ballots for Republicons, because they're more eager to sabotage Dems than support them, and that's always the end result of that kind of petulant political grandstanding. It makes no difference if they're Manchin/Sinema "centrists" or Sanders/Warren "progressives".
The DPOTUS needs to understand two things: 1. Policy is NOT politics, and 2. a voter will NEVER vote for a candidate, no matter how good the policies are (see item 1 above), if the voter does not like the candidate or the candidates party.
Nah. President Biden knows and understands all that can be known about such things. What the Democratic Party and it's strategists need to understand is that the goal is getting voters to dislike Republicons. Which might sound like a simple task to you or me, but obviously isn't. Republicons can get voters to dislike Democrats very easily, but the inverse is not at all the case. That isn't a failure on the Dem's part, but on the voters, but of course that cannot be said out loud.
Hey, you got a nice shout-out yesterday from Heather Cox Richardson. Hoping that will help to spread the word about the ongoing destructive machinations of the high-emotion, click bait-driven media.
What we need is for the Lincoln Projectvto fund some very clever, very funny you g people to make TikToks that mock the GOP and shine a light on their racism. You can’t take a population (voters between the ages of 21-40) who have had racism and fear drubbed into their heads their whole lives and change their minds by slamming them with facts. You need to meet the population where it lives - on TikTok and Instagram. Not kidding. You would be pretty-priming the teens, as well so that by the time they can vote, running on racism won’t be so easy.
It's generally acknowledged that Youngekin's constant cry to stop teaching CRT in schools (which isn't even taught) was a huge point in his favor. Not wanting to teach kids the reality of how slavery and the subsequent racism that resulted from it is, a priori, an appeal to racism. Mockery is fully justified against a group of people railing against something that doesn't even exist (teaching CRT at school). So yes, mockery is a reasonable tool.
And it should be acknowledged the the media constantly talked about Republican claims about CRT without pointing out how dishonest that claim was. Eric has pointed that out as have other media critics. Just repeating a false claim over and over without firmly debunking it each time ensures that many people will believe it.
I think you have it backwards. The CRT Gambit works for the Cons, not because of its dishonesty, but because of its reality. When we teach children about systemic racism, a real fact of American society, we are teaching "CRT". Dems would do better pointing that out than whining about how 'CRT is only taught at the college level' and claiming Cons are being '"dishonest". The dishonest part of the CRT Gambit is when they lie about what CRT is, and that is what needs to be debunked. CRT doesn't teach white children that whites are the problem, it teaches all children that racism is the problem. The core truth of CRT is that the problem of racism is not about individual acts of discrimination, but institutionalized forms of oppression. As long as Dems keep trying to run away from the confrontation, by trying to claim we don't teach CRT in grade school, but implicitly allowing Cons to lie about what CRT teaches, they/we will continue to enable the Youngekins, Trumps, and Cruzs in the former GOP.
A lot of Republican voters are nothing if not dickish. It may not be their primary and driving force, but it's an entertaining sideline for them. The nastier and more insulting they get brings them nothing but joy. They don't even care about the reaction to it. The mere act of saying these things publicly makes them happy.
That is a direct result of TFG. Even in 2018, knocking doors and phone banking, well over 90 percent of the occasional GOP voters we'd hit would say "no thanks" but were polite. By 2020 that completely changed. They were nasty and often vicious the moment they heard you were a Dem. These exchanges were, to say the least, unpleasant (but they only made me want to work harder to beat them).
With the ascent of RW talk radio, most notably Rush Limbaugh (may he burn in hell), the right's attitude towards Dems and anyone not them has been fueled by hatred. For decades, fear, manipulation, and lies have been used to stoke the GOP base, but with the likes of Nixon, Reagan, Bush et al it was more subtle. Trump gave the worst of his side license to cross every line of civility, and the rest, especially in those mob situations, follow. And now we've reached the "when can we use the guns on them" stage.
Trump made it acceptable to be an obnoxious asshole in public and the Republican Base loves that. Nothing gives them more pleasure that bringing out their inner Karen and screaming racist hate in public.
Also check out Right Wing Watch and see all those right wing Pulpit Pimps reciting the Big Lie and every other GOP talking point from the Pulpit. We now have churches where "Let's Go Brandon" is chanted during services.
Tired of seeing all these Pulpit Pimps living the tax exempt lifestyle. It's time to kick them off the tax-exempt Gravy Train and TAX THE CHURCHES!
See, another example of a good person corrupted by conservative social engineering. The elections ar not about issues, they are about feelings getting hurt. It's good politics, but bad for our country.
This is a Republican talking point and Democrats do not need to engage in self-reflection. Let's stop pretending that Democrats did something wrong. ALL GOP voters are racist. The GOP is a well-funded propaganda machine and their followers, are not only inferior, they are mentally ill as well. This anti-intellectual cult needs to be stopped before our government becomes unrecognizable.
Take this energy and stick it to them as you wish. I tend not to just pronounce that people are mentally ill or not because my cynicism is such that I think it completely normal for people to be awful.
Time to put up a bill in Congress to ban the teaching of CRT in k-12. The bill needs to be very carefully crafted to ensure the teaching on TRUE American history to K-12. Doing that would be a big optics win, and would be catnip to the Beltway media.
On a lighter note, my much-younger wife heard Sting singing the song you recommended and walked into my office. I said do you believe he's 70? (I am, too.) Knowing I can't sing worth a damn, she said, are you inspired? And then laughed at her own joke
The corporate media will do what it takes to maximize ad revenue meaning it will work to maintain competitive elections no matter how bad conservatives govern or how many good things the Democratic Party will try to achieve. They do what they do, like all businesses, for profit no matter how much damage they cause. Besides that, the Democrats lose because they are the most incompetent political organization in the history of the world. Absolutely pathetic.
I am tired of that “Democrats in disarray” narrative. The Democratic Party works like any healthy democracy does — debate among competing interests to achieve a compromise. Parliamentary systems are always doing the same. Democracy is inherently messy.
The media treats that process as bad and dysfunctional; they admire the lock-step, follow the leader behavior of Republicans because it gives Republicans the power to override the will of the people, thus undermining our democracy that the media claims to revere.
The corporate media assessment is accurate. The last thing it wants is non-competitive elections, and if that means giving a mentally ill carnival barker saturation coverage while disparaging his competent and qualified opponent...well, so be it.
I seriously don't understand why the American media establishment wants to create a narrative of failing Biden presidency. It's sickening that they're okay with turning a blind eye towards the Republican Party's embrace of authoritarianism, full-on racism & bigotry, and the destruction of the American democratic experiment as a whole. It's also sickening how they needed to create this narrative because they believe the man is "boring" and gaffe-prone that he's not "entertaining" compared to his racist, misogynist, psychopathic & idiotic predecessor whose impulsive and reckless style of governance nearly ruined your country. The antics of the Orange Palpatine were good for ratings and clicks meant that covering him was financially profitable for media outlets. The problem was that while the coverage of the Trump administration was good for the bottom line financially, the media establishment themselves should've focused more on their horrible policies rather than the reality TV antics going on inside the White House. While the Biden administration has its own flaws, they're trying to fix the mess of the previous one, but everybody seems to be giving them a hard time. The news media have seemed to have forgotten their actual duty to keep people INFORMED about the issues, and not provide entertainment.
It’s truly astonish press wants to do that given they know what the Trump option is
Indeed, it's troubling that many want another Trump presidency just because covering him is easy money for their corporate overlords. I honestly believe media organizations should not be treated as a profit center or financial asset. Why aren't they considered public utilities that are offering a service that is supposed to be for the public good.
I think it's less about corporate money and more about how much FUN it was covering him. All that infighting made for juicy front-page scoops that led to pundit gigs, nice salaries, and for the very lucky few, a sweet book deal.
I'll agree with you that the Trump administration was a slow motion reality show train wreck that FUN to cover. However, the craziness somehow managed to overshadow all the horrible policy crap that it did (e.g. travel ban on several Muslim majority countries, pulling children away from parents crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, tax breaks for the super-rich, reducing the funding for social services, removing environmental protections from protected natural sites, etc.)
Somehow, their negligence & mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic seemed to be final straw that broke the camel's back in terms of how media organizations downplayed the horrible policies in favor of the reality TV style chaos.
Eric, completely agree. Fun is the word journalists themselves have used about covering TFG. Covid may have broken through because it affected them personally. They had to stay home, mask up, and saw colleagues, family, and friends get sick and sometimes die just like the rest of us. Voters were tired of that chaos and craziness and voted for sanity with Joe, so at least the coverage helped with that.
But while they hated the chaos, I wonder how many of those swing voters actually like Trump policies, which is why Youngkin—a "saner" seemingly more reasonable version of TFG, got their vote. I just don't know and won't till the election froth settles.
Indeed, as someone who lives in the Philippines (a former American colony), it's disappointing to see a country that was once seen as a beacon of democracy struggle with the rising tide of fascism and authoritarianism. My country is going through its second authoritarian leader, thirty five years after we kicked out the previous dictator. Never in my forty-two years of existence did I expect to be living in another dictatorship lead by an incompetent, incoherent, misogynistic and idiotic leader who seems to get a boner from either personally or indirectly killing people.
I am old enough to remember when the networks considered their news divisions a public service, not a profit-generating asset. That was how they met their obligation required by the licensing act to serve the public in return for free use of our airwaves. That free usage was worth untold $$$$ over the years.
Blame Roone Arledge at ABC and the Reagan Revolution for that. Roone folded news into the entertainment division to compete with CBS and NBC and Reagan's "deregulation" "freed" us from bureaucratic red tape and gave rise to unfettered capitalism and the widespread acceptance that "greed is good."
Don't ever say "reagan Revolution". He was a disaster. he was the one who started the fire.
Damn, I forgot to add the quote marks. Absolutely. America's road to ruin was paved 41 years ago on this day—11/4/80. (Worst. Birthday. Ever.)
And the press ate his BS aw shucks demeanor up with a spoon.
Except the narrative is wrong: it wasn't Reagan that deregulated, it was Jimmy Carter. Reagan gets the credit because policy changes take time to show effects, but the airlines, railroads, trucking, and beer were all deregulated under Carter. https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/much-of-what-youve-heard-about-carter
I think many of them, though most definitely not all, want the Trump option.
They're playing with fire. A second Trump presidency would lead to a curtailment of press freedom. His goon minions would be encouraged to attack journalism as they did during the insurrection.
Some of them care and would be in serious trouble. These are the journalists who take 1/6 seriously. But for many others it would just mean writing anti Dem stories every day—which really isn’t much of a leap. They will ignore Trump scandals and concentrate on his enemies and “investigations” of their “corruption” and “malfeasance.” We will see lots of stories a la “Benghazi” and “her emails.” It will look like a free press but won’t be. And for those journalists, well, they will have a job and a nice paycheck.
*attack journalists
Answer--follow the money.
Remember that Howard Stringer said that Trump brings the cash in. That's all they care about. Besides, that the press has been totally co-opted by the Republican Party just as it was laid out in the memo Lewis Powell wrote for the Hunts, and Scaife back in 1971 to bring the New Right to power starting with Prop 13 in 1978 and the creation of the religious right.
As Jen Senko points out in her book "The Brainwashing of My Dad” the Powell Memo happened at the same time as Roger Ailes was in the Nixon Whitehouse and tried to make v. 1 of Fox News. These things are no coincidence.
?? Murdoch didn’t create Fox News until 1995, long after Nixon was out of office. Ailes was definitely still a big player — he ran Bush I’s race-baiting campaign against Dukakis, along with Lee Atwater.
It was a predecessor of what we now know as Fox News. It was a proposed to be a packaged conservative news to go to local stations.
Ailes lobbied the Nixon White House on the concept and tried to finance it, unsuccessfully.
He later created Fox News and even said that this precedent was when he thought of a conservative network.
It is remarkable how well the right followed through on all of Powell's suggestions. The memo is a brilliant piece of strategy that has worked too well for them.
It is remarkable to me that the mainstream media ignored what was going on under the radar. Of course it was only under the radar because they chose to ignore what was happening because it would have required them to acknowledge just how radical the Republicans were becoming. As I wrote above it was Saint Poppy Bush who had Roger Ailes and the dirty trick master Lee Atwater run his race-baiting campaign against Dukakis. Of course this is the same media that gave Bush a pass for his years of lying about his deep involvement in the unconstitutional Iran Contra conspiracy and his withholding of his diary of the meetings he claimed to not have attended from the Independent Counsel. Even his pardons of all his fellow co-conspirators only caused a few days of outrage, unlike the media’s long running criticism of Clinton’s pardons.
"We could get out our calculators and (look into Bush), but it's so much more fun and entertaining for us to go after Gore." -- Margaret Carlson.
Bob Somerby's Daily Howler documented how Carlson was one of the main liars in the Bush camp for 2000 and she even confessed that the reason she did that was because Bush served lobster ravioli with a Caesar salad and white wine to her on his campaign plane and all Gore served were sandwiches and soda.
As I and other have pointed out you need to pick and choose who you watch on cable.
Last night Rachel Maddow did an in-depth segment about the fact that the historical pattern since Reagan has been that the year after the election of a new president his party has always lost BOTH the Virginia and New Jersey governorships. She slammed the media for framing this as a debacle for Democrats, pointing out that it should be looked at as a good sign given the historical record. She literally called the headlines “hysterical”. This is the same media that gives a lot of coverage to the historical record showing that the party of the current president usually loses the midterms but in this case they ignore the record in order to stay with their preferred narrative frame of Biden’s presidency being a disaster.
Maddow also did a substantive segment about the trial of the new-Nazis in Charlottesville and the testimony of an anti-semitism expert in that trial and another about the Q-Anon gathering in Dallas where people waited for JFK Jr. to make an appearance and declare he would be Trump’s running mate in 2024. For years most of the media ignored the insanity on the right as it grew ever stronger and more widespread, the acted shocked when it helped elect Trump.
These in-depth segments were not only substantive but were covering things that most of the mainstream media has ignored.
Theodora30, spot on! Thanks, I'll have to listen to the podcast version of Rachel's show last night. The JFK Jr QAnon obsession is baffling. I get they don't believe he's dead (eyerolling as it is), but why they believe the son of a Democratic icon (albeit a bit tarnished) would be running with Trump demonstrates a new level of insanity.
Here is the link to that clip. The claims are far more bonkers than I had realized. From just what I can remember Trump is the son of General Patton who is a descendant of Abraham Lincoln. JFK Jr. was going to show up at the rally and declare he would be Trump’s running mate.
Rachel was careful to say that even many Q people think this is too far out but given that hundreds showed up you can bet there are thousands more believers.
My first awareness of the JFK Jr thing was back around 1/6. It's mass delusion, and no amount of hectoring, mocking, reasoning, or facts can dissuade them of what they "just know to be true." Even if Trump said on national television tomorrow "I'm lying to bilk all of you dumbasses" they'd say he was being coerced or the video was faked. Shutting down social media and RW propaganda would help to stop the spread of lies, but it isn't going to happen.
These people need serious deprogramming, and for some, I'm not even sure that would work because they are so far down the rabbit hole.
The Q people in Dallas have closed the circle. 58 years ago they would have been hanging "JFK Wanted For Treason" signs all over Dallas and pelting LBJ and Lady Byrd with protest signs.
It's excellent.
I agree, but I think we also need to remember that cable is not broadcast and does not have any of the same responsibilities and/or liabilities of having a broadcast license.
You are right but the networks got out of those responsibilities decades ago. The networks used the excuse of competition from cable to get stop meeting the requirement of serving the public good even though back then the network broadcasts were the ones watched the most by far and their overall profits were high, if a little dented by the competition from the new cable programs. Back then there was no Fox “News”. Reagan also dropped the Fairness Act which only applied to network broadcasts but those were the main way people got their news, not cable.
Heather Cox Richardson cited Mr. Boehlert in her daily journal, and I wanted to compliment them both. I also wanted to say that this is a reminder that the political media are a graver enemy of democracy than the republikkkan party, because the latter would not be possible without the help of the former.
Nothing but truth. I hate to say it but Steve Bannon said the mainstream media posed greater threat to Democrats than Fox and I (gulp) agree with him.
Racism and lack of education won the day. That’s the story. American media: always missing the point.
It was white, well-off, suburban swing voters who made the difference so lack of education wasn’t the problem. Racism on the other hand…..
Being well-off does not necessarily mean educated. Level of education, rather than economic status, has been a reliable barometer for how people vote for at least the past two decades. Have you seen the statistics about women who voted in VA? Also, well-off Long Island turned red yesterday. It’s all about fear of black people - the notion that someone darker than you is getting more than what they deserve is the motivating factor.
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1455722698689196033?s=21
Well off Long Island, HQ of the "will explain how you don't need college but will forget to tell you about the booming catering hall inherited from the grand parents or the well known tiling business inherited from the parents" crowd. They love those boat parades.
I grew up in Suffolk County, the land of no-show jobs and things falling off the truck. I feel lucky to have escaped.
I just don't get these WH press reporters seriously asking Pres Biden if it's his fault that Terry lost in VA. Like wtf?! How about what did Terry not do to secure the win? It's like doesn't the candidate have to take some responsibility? Jeez and again this outcome was in line with how it always goes historically. So all this clutching of the pearls. The WH press always seem to be out for a gotcha moment. How about highlight the racism that has been festering throughout all of these campaigns and how the Rs are literally have ZERO POLICIES yet they want to BLOCK everything that will help the regular folk. Blocking voting rights. Yet they had to cast a vote to do that. It's just so frustrating. Thanks Eric for continuing to call out their BS. They are the ones holding us back, the media. Rant over.
This "historically" stuff is loser talk. "historically" Democratics have never run against a party who attempted a coup d'etat, not to mention starting a war based on lies, collapsing the world economy in 2008, letting 911 happen, bin laden getting away and certainly not the least - being responsible for 350,000 American deaths during the pandemic. We should have gigantic majorities in congress. If I hear one more person make excuses for a pathetic performance I'm gonna throw up.
I understand your frustration, but you're just scapegoating. I find your performance to be pathetic, and don't want to hear your excuses.
It's not as sexy and click-worthy, but a key part of the "disaster" in Virginia is the fact that 25% of the voters who turned out in 2020 stayed home in 2021. In 2020, about 4.5 million voted, this year it was about 3.3 million, and so a 10 pt. win for Biden became a 2 pt. loss for McAuliffe. The high turnout stories are based on the governor race turnout in 2017. Was it a referendum on Biden, or was it just the (sadly) usual voter apathy in non-presidential election years? The turnout *framing* says it all.
A bigger mistake than voting exhaustion is ignoring or trivializing the march to autocracy. Democrats need to pick that fight and stick with it in spite of a suck-up media climate.
I'm sorry, but bullshit. Biden has cut child poverty by 40 percent. But I guess that isn't showing enough interest in helping the poor and working classes.
The problem is left voters. The press marveled over the GOP gains in 2010, but those "gains" were because the left stayed home to "punish" Obama because wah wah wah the ACA didn't have a public option. As much as the Post article the weekend before this election drove me insane "I voted for him and the Dems to do something and they've done nothing" which of course isn't true, it's that same sorry tune.
For years, the right has come out in every single election regardless of how "disappointed" they were with their reps. They have always understood the importance of the judiciary and SCOTUS. Too many on the left just can't be bothered to care, but boy, when something they like is threatened, they wail. And it's often way too late, like now with Roe v. Wade. On Twitter yesterday (which I know isn't reality), there were lefties pleased with the election results cause "that will teach them." It's not a lesson; it's a demonstration of that old adage cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The same thing happened to Gore in Florida. However this time it looks like it was white suburban swing voters who got bamboozled by CRT lies which the media repeated instead of debunked who went back to voting R.
People blame Democrats for not messaging but Biden and Dem leaders have been constantly talking about the BBB bill. The media just ignores most of it preferring to focus on the complaints of conservatives about cost, not what is actually in the bill or its pay-for provisions.. Biden can talk til he’s blue in the face but if the media refuses to cover what he says he can’t break through the media filter. The media had no filter for Trump, they just covered his every utterance, usually live.
This is exactly on point. Thank you!
It's nothing short of astounding that Mitch McConnell gets 49 colleagues to join him in his crusade to kneecap the Biden presidency, and Manchin and Sinema show themselves to be corporate money whores, and the media (and many voters) blame Joe Biden for the lack of legislative progress. Not Mitch, not the other 49 GOPer puppets, and not two "look at me" Dems....Joe Biden. <sigh>
When you have Blue Dogs like Manchin, Gottheimer and Sinema sabotaging everything Joe, Chuck and Nancy try to pass people get angry because they believe nothing gets done even though the American Rescue Plan tried to help them.
Don't forget how Republican governors sabotaged the ARP by refusing to disburse rental assistance or diverting funds like Kay Ivey did in Alabama. She diverted the funds to building more prisons.
Exactly, and instead of putting the blame where it belongs, it's "Biden is weak," "Dems in disarray" etc.
The presidency is not about issues, it's about leadership. Biden provides none. Besides that, Democrats lose because they are the most incompetent political organization in the history of the world.
Read these articles about how the mainstream media covered Gore.I know several Democrats who bought their dishonest, shallow spin. The media is still using those tactics to cover Democrats — but only Democrats.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/10/gore200710
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/general/news/2011/05/26/9654/think-again-the-times-frank-bruni-or-how-to-succeed-in-journalism-without-really-caring-about-issues/
Then read Eric’s description of how ABC’s Terry Moran responded to a poll showing the public didn’t know much about the content of the BBB bill, a clear indication that the media wasn’t giving the public that information.
https://pressrun.media/p/bidens-universal-pre-k-would-transform
Yep. Remember watching the Gore Bush debates. Then the afterspin. It was like the press watched something completely different. They have used their snark to kneecap Dems for decades. They did it to Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama to a degree (Mo Dowd and “Barry”), HRC, and Biden. They take great joy in attacking Dem candidates. Who could forget the nonsense over Gary Hart and Dean’s “The Scream.” And media, with a few exceptions, refuse to acknowledge what they do.
Uhhh… the mainstream were complicit in Tuesday disappointments (not disasters) with their gratuitous bashing of Biden over Afghanistan and kid glove treatment of Manchinema’s screwing around with the BBBA.
BTW, can’t remember when the mainstream was in any way the Dems’ “friend”. Possibly due to an aged, weakening memory but more likely due to the likelihood that it was really long ago.
This column sums it up. I refused to watch or listen to the news—with a few rare exceptions—from 7 pm Tuesday night all through yesterday. Based on previous elections, I knew it would be unbearable if the Dems lost. Thank you, Eric, for pointing out how much the media coverage has worsened in just this decade from the Obama first midterm to now.
I think part of it is MM journalists' hatred of Biden (much like they hated Gore and Clinton). They were annoyed that he was in the race, denigrated his campaign, were disgusted and astonished that he took the lead from the SC primary on, and fervently hoped he would crash and burn. The gnawed their teeth because he was boring and bitched he wouldn't answer every one of their stupid yelled questions.
Media had its first opening to hit the administration shortly after the vaccine began being distributed to the states in early spring. Morning Joe and Willie G (among others) groused about the "incompetence of the administration" vis a vis why they still had to wear masks when they had already been vaccinated (obviously among the first to get it)—even though at that time the supplies were still limited and millions like me (not old enough, not sick enough) weren't eligible to get their shot yet. (And their admonishments that he wasn't thanking Trump for the vaccine!)vThen came Afghanistan, and the flood gates opened.
It's open season now on the Dems and every day the media will hammer GOP talking points and pay even less attention to substance. Coverage will be all about "just how big the Dem defeat will be in 22." I don't have a solution for overcoming the trifecta of MM bias, RW propaganda, Russian disinformation, and the left's own ignorance and disinterest. It is heartening that more people—at least demonstrated by social media and the comments to news stories) see what is happening, so all is not lost.
But I'm not a Pollyanna; the next few months without more movement from Justice on 1/6 and/or without a big Dem legislative win will be tough.
There is no "left" in the US. stalin was a leftist and a conservative mass murderer. Leftists use gov't to oppress, rightist use the corporatocracy to oppress, fascists do both, Liberals do neither.
That’s a very narrow definition of left and even right. We have plenty of people who embrace socialism on our side playing into RW lies.
If the DPOTUS had any political chops, they could make the case that aspects of socialism are revered in the US, like the military, the police, public schools, the USPO, roads, the skies, democracy itself is a socialist institution, public parks, etc.
Socialism was on the ballot in Buffalo in the form of the Dem mayoral candidate India Walton. She was easily defeated by the incumbent mayor who lost the primary but ran a strong write in campaign.
to wit, "a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole". As a matter of fact, any publicly traded business is partially socialist because the public owns the company. Although economic socialism doesn't work as good as a well-regulated market, private institutions like the above don't work as well as public ones. How do you think a privately owned military would do? Private police forces?
It's surprising to see so many people in Buffalo who don't like the like the military, the police, public schools, the USPO, roads, the skies, democracy itself is a socialist institution, public parks, etc. Clearly socialism was not on the ballot, a failed candidate was.
“The Democratic Party needs to figure out ways to more actively court its base voters on a regular basis.”
Important note: if you have to "court" them, they are not your "base". Progressives are not the Democratic base for this very reason. It isn't because of their ideals, it's because of their idealism. Dems need to focus on courting independents, not just with popular policies, but with populist rhetoric. "If you don't vote for the Democrat you are a bigot." Maybe not quite so confrontational as that in wording, but that needs to be the message voters get. Because it is true.
Also, it's hard to define one's 'base' when it took a coalition to get you where you are.
Meh. It always takes more than the base to get elected; that is the opposite of "defining" ones *base*. Whether non-base voters consider themselves part of a "coalition" is irrelevant, and largely just a matter of how self-righteous they are.
To me, "you need to court our favor" voters might as well cut to the chase and cast ballots for Republicons, because they're more eager to sabotage Dems than support them, and that's always the end result of that kind of petulant political grandstanding. It makes no difference if they're Manchin/Sinema "centrists" or Sanders/Warren "progressives".
The DPOTUS needs to understand two things: 1. Policy is NOT politics, and 2. a voter will NEVER vote for a candidate, no matter how good the policies are (see item 1 above), if the voter does not like the candidate or the candidates party.
Nah. President Biden knows and understands all that can be known about such things. What the Democratic Party and it's strategists need to understand is that the goal is getting voters to dislike Republicons. Which might sound like a simple task to you or me, but obviously isn't. Republicons can get voters to dislike Democrats very easily, but the inverse is not at all the case. That isn't a failure on the Dem's part, but on the voters, but of course that cannot be said out loud.
Hey, you got a nice shout-out yesterday from Heather Cox Richardson. Hoping that will help to spread the word about the ongoing destructive machinations of the high-emotion, click bait-driven media.
What we need is for the Lincoln Projectvto fund some very clever, very funny you g people to make TikToks that mock the GOP and shine a light on their racism. You can’t take a population (voters between the ages of 21-40) who have had racism and fear drubbed into their heads their whole lives and change their minds by slamming them with facts. You need to meet the population where it lives - on TikTok and Instagram. Not kidding. You would be pretty-priming the teens, as well so that by the time they can vote, running on racism won’t be so easy.
It's generally acknowledged that Youngekin's constant cry to stop teaching CRT in schools (which isn't even taught) was a huge point in his favor. Not wanting to teach kids the reality of how slavery and the subsequent racism that resulted from it is, a priori, an appeal to racism. Mockery is fully justified against a group of people railing against something that doesn't even exist (teaching CRT at school). So yes, mockery is a reasonable tool.
And it should be acknowledged the the media constantly talked about Republican claims about CRT without pointing out how dishonest that claim was. Eric has pointed that out as have other media critics. Just repeating a false claim over and over without firmly debunking it each time ensures that many people will believe it.
I think you have it backwards. The CRT Gambit works for the Cons, not because of its dishonesty, but because of its reality. When we teach children about systemic racism, a real fact of American society, we are teaching "CRT". Dems would do better pointing that out than whining about how 'CRT is only taught at the college level' and claiming Cons are being '"dishonest". The dishonest part of the CRT Gambit is when they lie about what CRT is, and that is what needs to be debunked. CRT doesn't teach white children that whites are the problem, it teaches all children that racism is the problem. The core truth of CRT is that the problem of racism is not about individual acts of discrimination, but institutionalized forms of oppression. As long as Dems keep trying to run away from the confrontation, by trying to claim we don't teach CRT in grade school, but implicitly allowing Cons to lie about what CRT teaches, they/we will continue to enable the Youngekins, Trumps, and Cruzs in the former GOP.
Mockery is too reasonable - how about shaming?
A lot of Republican voters are nothing if not dickish. It may not be their primary and driving force, but it's an entertaining sideline for them. The nastier and more insulting they get brings them nothing but joy. They don't even care about the reaction to it. The mere act of saying these things publicly makes them happy.
That is a direct result of TFG. Even in 2018, knocking doors and phone banking, well over 90 percent of the occasional GOP voters we'd hit would say "no thanks" but were polite. By 2020 that completely changed. They were nasty and often vicious the moment they heard you were a Dem. These exchanges were, to say the least, unpleasant (but they only made me want to work harder to beat them).
With the ascent of RW talk radio, most notably Rush Limbaugh (may he burn in hell), the right's attitude towards Dems and anyone not them has been fueled by hatred. For decades, fear, manipulation, and lies have been used to stoke the GOP base, but with the likes of Nixon, Reagan, Bush et al it was more subtle. Trump gave the worst of his side license to cross every line of civility, and the rest, especially in those mob situations, follow. And now we've reached the "when can we use the guns on them" stage.
Trump made it acceptable to be an obnoxious asshole in public and the Republican Base loves that. Nothing gives them more pleasure that bringing out their inner Karen and screaming racist hate in public.
Also check out Right Wing Watch and see all those right wing Pulpit Pimps reciting the Big Lie and every other GOP talking point from the Pulpit. We now have churches where "Let's Go Brandon" is chanted during services.
Tired of seeing all these Pulpit Pimps living the tax exempt lifestyle. It's time to kick them off the tax-exempt Gravy Train and TAX THE CHURCHES!
GOP voters sure love to scream that Brandon crap...
All GOP voters in today's US are racists; not all of them know it, is all. The privileged benefit of denying this is why they win.
See, another example of a good person corrupted by conservative social engineering. The elections ar not about issues, they are about feelings getting hurt. It's good politics, but bad for our country.
I strongly disagree. Politics that badly damage are democracy may be effective but they are not good.
Gee, it sounds like we agree. The party of lies are pro's at this kinda stuff.
This is a Republican talking point and Democrats do not need to engage in self-reflection. Let's stop pretending that Democrats did something wrong. ALL GOP voters are racist. The GOP is a well-funded propaganda machine and their followers, are not only inferior, they are mentally ill as well. This anti-intellectual cult needs to be stopped before our government becomes unrecognizable.
Take this energy and stick it to them as you wish. I tend not to just pronounce that people are mentally ill or not because my cynicism is such that I think it completely normal for people to be awful.
You do have a point.
We really need to pass the Freedom to Vote Act - Please watch the video here: ... http://represent.us/share2launch
Time to put up a bill in Congress to ban the teaching of CRT in k-12. The bill needs to be very carefully crafted to ensure the teaching on TRUE American history to K-12. Doing that would be a big optics win, and would be catnip to the Beltway media.
On a lighter note, my much-younger wife heard Sting singing the song you recommended and walked into my office. I said do you believe he's 70? (I am, too.) Knowing I can't sing worth a damn, she said, are you inspired? And then laughed at her own joke
The corporate media will do what it takes to maximize ad revenue meaning it will work to maintain competitive elections no matter how bad conservatives govern or how many good things the Democratic Party will try to achieve. They do what they do, like all businesses, for profit no matter how much damage they cause. Besides that, the Democrats lose because they are the most incompetent political organization in the history of the world. Absolutely pathetic.
Way back in the day Will Rogers quipped, "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat."
I am tired of that “Democrats in disarray” narrative. The Democratic Party works like any healthy democracy does — debate among competing interests to achieve a compromise. Parliamentary systems are always doing the same. Democracy is inherently messy.
The media treats that process as bad and dysfunctional; they admire the lock-step, follow the leader behavior of Republicans because it gives Republicans the power to override the will of the people, thus undermining our democracy that the media claims to revere.
The corporate media assessment is accurate. The last thing it wants is non-competitive elections, and if that means giving a mentally ill carnival barker saturation coverage while disparaging his competent and qualified opponent...well, so be it.