Apparently only Democratic proposed legislation needs to have bipartisan support to be legit, even though the lack of Republican support is the result of a calculated political move that has nothing to do with the substance of the legislation. THAT is the story the Beltway media has agreed to ignore. No report on Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema should omit Mitch McConnell's naked partisanship and the 49 stooges who go along with it.
What drives me up the wall is the constant media talk of concerns about the cost of the BBB. Almost no one has bothered to report that the Joint Committed on Taxation’s analysis found that the tax provisions in the BBB would raise $1.4 trillion.
“…… the Treasury Department estimates that the bill will raise over $2 trillion. Given the $1.7 trillion price tag, that means the bill would decrease the deficit.”
The Treasury’s estimate is higher than the JCT’s because it includes provisions like increased funding for the IRS and negotiating drug prices. In a healthy democracy with a serious press these facts would be making headlines. I keep thinking the media’s malpractice can’t shock me anymore but they keep surprising me.
I just think the messaging could be better from the Democratic side. I follow the DNC, WH and countless other Dems on Twitter to see the latest missives and they are consistently a brick of words rather than simple messages. Maybe just saying, "Roads & Bridges are getting fixed. Thanks Joe," would be simpler and better.
But somewhere, right now, deep in the heart of the DNC, someone is putting the finishing touches on a 250 slide Powerpoint deck with charts and graphs to prove that the BBB is great.
“Now let’s double-click on that...” has never been a memorable messaging strategy.
True but most people don’t do that. They get their information from the mainstream media which prefers to give them right wing talking points. If that weren’t the case the public would know that the Treasury estimated that the BBB will actually bring in more money than it will cost, decreasing the deficit. Democratic talking points keep getting drowned out by the media.
The media focus on Republican messaging is obvious. My contention is that their messaging goes right for the emotions rather than the intellect and that resonates better with the viewers of network news than the kinds of word explosions offered by Democrats. If Democrats are going to break through the press filter, they need to get more visceral.
Mika B needs to watch or she will revert to fawning over Christie, helping him rehab his image. She was a big fan of that nasty bully until Bridgegate.
The Morning Joe program is unwatchable. The know-it-all arrogance of those two is too much to take. Also, I'm not quite sure about why there is so much stanning for Willie Geist but he seems to have a large number of fans for some reason.
There must be a lot of media savvy among Ds, thinking Hollywood, to come up with great wall to wall messaging. How about using their talents for us? Seems like a no brainer to me.
There are plenty of people who work in advertising that can come up with simple messaging that makes someone desire a product that is non-essential. They're good at it. However and in my opinion, there is a certain group of Dems who look down their noses at that sort of thing.
Maybe some Ds need to grow up? We can’t limit ourselves to tools only some purists approve of. As of course you know, it’s smart politics to sell this agenda. Ad agencies do not have cooties as far as I know :).
From what I have seen over the years when the Mommy Party tries to the same kinds of tactics the Daddy Party regularly gets away use the media is outraged and Democrats’ approval goes down.
I swear the 'main-stream media' can't say anything positive about Biden or the Democrats to save their souls. If necessary they make shit up to sound all 'gloom & doom'. I'm so sick of their crap.
Imagine if the press had responded to Reagan's "Morning in America" speech by complaining that Reagan was not doing enough to prepare for the eventual fall of night.
For what it's worth, The NY Times has a review of Jonathan Karl's book "Betrayal" that brings up Karl's failure to treat Trump for what he is. Here's a couple of excerpts:
"“I have never wavered from my belief that journalists are not the opposition party and should not act like we are,” Karl maintains in “Betrayal.” “But the first obligation of a journalist is to pursue truth and accuracy. And the simple truth about the last year of the Trump presidency is that his lies turned deadly and shook the foundations of our democracy.”
And... square that with how the press is treating the Biden administration, effectively as surrogates for the GOP.
"...“Front Row” includes a conversation in which Karl informed Trump that calling the press “the enemy of the people” was perhaps dangerous: “‘Some sick person might take your words to heart,’ I told him. ‘I hope people take my words to heart,’ he said, missing the point that I was warning of possible violence against journalists.”
Or perhaps it wasn’t Trump who was missing the point of that exchange — something that didn’t seem to occur to Karl, apparently so entrenched in his establishmentarian assumptions that until very recently he deemed certain distressing possibilities simply unfathomable. More than a year before the 2020 election, Karl asked John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, what would happen if Trump lost and refused to concede. Kelly was sure that Trump would leave — and “if he tried to chain himself” to his Oval Office desk, “they would simply cut the chains and carry him out.”
Karl recalls being impressed by Kelly’s tone of confident authority. “I didn’t ask any more questions, but I still had a few,” he writes — a strange admission for the chief Washington correspondent of a major network. “The scenario described by John Kelly seemed too disturbing — and too absurd — to consider any further. I tried not to think about it again.”
The media spent 5 years not thinking. Karl is not an outlier.
Karl's book is full of insiders telling him things that show they knew what was going on - but never said at the time, and certainly not in public. One wonders how many of the press were engaged in similar behavior, producing anodyne reporting while inside going "WTF!?!??"
The problem is that not enough folks are paying attention. Most people get up, go to work, stand around drinking coffee discussing the latest episode of their favorite TV show. Too many people don't have the time and sadly the interest to delve into what's really going on politically. That allows news outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times to create a narrative that they want people to believe. The question is why. Why are these mainstream news outlets doing this? Is it just because they need calamity to sell their newspapers? Is it because there is so much content out there that they need to create a false narrative to remain relative from an entertainment perspective? Or is it something more nefarious? When I hear people complaining about the liberal press it just makes my blood boil. Biden has accomplished more in 10 months than Trump did in four years or would have done in 4 or 5 terms if the "Big Lie" had succeeded.
There is a lot of evidence that many of them are motivated by being members of the Beltway Kool Kids Klub. They are strongly influenced by groupthink. Too many of them are part of the same incestuous social circle and dread being exiled from it.
Coupla points; As much as they unfairly hold Pres. Biden to a much higher standard on all things presidential, the WP did restrain itself in today's early online offering by relegating the news of the twice-indicted and now arrested (and then let free) felon, bannon to a low page afterthought. CNN on the other hand featured on top, in the largest font, an "analysis" on how the blatherings and whinings of this gutter dwelling loser carries enough weight to "undercut" the Jan-6 panel's strategy, complete with all the toxic quotes and defiant photograph. Meanwhile, the President leads by example, quietly, without, say, staging a cabinet meeting featuring nothing more than a bunch of toadies publicly on tv telling him what a great and wonderful leader he is, and on, and on. Instead, he does the work, signs the historic bill for the People, and watch, today will get back to work on the rest of it. Perhaps a campaign to point this out to the press, often, might gain some traction? No?
TFG is a raving lunatic. How is that a non issue w/in the msm. Their recalcitrance has allowed the Rs/FG to gradually create an unreality of their own where everyone other than members of the cult, are ‘the other.’ Dems are now the other too. Egads.
As to the Tyler Page piece, I took one look at the headline to know what was in store. Never got passed it and couldn’t bear to read further. So incongruent with the fabulous infrastructure news, so obviously a hit job to shit on an amazing achievement that hasn’t been accomplished by any administration since Ike. Has ‘owning the libs’ seeped into Wapo too?
No, because writing about drama attracts more clicks. In today's NYT columnist Thomas Edsall writes, "The rise of inflation, supply chain shortages, a surge in illegal border crossings, the persistence of Covid, mayhem in Afghanistan and the uproar over “critical race theory” — all of these developments, individually and collectively, have taken their toll on President Biden and Democratic candidates, so much so that Democrats are now the underdogs going into 2022 and possibly 2024." It's not the only anti-Biden and "Dems in Doom" piece today, either. It's why I cancelled my subscription.
I read that piece yesterday and even made a comment. This morning when I read Press Run, a single name popped into my head - Jeff Bezos. The greediest man in the world, or at least one of them, does way better with the Republican Party in power than the Democrats and thusly, the WaPo has turned into the GOP rag that it has become.
The op-eds are predominantly written by conservatives, and most guest contributors are right wing as well. The bothsidesism is tipping over into the right wing side gaining more space. The two columnists that still write with integrity are Greg Sargent and Jennifer Rubin.
Also Paul Waldman who recently reported that the Treasury scoring of the BBB bill showed it would more than pay for itself, i.e. it would actually reduce the deficit. How often did you see that reported? Margaret Sullivan is also good but hasn’t written recently. At least she is no longer relegated to the Style section! All of them are not afraid to criticize the mainstream media for their distorted coverage.
Yes, I like Waldman, too, and wish he'd get more columns published. The worst ones are Hugh Hewitt and especially Marc Thiessen, who is utterly atrocious.
By the way, I just read in CJR's newsletter that a Washington Post journalist just posted a survey on Twitter: 'Paul Farhi, a media reporter with the Washington Post, posted a chart on Twitter comparing the web traffic of various news sites to last year's numbers, based on data from traffic measurement company comScore. According to the chart, web traffic at the New York Times was down by more than 15 percent in October compared with the same month last year, and traffic at the Washington Post was down by more than 28 percent in the same period. Other big losers, according to the chart, included The Guardian (down more than 30 percent), Politico (down 48 percent), The Hill (down more than 38 percent), Vox (down over 44 percent), and ABC News (down 35 percent). Yahoo News and BuzzFeed went in the other direction, increasing their traffic by 38 percent and 33 percent, respectively."
He and Greg Sargent get published nearly every weekday in the Plum Line . Just go staring to the Plum Line page. If enough people read a column the Post will move it to the main page. Ditto for Jennifer Rubin who also writes most days.
Agree. Especially in light of her former employer, the AP, which ran the most godawful headline after Biden signed the bill, that with infrastructure, Biden hopes to "improve his popularity." It was just so wrongheaded.
I wonder how long she will last. She's running the paper into the ground. A president signs the most substantial and wide-sweeping bill in 70 years, and it's to improve his popularity? Why is the media so dedicated to bringing about Biden's failure? Too many Republicans in the business?
AP ran that header. Sally B was an exec at AP for 3+ decades. I would imagine her influence is still felt there. A stretch maybe, but that AP header is so in keeping with recent Post stories.
That tracks with drops in viewers for MSNBC shows like Rachel Maddow now that Trump is out of office. I wonder if the people in control at the Post are trying to make up for that loss by appealing more to centrists.
Absolutely agree. Just look at the increase in conservative slanted op eds and both side type stories since she has arrived. Also, addition of new writers pushing the floundering Dem story line while refusing to call out Repub refusal to do anything positive.
My question is why. I suspect she is proving she can be just as tough as a man. Of course that is what got Jill Abramson fired from The NY Times. Apparently her mistake was being tough with reporters.
I, for one, think journalists should call out editors who insist on narrative first and facts second. Readers and viewers needn't be fact checkers after the fact.
No finer example than Jonathan Karl, who sat on insurrection "news" so he could put it in a book AFTER it was no longer important to have access to the clown show being run by the Former Guy.
And wow see the ads on the Post webpages glorifying that Presstitute "Nobody has covered Donald Trump more".
And we remember how Jonathan Karl endlessly recited GOP talking points when it came to Obama. Karl sure loved to lie about him and he never once retracted the Republican lies he spread.
I couldn't read his first book, for the very reason he states in the introduction to this one, where he charged his colleagues for playing into Trump with their anti-Trumpism. Yet now, he FINALLY sees what a danger Trump is for himself and states that.
And we Post readers raised hell about it in the comments section. We're tired of the constant Biden put-downs. It could be that WaPo's new editor is a Republican wanting to damage Biden's presidency because the coverage of it is generally negative. Yesterday two readers stated on the thread that they were cancelling their subscriptions because this article was the last straw.
I think Biden doesn't talk to Americans enough. People are blaming him for inflation even though they have money and the situation is global and related to the pandemic, and that's due to the media claiming he is somehow supposed to fix it.
I was so angry that I almost cancelled my subscription. I don't mind reading opposing views, but they have to make sense. This one was a loony tunes attack piece. At least it was gratifying to learn that readers aren't as gullible as I feared. But why is crap like this being published in a major newspaper? And how is this kind of dreck going to affect the elections? WaPo isn't the only culprit publishing trash. I just cancelled my NY Times subscription because the negativity and lazy journalism got to me.
And today New York magazine had an interview with one Obama economics advisor who claimed that inflation is because the Dems gave Americans too much money all at once. Wow, $1200—living the high life!
When the CNN Milk Story dropped I wondered if the real scandal in that story wasn't inflation but was actually price-gouging with inflation being the excuse. I don't know if anyone has really investigated that angle.
That's definitely a massive fail on the part of CNN. I think it's best though to assume the people in the story weren't lying. To me that is a trap leading to accusations of left-leaning viewers not caring about the plight of struggling Americans. I know that's not true and the right will make such accusations anyway, but it's still best to apply the principle of charity. On a similar note it's true that such a family should qualify for new tax credits to cover these costs, but it's no guarantee they're receiving them. It's very possible that prices have spiked and this family has no recourse at the moment to overcome that burden. Obviously that info if true could have been part of the original story and an additional level of intrigue. I'm just trying to say unless these people are somehow paid actors of the right-wing I'm sympathetic to their plight. We're all trying to get by in this country but we're being pitted against each other for other's political gain.
Was watching Nicole Wallace interview Chris Christie and man did she wipe up the sidewalk with him. When he tried to talk thru her, she just steamrolled his large behind. He was not able to spew any garbage without getting called out. That is the way the media should be interviewing the seditious jackholes.
The mainstream press produces what the Powers That Be. Any honesty or truth is strictly accidental.
The honesty of the WSJ (already reported elsewhere outside the mainstream) is the exception to the rule. It’s a big point but won’t get the traction of being reported throughout the mainstream. Gonna sink and disappear in no time.
Yesterday, I wrote a long post about the chaotic & dysfunctional political situation in the my country the Philippines and wondered if the Beltway journalists are actually prefer covering the chaos & dysfunction of the Trump White House over the relatively stable & functioning Biden White House. It seems they've gotten used to the easy scoops that flowed endlessly from the previous occupants, but aren't willing to put a lot of actual work into covering the current occupant because it is primarily focused on policies designed to help the American public rather than the cycle of drama and intrigue that covered up the bad policies the Republikkkans passed.
Good point, Mar-A-Lardo’s incoherent & inflammatory Twitter account was an almost endless source of stories for the Beltway journalists.
I think many of us were always following the coverage just to see how stupid and unfit he was for the job.
However, we hoped the malevolence that was bubbling under would be short-lived.
We were wrong about that part.
Anyway, Is it wrong that I want to wish death to certain key Republicans & a couple of conservative justices in the Supreme Court who are threatening American democracy?
I’m frustrated at God & the world because off the overwhelming unfairness of horrible people being allowed stay alive and get away with doing bad things. While the good ones either die or are mocked for doing the right thing.
‘Twas ever thus, I’m afraid Eric. Human nature. Don’t forgot the not horrible people. The good souls in your life. We need more of the good ones to be in power. You’ve seen the worst of what the corruption of power can do. I pray we won’t see it here. Another familiar truism: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I understand your anger, unfairness can be maddening.
Interestingly, I posted a comment below this garbage piece of alleged journalism saying something similar.
More interestingly, the only time I have gotten a response from Sally Buzbee about "coverage" like this was to thank me for a compliment on another story. At least Dean Baquet responds and tries to insult my intelligence by denying that The Times is capable of error, or says I only complain when Boehlert tweets about it.
Apparently only Democratic proposed legislation needs to have bipartisan support to be legit, even though the lack of Republican support is the result of a calculated political move that has nothing to do with the substance of the legislation. THAT is the story the Beltway media has agreed to ignore. No report on Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema should omit Mitch McConnell's naked partisanship and the 49 stooges who go along with it.
oh yes, GOP's role in BBB has been completely erased at this point
What drives me up the wall is the constant media talk of concerns about the cost of the BBB. Almost no one has bothered to report that the Joint Committed on Taxation’s analysis found that the tax provisions in the BBB would raise $1.4 trillion.
“…… the Treasury Department estimates that the bill will raise over $2 trillion. Given the $1.7 trillion price tag, that means the bill would decrease the deficit.”
The Treasury’s estimate is higher than the JCT’s because it includes provisions like increased funding for the IRS and negotiating drug prices. In a healthy democracy with a serious press these facts would be making headlines. I keep thinking the media’s malpractice can’t shock me anymore but they keep surprising me.
Forgot to post the link for my comment:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/04/democrats-in-array/
They will all try to take credit for BBB and BIF at home though
I just think the messaging could be better from the Democratic side. I follow the DNC, WH and countless other Dems on Twitter to see the latest missives and they are consistently a brick of words rather than simple messages. Maybe just saying, "Roads & Bridges are getting fixed. Thanks Joe," would be simpler and better.
no doubt!
You’re singing my song, Paul!
But somewhere, right now, deep in the heart of the DNC, someone is putting the finishing touches on a 250 slide Powerpoint deck with charts and graphs to prove that the BBB is great.
“Now let’s double-click on that...” has never been a memorable messaging strategy.
True but most people don’t do that. They get their information from the mainstream media which prefers to give them right wing talking points. If that weren’t the case the public would know that the Treasury estimated that the BBB will actually bring in more money than it will cost, decreasing the deficit. Democratic talking points keep getting drowned out by the media.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/04/democrats-in-array/
The media focus on Republican messaging is obvious. My contention is that their messaging goes right for the emotions rather than the intellect and that resonates better with the viewers of network news than the kinds of word explosions offered by Democrats. If Democrats are going to break through the press filter, they need to get more visceral.
Nicolle Wallace’s interview of Chris Christie yesterday was a welcome exception to the kid glove treatment the media gives Republicans:
https://digbysblog.net/2021/11/16/a-blustering-weasel/
Mika B needs to watch or she will revert to fawning over Christie, helping him rehab his image. She was a big fan of that nasty bully until Bridgegate.
The Morning Joe program is unwatchable. The know-it-all arrogance of those two is too much to take. Also, I'm not quite sure about why there is so much stanning for Willie Geist but he seems to have a large number of fans for some reason.
Her interview w/Christie was a master class of how journalists should be doing interviews. Brava, Nicolle.
There must be a lot of media savvy among Ds, thinking Hollywood, to come up with great wall to wall messaging. How about using their talents for us? Seems like a no brainer to me.
There are plenty of people who work in advertising that can come up with simple messaging that makes someone desire a product that is non-essential. They're good at it. However and in my opinion, there is a certain group of Dems who look down their noses at that sort of thing.
Maybe some Ds need to grow up? We can’t limit ourselves to tools only some purists approve of. As of course you know, it’s smart politics to sell this agenda. Ad agencies do not have cooties as far as I know :).
From what I have seen over the years when the Mommy Party tries to the same kinds of tactics the Daddy Party regularly gets away use the media is outraged and Democrats’ approval goes down.
I swear the 'main-stream media' can't say anything positive about Biden or the Democrats to save their souls. If necessary they make shit up to sound all 'gloom & doom'. I'm so sick of their crap.
Imagine if the press had responded to Reagan's "Morning in America" speech by complaining that Reagan was not doing enough to prepare for the eventual fall of night.
For what it's worth, The NY Times has a review of Jonathan Karl's book "Betrayal" that brings up Karl's failure to treat Trump for what he is. Here's a couple of excerpts:
"“I have never wavered from my belief that journalists are not the opposition party and should not act like we are,” Karl maintains in “Betrayal.” “But the first obligation of a journalist is to pursue truth and accuracy. And the simple truth about the last year of the Trump presidency is that his lies turned deadly and shook the foundations of our democracy.”
And... square that with how the press is treating the Biden administration, effectively as surrogates for the GOP.
"...“Front Row” includes a conversation in which Karl informed Trump that calling the press “the enemy of the people” was perhaps dangerous: “‘Some sick person might take your words to heart,’ I told him. ‘I hope people take my words to heart,’ he said, missing the point that I was warning of possible violence against journalists.”
Or perhaps it wasn’t Trump who was missing the point of that exchange — something that didn’t seem to occur to Karl, apparently so entrenched in his establishmentarian assumptions that until very recently he deemed certain distressing possibilities simply unfathomable. More than a year before the 2020 election, Karl asked John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, what would happen if Trump lost and refused to concede. Kelly was sure that Trump would leave — and “if he tried to chain himself” to his Oval Office desk, “they would simply cut the chains and carry him out.”
Karl recalls being impressed by Kelly’s tone of confident authority. “I didn’t ask any more questions, but I still had a few,” he writes — a strange admission for the chief Washington correspondent of a major network. “The scenario described by John Kelly seemed too disturbing — and too absurd — to consider any further. I tried not to think about it again.”
The media spent 5 years not thinking. Karl is not an outlier.
Karl's book is full of insiders telling him things that show they knew what was going on - but never said at the time, and certainly not in public. One wonders how many of the press were engaged in similar behavior, producing anodyne reporting while inside going "WTF!?!??"
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/books/review-betrayal-final-act-trump-show-jonathan-karl.html
The problem is that not enough folks are paying attention. Most people get up, go to work, stand around drinking coffee discussing the latest episode of their favorite TV show. Too many people don't have the time and sadly the interest to delve into what's really going on politically. That allows news outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times to create a narrative that they want people to believe. The question is why. Why are these mainstream news outlets doing this? Is it just because they need calamity to sell their newspapers? Is it because there is so much content out there that they need to create a false narrative to remain relative from an entertainment perspective? Or is it something more nefarious? When I hear people complaining about the liberal press it just makes my blood boil. Biden has accomplished more in 10 months than Trump did in four years or would have done in 4 or 5 terms if the "Big Lie" had succeeded.
There is a lot of evidence that many of them are motivated by being members of the Beltway Kool Kids Klub. They are strongly influenced by groupthink. Too many of them are part of the same incestuous social circle and dread being exiled from it.
I don't call them the Beltway Kool Kids Klub.
I call them the DC Press Corpse because they are brain dead.
I vote for nefarious.
Coupla points; As much as they unfairly hold Pres. Biden to a much higher standard on all things presidential, the WP did restrain itself in today's early online offering by relegating the news of the twice-indicted and now arrested (and then let free) felon, bannon to a low page afterthought. CNN on the other hand featured on top, in the largest font, an "analysis" on how the blatherings and whinings of this gutter dwelling loser carries enough weight to "undercut" the Jan-6 panel's strategy, complete with all the toxic quotes and defiant photograph. Meanwhile, the President leads by example, quietly, without, say, staging a cabinet meeting featuring nothing more than a bunch of toadies publicly on tv telling him what a great and wonderful leader he is, and on, and on. Instead, he does the work, signs the historic bill for the People, and watch, today will get back to work on the rest of it. Perhaps a campaign to point this out to the press, often, might gain some traction? No?
TFG is a raving lunatic. How is that a non issue w/in the msm. Their recalcitrance has allowed the Rs/FG to gradually create an unreality of their own where everyone other than members of the cult, are ‘the other.’ Dems are now the other too. Egads.
As to the Tyler Page piece, I took one look at the headline to know what was in store. Never got passed it and couldn’t bear to read further. So incongruent with the fabulous infrastructure news, so obviously a hit job to shit on an amazing achievement that hasn’t been accomplished by any administration since Ike. Has ‘owning the libs’ seeped into Wapo too?
Yes.
Because that insanity is what makes him so much fun to cover. Democracy and the fate of the nation be damned.
No, because writing about drama attracts more clicks. In today's NYT columnist Thomas Edsall writes, "The rise of inflation, supply chain shortages, a surge in illegal border crossings, the persistence of Covid, mayhem in Afghanistan and the uproar over “critical race theory” — all of these developments, individually and collectively, have taken their toll on President Biden and Democratic candidates, so much so that Democrats are now the underdogs going into 2022 and possibly 2024." It's not the only anti-Biden and "Dems in Doom" piece today, either. It's why I cancelled my subscription.
I read that piece yesterday and even made a comment. This morning when I read Press Run, a single name popped into my head - Jeff Bezos. The greediest man in the world, or at least one of them, does way better with the Republican Party in power than the Democrats and thusly, the WaPo has turned into the GOP rag that it has become.
i'm leaning towards new editor Sally Buzbee as the problem. paper was much better under Trump when Marty Baron ran the paper.
The op-eds are predominantly written by conservatives, and most guest contributors are right wing as well. The bothsidesism is tipping over into the right wing side gaining more space. The two columnists that still write with integrity are Greg Sargent and Jennifer Rubin.
Also Paul Waldman who recently reported that the Treasury scoring of the BBB bill showed it would more than pay for itself, i.e. it would actually reduce the deficit. How often did you see that reported? Margaret Sullivan is also good but hasn’t written recently. At least she is no longer relegated to the Style section! All of them are not afraid to criticize the mainstream media for their distorted coverage.
Yes, I like Waldman, too, and wish he'd get more columns published. The worst ones are Hugh Hewitt and especially Marc Thiessen, who is utterly atrocious.
By the way, I just read in CJR's newsletter that a Washington Post journalist just posted a survey on Twitter: 'Paul Farhi, a media reporter with the Washington Post, posted a chart on Twitter comparing the web traffic of various news sites to last year's numbers, based on data from traffic measurement company comScore. According to the chart, web traffic at the New York Times was down by more than 15 percent in October compared with the same month last year, and traffic at the Washington Post was down by more than 28 percent in the same period. Other big losers, according to the chart, included The Guardian (down more than 30 percent), Politico (down 48 percent), The Hill (down more than 38 percent), Vox (down over 44 percent), and ABC News (down 35 percent). Yahoo News and BuzzFeed went in the other direction, increasing their traffic by 38 percent and 33 percent, respectively."
He and Greg Sargent get published nearly every weekday in the Plum Line . Just go staring to the Plum Line page. If enough people read a column the Post will move it to the main page. Ditto for Jennifer Rubin who also writes most days.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/
Yeah note the recent column by Hugh Hewitt cheering the death of Roe. And Bannon's attorney gets to lie on the Op-ed page as well.
Agree. Especially in light of her former employer, the AP, which ran the most godawful headline after Biden signed the bill, that with infrastructure, Biden hopes to "improve his popularity." It was just so wrongheaded.
I wonder how long she will last. She's running the paper into the ground. A president signs the most substantial and wide-sweeping bill in 70 years, and it's to improve his popularity? Why is the media so dedicated to bringing about Biden's failure? Too many Republicans in the business?
AP ran that header. Sally B was an exec at AP for 3+ decades. I would imagine her influence is still felt there. A stretch maybe, but that AP header is so in keeping with recent Post stories.
Would love to hear some Post insiders dish on Buzbee.
Especially after learning that WaPo's online subscriptions are down 28% from a year ago.
That tracks with drops in viewers for MSNBC shows like Rachel Maddow now that Trump is out of office. I wonder if the people in control at the Post are trying to make up for that loss by appealing more to centrists.
I have no love for Fred Hiatt who joined the Times in lying us into war with Iraq.
Absolutely agree. Just look at the increase in conservative slanted op eds and both side type stories since she has arrived. Also, addition of new writers pushing the floundering Dem story line while refusing to call out Repub refusal to do anything positive.
My question is why. I suspect she is proving she can be just as tough as a man. Of course that is what got Jill Abramson fired from The NY Times. Apparently her mistake was being tough with reporters.
I did too. I'm Egyptiancats. I think the problem is the new editor, Sally Buzbee.
I, for one, think journalists should call out editors who insist on narrative first and facts second. Readers and viewers needn't be fact checkers after the fact.
that would certainly be welcome. but careerism is a powerful Beltway force and drives so much of what's wrong w/ media today
No finer example than Jonathan Karl, who sat on insurrection "news" so he could put it in a book AFTER it was no longer important to have access to the clown show being run by the Former Guy.
And wow see the ads on the Post webpages glorifying that Presstitute "Nobody has covered Donald Trump more".
And we remember how Jonathan Karl endlessly recited GOP talking points when it came to Obama. Karl sure loved to lie about him and he never once retracted the Republican lies he spread.
I couldn't read his first book, for the very reason he states in the introduction to this one, where he charged his colleagues for playing into Trump with their anti-Trumpism. Yet now, he FINALLY sees what a danger Trump is for himself and states that.
See: FAIR on The Collegiate Network and Karl. Eye opening.
He was groomed to serve the right, along with Ann Coulter and a few others.
Wondering if the drop in readership will make a difference in how they report?
And we Post readers raised hell about it in the comments section. We're tired of the constant Biden put-downs. It could be that WaPo's new editor is a Republican wanting to damage Biden's presidency because the coverage of it is generally negative. Yesterday two readers stated on the thread that they were cancelling their subscriptions because this article was the last straw.
I think Biden doesn't talk to Americans enough. People are blaming him for inflation even though they have money and the situation is global and related to the pandemic, and that's due to the media claiming he is somehow supposed to fix it.
and let's face it, the premise of the piece was totally bonkers
I was so angry that I almost cancelled my subscription. I don't mind reading opposing views, but they have to make sense. This one was a loony tunes attack piece. At least it was gratifying to learn that readers aren't as gullible as I feared. But why is crap like this being published in a major newspaper? And how is this kind of dreck going to affect the elections? WaPo isn't the only culprit publishing trash. I just cancelled my NY Times subscription because the negativity and lazy journalism got to me.
That's why I refer to those stenographers as the Press Corpse.
I refer to them as stenographic sycophants.
And today New York magazine had an interview with one Obama economics advisor who claimed that inflation is because the Dems gave Americans too much money all at once. Wow, $1200—living the high life!
When the CNN Milk Story dropped I wondered if the real scandal in that story wasn't inflation but was actually price-gouging with inflation being the excuse. I don't know if anyone has really investigated that angle.
The prices in the article were provided by that family, and CNN didn't bother to verify them.
That's definitely a massive fail on the part of CNN. I think it's best though to assume the people in the story weren't lying. To me that is a trap leading to accusations of left-leaning viewers not caring about the plight of struggling Americans. I know that's not true and the right will make such accusations anyway, but it's still best to apply the principle of charity. On a similar note it's true that such a family should qualify for new tax credits to cover these costs, but it's no guarantee they're receiving them. It's very possible that prices have spiked and this family has no recourse at the moment to overcome that burden. Obviously that info if true could have been part of the original story and an additional level of intrigue. I'm just trying to say unless these people are somehow paid actors of the right-wing I'm sympathetic to their plight. We're all trying to get by in this country but we're being pitted against each other for other's political gain.
"Biden Cures Cancer. What Took So Long?"
Waiting on that one!
I have coined a new term for the folks in the mainstream media.
They are...Spin-o-chios
Was watching Nicole Wallace interview Chris Christie and man did she wipe up the sidewalk with him. When he tried to talk thru her, she just steamrolled his large behind. He was not able to spew any garbage without getting called out. That is the way the media should be interviewing the seditious jackholes.
The mainstream press produces what the Powers That Be. Any honesty or truth is strictly accidental.
The honesty of the WSJ (already reported elsewhere outside the mainstream) is the exception to the rule. It’s a big point but won’t get the traction of being reported throughout the mainstream. Gonna sink and disappear in no time.
Yesterday, I wrote a long post about the chaotic & dysfunctional political situation in the my country the Philippines and wondered if the Beltway journalists are actually prefer covering the chaos & dysfunction of the Trump White House over the relatively stable & functioning Biden White House. It seems they've gotten used to the easy scoops that flowed endlessly from the previous occupants, but aren't willing to put a lot of actual work into covering the current occupant because it is primarily focused on policies designed to help the American public rather than the cycle of drama and intrigue that covered up the bad policies the Republikkkans passed.
I have said numerous times that when Trump was POTUS, the stories wrote themselves. Many were simply based on tweets.
Good point, Mar-A-Lardo’s incoherent & inflammatory Twitter account was an almost endless source of stories for the Beltway journalists.
I think many of us were always following the coverage just to see how stupid and unfit he was for the job.
However, we hoped the malevolence that was bubbling under would be short-lived.
We were wrong about that part.
Anyway, Is it wrong that I want to wish death to certain key Republicans & a couple of conservative justices in the Supreme Court who are threatening American democracy?
I wish them not death but for the criminals, a term in prison.
I’m frustrated at God & the world because off the overwhelming unfairness of horrible people being allowed stay alive and get away with doing bad things. While the good ones either die or are mocked for doing the right thing.
‘Twas ever thus, I’m afraid Eric. Human nature. Don’t forgot the not horrible people. The good souls in your life. We need more of the good ones to be in power. You’ve seen the worst of what the corruption of power can do. I pray we won’t see it here. Another familiar truism: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I understand your anger, unfairness can be maddening.
I feel the same way.
Ditto. A long prison term works fine for me. Perp walks would be an added pleasure.
It was exciting (if ecxhausting) and there was so much leaking, all they had to do was either make a phone call or answer their phones.
Interestingly, I posted a comment below this garbage piece of alleged journalism saying something similar.
More interestingly, the only time I have gotten a response from Sally Buzbee about "coverage" like this was to thank me for a compliment on another story. At least Dean Baquet responds and tries to insult my intelligence by denying that The Times is capable of error, or says I only complain when Boehlert tweets about it.