More evidence that the msm has fallen down on the job; not giving us the entire picture of this whiny, entitled man, desperate for a post on SCOTUS. The Rs played his appointment just about right, no holds barred; remember Lindsay’s histrionic hissy fit? No real FBI check on his behavior with other women nor testimony from those who knew him prior to his SCOTUS nomination. The Rs play dirty and play to win and the press seems to like that, as Eric aptly repeats in Press Run. And here we are in the verge of losing the right to abortion (perhaps) as a result of an incomplete analysis of his finances and the lack of a full picture of what Kavanaugh did to get on the court. Once again, the women were ignored as R senator bullied their way thru the hearings. The press did us all a disservice.
In addition to the beltway press and others giving Kavanaugh a pass, let’s please not forget the lackluster investigation by our clearly compromised FBI. And by the way, who is exactly is the Federalist Society and why are they picking the judges ?
It seems to be the Federalist Society has been scouting for judges starting the day they are born. They watch, they test, then they mold these future judges. They have always been around it only the past decade or so the "deeds" have been leaking in to the press pages.
Kavanaugh is just another cog in the slow moving coup machine that has gone on now for decades. Kavanaugh is just a pawn to be moved around the rightwing chessboard for the benefit of the autocracy. Sadly the mainstream media is simply another pawn of the coup. I know, sounds paranoid, but when you look at the facts and where we are today, what other more logical conclusion can be applied?
That is exactly how they want us to feel. Helplessness leads people to become passive and stop fighting back. I would be that is how a lot of ordinary Germans felt in the 1930s.
Republicans have been successfully intimidating the mainstream media for decades which is the reason for these kinds of headlines. It’s long past time that Democrats push back on biased media coverage aimed at damaging Democrats.
Too bad there hasn’t been more outrage over headlines like this one form the WaPo “As coronavirus fears spike over Delta, Biden’s ratings sag”. I couldn’t believe that after the Post and the rest of the media had spent the last couple of weeks trashing Biden’s handling of Afghanistan withdrawal they had the nerve to imply that the fall in his approval ratings was due to Covid, conflating the drop due to their negative coverage to the rise in Covid. The Post isn’t the only outlet pulling that stunt either. Talk about a spurious correlation!
The Covid #s rise because of the anti-vaxxers who are being encouraged by rightwing media and politicians, and as those #s rise, Biden's approval #s on handling the pandemic go down. Win win for the nihilist Trumpers.
I was astonished when I read the very much in bad taste piece Matt Viser wrote quoting one of the parents WHILE AT DOVER AFB just after receiving the body of his son. He was the dad unhappy w/Biden’s initial words about Beau but in his very LAST quote, the dad softened his opinion. TACKY. HIT JOB. AWFUL. Too late re: headline change. The damage has been done.
Yes but the lesson we should take from this is that the media responds to pressure and outrage from Democrats just as they have done for decades to right wing pressure. A good example of a concerted effort to intimidate the mainstream media was Reed Irvine. Irvine bought shares in major media companies so he could attend their board meetings and harass them. Arthur Sulzberger of the Times eventually granted him yearly private meetings. From what I have read the Times sometimes caved to the pressure as did other media outlets.
Democrats have never had an organized strategy to hold the media accountable then they unfairly attack them. I think the fact that this criticism worked was that it was done on Twitter, a popular and very public forum. If this kind of pressure is applies often enough the media will start to think twice before pulling these faux balance stunts.
It's past time for the Democrats to fight back. At this point in time they should be kicking ass and taking names. We all see the R's fight dirty it's time we fight them the same way. If newspaper headlines are about D's then dems need to call out the paper for their disservice to the American people. Democrats need to stop trying to play nice the R's and the people who pay them aren't playing nice. D's new motto should be kicking ass and taking names.
Clarence Thomas also deserves to be removed for lying under oath at his hearings. It was Thomas’s successful playbook — deny, deny, deny, then get really angry — that Kavanaugh was following.
Thomas not only blatantly lied, by vehemently denying he had ever talked about pornography or other sexual topics at work, he lied about what he had done as an adult in charge of the EEOC, the department of our government that is supposed protect workers from things like sexual harassment.
Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson wrote the book “Strange Justice” which was an in depth investigation the claims Thomas had made during his hearing. That intensively researched book documentingThomas’s blatant lies was published in the early 90s. It has been was ignored by the mainstream media.
Here are excerpts from a 2018 article by Abramson:
“What I have said to you is categorical that any allegations that I engaged in any conduct involving sexual activity, pornographic movies, attempted to date her, any allegations, I deny. It is not true,” he said during questioning…..”
“ Clarence Thomas had, in fact, a clear habit of watching and talking about pornography, which, while not improper on its face, was at the heart of Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment….”
“We found three other women who had experiences with Thomas at the EEOC that were similar to Hill’s…”
“The evidence that Thomas had perjured himself during the hearing was overwhelming.”
The article also includes new information about witnesses that Abramson has discovered in recent years, including a reporter to whom Thomas had made remarks about porn. She had refused to come forward during the hearings because Thomas was a good source for her. Like too many in the press she was more concerned about protecting her access than about honoring her duty to the public’s right to know.
If the media didn’t care when solid evidence that Thomas had lied under oath during his hearings was revealed, they certainly won’t care about evidence that Kavanaugh lied during his hearings.
Thomas' wife Ginny is a raging rightwing activist nutcase, but the Dems and the MSM don't seem to be bothered by that obvious conflict of interest. Had RBG's husband been a high profile Dem operative the R's would have screeched for her removal from the court and the MSM would have joined the chorus.
Which is why I doubt that anyone will bother to go after Kavanaugh but I do think journalists should look into where that money came from. Maybe Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson would be willing to do that.
The Times and The Post both have done some excellent investigative work on The Former Guy. So I can cut a LITTLE slack. But let's face it: The people who cover politics there, with a rare exception, just want to belong to the same country club.
Blackout Brett is a lifelong Republican apparatchik so sure, why be surprise by all the lying. As for the funny money giving him a 1%er lifestyle on far more modest earnings, that’s what our ruling class does: corrupt the system. The thing here is that while we acknowledge it vis a vis elected officials, we’re surprised when judges are equally corrupt.
As for why the media didn’t drill down into his financials, well they surely would have done were he a Democrat instead of a Republican. (Now that I think about it, it seems we only get both sides reportage when needed to make Republicans look good.)
This is one of those hard cases to crack. No big donors were going to spill the beans. But if the Post and Times had rigorously hammered the issue on their news and editorial pages, sources with proof might have come forward. A drumbeat of headlines asking pointed questions about the payoffs and why court nominees don't have to disclose such information could have produced seismic results. In fact, this could have been a story that changed history.
Thank you for bringing attention to this important issue. It seems we put too much responsibility into the msm. Clearly, they have biases galore and unwilling (not unable) to see those biases and report on truth and democracy. MSM just sits in their world view and grab for headlines and stories that paint someone as wrong, a failure, when missing the entire forest for the trees. How do we fix this?
Brett Kavanaugh worked for Ken Starr and later was part of the Florida recount that put Dubya in office in 2000; Justice John Roberts was involved in that also. If Kavanaugh is not a true believe in GOP Movement Politics, I’ll eat my proverbial hat.
Kavanaugh talked Starr into allowing him to conduct one last investigation of the Republican slander that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster. There had already been a Special Prosecutor investigation by Republican Robert Fiske, a Senate banking committee investigation and a House investigation led by Indiana crackpot Dan Burton who provided forensic evidence that Foster couldn’t have killed himself that he got by shooting melons in his backyard. That Kavanaugh was doing this just for political points was made clear with the release of his contemporaneous memos to his colleagues assuring them he didn’t think Foster was murdered. Who cares if he harassed the devastated Foster family or cost us taxpayers $2 million dollars?
....Kavanaugh was in the 'Brooks Bros. Riot' that stopped the Florida count which then went to SCROTUS. The recount a year later gave the win to Gore....
There’s more than KavaNot who lied during their Confirmation Hearings. Thomas and Barrett absolutely also lied. The SC needs an extreme overhaul. It needs Ethics etched in stone and it needs a firm retirement age.
The shadiest SC in my lifetime is making rulings based on ‘their’ religious beliefs, which contradicts what over 70 % of Americans views. This must stop.
More evidence that the msm has fallen down on the job; not giving us the entire picture of this whiny, entitled man, desperate for a post on SCOTUS. The Rs played his appointment just about right, no holds barred; remember Lindsay’s histrionic hissy fit? No real FBI check on his behavior with other women nor testimony from those who knew him prior to his SCOTUS nomination. The Rs play dirty and play to win and the press seems to like that, as Eric aptly repeats in Press Run. And here we are in the verge of losing the right to abortion (perhaps) as a result of an incomplete analysis of his finances and the lack of a full picture of what Kavanaugh did to get on the court. Once again, the women were ignored as R senator bullied their way thru the hearings. The press did us all a disservice.
worst part was his lies about his money were among the least egregious lies he told during confirmation hearing
In addition to the beltway press and others giving Kavanaugh a pass, let’s please not forget the lackluster investigation by our clearly compromised FBI. And by the way, who is exactly is the Federalist Society and why are they picking the judges ?
agreed, i didn't have room to include but we all recently learned that the FBI's "tipline," as was its entire Kavanaugh investigation, was a joke
It seems to be the Federalist Society has been scouting for judges starting the day they are born. They watch, they test, then they mold these future judges. They have always been around it only the past decade or so the "deeds" have been leaking in to the press pages.
Kavanaugh is just another cog in the slow moving coup machine that has gone on now for decades. Kavanaugh is just a pawn to be moved around the rightwing chessboard for the benefit of the autocracy. Sadly the mainstream media is simply another pawn of the coup. I know, sounds paranoid, but when you look at the facts and where we are today, what other more logical conclusion can be applied?
this is the larger fear, for sure
Feeling helpless as we watch this cascade of power/greed unfold.
That is exactly how they want us to feel. Helplessness leads people to become passive and stop fighting back. I would be that is how a lot of ordinary Germans felt in the 1930s.
Ugh. No worries. Anger always wins out, plus the fight of newsletter mates like you.
Sheldon Whitehouse should have been Judiciary Chair or AG. Period. He gets after it.
I hope everyone saw that the NY Times changed a headline about Biden talking too much about Beau’s death after getting hammered on Twitter.
https://www.mediaite.com/print/nyt-changes-headline-that-originally-said-not-everyone-wants-to-hear-about-bidens-grief-over-son-beau/
Republicans have been successfully intimidating the mainstream media for decades which is the reason for these kinds of headlines. It’s long past time that Democrats push back on biased media coverage aimed at damaging Democrats.
Too bad there hasn’t been more outrage over headlines like this one form the WaPo “As coronavirus fears spike over Delta, Biden’s ratings sag”. I couldn’t believe that after the Post and the rest of the media had spent the last couple of weeks trashing Biden’s handling of Afghanistan withdrawal they had the nerve to imply that the fall in his approval ratings was due to Covid, conflating the drop due to their negative coverage to the rise in Covid. The Post isn’t the only outlet pulling that stunt either. Talk about a spurious correlation!
yes, w/ Afghanistan out of headlines the press has moved onto Covid as Biden's preferred crisis
The Covid #s rise because of the anti-vaxxers who are being encouraged by rightwing media and politicians, and as those #s rise, Biden's approval #s on handling the pandemic go down. Win win for the nihilist Trumpers.
I was astonished when I read the very much in bad taste piece Matt Viser wrote quoting one of the parents WHILE AT DOVER AFB just after receiving the body of his son. He was the dad unhappy w/Biden’s initial words about Beau but in his very LAST quote, the dad softened his opinion. TACKY. HIT JOB. AWFUL. Too late re: headline change. The damage has been done.
Yes but the lesson we should take from this is that the media responds to pressure and outrage from Democrats just as they have done for decades to right wing pressure. A good example of a concerted effort to intimidate the mainstream media was Reed Irvine. Irvine bought shares in major media companies so he could attend their board meetings and harass them. Arthur Sulzberger of the Times eventually granted him yearly private meetings. From what I have read the Times sometimes caved to the pressure as did other media outlets.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-nov-19-me-irvine19-story.html
Democrats have never had an organized strategy to hold the media accountable then they unfairly attack them. I think the fact that this criticism worked was that it was done on Twitter, a popular and very public forum. If this kind of pressure is applies often enough the media will start to think twice before pulling these faux balance stunts.
It's past time for the Democrats to fight back. At this point in time they should be kicking ass and taking names. We all see the R's fight dirty it's time we fight them the same way. If newspaper headlines are about D's then dems need to call out the paper for their disservice to the American people. Democrats need to stop trying to play nice the R's and the people who pay them aren't playing nice. D's new motto should be kicking ass and taking names.
These appalling facts - the truth - about Kavanaugh mean his SCOTUS status is a disgrace. He needs to be removed.
Clarence Thomas also deserves to be removed for lying under oath at his hearings. It was Thomas’s successful playbook — deny, deny, deny, then get really angry — that Kavanaugh was following.
Thomas not only blatantly lied, by vehemently denying he had ever talked about pornography or other sexual topics at work, he lied about what he had done as an adult in charge of the EEOC, the department of our government that is supposed protect workers from things like sexual harassment.
Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson wrote the book “Strange Justice” which was an in depth investigation the claims Thomas had made during his hearing. That intensively researched book documentingThomas’s blatant lies was published in the early 90s. It has been was ignored by the mainstream media.
Here are excerpts from a 2018 article by Abramson:
“What I have said to you is categorical that any allegations that I engaged in any conduct involving sexual activity, pornographic movies, attempted to date her, any allegations, I deny. It is not true,” he said during questioning…..”
“ Clarence Thomas had, in fact, a clear habit of watching and talking about pornography, which, while not improper on its face, was at the heart of Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment….”
“We found three other women who had experiences with Thomas at the EEOC that were similar to Hill’s…”
“The evidence that Thomas had perjured himself during the hearing was overwhelming.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/02/the-case-for-impeaching-clarence-thomas.html
The article also includes new information about witnesses that Abramson has discovered in recent years, including a reporter to whom Thomas had made remarks about porn. She had refused to come forward during the hearings because Thomas was a good source for her. Like too many in the press she was more concerned about protecting her access than about honoring her duty to the public’s right to know.
If the media didn’t care when solid evidence that Thomas had lied under oath during his hearings was revealed, they certainly won’t care about evidence that Kavanaugh lied during his hearings.
Thomas' wife Ginny is a raging rightwing activist nutcase, but the Dems and the MSM don't seem to be bothered by that obvious conflict of interest. Had RBG's husband been a high profile Dem operative the R's would have screeched for her removal from the court and the MSM would have joined the chorus.
Yes!! She is a driven woman, no doubt
Zealot
FG had her to the oval as a guest.
“Strange Justice” is an excellent book! But that pig is still on the court.
Which is why I doubt that anyone will bother to go after Kavanaugh but I do think journalists should look into where that money came from. Maybe Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson would be willing to do that.
Dynamic duo for sure. If only ....
Eric, I'm old enough to remember when Republicans forced Abe Fortas off of the Supreme Court because of "financial irregularities"!
Oh their pals in the press sure joined in to turn Fortas into Al Capone...But now...silence from the Pre$$titutes!
The Times and The Post both have done some excellent investigative work on The Former Guy. So I can cut a LITTLE slack. But let's face it: The people who cover politics there, with a rare exception, just want to belong to the same country club.
Blackout Brett is a lifelong Republican apparatchik so sure, why be surprise by all the lying. As for the funny money giving him a 1%er lifestyle on far more modest earnings, that’s what our ruling class does: corrupt the system. The thing here is that while we acknowledge it vis a vis elected officials, we’re surprised when judges are equally corrupt.
As for why the media didn’t drill down into his financials, well they surely would have done were he a Democrat instead of a Republican. (Now that I think about it, it seems we only get both sides reportage when needed to make Republicans look good.)
This is one of those hard cases to crack. No big donors were going to spill the beans. But if the Post and Times had rigorously hammered the issue on their news and editorial pages, sources with proof might have come forward. A drumbeat of headlines asking pointed questions about the payoffs and why court nominees don't have to disclose such information could have produced seismic results. In fact, this could have been a story that changed history.
Thank you for bringing attention to this important issue. It seems we put too much responsibility into the msm. Clearly, they have biases galore and unwilling (not unable) to see those biases and report on truth and democracy. MSM just sits in their world view and grab for headlines and stories that paint someone as wrong, a failure, when missing the entire forest for the trees. How do we fix this?
Brett Kavanaugh worked for Ken Starr and later was part of the Florida recount that put Dubya in office in 2000; Justice John Roberts was involved in that also. If Kavanaugh is not a true believe in GOP Movement Politics, I’ll eat my proverbial hat.
Could be wrong but Amy Coney Barrett might have worked in FLORIDA recount for W in FL.
Barrett worked on a lawsuit in the recount. Looks like it wasn't a prominent role, but her involvement shows that so many roads lead to Florida and the ill-fated 2000 election. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/amy-coney-barrett-bush-gore/2020/10/10/594641b8-09e3-11eb-991c-be6ead8c4018_story.html
SCOTUS selecting the president in 2000 changed the trajectory of the USA for the worse.
As did the guys they selected to run the country. Biden is paying the price for finally ending the mess they got us into — or one of them.
Pardon the pun, but hindsight is 2020.
Kavanaugh talked Starr into allowing him to conduct one last investigation of the Republican slander that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster. There had already been a Special Prosecutor investigation by Republican Robert Fiske, a Senate banking committee investigation and a House investigation led by Indiana crackpot Dan Burton who provided forensic evidence that Foster couldn’t have killed himself that he got by shooting melons in his backyard. That Kavanaugh was doing this just for political points was made clear with the release of his contemporaneous memos to his colleagues assuring them he didn’t think Foster was murdered. Who cares if he harassed the devastated Foster family or cost us taxpayers $2 million dollars?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/why-was-kavanaugh-obsessed-with-vince-foster.html
....Kavanaugh was in the 'Brooks Bros. Riot' that stopped the Florida count which then went to SCROTUS. The recount a year later gave the win to Gore....
There’s more than KavaNot who lied during their Confirmation Hearings. Thomas and Barrett absolutely also lied. The SC needs an extreme overhaul. It needs Ethics etched in stone and it needs a firm retirement age.
The shadiest SC in my lifetime is making rulings based on ‘their’ religious beliefs, which contradicts what over 70 % of Americans views. This must stop.
Possibly Clarence Thomas’ sugar daddy🙄
Haha. Before reading a single word, based on the photo alone, I wonder what the angle is??
And probably never will. Time to reset SCOTUS with strict rules and term limits