General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI assume I'm not the only one appalled by the MSM continually normalizing Trump & the GOP
It's truly maddening and depressing to see not see their shit called out by the supposedly non-partisan media.
No headline should ever mention Trump without a negative attribute of some sort. No story should be published without mentioning his fascist election denial, multiple crimes and white supremacy.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)sop
(10,146 posts)Had our present-day corporate media been around during the Holocaust, they would have given the "other side" equal time.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)KS Toronado
(17,189 posts)LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)Patton French
(753 posts)The MSM loves it.
malaise
(268,885 posts)Billionaires for the Slobfather.
They support Fascism.
Were it not so, King Con the liar and criminal would not receive non-stop coverage.
Nearly two fucking years after his failed coup and he is still the center of attention. Clearly the money men and women want it so.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)The on air people are not journalists even though they pretend to be, they are basically fan girls and boys for celebrities. They spend more time on hair and make up than on investigating stories. And they listen more to each other than average citizens. Although Im sure their corporate bosses love it. They seem to fall right in
malaise
(268,885 posts)Crossed a la Tiffany. How dare that black woman speak the truth about DeathSentence when they want access for another round of their circus coverage?
Most of the hacks are paid well to promote the interests of their owners.
Decades ago I read Sport, Power and Culture by John Hargreaves.
His Chapter on Media Sport opened my eyes bigger than many other Social Science texts.
Promote the interests of the owners and make money or youre out.
The producers are among the most vicious enforcers on behalf of their owners.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)Magoo48
(4,701 posts)I quit them many years ago. Corporate media is as amateurish and embarrassing as one would expect them to be with red-ink wielding, right wing lackeys hanging over their shoulders. Censorship is consistently subtle and occasionally blatant. It is always there. Omission and spin are lies. Although a journalist will periodically slip through. Like say, Rachelle, even they are governed or let go. On a whole, MSM is a fucking bad, sad joke. A free nation would not put up with it.
malaise
(268,885 posts)Conjuay
(1,380 posts)They dont want to go back to the days of 30% income tax. They will do ANYTHING to prevent them from sharing ANYTHING.
LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,863 posts)Pisswig cuts taxes for the Ownership Class.
Corporate McPravda not only broadcast his inanities 24/7/366 @ full-volume, they REFUSE (not fail) to investigate his sundry treasons and myriad criminality.
malaise
(268,885 posts)promoted and continue to promote the Slobfather - go figure.
Have they fired the NBC reporter who spread the misinformation about Paul Pelosi?
Never ever forget that The Apprentice was all NBC
Kid Berwyn
(14,863 posts)Shed No Tears for Jeff Zucker, Trump's Great Enabler
At NBC and CNN, Zucker was key to Trumps rise
by Eric Alterman
The American Prospect / Altercation, Feb. 3, 2022
I have to say Im amused by all the crocodile tears being shed for Jeff Zuckers forced resignation from CNN. Obviously, he is gone for reasons other than the ones being given; that was a slap-on-the-wrist sort of violation for a network president. (My out-of-the-bleachers guess would be that it is directly related to Chris Cuomos suit against CNN.) CNN whiners should be ashamed of themselves for defending him. Yes, hes not as bad as the criminal whorehouse operator, Roger Ailes. (Thats how they get you: "Defining Deviancy Down" ) But his reign at CNN had one crucial world historical impact: the promotion of Donald Trump and his brand of entertaining fascism to the U.S. and the world. As for CNN, it was the networks refusal to distinguish between what its journalists know to be true and what they know to be a lie for the benefit of those who depend on it for news.
The following paragraph is drawn from my 2020 book Lying in State: Why Presidents Lieand Why Trump Is Worse:
Trumps fame was mostly confined to Manhattan-based gossip writers and broadcasters until 2004, when he teamed up with the television producer Mark Burnett to create The Apprentice. Jeff Zucker, an NBC executive who later moved on to CNN in time for the 2016 campaign, gave the program the green light. "The show was built as a virtually nonstop advertisement for the Trump empire and lifestyle," according to a 2016 Trump biography. Naturally, it was a lie from start to finish. The Apprentice was filmed in his offices in Trump Tower, but, as one of the shows producers told a reporter from The New Yorker, "We walked through the offices and saw chipped furniture. We saw a crumbling empire at every turn. Our job was to make it seem otherwise." According to a supervising editor on the show, the producers "first priority on every episode was to reverse-engineer the show to make it look like his judgment had some basis in reality."
Trump entered the presidential race in November 2015 at a moment when the always tenuous line between "entertainment" and politics was rapidly and purposely being erased. And it was around this time that the same Jeff Zucker landed the top job at CNN. "The idea that politics is sport is undeniable, and we understood that and approached it that way," he told a reporter. And just as sports broadcasters hire hosts who can make boring games sound interesting, and keep the audience entertained regardless of their level of expertise, so, too, Zucker chose pundits with no discernible qualifications save their willingness to sing the praises of Donald Trump. He hired Jeffrey Lord, a journeyman conservative author who repeatedly compared Trump to Martin Luther King Jr., and Kayleigh McEnany, an attractive young law student who consistently argued that Trump "doesnt lie," but that instead, "the press lies." (McEnany was rewarded for these arguments with an appointment in 2017 as the Republican National Committee spokesperson, and, two years later, for the same position in Trumps 2020 re-election campaign, before becoming Trumps presidential press secretary, also in 2020.) According to Zuckers preferred metric, these hires were more than justified. "Everybody says, Oh, I cant believe you have Jeffrey Lord or Kayleigh McEnany," he said. "But you know what? They dont know who Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany are"as if this somehow justified their lies and the lunatic conspiracy theories they passed along to viewers.
Zucker even proved willing to hire Trumps former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, in June 2016, not long after an incident in which Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery following his physical attack on a female reporter whose question he did not like. (The charges were later dropped, though not before Lewandowski was accused by another Trump supporter of sexual assault.) Lewandowski had lost an internal power struggle within the Trump campaign, and with it his job. Such a hire would not normally be considered unusual in the incestuous world of cable TV commentary, but in this case, Lewandowski had signed a nondisclosure agreement that contained a nondisparagement clause before leaving the campaign. That meant he was legally enjoined from saying anything that might reflect badly on Trumpeven if it was truthful. Zucker did not care. Truth was not the metric: Ratings were. (In September 2019, Lewandowski testified before the House Judiciary Committee investigating impeachment and admitted, "I have no obligation to be honest to the media because theyre just as dishonest as anybody else." He was booked on CNN that same night.)
Owing to the strong ratings that Trump-themed programming earned the network during the election season, Zucker constantly pressured his staff to keep the focus on Trumps campaign. CNN was happy to broadcast the candidates lies unmediated and uninterrupted, whether they were offered on the phone, in live interviews, or during rallies. According to the nonpartisan fact-checking site PolitiFact, which investigated 158 statements Trump had made on the campaign trail before June 2016, 78 percent of those statements were false, mostly false, or "pants on fire." Only about 3 percent of the statements it investigated were judged to be entirely true. The other 19 percent were half true or mostly true.
Continues
https://americanprospect.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=ab1a4d0dd4d48a2ba1077c4494791306.1331&s=bb6bef2a4b7e3fbe7fcc8d721fca4907
The press is the only business mentioned by name in the Constitution. And CNN has made certain the new boss will be worse for democracy.
malaise
(268,885 posts)They want it so
Response to Kid Berwyn (Reply #15)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)Unfortunately it doesnt work that way anymore
calimary
(81,194 posts)Doubt thatll happen, though.
Response to Kid Berwyn (Reply #4)
malaise This message was self-deleted by its author.
Emile
(22,639 posts)Boomerproud
(7,951 posts)😖
underpants
(182,736 posts)Stuart G
(38,414 posts)iF it were complicated, it would be complicated. It ain't. IT IS VERY SIMPLE.
Yes "Porn if they could." Totally CORRECT. I had to repeat that one.
underpants
(182,736 posts)It was someone IN show business not politics. Michael Moore? Maher? Jay Mohr (sports radio show)?
ananda
(28,856 posts)No reason to, really.
And I like to boycott people and stations I
abhor.
LAS14
(13,781 posts)I don't need to watch it live.
LAS14
(13,781 posts)Irish_Dem
(46,880 posts)We can assume the GOP is doing the same thing.
Diamond_Dog
(31,963 posts)I read a headline from a newspaper saying Republicans caught up in the election denial movement
NO! Should read Republicans who believe the lies Trump has fed them
LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)argghhh
CousinIT
(9,238 posts)They're about PROFIT at any cost. Even the cost of Trump completing the job of destroying our Republic.
Walleye
(31,002 posts)JT45242
(2,259 posts)All over Iowa rethugs who voted infrastructure, burn pits, cheap insulin, and Medicare negotiating prices are claiming they get these things done and the lazy press lets them.
LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)YoshidaYui
(41,831 posts)I have no clue why they think Democrats will lose. Maybe there are already sore losers.
LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)hmm.....
(11 posts)..finds it highly profitable.
The crazy public figures draw clicks and views from the riled-up masses.
Ponietz
(2,957 posts)One of those was hanged, drawn, and quartered and the Brits commemorate it every yearyesterday in fact.
twodogsbarking
(9,725 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,933 posts)Smashing windows on a few buildings got the msm riled up to where they quit airing protest. Their rational at the time was they didnt want to encourage more protesters to act out.
They seem to embrace trumpism! The whole shit bang and caboodle.
SAD
appalachiablue
(41,118 posts)K/R
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)Lonestarblue
(9,963 posts)shareholders or owners like billionaire Jeff Bezos. We no longer have a truly free press as Thomas Jefferson described a few hundred years ago. While PBS and NPR do a decent job, when George Bush cut their government support drastically, they were forced to go to corporations for more funding, including the Koch organization. Those funders placed some restrictions on their news coverage. Having listened to NPR and watched PBS news decades ago in the East, I can see a big difference in the type of questioning of interviewees and the slants that support conservatism.
I dont necessarily want government to be in full control of the media, especially when I think of someone like Trump using it to turn news into fantasy land, but we had better access to real information and less party pandering in the days of Walter Cronkite and journalists like Tim Russert. I dont know what the solution is, but todays media is contributing heavily to the downfall of democracy.
DallasNE
(7,402 posts)So you get what the boss wants. Example: Twitter. Currencies are the only paper that matters.
comradebillyboy
(10,143 posts)care about anything else.
PortTack
(32,754 posts)sakabatou
(42,146 posts)Samrob
(4,298 posts)paleotn
(17,911 posts)Republicans have put some pretty serious conditions on that in the last decade or so, i.e. say anything bad about Republicans and no access for you. Couple that with the fact that much of our national media care far more about their own 6 to 8 figure paychecks and outlet bottom line than they do about democracy or anything else of substance and you get what we have now.
If said scribblers and yacking heads were in Russia, they'd be "mouth piecing" Putin and quite happy to do so. It's who they are. It's how the roll. They make me sick.
Yes...I'm beating on the media again because they fucking deserve to be beat on.
agingdem
(7,840 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 6, 2022, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)
were the first to "normalize" Trump...their collective hate for Hillary was on display from the the very beginning...no way were they going to allow a Clinton interloper to occupy the Oval Office, not again...so they cleaned up their party buddy, a depraved cruel crude amoral multi-married narcissistic sociopath, and sold him as a viable candidate, someone who would "grow in office"...and when Trump was elected they rejoiced..they had access to the President of the United States..and then Morning Joe dared to criticize the orange cretin...
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)to think there was simply no bottom ever. Now I see it. He really could shoot someone on 5th Ave in front of witnesses and the M$M would continue to normalize his behavior. If attempted coup doesn't get you called out & marginalized by the media, nothing will.
LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)LAS14
(13,781 posts)... to give us the facts, when they're reporting, not opining. How else would we know the election was not stolen? Where do you get your news?
LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)I'm referring more to the general tenor and framing of their coverage, not the strict accuracy.
I watch CNN and MSNBC a bit in the evening, they are OK.
Online, I look at NYT, WaPo, Local paper (USA Today based), Twitter and DU.
LAS14
(13,781 posts)LymphocyteLover
(5,641 posts)except if David Brooks is on
RANDYWILDMAN
(2,667 posts)he is exposing all the POS cult members and their utterly backwards thinking.
The only problem is his voters have no shame, they are empowered by his criminal activity, his lies, his cruelness, his racism and his hate for anybody who dares to question him.
This will not be remembered as a great part of our countries history.
CBHagman
(16,984 posts)Even with the multiple investigations, the attempt to overturn the election, the documents case, and the inconvenient fact that Trump twice failed to win the popular vote oh, and the fact that Trump has a decades-long record of racism and of abusing vendors and workers The Washington Post keeps referencing TFG as the Republican front-runner for 2024. The paper of Watergate has no problem with this framing, apparently.