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What's more concerning than Springer's biased viewpoint is the MSM's apparent refusal to acknowledge it as newsworthy. The Republican party's push to legalize voter suppression and post-election manipulation of the vote count is an open assault on democracy, but the reporting dutifully cites "election integrity" and ignores the big picture: the GOP is using the Big Lie to maintain political power. Our "journalists" seem to be more concerned that Republican pols won't like them than they are with doing honest reporting.

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Politico is the gossip sheet that other members of the press read. I don't know how anyone takes what's in that rag seriously. Honestly, the only reason any of their journos are invited to the interminable panel discussions on CNN or MSNBC is because either the host or a producer is crushing-out on them.

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founding

There is some evidence that the public still isn’t buying the media hype. From an NBC report on the most recent polls on the withdrawal:

“A Pew Research Center Poll released Tuesday found that 54 percent of Americans say it was the right decision to pull troops from Afghanistan, while 42 percent say it was the wrong decision.

But just 27 percent rated Biden's handling of the situation as "excellent" or "good," while 29 percent rated it "only fair" and 42 percent rated it "poor." “

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/polls-americans-back-end-afghanistan-war-fault-biden-s-execution-n1278180

The author of this article just had to put a negative spin on the rating of Biden’s handling of the withdrawal by leading that part with a “but”. A more objective description would have made it clear that the poll shows 56% rated the withdrawal as either “good” or “only fair”, with just 42% rating it poor. That is a strong majority who said the withdrawal, while not perfect, was acceptable which completely contradicts the media narrative.

The results of the ABC poll show the exact opposite — 38% approving and 59% disapproving. I would have expected some comment on those wildly discrepant results but there was none.

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I’m alway suspicious when the word ‘Jewish’ is thrown around as Springer does here; imho, it serves as a dog whistle aimed at the hawkish right wing haters of the Palestinians.

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Re: Politico.

So, here in Las Vegas, the main local paper, the Review-Journal, was published by right-wingers from Arkansas, and the publisher and editor brought in a reporter whose main job was to hatchet Democrats. The publisher and editor lost their jobs in the wake of Harry Reid getting reelected in 2010, and I remain convinced--they even deny they were fired--that they were let go because when their skewed coverage of Reid got national attention, they (I think) reassured their bosses that it was all ok because they would see to his defeat. Well ....

So, before long, Sheldon Adelson bought the paper. Someone asked Reid what he thought. He replied that he didn't see how Adelson could treat him any worse than the previous regime did.

And that's how I feel about Politico.

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Eric, don't lose sight of the bigger picture. It is not just Politico. Look at The Hill being bought by Nextar who hired Bill Shine as their news advisor.

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Dunno that Politico can get *significantly* worse than it is now. Part of the reason is that by definition these days, any mainstream outlet is conservative. Of course, since facts rarely support conservative positions these days, it makes reporting let’s say fraught.

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Eric’s points about the taint of conservatism and Springer’s requirement for reporters to sign what looks like to me as a loyalty oath at Politico comes as a surprise to me as it’s the first I’ve read about details concerning the Springer take over of the newsletter; I had no idea other than reading in the business sections of the newspapers that he’s German. More head shaking and hair on fire news. Politico touts sordid headlines that don’t match the text and is filled with gossip. I’m wondering what it’s value is to me??? The fact that this is reported as a ‘not much to see here’ story underscores the relentless political power grab being undertaken by republicans, and enabled by the press is another piece of evidence that we are in deep trouble as a nation.

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Mr. Boehlert,

I fear you may be overly concerned by the term “conservative”. It does not necessarily mean the same thing in Germany as the US. A German “conservative” is Angela Merkel; not Donald Trump. I don’t see that Chancellor Merkel & President Biden disagree on much.

Reading the list; what do you object to?

I agree that we should watch carefully.

But please don’t get hung up on the label.

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Quite frankly, I assume that just about every mainstream media platform (cable, network, print, digital) favors the right wing Republicans. Politico is horrible now. Nothing it would advocate would surprise me. I just see this takeover as more of the same but more blatant.

I wonder if other outlets are courting right wing owners. I got the feeling that the Afghanistan coverage critical of Biden was driven by "reporters" who were auditioning/assembling portfolio for possible ownership changes in their respective companies. I'm sure it can get but I don't think anything they'd publish would surprise me.

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Eric, a lot of people are talking now about the recent ACS season on the Clinton impeachment, and it, and the reviewers (who don't like it that much or think it has real heat), are engaging in so much historical revisionism over the actual events or what was actually said in 1998. Clearly, the Clinton Rules are governing everything.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/31/2049385/--Impeachment-Season-of-ACS-Proves-The-Clinton-Rules-Remain-In-Effect-Forevermore?_=2021-08-31T10:27:42.000-07:00

You should really write a full blog post about this, especially in how the media shaped it then, and are reshaping it now.

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Stopped following Politico 2 years ago but this confirms my decision.Couldn’t stand Jake Sherman before he left. Still can’t. Never liked Sam Stein. Always felt Sam was a phony plus his wife working for Facebook didn’t help.

Richard Thompson is one of the very best musicians in music history. His son,Teddy is great in his own right. Genetics obviously plays a role. Mom, Linda Thompson is no slouch either. “Shoot Out The Lights” one of my favorite albums.

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Have never read Politico.

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Brother Charlie Pierce used to routinely refer to Politico as Tiger Beat on the Potomac. I guess for a short while a few years ago, they were some version of slightly less than terrible, so he quit using that appellation. Maybe time to resuscitate the old moniker?

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Politico has always been bad, from the inception of Playbook (DC’s combo gossip and society pages) which was the genius idea of Mike 'payola' Allen, who started corporate sponsorship of “Winning The Morning.”

Politico has always been a tawdry thing, the tabloiding of what is essentially a one-industry town. That wonky pencil-pusher dude might not ever get a second look in any other city, but he’s now a rockstar, breathlessly covered by Politico, with all the fandom that it allows.

We might scorn it, but Playbook does set the agenda in DC. If they frame a story a certain way, you can bet that the talking heads read it and will reflect it. This $1B purchase is definitely going to have an impact across the country.

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I literally wrote this very brief thread 16 hours ago: https://twitter.com/DrNikkiMartinez/status/1432642141654818816?s=20

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