When President Joe Biden announced that he would not accept the Democratic nomination for president and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on July 21—less than three weeks ago—the horizon for the 2024 presidential election suddenly shortened from years to about three months.
I'm with Lawrence O'Donnell and his beration of the dysfunctional media in giving Trump a pass and not fact checking him in real time. When we look at fixing broken institutions (Supreme Court, etc) I hope we can develop ways to heal our media too.
Bob, yes — it's so important to share and amplify both O'Donnell's fact-check video and Rachel Scott's searing questions at NABJ. If the media won't do it we need to step up and remind them how it's done:
He might actually enjoy and applaud the making of a fool of himself -- he did it in front of all those nothings, he wasn't going to give them any deference. Bullies are like that.
Along with the horror and trepidation I feel contemplating an election outcome none of us here could stomach, I am starting to feel sorry for the orange basket case. He's clearly seriously unwell, and nobody in his life cares to enough to intervene.
More importantly, his staff knows it. With Trump, to him it doesn't matter whether he made a fool of himself as he chronically steps into fool's paradise. It's his staff that is most likely up in arms. I have to wonder when most will say: "enough is enough!!"
Trumps ugly response to her might be explained: When in her opening sentence to trump, Rachel Scott used the phrase "elephant in the room", I believe trump, being ignorant of that idiom thought she was calling him fat.
Dan I don’t consider elephants fat. Now if Ms. Scott had said “What about the rancid blimp in the room,’” I can imagine why Trump would be perturbed. Or if she had referred to Orange Orangutan.
I don't consider elephants fat, either, and I'm sure they (who are intelligent enough to possibly have an opinion on the matter) don't consider themselves fat, either, but I can easily believe that Scott was calling him fat. Trump's not smart for an H. sapiens, but he knows his rep has been sinking fast.
Disagree. Rachel Scott attacked Trump from the word go, like a rabid dog. He is worthy of such an attack, but she also should have expected nothing more than what she got. Which was no-answers and a counter attack. She knows this guy - is that what she wanted? I was unimpressed. She should have handled it differently; perhaps if she had, he would have come off even more the fool than he did. Instead, people on the fence may have defended him instead of become finally convinced he isn't the one. Be smarter Rachel.
Anyone who is stupid enough to defend him for ANYTHING after witnessing his almost nine-year trail of ignorant destruction deserves to live in his dystopian world. Had Rachel been polite and deferential, he'd certainly have abused her - Little Black Girl that he holds in contempt. There is no way to handle him other than the one she chose. Period.
Are you kidding? As a politician and a grown human, it is on HIM to behave like an adult. The exchange showed us that even when he KNOWS he should be on his best behavior, at the NABJ for cripes sakes, he is unable. That whole episode was exactly what we needed to prove he is just not someone who should be in any kind of office.
No I am not kidding. I live around MAGGOTs - they are everywhere in TN. They all bristle when under attack. They draw strength from it. I know he deserves everything he gets and more. Nobody hates Trump more than I do. But I want to see every tactic by the campaign, and the media, tailored to take him down. We do not need things that further unite his base and sway those few voters who could swayed the wrong way instead of the right way. I could argue that Rachel's line of questioning (if you want to call it that) swayed some folks the wrong way.
His campaign yanked him out because they knew he had dug himself a hole that he wouldn’t get himself out of. It’s why he’s not campaigning, because he can’t not be an asshole to women, especially black women — Fox news reporters excepted in special circumstances (one could argue for Borderline Personality Disorder, based on the NABJ event alone). If voters were swayed the wrong way by that? They were never swayable for the Dems to start with. People who call themselves centrist but are swayed by Trump were never centrist.
I have to agree. It feeds his 'cult-of-the-victim' crowd. It confirms their belief that 'the media' is biased and out to get him. If anyone saw the softball question at Mar-a-Lago about Josh Shapiro not being selected, it was clear that he didn't know who JS was. He riffed, not mentioning PA or Governor, like a 13 year old giving a book report on a book he never read. Vacuous and stupid. We need more of that.
CFDT's base, like his - hands - is very small and almost completely unreachable. What we NEED is young people fired up and voting; Calling out egregious racism and obvious lies does that, exactly what Rachel Scott did.
Trump DESERVES these attacks. Never before has anyone been this dishonest, lying, cheating, making money off the presidency, etc. etc. Every question that needs to be asked should be asked and he should answer. Also, why was HE the only one who has been allowed to keep his tax returns and bank statements secret? We would have known about the Egyptian illegal cash and the writing of checks to Cohen way earlier!!!! Terri Quint
Personally I didn't see Ms. Scott's opening as an attack. She did seem to heap a lot of "you-did-this" on him, but he did do those things. I find that to be fair. My question for you is this: how do YOU think Ms. Scott could have handled it differently? We must remember that there was a reported kerfuffle before the interview over whether or not devious don would accept fact checking. It was interesting to me at the time that he did not seem inclined (or perhaps was not able) to answer any questions. It's impossible to "fact-check" whining, blather or invective. Seriously...does anyone think this interview could have gone better?
Trump behaved like the adult toddler he is. He isn’t used to reporters doing their jobs and asking tough questions. The journalists were much more mature than Trump is.
I only saw the last minute or so of O'Donnell but was so glad to hear that finally someone in the media had the guts and the presence to speak out. Heather's post today just amplifies what is so important over the next few weeks--for the media to tell the American people seriously that Trump has truly lost it (not that he ever had it) and how dangerous he is to our country. Thanks to all of you for jumping on this.
Today Robert Hubbell discusses the implication that the press was actually hand picked for that Trump event. He could not find anyone to back up the claim but his piece today also discusses Trump's threat to sue the NYT if they don't kowtow to his story, which he claims he can prove. Actually, a different Black politician was in the helicopter ride with him and he said Kamala Harris was not discussed. Trump is apparently doubling down on his story, but like debating Kamala, he may back out when someone else talks some sense into him. Hubbell is hoping that it will mean that NYT starts fact checking Trump, but I think they are so out of practice they won't be able to do it. https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/were-not-weird?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I also read someone saying that under the radar is being discussed that the truth is Trump campaign has threatened and intimidated a lot of journalists who are worried for their safety and that of their families. Some have to hire security. Nice if you can afford to. Not making that a story though is another thing that is wrong with the MSM coverage of this campaign. All of the independents are having to raise funds not just to publish but to handle numerous specious lawsuits from Trump allies. I would really like to see SLAPP laws more widespread and thorough. Like, you will be thrown in jail if you do this, not just fined, something people like Musk do not find intimidating.
Makes sense. I think there was hand picking going on. After all, Trump was in his own home; he can pick and choose who enters. This reminds me of all the talk about Republican politicians who criticze Trump behind closed doors, and support him in public. Running scared for their careers, or their family. Spineless, but easy for me to say.
I guess I'm confused about the SNAP suit reference, I'm more familiar with fighting SLAPP suits by entities that can spend inordinate amounts money to prevent free speech by those with too little resources to defend themselves.
"...Our country’s fair and independent courts exist to resolve serious disputes. Unfortunately, some parties abuse the civil litigation process to silence others’ speech, rather than resolve legitimate claims. These types of censorious lawsuits have been dubbed Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs, and they have been on the rise over the past few decades.
Plaintiffs who bring SLAPPs intend to use the high cost of litigation to harass, intimidate, and silence critics who are speaking out against them. A deep-pocketed plaintiff who files a SLAPP doesn’t need to win the case on the merits—by putting financial pressure on a defendant, along with the stress and time it takes to defend a case, they can take away a person’s free speech rights.
Fortunately, a bill introduced in Congress today, the SLAPP Protection Act of 2022 (H.R. 8864), aims to deter vexatious plaintiffs from filing these types of lawsuits in federal court..."
Over the past 48 hours, MTN received 28 million views on YouTube and we’ve been picking up 15,000 new subscribers every day. MTN continues to beat Fox, CNN, and MSNBC in YouTube/Digital ratings.
Alexandra, I love Rachel Scott. She is the "It Girl" in the network media world and I see her star rising on the international scene. She ignored Fat Elvis's insults and BS, while insisting on holding his nasty feet to the flame during the entire interview.
All forms of the media are made up of private or publicly-owned companies as in shares. They are profit-making enterprises. Within this group Yellow Journalism (as found in late 19th century period) is found in the likes of Fox News (including MSNBC) and even more extreme fringe publications. These companies have found a very profitable segment of the population (but note MSNBC is less watched and less profitable) that will buy into the accumulation of onesidedness and misadjustments of the truth. Something tells me that there is a built-in portion of the population that buys into it. It started with AM talk radio on the far right. Populism sells. Arousing that base instinct is very profitable even if it destroys the body politic of the country. China need not worry about media trends. The government owns the media. That prophetic comment by an aged Ben Franklin is still relevant today: “It’s a republic if you can keep it” in response to a woman passing by Constitutional Hall and asking if we had a monarchy or a republic.
As more wealth flows into increasingly fewer hands, we are building s system of government into an autocratic form. We appear to have successfully postponed the inevitable this time by chance. The self-righteous Joe Biden would have condemned us to an unknown fate by his insistence of never giving up. Until he lost and he was destined to lose. We will have a republic for now. Rejoice.
If you believe MSNBC is involved in 'yellow journalism', could you provide an example of a yellow journalistic statement made on MSNBC, and who is engaging in this?
No. My thesis needs to be modified. They are not yellow journalism but they do exude an ideological leftest bend. I shouldn’t have put them in the same sentence as Fox. I’m always trying to read from well thought out ideas. Even as a child, my weekly Sunday show on public television was F. Mac Buckly’s “Firing Line.” Why as such a young age? Because I’ve always been interested in an intellectual argument even if different than mine as opposed to the crapola that Fox presents. They make no pretense and they have dumbed down on their viewers. When I read comments on Fox online, they spit out exactly what they viewed on TV Fox. But ironically so do we on the left side. We take our talking points exactly as it’s expressed by those who we follow. My main point: I don’t follow a fricken person I don’t care who the hell it is. I listen and I formulate my own positions and frankly, I don’t have any side to fully turn to because I’m an individual thinker I don’t buy or follow ideologies. Hence, I get critized here more often than not. In in case you doubt my cred, I wrote the most critical an satirical book ever published on Don-old Trump.
Agreed. I can admit when anyone has a point even if it’s different than my own. But, and I’m asking sincerely, what does it mean to be leftist, as you mention several times?
Sister Stephanie, it’s not important to go there. Perhaps everyone has their own definition right? Whatever you think it might be. I’m not the guard at the lexiconic door. I’ve already been there done it. I will speak in generalities for now. But I will say that generally speaking, white working class and above feel left out no pun intended, lol.
Back when I did my 17 month, 170,000 mile version of Travels with Charley (in a rig I also called Rocinante like Steinbeck's camper), I loved seeing 46 states and my 4 trips through Canada.
The torture test was endless hours of nothing on the most powerful long range radio but Rush Lamebrain during the day and Art Bell at night. Then going into the TV lounge at truck stops and suggesting they turn the channel to anything but Jerry Springer, meant you had no idea of what blow back you would receive.
A steady diet of Sinclair type stations that covered so much more territory than the best I could expect, helped make it much easier to leave the long haul roads behind.
Yep. I used to do battle with a retired truck driver folk musician at open mics. Totally brainwashed, I still had my friendly moments with him. He died earlier this year. They identify with white culture basically what drives them to think so narrowly.
Lawrence O’Donnell just gave one of the best news shows I've ever seen. He took our mostly useless press to task, including his network. I hope he keeps his job. His clip of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre being screamed at by idiots is priceless. I think the mass media gave the 2016 election to Trump. They would hold the shot of an empty stage for Trump. Billions of free publicity. The media hated "no drama" Obama. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-oTJ49nls My all time favorite monologue was given by Jeff Daniels in "Newsroom". Written by the amazing Aaron Sorkin. On the "greatest nation." It will blow you away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxdaU9AsnU Fully applies to our current situation. And thank you Alexandra Sokoloff.
It has been told (quietly) that most of MSM do not challenge DT directly and then write about it because he keeps score and bars those who report his failures from attending any future press conferences which restricts their growth within their publication. Others claim (very quietly) that in your face journalists often have to deal with real death threats, fear that their families are in jeopardy and some have to hire security to patrol their home base!
And this guy wants to be President again. Actually dictator
I hope this is the true beginning of the end for Trump and his cult. The Steven Millers, and the Mike Johnsons and the like all return to oblivion. I am so ready to just relax and enjoy living in this wonderful country again. No more fear and worry of having more rights and freedoms taken away. Vote by the millions and show these evil doers this is “the land of the free “
I liked this. I also liked what another person said, which is MAJA-Make America Joyful Again. America is wonderful. Trump and his cult is not, but the rest of us are striving for an inclusive democracy and that is wonderful.
It has been my experience that the most joyful times were when we had faced some of the worst, overcome that test and really, really appreciated the return of good times.
It's obvious that he's deeply disturbed. The fact that the media fail to hold him accountable is not only sickening it is part of a facist movement backed by billions of dollars in corporate and criminal enterprise money.
Ramona, Palmer Report has constantly pointed out the problems with death star. I know the Wikipedia article about it is biased and terrible, and it is inaccurate. Palmer also condemns the MSM for what they are doing. It is based in England, so maybe that is safer in terms of death threats.
Why don't they report that in the news? Only foreign war correspondents should have fear, and their news organizations should protect them as much as possible.
Gloria, they should all be reading Project 2025 and telling us about it. At least Harris/Walz tell us what they stand for and what they are going to do as they stump around the swing states. Trump does not tell us what he is going to do, but the Project 2025 doctrine does. Thank goodness for independent medial like Propublica. They have just broken another story in which they have a source who gave them 14 hours of Project 2025 training videos. They summarize them with clips interspersed to give us a feel for what is being said. In the end they have a link to the entire 14 hours. Please share the link and spread the word. People should know what is planned for us. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
The last sentence is why I have no respect for cowards. I know that when power goes rogue, the risks are great. For all of us and for those who chose to be spokesmodels for our crazy. But those who are scared need to find another job and stop pretending to be journalists. The heads of our media conglomerates are the leaders who are leading a great institution to ruin. And screwing their employees and the country as well. I can’t imagine Walter cringing in fear.
But they have no problem mocking and bullying Biden or his press secretary and getting in their faces. They're sycophantic, stenographic hacks for Republicans.
The other thing that angers me is they tippy toe around Rethugs because they "don't want to jeopardize access" but they don't tippy toe around Dems then they whine and complain when Dems "won't sit down for interviews and hold press conferences". Therefore I think the excuse so many have given them about "fear of losing access" is bogus because it sure doesn't apply to Dems.
They should protect their people but as with all large corporations it's the bottom line that they protect, that & corporate profits & those all important executive bonuses!!!
Harris should not give them access either unless they ask serious questions. It has been obvious that they are all intimidated by Trump, but the worst thing is, is that they are contributing to their own demise by catering to him. If they get threats they should be publishing it because that is part of the story. However, they show how easily people capitulate to fascists. All my life I heard how terrible Germans were and how Americans were more noble. Perhaps because slavery is farther away in history then the Holocaust. But actually, looking at the people that support Trump, I see plenty are not more noble, and seeing the behavior of the press shows that even more people can be cowed, and he has not even gotten back into office. If he does we can only imagine the kind of violence we are in for.
Exactly--imagine getting access to the one of the first chances to ask questions of Vice President Harris, the new Dem Candidate for President, and doing nothing more than asking questions about the other candidate. What fools those reporters were to waste her time with such unserious questions. They shouldn't even have the temerity to refer to themselves as journalists and reporters.
The Germans suffered terribly in their polarized battles - intimidation actually worked! Not long after Hitler was appointed chancellor other parties were declared illegal, concentration camps were being built. People though had long been being murdered in the highly polarized capitalist/fascist vs communist camps since the end of ww1. What's going on in USA today is nothing compared to that, and i do not mean to imply the violent rhetoric and misdeeds of the present are "nothing".
Yes. Hitler built camps right away. Hitler started his program by killing children who were considered "defective." This could be physical or mental and is illustrated in both the series World On Fire, on PBS, and in this 1943 Disney video. https://youtu.be/xgehQnJYYtk?si=N51OQCeUe80LeXnT
Once that was successful as a program, because parents stood alone in trying to address their children's needs, and they would just be told after their child was taken away that they had died, he then went for adults. These adults were already institutionalized, and when he started killing them this drew outcries from Germans, so then Hitler learned better to set up camps to do mass killings in other countries than at home. He used a combination of fear and reward to control the population, and Goebbels had spies throughout Germany that would take the pulse of the population so that they could be further manipulated. There was a case of German wives of Jewish men who lived in Berlin protesting against losing their husbands outside the Bundestag. Hitler decided to just give into them and give them their husbands back, even pulling one back who had been sent to Auschwitz. But mostly, people who spoke up or resisted got in trouble. If you did not join the party you were pushed out of your job. My grandfather was removed from his post as an administrator in a Hochschule "College" and became a carpenter. I believe at some point my mom and her siblings, all but one, born after Hitler came to power had to participate in Hitler youth groups. Also, they were supposed to say "Heil Hilter" in school, but her sister said, "Heil Mussolini" along with her best friend, her friend's father did that. That got my grandfather taken away. He was returned after family documents were gathered back to 1642 that our family was not Jewish. Which is why we have our family tree back that far on his side.
'Hitler started his program by killing children who were considered "defective."' Well, this is chilling, considering that we now have information that Trump suggested allowing a relative's disabled child to die. (I'm afraid I cannot recall who the relative was...)
I wonder what would happen if none of them showed up? Or if just one journalist took a stand? If that one journalist reported instead on real news with real people?
Oh wait! It's called Substack, Alternet, Axios, The Bulwark, Brian Tyler Cohen, Meidas etc. Let's support these media sources and help them outgrow the mainstream press.
I heard Tim Miller’s podcast (The Bulwark) talk with Adam Kinzinger, who was royally pissed at Vance’s attack on Tim Walz’s military record. Kinzinger did a good job explaining how military retirement works. Boy was he mad!
If he has threatened journalists, they need to get together and report that. He can deny all he wants, all they need to do is compare notes with one another, do their research, and steadily report the threats that are flowing in. If they have to hire security, report it. Make people understand the pressures they are under.
I've never understood why they do not fight back as a collective. If they stick together, Trump cannot continue to place them under that pressure without having consequences, hits on his reputation he cannot sustain.
Look at Ruby Freeman and her daughter. Fight back.
None of the Mob-like actions and moves (threats, etc), in connection with Trump, should surprise anyone; Trump is notoriously vindictive, petty and vengeful. All of Trump's most thuggish tendencies were reinforced by his Father and Roy Cohn--two of the worst possible mentors that anyone could have.
Good grief. And all this over an overstuffed walrus of a man whose emotional development peeked in junior high? I am bored with this imbecile and fed up with the oligarchs and bullies who support him. This band of crooks have given us corporate Christianity, corporate media, and corporate greed. We must do better than this. Enjoy the weekend.
Susan you are so on. Corporate Christianity. What a shame! The real question to me is who are these people who worship at that 'altar'? How did America end up with so many naive citizens? I live in North Florida and speak to my neighbors cautiously. In the state with a fascist for a governor speaking freely can be dangerous. But I feel, hope, pray the tide is changing.
John, I live in a very conservative county outside Augusta GA. At this point, I don’t speak to my neighbors at all. None of them have been here as long as I have, which is exactly 20 years. I knew nothing about the demographics when I was planning the move here. My realtor insisted on showing me houses in this county, because I had two boys in their teens, and “the schools are so much better.” They had grown up in a very diverse city neighborhood in Buffalo NY. I didn’t have enough time to parse the implicit racism. I had to find a house and move before my new job started. We settled in. They’re both married and still live here. I count myself lucky, and keep to myself.
Susan, I believe it peaked in toddlerhood, as his level of impulse control and sense of entitlement is like a toddler's and a not very well-behaved toddler's at that.
If they had called him out years ago from the very beginning this would not likely be a problem. He never would have gotten as far as he did and he'd be very far away in our rear view mirrors.
His constant lying was obvious from the beginning! The only way to deal with a liar whether as part of your profession or even personally is to refute his or her lies directly and personally! But when you watch any (and all) of His press conferences, he lies to the reporters consistently but do any of them respond to his face “but that is not true”? I have never seen one of them say that nor do they include in their next day reporting: “Former President Trump stated falsely…” Some columnists and some TV personalities such as Lawrence or Morning Joe call him out directly as a “liar” but when have you ever seen NYT reporters do so? Shameful!
Then step up the justice department - justice, if served, is served too slowly. What we have now are journalists choosing not be be journalists and that is being an ally for those wishing to do harm or gain control. I have stopped watching most interviews because they rarely hold the person accountable, to answer questions. You can teach a parrot to ask a question.
Ok ..but journalists have always faced threats in their reporting. It's part of their job...like police. How many journalists have been killed in Mexico, central and south America? In war zones? In foreign, hostile countries. I get it, but also I wouldn't have either of those jobs. It takes a certain kind of person to accept that level of threat.
Exactly. We see that Gershkovich is back from Russia. There was a danger he faced in reporting and our President and Vice President supported a free press by doing everything he could to get him home. Now, we find that with Trump journalists face that threats reporting at home, and they really need to decide whether it is the career for them. Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat of the Lucid Substack says she gets threats and is on lists of Trump, or his peons, and that is not going to stop her in continuing with her message to explain and warn us about what fascism is.
Rick Wilson has noted on his Substack that he and members of his family have received death threats, even the family dog, and most recently his parents! What kind of sick people threaten others like this. These threats are organized crime style behavior.
That’s what he’s done. Energized his base— at least the hyper fringe— to hatred backed up by violence. Worse than his lies. I used to think he needed to be quickly incarcerated or institutionalized, but I think publicly exposed again and again is even better.
This is an excellent point-by-point account of the danger I always suspected was deployed against Republicans who oppose Trump. These threats are probably the last best hope of those who want him back in the White House.
I am too. I think Harris and Walz should let the press know that if they want access they have to stop catering to Trump and stop treating democratic candidates like they did Biden, like rabid dogs in heat! Or, no sit down interview. No access. They are doing well by using social media and going straight to the people. When I hear Harris say we she will write Roe v Wade into law, and Walz say people do not want the government in their bedroom or their exam room I hear messages that resonate with everyone. The press does not seem to get that they have made us tired of the negativity of Trump more than even Trump himself by amplifying it. They have not covered the election with the proper gravitas, but as a popularity contest for clicks and likes. Without a democratic press they are going to the people.
I have to disagree. I agree that Harris and Walz should hold the press accountable in the best way possible, but there are better ways than denying them access. Hindsight is 20-20, but wouldn't it have been great if Kamala called out those reporters for their hypocrisy right there on the tarmac? Something like, "Why are you asking me to cover his campaign? Isn't that your job? Why aren't you doing the other part of your job by asking me about my campaign?" Now that I think about it, that's exactly what she did.
James I am assuming her campaign has a strategy, and they will decide when to give the press direct access. However, watching their coverage the other day, I would not trust the press, who seems incapable of reporting this in a serious and balanced way, so I think the Harris/Walz strategy of going directly to the people through appearances and social media is working better for them. The MSM is not trustworthy. Their goal is clicks and likes, not covering seriously what both candidates stand for. Let me see some evidence that they have started reading Project 2025. I have read about 1/3 of the chapters now. I am currently reading the DOD chapter. Reading this would put more gravitas into their questioning.
VP Harris is very smart and knows what she's doing. Frankly she doesn't need anyone to tell her how to handle the press or anything else. She is going to be a fabulous president! I can't wait.
The reason she's going to be a fabulous president is for the same reason that Biden is a fabulous president, and that is not just because they are smart, which I assume is what you're saying. Biden, Harris, and Walz are both smart and wise in that they know how to put together a great team that listens to everyone, and then they work together to figure out the best way to handle the press and everything else, although I have to admit her handling of phony journalism is a lot better than President Biden's.
What I meant is yes she's smart but also savvy. She is not being entitled ie it's my time, as Hillary did. She said right from the start that she would win our support, which she is doing. She is also going to all the battleground states and reaching out to all the people, not just the traditional democrats and liberals. This is how she will win!
Yes she did and she’ll do it again.”If you’ve got something to say, Donald, say it to my face.” I’m going to spend this morning writing get-out-the-vote postcards. I truly believe folks have had it. This is our election to win. Thank you, Heather, for giving us the historical perspective to make sense of our current moment. Your work helps so much.
Or even....when asked about Trump...Harris could say...would you like to ask me about (state one of her pro people, pro foreign relations, pro environment positions)
The Republican TV ads that we are seeing in Wisconsin do not tell about Trump’s programs; they claim that Harris lies and that she has failed to fix all our problems such as border security. Trump media have become Trump--with projection reflecting his lies.
Time will tell, but the metaphor I use to think of the the Democratic and Republican parties is that they're like similar looking multi-story buildings, the former is built on bedrock, the latter is built on sand, they're in the path of a November hurricane, and only one of them is going to be left standing. I'll feel more confident when the polls continue to trend in the direction they're going now.
Same here in GA. I either leave the room or stick my fingers in my ears until they’re done. 😖
But it’s complicated here. IQ45 has publicly insulted the governor, Brian Kemp and his wife. Kemp and his family, along with SOS Brad Raffensperger and his family, received death threats after they refused Trump’s attempt to win, and certified the election for Biden. Geoff Duncan, a former Lt. Governor, has stated publicly that he’s voting for Harris. Georgia has been turning purple for years now. And, yes, we get ads for Harris, too.
I would like to hear how Kamala handled their Trump based questions. Must check into it. There is opportunity to be had in scrums like that. "What'cha got?" lol
Yes Linda! Yes! The REALITY of Harris/Waltz is joyful, hopeful, positive action, involvement, ,two way communication/dialogue, voters are a constituency to be served by addressing real needs, desires, wants for a better future. Harris/Waltz are leading because they are practicing LEADERSHIP. Trump/Vance is losing because they are practicing demagoguery. A manipulation based on emotion not reason or facts, fear not hope, division not community, paranoia not problem solving, personal attacks over policy, donations over voter needs, hate instead of love, getting and preserrving power and wealth over service unto others.
Since many of us have dropped our subscriptions to The NY Times and the WAPO, we tend to look to news aggregators. If we mistakenly click on a news story about monkeys in Mexico, we will be inundated with stories about monkeys and Mexico for months.
There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of brilliant journalists that work for the big city news outlets, but they have editors that determine which stories they should chase.
It's apparent that Maggie Haberman among others has the freedom to take her stories where she wants, meaning her editor completely trusts her to write stories that don't use adjectives to sensationalize her stories.
As long as many of the media conglomerates are driven by advertising dollars the media will continue to chase narcissists and fools who lie. Plus, the media feels no need to fact check DonOLD because you just put quotes around it and put it in your story.
If the media refused to print CFDT lies, either he would quit lying (which isn't going to happen) or the media will have to find something else to cover.
I agree Donald Trump and his J.uvenile D.elinquent VP candidate Vance, juvie for short, are big liars. The press is not fact checking them or reporting anything worthwhile. They are not bringing the appropriate gravitas to the election and are like rabid dogs in heat in their coverage of Democratic candidates in their slavishness to cater to Trump. I dropped the above mentioned 2 subscriptions and my life quality has been better. I still read and donate to The Guardian, and subscribe to a number of Independent news, some of which are more leftist than I might like, but that keeps me in touch with that side of things. The AP is free, and I read European news as well as some other publications on global politics, as well is niche topics like nuclear, environment, spies, terrorism, and foreign affairs. Then I have my own social interests and still like to read novels. They replace the NYT and WaPo more and more. I am not on social media other than the Substack accounts I subscribe to and I have whittled them down.
ProPublica is one I am grateful to for the gravitas with which they choose and report issues. Today they just dropped a story about Project 2025. They received 14 hours of secret training videos being used by Project 2025, and have published both a summary with clips woven throughout and a link to the entire 14 hours of tapes.
I dropped WaPo but man I hate to lose NYT. Yes, it’s infuriating , but the writing is great and no one else does multi-media stories like they do — their photographers are bar none. (Also Cooking and Games, people.. come on). But I also subscribe to Hubbell’s substack, read the AP and NPR, and a friend goaded me into checking out the Atlantic (30 day free trial!). The Boston Globe is my hometown paper, so even though they have now started regurgitating NYT stories (minus what must be copyrighted photos), it’s unbelievable, I feel stuck. I struggle with people complaining about “progressive” or “liberal” media — what does that mean? Nixon passed the EPA, the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act! AND EARTH DAY (thank you Gaylord Nelson💚)! So how can you label environmentalism as progressive or liberal? There are some things that should be non-partisan, and the environment is one. So is common sense gun control. Housing. I have long said the press should turn the klieg lights off of Trump, so think of conservative media as those with non-stop positive coverage of Trump. I appreciate the other options that people have posted here — I saw Kinzinger’s own substack about Walz’s military service where he helpfully explained it in detail. I think laughing at Vance about his weird dick swinging regarding his military service is the thing to do. They’re bullies, pure and simple. And we are real, real tired of bullies. I told a troll in the comment section of the Globe that I really hope they keep calling him Tampon Tim because I’m still mad at how feminine hygiene products were treated for so long — only recently are they tax free. Please keep reminding us how awesome Tim Walz is for putting them in bathrooms.
Stephanie. You are correct. There are many good news sources perhaps too many to choose from. I really enjoy the Rolling Stone for their in depth stories on many different topics. I subscribed to the Chicago Tribune for $1 for a year. I'm not sure it's worth a dollar though.
I agree with you about Tampon Tim. It doesn't seem to be having the desired affect that the MAGAs had hoped it would. My question is when did they take them out of junior high and high school bathrooms? When I was in Junior High and High school in NE even the boys knew they were in the girl's bathrooms. Many of the 7th grade boys had no clue what they were for. Like Walz, I was raised in NE and maybe it was always accepted as required, like TP and paper towels.
I remember an embarrassing moment for my high school girl friend when we were in study hall and her period started. She had to get permission to leave study hall to go the bathroom. I felt so bad for her.
Yes, half of our global population has periods. To think we still treat it like a dirty little secret is amazing. It took a governor with daughters to start some change. Personally, I can’t get enough of Tampon Tim. Don’t even get me started on docs who don’t provide pain relief for uterine biopsies and IUDs.. we might have superhuman pain tolerance but we are human after all.
But back to your Rolling Stone mention.. do you subscribe? I also like NatGeo for some of their environmental work, and of course photography.
Stephanie, I gave up the Times after the 2016 election. It meant losing access to my sapiocrush, Paul Krugman, but I did it.
I was in public school in Georgia in the 50s and 60s. There were *always* feminine hygiene products in the girls’ restrooms. Back then there was only one brand, and when you bought them in the store they came wrapped in brown paper, like nobody knew what was in the package. 😉😂
Haha "sapiocrush". Thank you for teaching me a new word, and one that is really meaningful for me! It's how I always felt about Ellen Goodman, Molly Ivins, and still -- Eugene Robinson. So many, actually, I can't list them all. What a really great word.
I'm impressed that you remember hygiene products in the restrooms. I honestly do not, though it does not detract from my admiration for a man with daughters who advocates for feminine hygiene products lol. I remember the film we were shown in 4th grade.. sort of. The things we were supposed to be embarrassed about back then!
A problem has a one-step solution, and a dilemma has a multi-step resolution. Treat a problem like a problem, and a dilemma like a dilemma, and things get better. Treat a problem like a dilemma, and/or treat a dilemma like a problem, and things get worse.
Gary, the reason I think you're describing a dilemma, and not a problem, is that it isn't good enough if only a minority of people understand how to distinguish between reality and an illusion.
So, in saying that, I feel obliged to suggest how to begin the multi-step dilemma resolution process. IMHO, Step 1 involves recognizing that there are two mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive approaches to an interaction between any two adult individuals or groups. There is the moral "treat 'them' the way 'I/we' would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot" principle, and there is the immoral "do as 'I/we' say and not as 'I/we' do" principle.
I'm not saying the other steps are obvious or easy, quite the opposite. Instead, I'm suggesting that a majority explicitly agreeing to follow Step 1 is leading us toward a resolution, and we are otherwise treating a dilemma like a problem and heading off in different directions. And I'm all ears if someone has a better idea for Step 1.
As I said in my comments to yesterday's newsletter, the bad news is that MAGA has internalized the immoral principle, but the good news is that the Democratic party's senior leadership leads me to think they have internalized the moral principle. Question: Is there a good reason why they should not be more explicit?
In one breath you talk about dropping your newspaper subscriptions (with pride it seems), and in the next you denigrate those same newspapers for going for advertising dollars. If everyone who reads articles from the Post or the Times actually paid for the privilege (and it is a privilege) those papers would need those advertising dollars much less.
I am proud to say that I pay for subscriptions to WAPO, NYT, Guardian, Vox, The Atlantic, this Substack, Dan Rathers Steady Substack, and more magazines, two local community papers too, and of course PBS. Do I always like what they write? No. Do I disagree with many of their opinion writers? Of course.
I did stop watching MSNBC, bc I realized they were too similar to Fox. Too partisan. I find the PBS Newshour sufficient for most TV news days.
Journalism isn’t free. When it is, you have state run (or some autocrat/ billionaire) propaganda.
Some of us are on fixed incomes and need to be discriminating about where we spend our subscription dollars.
But the NYTimes and the WAPO both had 5 or 6 stories involving CFDT to one for Biden. I can read CFDT stories in many places. It makes me mad that they aren't interested in equal time for candidates.
Here’s a thought…just as our expert, knowledgeable historian, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, sat to interview President Biden, what if our own Dr. offered to interview VP Kamala Harris?
I completely agree. I sort of stood up for the NYT and WaPo for the past few weeks but no more -- it's so biased -- even the article headlines are geared to leave a negative impression. I am worried about the swift boating of Walz that's now happening.
I would actually say, "ESPECIALLY the headlines are geared to leave a negative impression." Sometimes the truth is imbedded in a story but the headlines utterly normalize Trump and MAGA policy and behavior.
Laurie, biased is not the correct term but both sidesism or False Equivalency Doctrine. In their effort to look unbiased they have in turn allowed some form of credibility to the most extreme ideas as if they are "normal".
Bob, Lawrence struck a nerve with me. I've been disgusted with the media's handling of what I consider to be their essential job - giving us their insights regarding what is actually happening in the political arena. They gave Criminal T free reign to spout his lies and abuse, while conducting humiliating interviews of Joe Biden in their condescending, contemptuous gotcha manner, never attempting to address his accomplishments. They proved that the term "liberal media" was an invention of the right wing to sway public opinion, when Fox, OANN, and other similar outlets were free to plaster the airwaves and print with outright lies. Even NPR was determined to spout bothsidesisms, even when it was clear that the right wing had evil intent.
The good news is that the current political landscape seems to have upended the efforts of the oligarchs who own the airwaves, and, at least for now, the masses are thrilled with Kamala and Tim, having been starved of hope and happiness and immersed with dystopian gloom and hopelessness since 2016. I greatly admire Lawrence, and I had to wonder what MSNBC thought of his mentioning his own network when slamming his documents onto his desk while delivering his diatribe! You go, Lawrence!
YES!!! Lawrence O'Donnell 's long furious calling out of the MSM is worth watching/listening to! I hope it has gone viral, and that the the media (esp the NYT and WaPo) wake up!!!
Bob McGrath: As HCR pointed out, when Future President Kamala Harris met the reporters on the Tarmac, the reporters plagued her with questions about . . . Trump.
I tried (I really did) to listen to Trump's news conference for myself to hear the reporter questions, but I just couldn't stand it. I also couldn't hear the reporter questions, so I looked for transcripts. C-SPAN transcripts ironically had [INDISCERNIBLE] each time a reporter asked a question. I couldn't find any source that captured the questions.
Well, we could *start* by acknowledging that economic power is, in effect, the fourth branch of government. How do we "heal" institutions that have been corrupted by -- one could even say "are drunk on" -- corporations and the uber-wealthy? We could start by denying them, or at least limiting, their source of supply.
For a change, the NYT had excellent coverage that included almost live fact-checking. Nailed him repeatedly for lying, though that word was never used.
I disagree: I thought that the coverage was mimsy at best and tried to construct heavily edited "answers" to questions, without providing actual quotations that demonstrate how deranged he is. The NPR coverage was hilarious: it was clear that the people covering CFDT are just sick and tired of him: the weariness in the voice of the reporter (can't remember which one) was palpable.
For DonOLD life is one long episode of the Apprentice. And the polls are his Nielsen ratings, And are his crowd sizes.
He's fuming because she is outdrawing him and getting more press.
The networks need to start showing the crowds at his rallies about 60 minutes into his drivel. And next to it show the Harris/Walz crowds at their rallies at almost any point.
When the story isn't about a rally always show Kamala's picture next to DonOLDs. He looks bad and he looks old and even if you show his creepy smile it's a turnoff for most people.
Like HCR says, he is still talking about women and their doctors murdering babies after they are born or any of his other bullshittery which he spews without proof.
My sister-in-law drove from the Twin Cities to Eau Claire for the Harris/Walz rally then walked 3 miles after parking to get inside. (She said a friend drove back to Tomah after trying to go and finding parking impossible.) She arrived home that night to share with us the incredible joyful energy she experienced there. Reminds me a bit of the massive energy of the Women's march after the 2016 election...only this time it's before the election! It's much more fun these days to hang with the Democrats.
I have a friend who attended the Phoenix rally yesterday evening. I live in DC, so am looking forward to her report. Pictures taken before the event started showed a packed house.
A Trump rally these days gets several hundred people to show up at venues that can hold thousands, and they don’t want people to see just how few people show up at these events, and how much empty seating is there.
And the press literally covered him saying nothing instead of Harris and Walz speaking to the UAW as they accepted their endorsement. They did not even discuss that they got this powerful endorsement. No gravitas for reporting this election except a few people like Jennifer Rubin, Lawrence ODonnell, and I would not know anyone else because I don't watch the US TV news, except the other day which was a bad enough experience I won't be doing it soon again. I am more likely to watch German news, which is paid for by every household paying 18 Euro a month fee which one is billed when one moves into ones home. Also grateful for independent presses like ProPublica, who has broken a story where they summarize 14 hours of secret Project 2025 training videos that were leaked to them. At the end is a link for the full 14 hours. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
And that is what the "debate" on September 10th will be like. A chance to ignore every question and to lie and bully endlessly.
VP Harris is smart and she will ignore everything he says. Don't take the bait. Ignore him and use her time to tell the American people the truth. It doesn't matter what the question was, just explain that fascism is in the works if Trump is elected. Talk about Freedom for women. Talk about the Climate Crisis. Ask Trump if he is afraid of his sentencing for fraud in two days!
Just use the time as a podium to speak to voters. It's not a debate. It's a chance for free publicity.
Trump is a narcissist. He thinks the spotlight should be on him and him alone, and he’ll hate anyone or anything that takes the spotlight away from him.
It's pretty hard to ramp it up much further. I think he's headed to a certified meltdown. In my career I've seen it happen 3 times to political candidates up close. One was so bad he went MIA. We found him in a psyche ward. He was an incumbent Mayor, ahead by 20 points...he lost by 20. This was about 60 days from election day. He was not a bad guy...not real bright...but not trouble. The other 2 won...but the meltdowns happened less than a week from the election. We were able to keep it quiet. None of them were able to go out in public, until after the elections and the stress went away.
Now he whines, and sues, after saying he don’t need no advertising. Best example of the worst a cretin with money can do.
BTW, I predicted that NASA would regret the Boeing connection. However, cretin Musk might save the day. But only until it’s his turn to put me over they. If he paid taxes, NASA might could afford to do their own Schitt for all of us instead of vanity projects for billionaires.
We saw that in "The Gilded Age". I recall my public school textbook devoted some pages to it, along with a spread of old political cartoons of "Teddy the Trust Buster"; and it wasn't just progressive elected officials, but social movements that pushed the power of unregulated money subjugating society. Since the plutocratic capture of media since Reagan, even Democrats have been way too passive passive bout ceding ground to people like Musk. I resist my urge to quote Eric Holder once again on how some companies control so much of the economy that they cannot be meaningfully prosecuted, even when their harms to society are blatant; that they have us over a barrel. Maybe, as the abyss of fascism yawns before us. we are starting to rethink this.
Malignant narcissism is an equal opportunity corrupter; you don't have to be clever, but it can be worse if you're rich. Power tends to corrupt, and the consequences of the malady can be inflicted on more people. We all need to learn to play nice with no exceptions for the powerful. Good government tries to find the sweet spots between maximizing free choice and social harms, and proscribe the latter. An overall preponderance of good faith is essential to a just democracy. We can handle aberrations from responsible behaviors but not a sepsis sociopathic conduct.
Monopolies of money and other forms of power are patently antithetical to liberty and justice for all, hence a necessity for social regulation.
EXACTLY. Many articles have been written about how the tax-funded discoveries of the Space Program worked their way into commercial consumer products. When you consider the state of world technological capability at the time of the moon shots compared to now, it is astonishing we landed people on the moon and got them home. I have read that the first Voyager space probe carries the memory equivalent of a consumer Commodore 64 from the early '80s. And compared to a "smartphone"?!
The development of the Internet was publicly funded, which helps to explain, in terms of access, it's spontaneous, explosive growth, the chief gatekeeper being access to a computer and an ISP. The relatively obscure nerd-kingdom of the Internet spread like wildfire with the development at the Web Page, at internationally publicly funded CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider of "Higgs Boson" fame. The inventor of the Webpage fight to keep the system open and free.
I began wiring simple electrical circuits before I was 5. Technology is in my blood. Maybe its partially my advancing age, but throughout most of lifetime I regarded advancing technology as exciting and empowering, not just for me but for all of society. An example is LED lighting bringing cheap, practical illumination to parts of the world deprived of an electrical grid.
But now the customer of technology is increasingly not us, the people, but wealthy enclaves who aim to control and exploit us, such as with intrusive, tracking databases. Those who can pay can buy applications of technology that are not necessarily in the public's interests or approval, such as devices designed to intercept cell phone traffic. Schemes like Musk's Starlink pollutes space in ways that are inadequately regulated https://www.independent.co.uk/space/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-internet-b2567423.html and him allow him to interfere on whim with national policy. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-ukraine-russia-war-starlink-satellite-denied-major-act-of-war/ Governance of, by and for the people not. Plutocratic autocracy.
You know possibilities from the inside, and watched greed snatch things from the public domain. I worked at NASA in the 60’s and one of my jobs was to update the Apollo contract as engineers, etc, changed parts. I sat in a conference room with bookcases all around filled with black binders. I would get new pages and replace old one (typed on IBM Selectric typewriters). Not exactly high tech. But I watched the changes that the tech age brought, and like you say, the advancing technology was Exciting and empowering. I also watched NASA hand out pink slips after Apollo 11 and dismantle the team that pulled off the incredible feat. People scattered and magnificent things have been done all over, Voyager still one of the most impressive. I’m still a space junkie and I’m sickened by the trophies that Musk and Bezos claim, instead of feats “for all mankind.”
BTW, I watched the government waste billions doing prep for the CERN being built in Weatherford TX (50 miles from where I am) and then abandon what could have been a boon for the USA. Yep, a functional government needs to fix this off kilter scale. We, the people, are the losers.
Well, Trump's 'lame-game' is afoot. Vice President Harris seems to be blowing him off; perfect tactic to drive President into implosion.
On the the three debates, Vice President Harris could say something like, "I understand that the President finds regular campaigning exhausting. But we do not. Debates are no substitute for getting out there and meeting voters."
Vice President Harris's answers were fine today, by the way; keeping her distance. There is no point in getting sucked under the event horizon of the black hole of President Trump's soul.
I want her to turn to him and say, "Donald, please - for once in your life, stop acting like a permanent ten year old elementary school playground bully."
That message might better be delivered by Gov Tim Walz, in the manner and tone a high school teacher, as he was, might address a self-absorbed 14 year old punk, who just went from the pinnacle of power in middle school society, to the bottom of the new high school environment, but hadn’t quite figured it out yet.
Except the VP candidate doesn't debate the presidential candidate - it has to be said to his face. If you remember how Kamala took on Biden's "go along to get along" history in the Senate at the 2020 debate, she can "bring it" to the terrified old Florida resident.
No. Gov Walz will have plenty to give when he debates Sen Vance. I will not be missing that one.
VP Harris is more than able to make mincemeat from a slug when she debates Trump. One of my fondest memories of her was when she questioned Kavanaugh during SC hearings. Every single woman in her soul that watched that intimately knew what the expression meant on her face. She was not having ANY of it.
I hope she DOES do it. She must be well aware of the disgust still felt by a large portion of the female (and some male) population re. trump's threatening "prowling bear" behavior behind Hillary at the 2016 debate. I wish Hillary had turned and slapped him down the, I'm sure Kamala wouldn't hesitate.
That’s exactly what he is, and he can’t wait for those nukes. Oh wait, he will bow to the high school bully, Putin and all will be well. He said so. Hahaha
I mean this sincerely. My experience with ten year olds and even with bullies has been that they are capable of more intelligence, integrity and empathy when you go deeper and when it matters. Trump Republicans?????
I went from being popular in eighth grade and willing to throw people under the bus to being a pimple of the ass of Pluto in ninth grade. Never did figure it out, though I am likely a better person for it. I would not dream of doing the stuff I did back then, even in a more covert, adult form.
Here’s to the wish that he might have to spend a lot of time in court in his future, and we can dump the unconstitutional decision granting him broad immunity. The Founders took the position the President was not above the law, but the Seditious six unconstitutionally granted Trump broad immunity. No wonder Americans don’t respect SCOTUS as an institution.
In Trump’s own mind, he thinks he is still president, and his diehard supporters believe it too, contrary to actual fact. People were tired of the Orange Menace and his utter nastiness and incompetence.
I agree with Ned. We don't call Clinton ex president Clinton. He is/ was president. You can hate trump (as I do) but not dishonor the position he held. As Michelle Obama says "when they go low, we go high". That still works for me and I think it probably adds fuel to the fire anyway lol.
Trump is an idiot. Using what he does or says as an excuse to be idiots ourselves isn't a good look. I am not saying to softball him. Hardball is fair, just makes sure it is honest hardball. The people who matter will know the difference. The rest are sadly probably unreachable and fortunately NOT a majority.
I wouldn't debate him because he is so skilled at dominating and talking over people. She and Walz are pugilists on the campaign trail and are bloodying the MAGA team.
Interesting insight, there, Edward. It is a risk for Vice President Harris to debate the former President. The key for the calculation, as far as my wretched little can see, lies in those four-to-six per centers in the battle-ground states whose minds really are not made up. 😰
¿Will they be motivated by more than issues and look to character?
¿Will they see a an immature bully's screaming as strength?
¿Will they find Vice President Harris's intelligence and strength a tonic for our times?
In short, ¿will they prefer vision with civility to doom and boom?
By now most minds are made up. I know mine was in 2015.
My more family member believes that the former President better represents her economic interests. While we disagree, she makes it plain that can not and will not vote for the former President. Those are the people that Vice President Harris needs to reach.
Ned, you and everyone else must stop referring to the orange fool as President - he's not. He's a private person running for president is all. Calling him Mr. Trump is fine .... and it really gets under his skin!
I think you make a lot of sense. The honorific does apply, but the designation of 'the former President' is civil and honours the office itself as Jon points out. Like others, I do not think the former President ever merited that honorific. I will do my best to heed you, Jan.
I'm glad to see HCR join Jennifer Rubin in calling out the media for their vapid "coverage" of elections. The pique they express when they complain that Harris hasn't talked to them is very revealing of where they think the attention should be: on them. But especially now, the public doesn't need journalists to tell us what public figures say, because they can - and do - tell us directly themselves. What we do need journalists for is to explain things in the larger context, as HCR does (yes, I know she's a historian - maybe that's why she does it so well?) and as some other journalists like Jamelle Bouie, Dahlia Lithwick, and Emily Bazelon do. But to those journalists whose idea of asking pointed questions is to ask a candidate about the other candidate - well, that's just lame, lazy, and ultimately useless.
It will be very interesting to see if this radically foreshortened election campaign changes the system. The only people I know who think we need a campaign as long as the term it's for is the industry that makes its living off it.
It fascinates me that when dealing with Pres. Biden, or his press secretary Corinne Jean-Pierre, and VP Harris, they scream and heckle and act as if they are not speaking to people who actually hold seats of authority or can give them access to those people who sit in those seats, instead they treat them as if they are minions. Contrast that with their treatment of trump.....it is one of obeisance and obsequiousness. Why? It is, as Lawrence O'Donnell said 2016 all over again. They are demanding of VP Harris things they have never demanded of trump or his servants. Again, why?
Hi Carol-Ann, many elements of the corporate media do not go after Trump because the oligarchs in control either want him to win or do not want to offend him in case he wins. Corporate media no longer holds power to account. Let's hope it does not do a great disservice to democracy between now and November. More power to independent media which gives hope for the future.
Apparently, DonOld, that vindictive and vengeful cretin, keeps score on journalists whose reports and columns displease him and then restricts access. Hence the kid gloves and gentle handling.
The orange felon coasted for years on the apparatus of television fiction.
When we speak of American culture, we somehow understand powerful levels of thought, precedent, analogy, and many other levels of humanity in our novels, films, poems, stage plays, music, and other arts. School, since the Powell memo of 1971, has sunk to the vulgarities of standardized testing -- and nothing more. So (virtually) no one knows how to access anything from that entire world where Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt felt some "still, small voice" nagging him.
Television fiction? Some of it is super. But notice even here, among fellow commenters, how many ever quote or even attempt half-aptly to refer to any of it?
It's our schools, by design, Carol-Ann, which gave us the orange felon, his Clarence court, and a Congress near totally in service to the money Citizens United ruled would rule.
Phil-I love that Walz was a teacher, coach and commander. A great combination for someone who cares about humanity. You’re on point about the dearth of humanities and proliferation of testing ruining our formal schools systems.
This “dumbing down” of formal education means we need to infuse humanities into our community building and politics. It’s the only way we’ll be able to live together peacefully in a multicultural world.
The Rs actually plan to eliminate the Department of Education. They’ve banned books and squashed music and the arts. By their own words and deeds they don’t care about the impact their decisions and behavior have on the lives of human beings and sustainability for our environment. It’s money, money, money.
As Coretta Scott King quoted in the forward to MLK’s book The Strength to Love (1963), “only through the bringing together of head and heart-intelligence and goodness-shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature”. (I’m sure he meant women will rise too.) As a lifelong learner HCR and LFAA commenters have been a learning circle for me.
Let’s see what Harris and Walz can teach us in the political arena. I think they’re off to a good start using joy, inclusion and optimism to drive their campaign.
Humanities can live beyond the classroom as we teach in different settings while working to improve our formal educational system. As a champion for the humanities you help us to believe in what’s possible when we embrace the fullness of what it means to be human.
Why? Let me refer you to comedian Kathleen Madigan ‘s response to her sister when this sister asked why her kids don’t badger their aunt Kathleen with so many questions as they do with their own mom. “ because you answered them the first time “.
Scott Dworkin has been focused on the lack of journalistic integrity and how they are treating, or not, the four candidates. You might check out his Substack too when you get a minute.
What do you expect from the under-achievers of the upper middle class who go to "Journalism school," where the "professors" are otherwise-unemployable losers (if they were any good, they'd be doing the job) and the "education" is parroting back the loser's BS?
Speaking as a graduate of the University of Washington School of Journalism, as a former journalist, and a member of the middle class your comment is both uninformed and inaccurate. I have many friends who work hard every day in a very difficult business to inform their communities of events and issues vital to their understanding of what’s happening locally, nationally and internationally. If you haven’t done the job, don’t act like you know what it is. Disparaging teachers really is way off base. My wife taught elementary school for 36 years. I dare you to teach a classroom of second graders for even one day. But first you’ll have to write your lesson plan, grade your student’s work from yesterday, talk with a parent whose child has a learning disability and another parent whose child has a behavior problem. Go ahead. When do you want to start?
Well said. My grandson is an investigative journalist who works incredibly hard and always, always tells the truth no matter what. Every article of his undergoes massive fact checking. I have great respect for the efforts his employers make to get things right. He does not cover politics.
I wish more journalists were like your grandson, but there are still great investigative journalists around, like David Cay Johnston. Johnston is very familiar with Donald Trump and the many skeletons in Trump’s closet. He has written articles and books very critical of Trump’s flim flams and incompetence.
Thank you, Joel. Criticism, especially by the ignorant, is too often treated like actual currency these days. Walking a mile in someone else's shoes before proclaiming about how easy their life is should be required for those who spew opinions with neither knowledge or experience.
Their work just like yours I'm sure (whatever it is you do) may be imperfect but does not deserve to be ridiculed or slandered. I recognize that even the NYT has challenges but most of its journalists are hardworking and produce far better work than Fox Snooze. Walk a mile in their shoes, as they say.
It's certainly true at fillum skoolz. I usd to be able to piss off the entire faculty of the screenwriting department at UCLA film school by pointing out I had more produced credits than all of them combined.
Several good points here. The other "pointed question" that's always put me off is "How do respond to [fill in the blank]'s claim/charge that you....?"
HCR is a History professor and Walz is a former Social studies teacher. Seems the US can use more teachers to put things in perspective. A slate including a prosecutor and a teacher/sergeant will be interesting to watch.
Oh for the days when I didn’t have to shop for legitimate news reporting. 30 minutes of Walter was a treat that I could partake of again. Now it’s a full time job.
Jamelle boule is not a journalist, he is a columnist. There is a real distinction. He takes a clear position. Journalists must be objective. Please keep that in mind when looking at the way various writers write.
But his views are biased, not at all objective. The bias may be the one you like but when he writes he has a viewpoint and it is just silly to suggest that somehow he is providing fair coverage. Maggie Haberman on the other hand is a reporter who provides pretty even handed coverage yet everyone here "yells" about "unfair" NYT coverage which is not at ALL unfair but just good journalism.
This is one of the more insightful comments I have read in a while.
¿Why?
Because it accords with what I think . . . of course. 😉
Seriously, I was an intern in the Senate way-long ago and I quickly came to believe that most of the media is simply lazy. The locus of power in our government is the legislative branch. Easier and more cost effective to cover one President than five hundred, thirty-five legislators.
Unfortunately, the current Supreme Court is shifting that locus of power to the executive in a counter-constitutional intervention into the structure of our government. The question is less whether Vice President Harris will triumph, though l pray and believe she will, but whether Congress can re-assert its power and not defer to this fundamental attack upon republican governance.
On your other point, Celia, I think your idea of seeking out journalists and thought-leaders whom one trusts in the hurley-burly of the bland and the bullsh*t makes so much sense. If we are now home to a generation of two of voters who never had much in the way of civics classes, nuanced and explicative contextual journalism assumes a paramountcy in participatory democracy. Thank you again, Celia, for a 'WOWerful' comment.
"Jamelle Bouie, Dahlia Lithwick, and Emily Bazelon" - I don't know these, I'll look them up.
What I DO know is - they are going to be the names of the main characters in the romantic novel I'm writing, set on the Caribbean islands at the start of the eighteenth century. . . thanks for solving a problem!
Jamelle Bouie and Emily Bazelon write for the New York Times, and Dahlia Lithwick writes for Slate. Lithwick’s writing on legal issues is especially great.
Everyone should take AND read the New York Times. It is probably the one remaining decently objective news source in the United States today (well plus the AP). Virtually every other daily paper including biggies like LA Times, WaPo and Wall Street journal have become mostly mouthpieces for one side or another. Really sad state of journalism but it pisses me off when people here who should be seeing the NYT as a great example of real journalism throw stones by quoting columnists and saying the reporting isn't fair because it actually IS fair and not biased enough for them. Jeesh. Didn't any of you learn about the difference between journalism and opinions/ editorials in high school?
I wonder to what degree our televisation of the weighty duties, process, and personalities of government has excessively fed our expectations and perceptions of politics as theater? would Lincoln have made it as a Media star?
Lincoln was widely reviled. Then, as now, most people had primitive political opinions, and he was easily mocked. He was often depicted in newspaper cartoons as an ape, or as black, since he loved "Negroes" so much. Also, as in every war including the American Revolution, most of the populace just wanted to be left alone. When the Republicans began a military draft, people just lost their minds. (To be fair, I don't blame them.)
I enjoyed Lawrence O’Donnell’s segment about how badly the reporters had behaved at the felon’s resort and why, pray tell, would VP Harris want to be talking about her opponent? Idiots! Irresponsible fools! Someone please tell me that wasn’t a NYT reporter who asked Kamala about sitting for an interview. Below is the link for O’Donnell’s comments. Enjoy.
Thanks for posting this—I was just going to share it. Lawrence really ripped the networks and even NBC(!). Nicolle Wallace replayed his take down this afternoon as well.
I canceled my subscription to NYT today ( but kept the games and cooking sections because those are the only ones I read anymore) and noted in the survey I was asked to take that my cancellation was due to the paper normalizing CFDT as a candidate despite the fact that he is a conficted felon and sex offender, and responsible for inciting an attempted coup. I’m sure the powers that be will shake in their boots and immediately change the election coverage, but I won’t hold my breath.
I only subscribe to NYT now to learn the deceitful bulls-it that mainstream media wants to present to sell a bill of goods to the country. To get access to real investigative journalism requires going to Independent journalism or outside the bubble created by the domestic USA infotainment of mainstream media.
Agreed. I ditched commercial TV about a decade ago. Half the expenditures once directed to Comcast buy much better access to information by subscribing-to/supportomg multiple independent media sources.
I dropped cable some time ago and don’t like watching commercial news. With rare exceptions, local and national news broadcasts don’t address hard hitting issues, and news is dumbed down and presented as infotainment.
God help us, but the U.S. press is not capable of seriously covering serious subjects, including a presidential campaign and election. This is especially painful to me because I'm a retired news reporter and editor, having covered business and government, including Congress, federal agencies and the White House. I also wrote columns about economic and environmental issues. Today, the press seems only interested in clickbait for the internet, and reporters and editors treat Trump's ocean of lies as equal to the honest efforts of other candidates, even with hyperbole a common element of political discourse. This is shameful, but, alas, today's press -- along with Trump and his cult -- have no shame.
I'll bet you didn't go to an Ivy League "Journalism" school where the professors were otherwise-unemployables (if they were any good, they'd be doing the job), and the "education" was parroting back their bullshit.
I did not. In state university undergraduate and grad schools (North Carolina and Virginia), I studied political science, economics, law and journalism. Several of my j-school professors spent their summers working for nearby newspapers to keep up their skills and knowledge.
If you went to Chapel Hill and Charlottesville, their standards are the same as the Ivies. They are the capstones of state university systems for those states. They are not the same as the more regional colleges. Only Columbia has a school of journalism so the writers you are maligning, didn't attend Ivy schools of journalism. Peter Baker of the NY Times never completed college, Maureen Dowd went to Catholic U, I could go on.
One final note, the nearest paper of any size near Charlottesville is in Lynchburg, it use to be two, the Advance and the News. Now they are one. They were owned by the Glass family, who were strict segregationists. In fact, Carter Glass (co-author of the Glass Stegall Act) enthroned segregation in a speech in the House of Representatives. "Discrimination! Why that is exactly what we propose. To remove every negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without materially impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate."
So working there was not exactly the pinnacle of journalism.
Carol-Ann-Glass sounds just like the Rs of today as they purge voter rolls and try to throw out votes from predominantly “Negro” voting districts. Racism plays an outsized role in our politics and society. Let’s hope this election shows us that people who love this country can come together regardless of skin color to defeat people who depend on dividing us.
There were notable journalists leading newspapers in North Carolina, such as Wallace Carroll in Winston-Salem, for whom I worked, and Frank Daniels in Raleigh. Yes, the universities in Chapel Hill and Charlottesville are excellent, arguably comparable to the Ivies, which is why I went to those places after doing well in high school. But my response had less to do with the newspapers than with the fact that many of my journalism professors did more than teach procedure and theory; they worked summers at newspapers to keep up their skills and knowledge, which was beneficial to their students. Also worth noting: a person does not have to go to j-school to be a journalist; studies in history, economics, political science and other specialties are likely more important. I studied those subjects in undergrad school; I went to grad school to write a thesis on crime reporting.
Nope, you are totally wrong. But I did have to put up with the fillum skool morons in Hollywood, and was happy to be in a position to fire several for incompetence and lack of talent.
Thanks Heather, the reporters in Trumps Press Conference or as the IHIP podcast (great and funny) call him “Donable Lecter” how dare he compare J6 with the March on Washington. The first a violent insurrection leaving many dead a wounded to subvert the Constitution, the other wanting the promise of the Constitution peacefully. The major media outlets don’t recognize this, they bully Joe Biden but they are cowards in front of Trump. Trump did not answer one question of which most were t-ball shits, unbelievable!
Real reporters like we saw at NABJ are the ones making a difference. Those attending Mar al Lago should change their professions.
Given a chance to interview KH on the tarmac, they asked about Tr*mp. And they wonder why she won’t give them more time. Useful tip: consider reporting rather than repeating. And take Lawrence O’Donnell’s remarks to heart.
The media has got to do better. Harris takes time to answer questions, and "their questions were about Trump and his comments." Really? Unbelievable! The Harris-Walz movement may be the beginning of a revolution for democracy. Its no longer about tfg!
Trump this, Trump that, Trump Trump Trump…it’s all clickbait. That’s what he wants, more and more attention. He couldn’t handle that V.P. Harris is in the limelight with Walz, so he does a circus act to get the crowd going. And he’s the clown waving his hands back and forth. I started watching it and turned it off after the comment about M.L.K. He looks demented. Imagine a world where we never hear or see him again. That’s my I have a dream comment.
So used to having the deck stacked. I feel so fortunate to having been born into a poor family. Not destitute but poor. Stacked decks equal empty shells.
This election will not be about the news media. As Lawrence squarely stated, they’ve learned NOTHING since 2016 about in depth reporting. So don’t read them, watch them, financially support them. Don’t take the bait. Instead, get out the vote. Period.
Here’s a great story. My neighbor got a phone call from her brother in South Dakota, apologizing to her. He was a MAGA , Trump maniac who tortured his family with false “‘facts” spewed daily on FOX. Then he saw the rally with Tim Walz, looked him up, and saw all he’s done for Minnesota. Told his sis he was ashamed and now sees Trump for the crazy hater he is. Didn’t want to be like him. One at a time, folks. Focus on spreading that news of what we can do. Ignore the rest.
It's funny - as I was reading the opening paragraph, which mentioned the Republicans "briefly talked about suing to make sure that Biden, rather than Harris, was at the head of the Democratic ticket," it reminded me of what we saw from Elon Musk this week.
Angry that advertisers have fled his platform, unwilling to pay for the pleasure of placing their brands next to extreme content (such as anti-Semitism, racism, and conspiracy theories), Twitter (I refuse to call it 'X') sued the companies for not advertising with them. The entire event was even accompanied by a pathetic video from the CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who clearly made the video for an audience of one.
Just like Trump staffers used to preen and attack the press in clips they knew would land on Trump's screen. The formula is the same: Medicrity + Sycophancy = Disaster
The Daily Show had a clip of Elon saying that he didn’t want the advertisers money. “They can f**k themselves,” he repeated. They took his advice and now he sues. I hope that clip is played for the court.
I hope so, too. And I also hope that at least a few of them self-proclaimed geeks and tech bros stop fawning over Musk and start seeing him for the narcissistic, aggressive and explosively dangerous little dictator that he really is.
Well, the sorry truth is that Musk has wrecked Xitter. I see some fairly obvious lying and disgusting attacks from people toward their fellow humans there. Some of them are convinced that CNN is overly favorable toward Democrats, but I’d question that after Trump’s encounter with President Biden.
I'm with Lawrence O'Donnell and his beration of the dysfunctional media in giving Trump a pass and not fact checking him in real time. When we look at fixing broken institutions (Supreme Court, etc) I hope we can develop ways to heal our media too.
Bob, yes — it's so important to share and amplify both O'Donnell's fact-check video and Rachel Scott's searing questions at NABJ. If the media won't do it we need to step up and remind them how it's done:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/WMRqESutayNbdkjF/
https://x.com/AlexSokoloff/status/1822142612989513799
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-IkiL1vPPj/
Rachel Scott was just great, wasn’t she?
Rachel Scott was amazing.
More reporters should follow Rachel Scott’s example. Trump made a fool of himself at the NABJ forum and he knows it. So does everyone else.
Lord, that better translate into votes!
Yeah... I'm not so sure that he knows anything other than what's in that deranged, dysfunctional, nasty mind of his.
He might actually enjoy and applaud the making of a fool of himself -- he did it in front of all those nothings, he wasn't going to give them any deference. Bullies are like that.
Along with the horror and trepidation I feel contemplating an election outcome none of us here could stomach, I am starting to feel sorry for the orange basket case. He's clearly seriously unwell, and nobody in his life cares to enough to intervene.
More importantly, his staff knows it. With Trump, to him it doesn't matter whether he made a fool of himself as he chronically steps into fool's paradise. It's his staff that is most likely up in arms. I have to wonder when most will say: "enough is enough!!"
I’m afraid Trump and his groupies have no stopping point.
Trumps ugly response to her might be explained: When in her opening sentence to trump, Rachel Scott used the phrase "elephant in the room", I believe trump, being ignorant of that idiom thought she was calling him fat.
Dan I don’t consider elephants fat. Now if Ms. Scott had said “What about the rancid blimp in the room,’” I can imagine why Trump would be perturbed. Or if she had referred to Orange Orangutan.
What if Ms. Scott had addressed her question to DELUSIONAL DONALD? I would have considered that accurate and provable.
I don't consider elephants fat, either, and I'm sure they (who are intelligent enough to possibly have an opinion on the matter) don't consider themselves fat, either, but I can easily believe that Scott was calling him fat. Trump's not smart for an H. sapiens, but he knows his rep has been sinking fast.
He’s not ignorant of that phrase.
I’m sure he’s not but he so fixated on himself that’s all he could think of.
Just more evidence of how much of a one trick pony his behavior reflects he is.
😂
Since the elephant is a symbol of the Republican party, it could mean "The Republican in the room". Trump!
she should be moderating the debates. Or training moderators on how to have a spine.
Disagree. Rachel Scott attacked Trump from the word go, like a rabid dog. He is worthy of such an attack, but she also should have expected nothing more than what she got. Which was no-answers and a counter attack. She knows this guy - is that what she wanted? I was unimpressed. She should have handled it differently; perhaps if she had, he would have come off even more the fool than he did. Instead, people on the fence may have defended him instead of become finally convinced he isn't the one. Be smarter Rachel.
Anyone who is stupid enough to defend him for ANYTHING after witnessing his almost nine-year trail of ignorant destruction deserves to live in his dystopian world. Had Rachel been polite and deferential, he'd certainly have abused her - Little Black Girl that he holds in contempt. There is no way to handle him other than the one she chose. Period.
Are you kidding? As a politician and a grown human, it is on HIM to behave like an adult. The exchange showed us that even when he KNOWS he should be on his best behavior, at the NABJ for cripes sakes, he is unable. That whole episode was exactly what we needed to prove he is just not someone who should be in any kind of office.
No I am not kidding. I live around MAGGOTs - they are everywhere in TN. They all bristle when under attack. They draw strength from it. I know he deserves everything he gets and more. Nobody hates Trump more than I do. But I want to see every tactic by the campaign, and the media, tailored to take him down. We do not need things that further unite his base and sway those few voters who could swayed the wrong way instead of the right way. I could argue that Rachel's line of questioning (if you want to call it that) swayed some folks the wrong way.
His campaign yanked him out because they knew he had dug himself a hole that he wouldn’t get himself out of. It’s why he’s not campaigning, because he can’t not be an asshole to women, especially black women — Fox news reporters excepted in special circumstances (one could argue for Borderline Personality Disorder, based on the NABJ event alone). If voters were swayed the wrong way by that? They were never swayable for the Dems to start with. People who call themselves centrist but are swayed by Trump were never centrist.
I have to agree. It feeds his 'cult-of-the-victim' crowd. It confirms their belief that 'the media' is biased and out to get him. If anyone saw the softball question at Mar-a-Lago about Josh Shapiro not being selected, it was clear that he didn't know who JS was. He riffed, not mentioning PA or Governor, like a 13 year old giving a book report on a book he never read. Vacuous and stupid. We need more of that.
CFDT's base, like his - hands - is very small and almost completely unreachable. What we NEED is young people fired up and voting; Calling out egregious racism and obvious lies does that, exactly what Rachel Scott did.
Trump DESERVES these attacks. Never before has anyone been this dishonest, lying, cheating, making money off the presidency, etc. etc. Every question that needs to be asked should be asked and he should answer. Also, why was HE the only one who has been allowed to keep his tax returns and bank statements secret? We would have known about the Egyptian illegal cash and the writing of checks to Cohen way earlier!!!! Terri Quint
So Jay, have you listened to any of Biden's press conferences?
Peter Doucey is far snarkier on a regular basis.
Rachel Scott pressed Trump as if he a man running for president. It's not her fault that he's a constipated toddler.
I love that description of Trump, a “constipated toddler!” 🤣🤣🤣
So true. He's like a three-year old.
Personally I didn't see Ms. Scott's opening as an attack. She did seem to heap a lot of "you-did-this" on him, but he did do those things. I find that to be fair. My question for you is this: how do YOU think Ms. Scott could have handled it differently? We must remember that there was a reported kerfuffle before the interview over whether or not devious don would accept fact checking. It was interesting to me at the time that he did not seem inclined (or perhaps was not able) to answer any questions. It's impossible to "fact-check" whining, blather or invective. Seriously...does anyone think this interview could have gone better?
I for sure don’t.
He was looking for a fight, from the get go.
Trump behaved like the adult toddler he is. He isn’t used to reporters doing their jobs and asking tough questions. The journalists were much more mature than Trump is.
I only saw the last minute or so of O'Donnell but was so glad to hear that finally someone in the media had the guts and the presence to speak out. Heather's post today just amplifies what is so important over the next few weeks--for the media to tell the American people seriously that Trump has truly lost it (not that he ever had it) and how dangerous he is to our country. Thanks to all of you for jumping on this.
Lawrence also went again the rising tide in supporting Biden on show after show, but he's also swung behind Kamala, full throttle.
Yes. Lawrence was the only one who defended Biden after the debate. He has shown his integrity and true grit as a masterful journalist.
Today Robert Hubbell discusses the implication that the press was actually hand picked for that Trump event. He could not find anyone to back up the claim but his piece today also discusses Trump's threat to sue the NYT if they don't kowtow to his story, which he claims he can prove. Actually, a different Black politician was in the helicopter ride with him and he said Kamala Harris was not discussed. Trump is apparently doubling down on his story, but like debating Kamala, he may back out when someone else talks some sense into him. Hubbell is hoping that it will mean that NYT starts fact checking Trump, but I think they are so out of practice they won't be able to do it. https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/were-not-weird?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I also read someone saying that under the radar is being discussed that the truth is Trump campaign has threatened and intimidated a lot of journalists who are worried for their safety and that of their families. Some have to hire security. Nice if you can afford to. Not making that a story though is another thing that is wrong with the MSM coverage of this campaign. All of the independents are having to raise funds not just to publish but to handle numerous specious lawsuits from Trump allies. I would really like to see SLAPP laws more widespread and thorough. Like, you will be thrown in jail if you do this, not just fined, something people like Musk do not find intimidating.
Makes sense. I think there was hand picking going on. After all, Trump was in his own home; he can pick and choose who enters. This reminds me of all the talk about Republican politicians who criticze Trump behind closed doors, and support him in public. Running scared for their careers, or their family. Spineless, but easy for me to say.
I guess I'm confused about the SNAP suit reference, I'm more familiar with fighting SLAPP suits by entities that can spend inordinate amounts money to prevent free speech by those with too little resources to defend themselves.
See https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/09/its-time-federal-anti-slapp-law-protect-online-speakers
"...Our country’s fair and independent courts exist to resolve serious disputes. Unfortunately, some parties abuse the civil litigation process to silence others’ speech, rather than resolve legitimate claims. These types of censorious lawsuits have been dubbed Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs, and they have been on the rise over the past few decades.
Plaintiffs who bring SLAPPs intend to use the high cost of litigation to harass, intimidate, and silence critics who are speaking out against them. A deep-pocketed plaintiff who files a SLAPP doesn’t need to win the case on the merits—by putting financial pressure on a defendant, along with the stress and time it takes to defend a case, they can take away a person’s free speech rights.
Fortunately, a bill introduced in Congress today, the SLAPP Protection Act of 2022 (H.R. 8864), aims to deter vexatious plaintiffs from filing these types of lawsuits in federal court..."
Jim you are correct. I meant SLAPP. Reading Project 2025 for hours today has definitely twisted my brain. Propublica just dropped an article where they reveal 14 hours of secret Project 2025 training videos. Please spread it. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Medias Touch did as well.
O’Donnell tells truth to power everyday. I guess he’s not afraid or being paid off.
O’Donnell is among the last of an apparently dying breed, a dyed in the wool journalist.
Hey MeidasMighty,
Over the past 48 hours, MTN received 28 million views on YouTube and we’ve been picking up 15,000 new subscribers every day. MTN continues to beat Fox, CNN, and MSNBC in YouTube/Digital ratings.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-stupidest-candidate-trump-did-not-answer-reporters-questions-216787525948
He never seems to answer the question asked.
You can usually find the whole show if you go to YouTube.
Alexandra, I love Rachel Scott. She is the "It Girl" in the network media world and I see her star rising on the international scene. She ignored Fat Elvis's insults and BS, while insisting on holding his nasty feet to the flame during the entire interview.
All forms of the media are made up of private or publicly-owned companies as in shares. They are profit-making enterprises. Within this group Yellow Journalism (as found in late 19th century period) is found in the likes of Fox News (including MSNBC) and even more extreme fringe publications. These companies have found a very profitable segment of the population (but note MSNBC is less watched and less profitable) that will buy into the accumulation of onesidedness and misadjustments of the truth. Something tells me that there is a built-in portion of the population that buys into it. It started with AM talk radio on the far right. Populism sells. Arousing that base instinct is very profitable even if it destroys the body politic of the country. China need not worry about media trends. The government owns the media. That prophetic comment by an aged Ben Franklin is still relevant today: “It’s a republic if you can keep it” in response to a woman passing by Constitutional Hall and asking if we had a monarchy or a republic.
As more wealth flows into increasingly fewer hands, we are building s system of government into an autocratic form. We appear to have successfully postponed the inevitable this time by chance. The self-righteous Joe Biden would have condemned us to an unknown fate by his insistence of never giving up. Until he lost and he was destined to lose. We will have a republic for now. Rejoice.
(Donald’s Vanity Tantrums available everywhere.)
If you believe MSNBC is involved in 'yellow journalism', could you provide an example of a yellow journalistic statement made on MSNBC, and who is engaging in this?
No. My thesis needs to be modified. They are not yellow journalism but they do exude an ideological leftest bend. I shouldn’t have put them in the same sentence as Fox. I’m always trying to read from well thought out ideas. Even as a child, my weekly Sunday show on public television was F. Mac Buckly’s “Firing Line.” Why as such a young age? Because I’ve always been interested in an intellectual argument even if different than mine as opposed to the crapola that Fox presents. They make no pretense and they have dumbed down on their viewers. When I read comments on Fox online, they spit out exactly what they viewed on TV Fox. But ironically so do we on the left side. We take our talking points exactly as it’s expressed by those who we follow. My main point: I don’t follow a fricken person I don’t care who the hell it is. I listen and I formulate my own positions and frankly, I don’t have any side to fully turn to because I’m an individual thinker I don’t buy or follow ideologies. Hence, I get critized here more often than not. In in case you doubt my cred, I wrote the most critical an satirical book ever published on Don-old Trump.
Agreed. I can admit when anyone has a point even if it’s different than my own. But, and I’m asking sincerely, what does it mean to be leftist, as you mention several times?
Sister Stephanie, it’s not important to go there. Perhaps everyone has their own definition right? Whatever you think it might be. I’m not the guard at the lexiconic door. I’ve already been there done it. I will speak in generalities for now. But I will say that generally speaking, white working class and above feel left out no pun intended, lol.
Back when I did my 17 month, 170,000 mile version of Travels with Charley (in a rig I also called Rocinante like Steinbeck's camper), I loved seeing 46 states and my 4 trips through Canada.
The torture test was endless hours of nothing on the most powerful long range radio but Rush Lamebrain during the day and Art Bell at night. Then going into the TV lounge at truck stops and suggesting they turn the channel to anything but Jerry Springer, meant you had no idea of what blow back you would receive.
A steady diet of Sinclair type stations that covered so much more territory than the best I could expect, helped make it much easier to leave the long haul roads behind.
Yep. I used to do battle with a retired truck driver folk musician at open mics. Totally brainwashed, I still had my friendly moments with him. He died earlier this year. They identify with white culture basically what drives them to think so narrowly.
Lawrence O’Donnell just gave one of the best news shows I've ever seen. He took our mostly useless press to task, including his network. I hope he keeps his job. His clip of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre being screamed at by idiots is priceless. I think the mass media gave the 2016 election to Trump. They would hold the shot of an empty stage for Trump. Billions of free publicity. The media hated "no drama" Obama. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-oTJ49nls My all time favorite monologue was given by Jeff Daniels in "Newsroom". Written by the amazing Aaron Sorkin. On the "greatest nation." It will blow you away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WxdaU9AsnU Fully applies to our current situation. And thank you Alexandra Sokoloff.
Thank you for posting that.
It has been told (quietly) that most of MSM do not challenge DT directly and then write about it because he keeps score and bars those who report his failures from attending any future press conferences which restricts their growth within their publication. Others claim (very quietly) that in your face journalists often have to deal with real death threats, fear that their families are in jeopardy and some have to hire security to patrol their home base!
Bowing to bullies is colluding with the criminals and fascists….
And this guy wants to be President again. Actually dictator
I hope this is the true beginning of the end for Trump and his cult. The Steven Millers, and the Mike Johnsons and the like all return to oblivion. I am so ready to just relax and enjoy living in this wonderful country again. No more fear and worry of having more rights and freedoms taken away. Vote by the millions and show these evil doers this is “the land of the free “
Say "NO" to slugs.
Umm - are you saying "Make America Wonderful Again!"?
I liked this. I also liked what another person said, which is MAJA-Make America Joyful Again. America is wonderful. Trump and his cult is not, but the rest of us are striving for an inclusive democracy and that is wonderful.
Ka-MALA. One of my t-shirts: MAKE AMERICA LAUGH AGAIN ⭐️Harris 2024⭐️
👕🛒
It has been my experience that the most joyful times were when we had faced some of the worst, overcome that test and really, really appreciated the return of good times.
My dream as well. There was a time…
July, to help do this please share this article from Propublica. It is breaking news about 14 hours of leaked training documents from Project 2025, which has clips throughout to give us a taste, and then the link to all in the end. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
We deserve to know what is being planned for us.
Indeed, but we have to go after the bullies together. The bullies win when they can target their opponents in isolation. That's how the Mafia works.
It's obvious that he's deeply disturbed. The fact that the media fail to hold him accountable is not only sickening it is part of a facist movement backed by billions of dollars in corporate and criminal enterprise money.
Ramona, Palmer Report has constantly pointed out the problems with death star. I know the Wikipedia article about it is biased and terrible, and it is inaccurate. Palmer also condemns the MSM for what they are doing. It is based in England, so maybe that is safer in terms of death threats.
Why don't they report that in the news? Only foreign war correspondents should have fear, and their news organizations should protect them as much as possible.
Gloria, they should all be reading Project 2025 and telling us about it. At least Harris/Walz tell us what they stand for and what they are going to do as they stump around the swing states. Trump does not tell us what he is going to do, but the Project 2025 doctrine does. Thank goodness for independent medial like Propublica. They have just broken another story in which they have a source who gave them 14 hours of Project 2025 training videos. They summarize them with clips interspersed to give us a feel for what is being said. In the end they have a link to the entire 14 hours. Please share the link and spread the word. People should know what is planned for us. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
The last sentence is why I have no respect for cowards. I know that when power goes rogue, the risks are great. For all of us and for those who chose to be spokesmodels for our crazy. But those who are scared need to find another job and stop pretending to be journalists. The heads of our media conglomerates are the leaders who are leading a great institution to ruin. And screwing their employees and the country as well. I can’t imagine Walter cringing in fear.
JD I totally agree.
But they have no problem mocking and bullying Biden or his press secretary and getting in their faces. They're sycophantic, stenographic hacks for Republicans.
Because they know they will not face threats, swatting, or other kinds of retribution.
The other thing that angers me is they tippy toe around Rethugs because they "don't want to jeopardize access" but they don't tippy toe around Dems then they whine and complain when Dems "won't sit down for interviews and hold press conferences". Therefore I think the excuse so many have given them about "fear of losing access" is bogus because it sure doesn't apply to Dems.
Corporate media should protect their employees
They should protect their people but as with all large corporations it's the bottom line that they protect, that & corporate profits & those all important executive bonuses!!!
Harris should not give them access either unless they ask serious questions. It has been obvious that they are all intimidated by Trump, but the worst thing is, is that they are contributing to their own demise by catering to him. If they get threats they should be publishing it because that is part of the story. However, they show how easily people capitulate to fascists. All my life I heard how terrible Germans were and how Americans were more noble. Perhaps because slavery is farther away in history then the Holocaust. But actually, looking at the people that support Trump, I see plenty are not more noble, and seeing the behavior of the press shows that even more people can be cowed, and he has not even gotten back into office. If he does we can only imagine the kind of violence we are in for.
Exactly--imagine getting access to the one of the first chances to ask questions of Vice President Harris, the new Dem Candidate for President, and doing nothing more than asking questions about the other candidate. What fools those reporters were to waste her time with such unserious questions. They shouldn't even have the temerity to refer to themselves as journalists and reporters.
Gah.
The Germans suffered terribly in their polarized battles - intimidation actually worked! Not long after Hitler was appointed chancellor other parties were declared illegal, concentration camps were being built. People though had long been being murdered in the highly polarized capitalist/fascist vs communist camps since the end of ww1. What's going on in USA today is nothing compared to that, and i do not mean to imply the violent rhetoric and misdeeds of the present are "nothing".
Yes. Hitler built camps right away. Hitler started his program by killing children who were considered "defective." This could be physical or mental and is illustrated in both the series World On Fire, on PBS, and in this 1943 Disney video. https://youtu.be/xgehQnJYYtk?si=N51OQCeUe80LeXnT
Once that was successful as a program, because parents stood alone in trying to address their children's needs, and they would just be told after their child was taken away that they had died, he then went for adults. These adults were already institutionalized, and when he started killing them this drew outcries from Germans, so then Hitler learned better to set up camps to do mass killings in other countries than at home. He used a combination of fear and reward to control the population, and Goebbels had spies throughout Germany that would take the pulse of the population so that they could be further manipulated. There was a case of German wives of Jewish men who lived in Berlin protesting against losing their husbands outside the Bundestag. Hitler decided to just give into them and give them their husbands back, even pulling one back who had been sent to Auschwitz. But mostly, people who spoke up or resisted got in trouble. If you did not join the party you were pushed out of your job. My grandfather was removed from his post as an administrator in a Hochschule "College" and became a carpenter. I believe at some point my mom and her siblings, all but one, born after Hitler came to power had to participate in Hitler youth groups. Also, they were supposed to say "Heil Hilter" in school, but her sister said, "Heil Mussolini" along with her best friend, her friend's father did that. That got my grandfather taken away. He was returned after family documents were gathered back to 1642 that our family was not Jewish. Which is why we have our family tree back that far on his side.
'Hitler started his program by killing children who were considered "defective."' Well, this is chilling, considering that we now have information that Trump suggested allowing a relative's disabled child to die. (I'm afraid I cannot recall who the relative was...)
His nephew Fred, Mary's brother.
Thanks for those additional historical details, and sharing that personal family history, Linda.
Agreed, but how do we know that's not the direction Trump would be moving in if he were elected?
Always remember - profit first. That helps understand the corporate media approach.
I agree. There need to be ground rules.
Jen Propublica just dropped a story about secret Project 2025 training videos that were leaked to them. They summarize them and have clips to give one a flavor for what is in them, in case you do not want to watch the full 14 hours on the link at the end. Please share the link and spread the word. We need to amplify the Independent press that is covering this election and other issues with gravitas. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
I wonder what would happen if none of them showed up? Or if just one journalist took a stand? If that one journalist reported instead on real news with real people?
Oh wait! It's called Substack, Alternet, Axios, The Bulwark, Brian Tyler Cohen, Meidas etc. Let's support these media sources and help them outgrow the mainstream press.
I heard Tim Miller’s podcast (The Bulwark) talk with Adam Kinzinger, who was royally pissed at Vance’s attack on Tim Walz’s military record. Kinzinger did a good job explaining how military retirement works. Boy was he mad!
That episode was really good.
Barbara that seems like a winning formula and that is what I am doing.
Yes. Me too. I like seeing these news sources growing and being a part of it.
Speaking of which Propublica, which has been an absolute gem of independent reporting just has a breaking article in which they summarize 14 hours of training videos from Project 2025 that an anonymous source from within the Project provided with with. It is interspersed with clips to give you a taste of what they are describing, and in the end there is a link to the full 14 hours, if anyone is interested. Please spread the link and ask people you share it with to do the same thing. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Wow!! Thanks Linda.
If he has threatened journalists, they need to get together and report that. He can deny all he wants, all they need to do is compare notes with one another, do their research, and steadily report the threats that are flowing in. If they have to hire security, report it. Make people understand the pressures they are under.
I've never understood why they do not fight back as a collective. If they stick together, Trump cannot continue to place them under that pressure without having consequences, hits on his reputation he cannot sustain.
Look at Ruby Freeman and her daughter. Fight back.
None of the Mob-like actions and moves (threats, etc), in connection with Trump, should surprise anyone; Trump is notoriously vindictive, petty and vengeful. All of Trump's most thuggish tendencies were reinforced by his Father and Roy Cohn--two of the worst possible mentors that anyone could have.
Better call Pete🥇
Good grief. And all this over an overstuffed walrus of a man whose emotional development peeked in junior high? I am bored with this imbecile and fed up with the oligarchs and bullies who support him. This band of crooks have given us corporate Christianity, corporate media, and corporate greed. We must do better than this. Enjoy the weekend.
Susan you are so on. Corporate Christianity. What a shame! The real question to me is who are these people who worship at that 'altar'? How did America end up with so many naive citizens? I live in North Florida and speak to my neighbors cautiously. In the state with a fascist for a governor speaking freely can be dangerous. But I feel, hope, pray the tide is changing.
John, I live in a very conservative county outside Augusta GA. At this point, I don’t speak to my neighbors at all. None of them have been here as long as I have, which is exactly 20 years. I knew nothing about the demographics when I was planning the move here. My realtor insisted on showing me houses in this county, because I had two boys in their teens, and “the schools are so much better.” They had grown up in a very diverse city neighborhood in Buffalo NY. I didn’t have enough time to parse the implicit racism. I had to find a house and move before my new job started. We settled in. They’re both married and still live here. I count myself lucky, and keep to myself.
Susan, I believe it peaked in toddlerhood, as his level of impulse control and sense of entitlement is like a toddler's and a not very well-behaved toddler's at that.
If they had called him out years ago from the very beginning this would not likely be a problem. He never would have gotten as far as he did and he'd be very far away in our rear view mirrors.
His constant lying was obvious from the beginning! The only way to deal with a liar whether as part of your profession or even personally is to refute his or her lies directly and personally! But when you watch any (and all) of His press conferences, he lies to the reporters consistently but do any of them respond to his face “but that is not true”? I have never seen one of them say that nor do they include in their next day reporting: “Former President Trump stated falsely…” Some columnists and some TV personalities such as Lawrence or Morning Joe call him out directly as a “liar” but when have you ever seen NYT reporters do so? Shameful!
Then step up the justice department - justice, if served, is served too slowly. What we have now are journalists choosing not be be journalists and that is being an ally for those wishing to do harm or gain control. I have stopped watching most interviews because they rarely hold the person accountable, to answer questions. You can teach a parrot to ask a question.
And justices choosing to be partisans, not impartial judges.
Ok ..but journalists have always faced threats in their reporting. It's part of their job...like police. How many journalists have been killed in Mexico, central and south America? In war zones? In foreign, hostile countries. I get it, but also I wouldn't have either of those jobs. It takes a certain kind of person to accept that level of threat.
Exactly. We see that Gershkovich is back from Russia. There was a danger he faced in reporting and our President and Vice President supported a free press by doing everything he could to get him home. Now, we find that with Trump journalists face that threats reporting at home, and they really need to decide whether it is the career for them. Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat of the Lucid Substack says she gets threats and is on lists of Trump, or his peons, and that is not going to stop her in continuing with her message to explain and warn us about what fascism is.
USA is not even close to Mexico et al, we could include Russia and much much more.
Rick Wilson has noted on his Substack that he and members of his family have received death threats, even the family dog, and most recently his parents! What kind of sick people threaten others like this. These threats are organized crime style behavior.
That’s what he’s done. Energized his base— at least the hyper fringe— to hatred backed up by violence. Worse than his lies. I used to think he needed to be quickly incarcerated or institutionalized, but I think publicly exposed again and again is even better.
That I can give some credit to. I thought death threats were and are spread very liberally by Trump's more? fanatical followers. Here's a Vox report from earlier this year. https://www.vox.com/23899688/2024-election-republican-primary-death-threats-trump
Thanks this is a "must read"!
This is an excellent point-by-point account of the danger I always suspected was deployed against Republicans who oppose Trump. These threats are probably the last best hope of those who want him back in the White House.
This is a “must read” for everyone—-absolutely frightening.
I am too. I think Harris and Walz should let the press know that if they want access they have to stop catering to Trump and stop treating democratic candidates like they did Biden, like rabid dogs in heat! Or, no sit down interview. No access. They are doing well by using social media and going straight to the people. When I hear Harris say we she will write Roe v Wade into law, and Walz say people do not want the government in their bedroom or their exam room I hear messages that resonate with everyone. The press does not seem to get that they have made us tired of the negativity of Trump more than even Trump himself by amplifying it. They have not covered the election with the proper gravitas, but as a popularity contest for clicks and likes. Without a democratic press they are going to the people.
I have to disagree. I agree that Harris and Walz should hold the press accountable in the best way possible, but there are better ways than denying them access. Hindsight is 20-20, but wouldn't it have been great if Kamala called out those reporters for their hypocrisy right there on the tarmac? Something like, "Why are you asking me to cover his campaign? Isn't that your job? Why aren't you doing the other part of your job by asking me about my campaign?" Now that I think about it, that's exactly what she did.
James I am assuming her campaign has a strategy, and they will decide when to give the press direct access. However, watching their coverage the other day, I would not trust the press, who seems incapable of reporting this in a serious and balanced way, so I think the Harris/Walz strategy of going directly to the people through appearances and social media is working better for them. The MSM is not trustworthy. Their goal is clicks and likes, not covering seriously what both candidates stand for. Let me see some evidence that they have started reading Project 2025. I have read about 1/3 of the chapters now. I am currently reading the DOD chapter. Reading this would put more gravitas into their questioning.
Good point. If I was assuming her campaign did not have a strategy, then I would be wrong.
VP Harris is very smart and knows what she's doing. Frankly she doesn't need anyone to tell her how to handle the press or anything else. She is going to be a fabulous president! I can't wait.
The reason she's going to be a fabulous president is for the same reason that Biden is a fabulous president, and that is not just because they are smart, which I assume is what you're saying. Biden, Harris, and Walz are both smart and wise in that they know how to put together a great team that listens to everyone, and then they work together to figure out the best way to handle the press and everything else, although I have to admit her handling of phony journalism is a lot better than President Biden's.
What I meant is yes she's smart but also savvy. She is not being entitled ie it's my time, as Hillary did. She said right from the start that she would win our support, which she is doing. She is also going to all the battleground states and reaching out to all the people, not just the traditional democrats and liberals. This is how she will win!
Yes she did and she’ll do it again.”If you’ve got something to say, Donald, say it to my face.” I’m going to spend this morning writing get-out-the-vote postcards. I truly believe folks have had it. This is our election to win. Thank you, Heather, for giving us the historical perspective to make sense of our current moment. Your work helps so much.
Or even....when asked about Trump...Harris could say...would you like to ask me about (state one of her pro people, pro foreign relations, pro environment positions)
A GREAT reply, James!!!!
The Republican TV ads that we are seeing in Wisconsin do not tell about Trump’s programs; they claim that Harris lies and that she has failed to fix all our problems such as border security. Trump media have become Trump--with projection reflecting his lies.
Time will tell, but the metaphor I use to think of the the Democratic and Republican parties is that they're like similar looking multi-story buildings, the former is built on bedrock, the latter is built on sand, they're in the path of a November hurricane, and only one of them is going to be left standing. I'll feel more confident when the polls continue to trend in the direction they're going now.
Same here in GA. I either leave the room or stick my fingers in my ears until they’re done. 😖
But it’s complicated here. IQ45 has publicly insulted the governor, Brian Kemp and his wife. Kemp and his family, along with SOS Brad Raffensperger and his family, received death threats after they refused Trump’s attempt to win, and certified the election for Biden. Geoff Duncan, a former Lt. Governor, has stated publicly that he’s voting for Harris. Georgia has been turning purple for years now. And, yes, we get ads for Harris, too.
lol "exactly what she did"...
YES! Exactly, Mr. Carey!
I would like to hear how Kamala handled their Trump based questions. Must check into it. There is opportunity to be had in scrums like that. "What'cha got?" lol
Yes Linda! Yes! The REALITY of Harris/Waltz is joyful, hopeful, positive action, involvement, ,two way communication/dialogue, voters are a constituency to be served by addressing real needs, desires, wants for a better future. Harris/Waltz are leading because they are practicing LEADERSHIP. Trump/Vance is losing because they are practicing demagoguery. A manipulation based on emotion not reason or facts, fear not hope, division not community, paranoia not problem solving, personal attacks over policy, donations over voter needs, hate instead of love, getting and preserrving power and wealth over service unto others.
Since many of us have dropped our subscriptions to The NY Times and the WAPO, we tend to look to news aggregators. If we mistakenly click on a news story about monkeys in Mexico, we will be inundated with stories about monkeys and Mexico for months.
There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of brilliant journalists that work for the big city news outlets, but they have editors that determine which stories they should chase.
It's apparent that Maggie Haberman among others has the freedom to take her stories where she wants, meaning her editor completely trusts her to write stories that don't use adjectives to sensationalize her stories.
As long as many of the media conglomerates are driven by advertising dollars the media will continue to chase narcissists and fools who lie. Plus, the media feels no need to fact check DonOLD because you just put quotes around it and put it in your story.
If the media refused to print CFDT lies, either he would quit lying (which isn't going to happen) or the media will have to find something else to cover.
I agree Donald Trump and his J.uvenile D.elinquent VP candidate Vance, juvie for short, are big liars. The press is not fact checking them or reporting anything worthwhile. They are not bringing the appropriate gravitas to the election and are like rabid dogs in heat in their coverage of Democratic candidates in their slavishness to cater to Trump. I dropped the above mentioned 2 subscriptions and my life quality has been better. I still read and donate to The Guardian, and subscribe to a number of Independent news, some of which are more leftist than I might like, but that keeps me in touch with that side of things. The AP is free, and I read European news as well as some other publications on global politics, as well is niche topics like nuclear, environment, spies, terrorism, and foreign affairs. Then I have my own social interests and still like to read novels. They replace the NYT and WaPo more and more. I am not on social media other than the Substack accounts I subscribe to and I have whittled them down.
ProPublica is one I am grateful to for the gravitas with which they choose and report issues. Today they just dropped a story about Project 2025. They received 14 hours of secret training videos being used by Project 2025, and have published both a summary with clips woven throughout and a link to the entire 14 hours of tapes.
Same here, no more WAPO of NYT. I read and greatly appreciate the hard work and collaborative approach of Propublica
I dropped WaPo but man I hate to lose NYT. Yes, it’s infuriating , but the writing is great and no one else does multi-media stories like they do — their photographers are bar none. (Also Cooking and Games, people.. come on). But I also subscribe to Hubbell’s substack, read the AP and NPR, and a friend goaded me into checking out the Atlantic (30 day free trial!). The Boston Globe is my hometown paper, so even though they have now started regurgitating NYT stories (minus what must be copyrighted photos), it’s unbelievable, I feel stuck. I struggle with people complaining about “progressive” or “liberal” media — what does that mean? Nixon passed the EPA, the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act! AND EARTH DAY (thank you Gaylord Nelson💚)! So how can you label environmentalism as progressive or liberal? There are some things that should be non-partisan, and the environment is one. So is common sense gun control. Housing. I have long said the press should turn the klieg lights off of Trump, so think of conservative media as those with non-stop positive coverage of Trump. I appreciate the other options that people have posted here — I saw Kinzinger’s own substack about Walz’s military service where he helpfully explained it in detail. I think laughing at Vance about his weird dick swinging regarding his military service is the thing to do. They’re bullies, pure and simple. And we are real, real tired of bullies. I told a troll in the comment section of the Globe that I really hope they keep calling him Tampon Tim because I’m still mad at how feminine hygiene products were treated for so long — only recently are they tax free. Please keep reminding us how awesome Tim Walz is for putting them in bathrooms.
Stephanie. You are correct. There are many good news sources perhaps too many to choose from. I really enjoy the Rolling Stone for their in depth stories on many different topics. I subscribed to the Chicago Tribune for $1 for a year. I'm not sure it's worth a dollar though.
I agree with you about Tampon Tim. It doesn't seem to be having the desired affect that the MAGAs had hoped it would. My question is when did they take them out of junior high and high school bathrooms? When I was in Junior High and High school in NE even the boys knew they were in the girl's bathrooms. Many of the 7th grade boys had no clue what they were for. Like Walz, I was raised in NE and maybe it was always accepted as required, like TP and paper towels.
I wonder if it wasn’t required? But done as a matter of course? But also, they cost a dime or something. His are free, eh?
I guess I don't know if they are free or not.
I remember an embarrassing moment for my high school girl friend when we were in study hall and her period started. She had to get permission to leave study hall to go the bathroom. I felt so bad for her.
Yes, half of our global population has periods. To think we still treat it like a dirty little secret is amazing. It took a governor with daughters to start some change. Personally, I can’t get enough of Tampon Tim. Don’t even get me started on docs who don’t provide pain relief for uterine biopsies and IUDs.. we might have superhuman pain tolerance but we are human after all.
But back to your Rolling Stone mention.. do you subscribe? I also like NatGeo for some of their environmental work, and of course photography.
Stephanie, I gave up the Times after the 2016 election. It meant losing access to my sapiocrush, Paul Krugman, but I did it.
I was in public school in Georgia in the 50s and 60s. There were *always* feminine hygiene products in the girls’ restrooms. Back then there was only one brand, and when you bought them in the store they came wrapped in brown paper, like nobody knew what was in the package. 😉😂
Haha "sapiocrush". Thank you for teaching me a new word, and one that is really meaningful for me! It's how I always felt about Ellen Goodman, Molly Ivins, and still -- Eugene Robinson. So many, actually, I can't list them all. What a really great word.
I'm impressed that you remember hygiene products in the restrooms. I honestly do not, though it does not detract from my admiration for a man with daughters who advocates for feminine hygiene products lol. I remember the film we were shown in 4th grade.. sort of. The things we were supposed to be embarrassed about back then!
I’m 72, so this is going back about 60-65 years. Brain still works. 😉
A problem has a one-step solution, and a dilemma has a multi-step resolution. Treat a problem like a problem, and a dilemma like a dilemma, and things get better. Treat a problem like a dilemma, and/or treat a dilemma like a problem, and things get worse.
Gary, the reason I think you're describing a dilemma, and not a problem, is that it isn't good enough if only a minority of people understand how to distinguish between reality and an illusion.
So, in saying that, I feel obliged to suggest how to begin the multi-step dilemma resolution process. IMHO, Step 1 involves recognizing that there are two mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive approaches to an interaction between any two adult individuals or groups. There is the moral "treat 'them' the way 'I/we' would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot" principle, and there is the immoral "do as 'I/we' say and not as 'I/we' do" principle.
I'm not saying the other steps are obvious or easy, quite the opposite. Instead, I'm suggesting that a majority explicitly agreeing to follow Step 1 is leading us toward a resolution, and we are otherwise treating a dilemma like a problem and heading off in different directions. And I'm all ears if someone has a better idea for Step 1.
As I said in my comments to yesterday's newsletter, the bad news is that MAGA has internalized the immoral principle, but the good news is that the Democratic party's senior leadership leads me to think they have internalized the moral principle. Question: Is there a good reason why they should not be more explicit?
To answer your question: I think not.
In one breath you talk about dropping your newspaper subscriptions (with pride it seems), and in the next you denigrate those same newspapers for going for advertising dollars. If everyone who reads articles from the Post or the Times actually paid for the privilege (and it is a privilege) those papers would need those advertising dollars much less.
I am proud to say that I pay for subscriptions to WAPO, NYT, Guardian, Vox, The Atlantic, this Substack, Dan Rathers Steady Substack, and more magazines, two local community papers too, and of course PBS. Do I always like what they write? No. Do I disagree with many of their opinion writers? Of course.
I did stop watching MSNBC, bc I realized they were too similar to Fox. Too partisan. I find the PBS Newshour sufficient for most TV news days.
Journalism isn’t free. When it is, you have state run (or some autocrat/ billionaire) propaganda.
Some of us are on fixed incomes and need to be discriminating about where we spend our subscription dollars.
But the NYTimes and the WAPO both had 5 or 6 stories involving CFDT to one for Biden. I can read CFDT stories in many places. It makes me mad that they aren't interested in equal time for candidates.
Here’s a thought…just as our expert, knowledgeable historian, Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, sat to interview President Biden, what if our own Dr. offered to interview VP Kamala Harris?
I completely agree. I sort of stood up for the NYT and WaPo for the past few weeks but no more -- it's so biased -- even the article headlines are geared to leave a negative impression. I am worried about the swift boating of Walz that's now happening.
I would actually say, "ESPECIALLY the headlines are geared to leave a negative impression." Sometimes the truth is imbedded in a story but the headlines utterly normalize Trump and MAGA policy and behavior.
Reporters don't write headlines. Copy editors do, and it's obvious they often don't read the whole story!
Laurie, biased is not the correct term but both sidesism or False Equivalency Doctrine. In their effort to look unbiased they have in turn allowed some form of credibility to the most extreme ideas as if they are "normal".
Bob, Lawrence struck a nerve with me. I've been disgusted with the media's handling of what I consider to be their essential job - giving us their insights regarding what is actually happening in the political arena. They gave Criminal T free reign to spout his lies and abuse, while conducting humiliating interviews of Joe Biden in their condescending, contemptuous gotcha manner, never attempting to address his accomplishments. They proved that the term "liberal media" was an invention of the right wing to sway public opinion, when Fox, OANN, and other similar outlets were free to plaster the airwaves and print with outright lies. Even NPR was determined to spout bothsidesisms, even when it was clear that the right wing had evil intent.
The good news is that the current political landscape seems to have upended the efforts of the oligarchs who own the airwaves, and, at least for now, the masses are thrilled with Kamala and Tim, having been starved of hope and happiness and immersed with dystopian gloom and hopelessness since 2016. I greatly admire Lawrence, and I had to wonder what MSNBC thought of his mentioning his own network when slamming his documents onto his desk while delivering his diatribe! You go, Lawrence!
YES!!! Lawrence O'Donnell 's long furious calling out of the MSM is worth watching/listening to! I hope it has gone viral, and that the the media (esp the NYT and WaPo) wake up!!!
Bob McGrath: As HCR pointed out, when Future President Kamala Harris met the reporters on the Tarmac, the reporters plagued her with questions about . . . Trump.
What a bent press!
Here is Lawrence O'Donnell's "beration": https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-stupidest-candidate-trump-did-not-answer-reporters-questions-216787525948
I tried (I really did) to listen to Trump's news conference for myself to hear the reporter questions, but I just couldn't stand it. I also couldn't hear the reporter questions, so I looked for transcripts. C-SPAN transcripts ironically had [INDISCERNIBLE] each time a reporter asked a question. I couldn't find any source that captured the questions.
Well, we could *start* by acknowledging that economic power is, in effect, the fourth branch of government. How do we "heal" institutions that have been corrupted by -- one could even say "are drunk on" -- corporations and the uber-wealthy? We could start by denying them, or at least limiting, their source of supply.
Lawrence was on fire! The piece was extraordinary commentary
I will have to look for it.
Bob, I think Lawrence O'Donnell is brilliant. He is someone standing up to the MSM capitulation to fascist propaganda. I also appreciate Independent press like Propublica who has just released a summary of 14 hours of training videos they got from Project 2025 training videos with clips and a link to all 14 hours at the end. Please share this link and spread the word. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Lawrence O'Donnell's critique of the media--including MSNBC--was masterful.
The media is handing Trump billions of dollars in free advertising again to hear lies--just like they have since he came down the escalator.
Sitting on the couch last night agreeing with O’Donnell.
lol i just left my own comment on Lawrence's complaint! He got over 1.8 million hits!
He literally staged a press conference so that listeners could not hear the questions being asked.
He filibustered answers with long-winded stump speech riffs filled with falsehoods and deliberate lies. All absent of fact checking.
It wasn’t a true press conference. It was staged political theatre to pretend he was accessible.
What it really was, The Theatre of the Absurd.
For a change, the NYT had excellent coverage that included almost live fact-checking. Nailed him repeatedly for lying, though that word was never used.
NYT! That IS a change.
My sentiments exactly.
Their headlines are otherwise. As if Trump is normal. They fall for the grift and are as insane as he is.
Which is really weird given that everyone else in NYC knows for a fact he is a grifter.
IKR?
I disagree: I thought that the coverage was mimsy at best and tried to construct heavily edited "answers" to questions, without providing actual quotations that demonstrate how deranged he is. The NPR coverage was hilarious: it was clear that the people covering CFDT are just sick and tired of him: the weariness in the voice of the reporter (can't remember which one) was palpable.
Must have been a Haberman story or Michael Schmidt.
Thank you. I will look for it.
If only Dana Bash and Jake Tapper had done the same during Trump’s Gish gallop of lies and misinformation during his “debate.”
Yes, but that debate brought us to where we now are.
They refuse to call him out for any of his lies!
For DonOLD life is one long episode of the Apprentice. And the polls are his Nielsen ratings, And are his crowd sizes.
He's fuming because she is outdrawing him and getting more press.
The networks need to start showing the crowds at his rallies about 60 minutes into his drivel. And next to it show the Harris/Walz crowds at their rallies at almost any point.
When the story isn't about a rally always show Kamala's picture next to DonOLDs. He looks bad and he looks old and even if you show his creepy smile it's a turnoff for most people.
Like HCR says, he is still talking about women and their doctors murdering babies after they are born or any of his other bullshittery which he spews without proof.
My sister-in-law drove from the Twin Cities to Eau Claire for the Harris/Walz rally then walked 3 miles after parking to get inside. (She said a friend drove back to Tomah after trying to go and finding parking impossible.) She arrived home that night to share with us the incredible joyful energy she experienced there. Reminds me a bit of the massive energy of the Women's march after the 2016 election...only this time it's before the election! It's much more fun these days to hang with the Democrats.
I have a friend who attended the Phoenix rally yesterday evening. I live in DC, so am looking forward to her report. Pictures taken before the event started showed a packed house.
A Trump rally these days gets several hundred people to show up at venues that can hold thousands, and they don’t want people to see just how few people show up at these events, and how much empty seating is there.
Theater of the absurd indeed!
Eugene Ionesco would have loved it. Except with Trump, I suspect Hippopotamus, and not Rhinoceros would have been the fauna title
And the press literally covered him saying nothing instead of Harris and Walz speaking to the UAW as they accepted their endorsement. They did not even discuss that they got this powerful endorsement. No gravitas for reporting this election except a few people like Jennifer Rubin, Lawrence ODonnell, and I would not know anyone else because I don't watch the US TV news, except the other day which was a bad enough experience I won't be doing it soon again. I am more likely to watch German news, which is paid for by every household paying 18 Euro a month fee which one is billed when one moves into ones home. Also grateful for independent presses like ProPublica, who has broken a story where they summarize 14 hours of secret Project 2025 training videos that were leaked to them. At the end is a link for the full 14 hours. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Please share this with people.
A friend in England told me yesterday the Brits are asking how the Americans got this crazy.
There are quite a few Americans asking themselves the same question.
Good heavens! Thank you, Linda.
Or theater of the malignant.
And that is what the "debate" on September 10th will be like. A chance to ignore every question and to lie and bully endlessly.
VP Harris is smart and she will ignore everything he says. Don't take the bait. Ignore him and use her time to tell the American people the truth. It doesn't matter what the question was, just explain that fascism is in the works if Trump is elected. Talk about Freedom for women. Talk about the Climate Crisis. Ask Trump if he is afraid of his sentencing for fraud in two days!
Just use the time as a podium to speak to voters. It's not a debate. It's a chance for free publicity.
She'll know what to do! This is the woman who tells hecklers, nicely but firmly, that she's talking now.
I personally think she should hold some town halls like Clinton did. That was super effective.
It was a bid to take the spotlight and press coverage of the Harris/Walz campaign that Trump seems to think belongs to him and him alone.
Trump is a narcissist. He thinks the spotlight should be on him and him alone, and he’ll hate anyone or anything that takes the spotlight away from him.
I think he’ll ramp up his theatrics and lies as he perceives his influence eroding.
It's pretty hard to ramp it up much further. I think he's headed to a certified meltdown. In my career I've seen it happen 3 times to political candidates up close. One was so bad he went MIA. We found him in a psyche ward. He was an incumbent Mayor, ahead by 20 points...he lost by 20. This was about 60 days from election day. He was not a bad guy...not real bright...but not trouble. The other 2 won...but the meltdowns happened less than a week from the election. We were able to keep it quiet. None of them were able to go out in public, until after the elections and the stress went away.
Trump is ALWAYS theatre of the absurd...he excels at it.
And yet the “ journalists” arrived leaving their pens behind replacing them with spoons.
And yet almost half the country is sticking by this ass hat.
Corporate Media is working for shareholders and billionaires. Not democracy.
The owners of corporate media!
Musk turned Twitter into **itter because he was peeved and he could.
Now he whines, and sues, after saying he don’t need no advertising. Best example of the worst a cretin with money can do.
BTW, I predicted that NASA would regret the Boeing connection. However, cretin Musk might save the day. But only until it’s his turn to put me over they. If he paid taxes, NASA might could afford to do their own Schitt for all of us instead of vanity projects for billionaires.
Musk is a narcissistic idiot savant. He needs to get back in the sandbox where he knows how to play nice.
The Germans are boycotting his cars because he supports CFDT. And the Tesla board cannot control him as history has proven.
He can do so much damage. Money has power that way
We saw that in "The Gilded Age". I recall my public school textbook devoted some pages to it, along with a spread of old political cartoons of "Teddy the Trust Buster"; and it wasn't just progressive elected officials, but social movements that pushed the power of unregulated money subjugating society. Since the plutocratic capture of media since Reagan, even Democrats have been way too passive passive bout ceding ground to people like Musk. I resist my urge to quote Eric Holder once again on how some companies control so much of the economy that they cannot be meaningfully prosecuted, even when their harms to society are blatant; that they have us over a barrel. Maybe, as the abyss of fascism yawns before us. we are starting to rethink this.
Malignant narcissism is an equal opportunity corrupter; you don't have to be clever, but it can be worse if you're rich. Power tends to corrupt, and the consequences of the malady can be inflicted on more people. We all need to learn to play nice with no exceptions for the powerful. Good government tries to find the sweet spots between maximizing free choice and social harms, and proscribe the latter. An overall preponderance of good faith is essential to a just democracy. We can handle aberrations from responsible behaviors but not a sepsis sociopathic conduct.
Monopolies of money and other forms of power are patently antithetical to liberty and justice for all, hence a necessity for social regulation.
EXACTLY. Many articles have been written about how the tax-funded discoveries of the Space Program worked their way into commercial consumer products. When you consider the state of world technological capability at the time of the moon shots compared to now, it is astonishing we landed people on the moon and got them home. I have read that the first Voyager space probe carries the memory equivalent of a consumer Commodore 64 from the early '80s. And compared to a "smartphone"?!
The development of the Internet was publicly funded, which helps to explain, in terms of access, it's spontaneous, explosive growth, the chief gatekeeper being access to a computer and an ISP. The relatively obscure nerd-kingdom of the Internet spread like wildfire with the development at the Web Page, at internationally publicly funded CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider of "Higgs Boson" fame. The inventor of the Webpage fight to keep the system open and free.
I began wiring simple electrical circuits before I was 5. Technology is in my blood. Maybe its partially my advancing age, but throughout most of lifetime I regarded advancing technology as exciting and empowering, not just for me but for all of society. An example is LED lighting bringing cheap, practical illumination to parts of the world deprived of an electrical grid.
But now the customer of technology is increasingly not us, the people, but wealthy enclaves who aim to control and exploit us, such as with intrusive, tracking databases. Those who can pay can buy applications of technology that are not necessarily in the public's interests or approval, such as devices designed to intercept cell phone traffic. Schemes like Musk's Starlink pollutes space in ways that are inadequately regulated https://www.independent.co.uk/space/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-internet-b2567423.html and him allow him to interfere on whim with national policy. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-ukraine-russia-war-starlink-satellite-denied-major-act-of-war/ Governance of, by and for the people not. Plutocratic autocracy.
You know possibilities from the inside, and watched greed snatch things from the public domain. I worked at NASA in the 60’s and one of my jobs was to update the Apollo contract as engineers, etc, changed parts. I sat in a conference room with bookcases all around filled with black binders. I would get new pages and replace old one (typed on IBM Selectric typewriters). Not exactly high tech. But I watched the changes that the tech age brought, and like you say, the advancing technology was Exciting and empowering. I also watched NASA hand out pink slips after Apollo 11 and dismantle the team that pulled off the incredible feat. People scattered and magnificent things have been done all over, Voyager still one of the most impressive. I’m still a space junkie and I’m sickened by the trophies that Musk and Bezos claim, instead of feats “for all mankind.”
BTW, I watched the government waste billions doing prep for the CERN being built in Weatherford TX (50 miles from where I am) and then abandon what could have been a boon for the USA. Yep, a functional government needs to fix this off kilter scale. We, the people, are the losers.
AKA "Reaganomics".
The Ronnie and Rupert Show
Yes, The Washington Post is a subsidiary of Jeff Bezos/Amazon.
Well, Trump's 'lame-game' is afoot. Vice President Harris seems to be blowing him off; perfect tactic to drive President into implosion.
On the the three debates, Vice President Harris could say something like, "I understand that the President finds regular campaigning exhausting. But we do not. Debates are no substitute for getting out there and meeting voters."
Vice President Harris's answers were fine today, by the way; keeping her distance. There is no point in getting sucked under the event horizon of the black hole of President Trump's soul.
I want her to turn to him and say, "Donald, please - for once in your life, stop acting like a permanent ten year old elementary school playground bully."
Watch him respond to that. And she could do it.
That message might better be delivered by Gov Tim Walz, in the manner and tone a high school teacher, as he was, might address a self-absorbed 14 year old punk, who just went from the pinnacle of power in middle school society, to the bottom of the new high school environment, but hadn’t quite figured it out yet.
Except the VP candidate doesn't debate the presidential candidate - it has to be said to his face. If you remember how Kamala took on Biden's "go along to get along" history in the Senate at the 2020 debate, she can "bring it" to the terrified old Florida resident.
Boy did I see that happen a lot when I worked at middle school and then high school.
No. Gov Walz will have plenty to give when he debates Sen Vance. I will not be missing that one.
VP Harris is more than able to make mincemeat from a slug when she debates Trump. One of my fondest memories of her was when she questioned Kavanaugh during SC hearings. Every single woman in her soul that watched that intimately knew what the expression meant on her face. She was not having ANY of it.
Salud, Ed.
🗽
What do you do when confronted by a schoolyard bully? Go get the teacher! 😋
Governor Walz will be a great go-to teacher. Many of us need some education in the ways of compassion, dignity, and respect in governance.
I hope she DOES do it. She must be well aware of the disgust still felt by a large portion of the female (and some male) population re. trump's threatening "prowling bear" behavior behind Hillary at the 2016 debate. I wish Hillary had turned and slapped him down the, I'm sure Kamala wouldn't hesitate.
The mystery to me is why so many people like this scheiße.
It’s no mystery. They’re either brainwashed to see that behavior is O.K., or they’re horrible people.
That’s exactly what he is, and he can’t wait for those nukes. Oh wait, he will bow to the high school bully, Putin and all will be well. He said so. Hahaha
I’m not the bully, you’re the bully. ;)
I’m rubber, you’re glue … ;)
Good one!
I mean this sincerely. My experience with ten year olds and even with bullies has been that they are capable of more intelligence, integrity and empathy when you go deeper and when it matters. Trump Republicans?????
I went from being popular in eighth grade and willing to throw people under the bus to being a pimple of the ass of Pluto in ninth grade. Never did figure it out, though I am likely a better person for it. I would not dream of doing the stuff I did back then, even in a more covert, adult form.
"...the black hole of President Trump's soul" — great line, Ned.
That presumes a fact not in evidence: that he ever had one. A soul.
Good one!
His deal with the devil was prepaid.
Likely before he was born by his Nazi loving father.
Objection Sustained.
Wow! Great riposte!
What soul?
Thank you, Michael.
Please stop referring to Trump as President. Ex-President, former President, or, better yet, just plain Donald Trump
Or just Donald. His neice says he hates it.
You mean DonOld 😉
Perhaps Donny would more closely mirror his adolescent inner boy.
Oh Donny Boy, the courts, the courts are calling ye...
Here’s to the wish that he might have to spend a lot of time in court in his future, and we can dump the unconstitutional decision granting him broad immunity. The Founders took the position the President was not above the law, but the Seditious six unconstitutionally granted Trump broad immunity. No wonder Americans don’t respect SCOTUS as an institution.
😂
Great one to 'Danny Boy'!
"X45" has a ring to it.
Isn't that a DD-7 competitor? /S
I like it
I have heard reporters call him President, and not on Fox. Total pissants ass kissing.
In Trump’s own mind, he thinks he is still president, and his diehard supporters believe it too, contrary to actual fact. People were tired of the Orange Menace and his utter nastiness and incompetence.
!YES!
No can do. I resolved that, after the attempted assassination, I would try to be more civil. The honorific, which I had dropped, does apply for life.
I stopped referring to him as President on January 6. He abrogated that courtesy with his dishonorable acts that day.
I agree with Ned. We don't call Clinton ex president Clinton. He is/ was president. You can hate trump (as I do) but not dishonor the position he held. As Michelle Obama says "when they go low, we go high". That still works for me and I think it probably adds fuel to the fire anyway lol.
It was Michelle Obama who said that.
Thanks for the correction. You are right, I misspoke.
Corrected it.
'Former President', then.
Many thanks, as always, Jon. 🤝
Yes, that’s fair. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Donald refer to his opponent as Vice President Harris. He always calls her Kamala.
Trump is an idiot. Using what he does or says as an excuse to be idiots ourselves isn't a good look. I am not saying to softball him. Hardball is fair, just makes sure it is honest hardball. The people who matter will know the difference. The rest are sadly probably unreachable and fortunately NOT a majority.
Don-old Trump. Pa-lease.
Ot just the 'Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, 'DCDT'
Egad! Insults bounce off!
If VP Harris is blowing him off then the voters need to follow her lead.
Imagine a life never commenting on, thinking about or caring what he says or does. It is how I live.
Are we a nation of chicken littles?
Been feeling that way for a long time. Laugh the man off the stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgAoGf84-3A
I wouldn't debate him because he is so skilled at dominating and talking over people. She and Walz are pugilists on the campaign trail and are bloodying the MAGA team.
Interesting insight, there, Edward. It is a risk for Vice President Harris to debate the former President. The key for the calculation, as far as my wretched little can see, lies in those four-to-six per centers in the battle-ground states whose minds really are not made up. 😰
¿Will they be motivated by more than issues and look to character?
¿Will they see a an immature bully's screaming as strength?
¿Will they find Vice President Harris's intelligence and strength a tonic for our times?
In short, ¿will they prefer vision with civility to doom and boom?
By now most minds are made up. I know mine was in 2015.
My more family member believes that the former President better represents her economic interests. While we disagree, she makes it plain that can not and will not vote for the former President. Those are the people that Vice President Harris needs to reach.
Thank you again for the insight, Ed.
Ned, you and everyone else must stop referring to the orange fool as President - he's not. He's a private person running for president is all. Calling him Mr. Trump is fine .... and it really gets under his skin!
I think you make a lot of sense. The honorific does apply, but the designation of 'the former President' is civil and honours the office itself as Jon points out. Like others, I do not think the former President ever merited that honorific. I will do my best to heed you, Jan.
I'm glad to see HCR join Jennifer Rubin in calling out the media for their vapid "coverage" of elections. The pique they express when they complain that Harris hasn't talked to them is very revealing of where they think the attention should be: on them. But especially now, the public doesn't need journalists to tell us what public figures say, because they can - and do - tell us directly themselves. What we do need journalists for is to explain things in the larger context, as HCR does (yes, I know she's a historian - maybe that's why she does it so well?) and as some other journalists like Jamelle Bouie, Dahlia Lithwick, and Emily Bazelon do. But to those journalists whose idea of asking pointed questions is to ask a candidate about the other candidate - well, that's just lame, lazy, and ultimately useless.
It will be very interesting to see if this radically foreshortened election campaign changes the system. The only people I know who think we need a campaign as long as the term it's for is the industry that makes its living off it.
It fascinates me that when dealing with Pres. Biden, or his press secretary Corinne Jean-Pierre, and VP Harris, they scream and heckle and act as if they are not speaking to people who actually hold seats of authority or can give them access to those people who sit in those seats, instead they treat them as if they are minions. Contrast that with their treatment of trump.....it is one of obeisance and obsequiousness. Why? It is, as Lawrence O'Donnell said 2016 all over again. They are demanding of VP Harris things they have never demanded of trump or his servants. Again, why?
Hi Carol-Ann, many elements of the corporate media do not go after Trump because the oligarchs in control either want him to win or do not want to offend him in case he wins. Corporate media no longer holds power to account. Let's hope it does not do a great disservice to democracy between now and November. More power to independent media which gives hope for the future.
Remember when “ independent media “ was redundant.
Apparently, DonOld, that vindictive and vengeful cretin, keeps score on journalists whose reports and columns displease him and then restricts access. Hence the kid gloves and gentle handling.
Celebrity, Carol-Ann.
The orange felon coasted for years on the apparatus of television fiction.
When we speak of American culture, we somehow understand powerful levels of thought, precedent, analogy, and many other levels of humanity in our novels, films, poems, stage plays, music, and other arts. School, since the Powell memo of 1971, has sunk to the vulgarities of standardized testing -- and nothing more. So (virtually) no one knows how to access anything from that entire world where Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt felt some "still, small voice" nagging him.
Television fiction? Some of it is super. But notice even here, among fellow commenters, how many ever quote or even attempt half-aptly to refer to any of it?
It's our schools, by design, Carol-Ann, which gave us the orange felon, his Clarence court, and a Congress near totally in service to the money Citizens United ruled would rule.
Phil-I love that Walz was a teacher, coach and commander. A great combination for someone who cares about humanity. You’re on point about the dearth of humanities and proliferation of testing ruining our formal schools systems.
This “dumbing down” of formal education means we need to infuse humanities into our community building and politics. It’s the only way we’ll be able to live together peacefully in a multicultural world.
The Rs actually plan to eliminate the Department of Education. They’ve banned books and squashed music and the arts. By their own words and deeds they don’t care about the impact their decisions and behavior have on the lives of human beings and sustainability for our environment. It’s money, money, money.
As Coretta Scott King quoted in the forward to MLK’s book The Strength to Love (1963), “only through the bringing together of head and heart-intelligence and goodness-shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature”. (I’m sure he meant women will rise too.) As a lifelong learner HCR and LFAA commenters have been a learning circle for me.
Let’s see what Harris and Walz can teach us in the political arena. I think they’re off to a good start using joy, inclusion and optimism to drive their campaign.
Humanities can live beyond the classroom as we teach in different settings while working to improve our formal educational system. As a champion for the humanities you help us to believe in what’s possible when we embrace the fullness of what it means to be human.
😢😢😢
Why? Let me refer you to comedian Kathleen Madigan ‘s response to her sister when this sister asked why her kids don’t badger their aunt Kathleen with so many questions as they do with their own mom. “ because you answered them the first time “.
Quid pro quo.
Scott Dworkin has been focused on the lack of journalistic integrity and how they are treating, or not, the four candidates. You might check out his Substack too when you get a minute.
Robert Hubble has also been sounding the alarm about the biased and problematic media.
The late William Greider, who was himself a journalist, wrote about this in his 1992 book “Who Will Tell the People.”
Don’t know if you know the facts about Dworkin?
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/scott-dworkin-resistance/
Thanks for sharing this. I had no idea.
I read it, and wasn’t aware of his background.
What do you expect from the under-achievers of the upper middle class who go to "Journalism school," where the "professors" are otherwise-unemployable losers (if they were any good, they'd be doing the job) and the "education" is parroting back the loser's BS?
Speaking as a graduate of the University of Washington School of Journalism, as a former journalist, and a member of the middle class your comment is both uninformed and inaccurate. I have many friends who work hard every day in a very difficult business to inform their communities of events and issues vital to their understanding of what’s happening locally, nationally and internationally. If you haven’t done the job, don’t act like you know what it is. Disparaging teachers really is way off base. My wife taught elementary school for 36 years. I dare you to teach a classroom of second graders for even one day. But first you’ll have to write your lesson plan, grade your student’s work from yesterday, talk with a parent whose child has a learning disability and another parent whose child has a behavior problem. Go ahead. When do you want to start?
Well said. My grandson is an investigative journalist who works incredibly hard and always, always tells the truth no matter what. Every article of his undergoes massive fact checking. I have great respect for the efforts his employers make to get things right. He does not cover politics.
I wish more journalists were like your grandson, but there are still great investigative journalists around, like David Cay Johnston. Johnston is very familiar with Donald Trump and the many skeletons in Trump’s closet. He has written articles and books very critical of Trump’s flim flams and incompetence.
Few journalists who step into the political arena walk out with clean boots.
Do you have any evidence or examples to go along with or support your sweeping generalization?
Thank you, Joel. Criticism, especially by the ignorant, is too often treated like actual currency these days. Walking a mile in someone else's shoes before proclaiming about how easy their life is should be required for those who spew opinions with neither knowledge or experience.
I'm tsalking about the "top end" media and the Ivy League J-skoolz, which are as bad as everyone says. The folks "in the trenches" are different.
I’m talking about my friends at The NY Times.
Look at their work.
Their work just like yours I'm sure (whatever it is you do) may be imperfect but does not deserve to be ridiculed or slandered. I recognize that even the NYT has challenges but most of its journalists are hardworking and produce far better work than Fox Snooze. Walk a mile in their shoes, as they say.
That sounds like “Those who can, do; those who can't, teach”, George Bernard Shaw.
Or, translated into the vernacular of those who use it, “Thems that can, do. Thems that can’t, teach.”
It's certainly true at fillum skoolz. I usd to be able to piss off the entire faculty of the screenwriting department at UCLA film school by pointing out I had more produced credits than all of them combined.
Divisive and cruel.
Too nasty
Several good points here. The other "pointed question" that's always put me off is "How do respond to [fill in the blank]'s claim/charge that you....?"
HCR is a History professor and Walz is a former Social studies teacher. Seems the US can use more teachers to put things in perspective. A slate including a prosecutor and a teacher/sergeant will be interesting to watch.
Oh for the days when I didn’t have to shop for legitimate news reporting. 30 minutes of Walter was a treat that I could partake of again. Now it’s a full time job.
Do you know, Celia, how many American novels have looked piquantly at human character?
The answer is many, many, many. As well as many, many great movies, great songs, stage plays. And long, probing histories.
Now, how many public officials, pundits, journalists, or commenters here learned from American education to use any of these resources?
Ditto; Brava Celia !
Jamelle boule is not a journalist, he is a columnist. There is a real distinction. He takes a clear position. Journalists must be objective. Please keep that in mind when looking at the way various writers write.
He’s a columnist, but tells unpalatable truths about Donald Trump.
But his views are biased, not at all objective. The bias may be the one you like but when he writes he has a viewpoint and it is just silly to suggest that somehow he is providing fair coverage. Maggie Haberman on the other hand is a reporter who provides pretty even handed coverage yet everyone here "yells" about "unfair" NYT coverage which is not at ALL unfair but just good journalism.
Well said.
Heather did make an error in her piece today: Rump liking authoritarians and vice versa is not a part of the “banquet of lies”, it’s a fact.
This is one of the more insightful comments I have read in a while.
¿Why?
Because it accords with what I think . . . of course. 😉
Seriously, I was an intern in the Senate way-long ago and I quickly came to believe that most of the media is simply lazy. The locus of power in our government is the legislative branch. Easier and more cost effective to cover one President than five hundred, thirty-five legislators.
Unfortunately, the current Supreme Court is shifting that locus of power to the executive in a counter-constitutional intervention into the structure of our government. The question is less whether Vice President Harris will triumph, though l pray and believe she will, but whether Congress can re-assert its power and not defer to this fundamental attack upon republican governance.
On your other point, Celia, I think your idea of seeking out journalists and thought-leaders whom one trusts in the hurley-burly of the bland and the bullsh*t makes so much sense. If we are now home to a generation of two of voters who never had much in the way of civics classes, nuanced and explicative contextual journalism assumes a paramountcy in participatory democracy. Thank you again, Celia, for a 'WOWerful' comment.
Thank you so much.
Hear, here!
"Jamelle Bouie, Dahlia Lithwick, and Emily Bazelon" - I don't know these, I'll look them up.
What I DO know is - they are going to be the names of the main characters in the romantic novel I'm writing, set on the Caribbean islands at the start of the eighteenth century. . . thanks for solving a problem!
Jamelle Bouie and Emily Bazelon write for the New York Times, and Dahlia Lithwick writes for Slate. Lithwick’s writing on legal issues is especially great.
Thanks - don't take the NYT - perhaps should.
Everyone should take AND read the New York Times. It is probably the one remaining decently objective news source in the United States today (well plus the AP). Virtually every other daily paper including biggies like LA Times, WaPo and Wall Street journal have become mostly mouthpieces for one side or another. Really sad state of journalism but it pisses me off when people here who should be seeing the NYT as a great example of real journalism throw stones by quoting columnists and saying the reporting isn't fair because it actually IS fair and not biased enough for them. Jeesh. Didn't any of you learn about the difference between journalism and opinions/ editorials in high school?
I wonder to what degree our televisation of the weighty duties, process, and personalities of government has excessively fed our expectations and perceptions of politics as theater? would Lincoln have made it as a Media star?
Nah, our Fox vultures would have mocked him.
And made fun of his "not-an-orator'" voice.
Probably an image worthy of their contempt
Lincoln was widely reviled. Then, as now, most people had primitive political opinions, and he was easily mocked. He was often depicted in newspaper cartoons as an ape, or as black, since he loved "Negroes" so much. Also, as in every war including the American Revolution, most of the populace just wanted to be left alone. When the Republicans began a military draft, people just lost their minds. (To be fair, I don't blame them.)
I enjoyed Lawrence O’Donnell’s segment about how badly the reporters had behaved at the felon’s resort and why, pray tell, would VP Harris want to be talking about her opponent? Idiots! Irresponsible fools! Someone please tell me that wasn’t a NYT reporter who asked Kamala about sitting for an interview. Below is the link for O’Donnell’s comments. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/uAZ4QdZChm4
Thanks for posting this—I was just going to share it. Lawrence really ripped the networks and even NBC(!). Nicolle Wallace replayed his take down this afternoon as well.
Thank you for posting the link.
Thanks, SPW! I have the Twitter one but I'll add yours to my list of links I'm sharing on social media.
Thank you.
I am so done with the MSM. They are failing us, as they did in 2016. As George W said, we won't be fooled again.
Actually, it was The Who who said “we won’t get fooled again.” 🤣
Time to listen again.
Thanks, Brenda.
Actually, poor ol' Dubyah said "fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
But he STILL sounds more intelligent than trump.
Not Bush
https://youtu.be/UDfAdHBtK_Q?si=NwDg2923iIri1km-
I canceled my subscription to NYT today ( but kept the games and cooking sections because those are the only ones I read anymore) and noted in the survey I was asked to take that my cancellation was due to the paper normalizing CFDT as a candidate despite the fact that he is a conficted felon and sex offender, and responsible for inciting an attempted coup. I’m sure the powers that be will shake in their boots and immediately change the election coverage, but I won’t hold my breath.
Margaret, I canceled and registered the same complaint several weeks ago. CFDT!!!! I am so adopting that!!!
I only subscribe to NYT now to learn the deceitful bulls-it that mainstream media wants to present to sell a bill of goods to the country. To get access to real investigative journalism requires going to Independent journalism or outside the bubble created by the domestic USA infotainment of mainstream media.
It is not just the print media, but also the corporate owned TV/cable media (Comcast/Universal, Paramount, Disney, the Murdochs…)!
Agreed. I ditched commercial TV about a decade ago. Half the expenditures once directed to Comcast buy much better access to information by subscribing-to/supportomg multiple independent media sources.
I dropped cable some time ago and don’t like watching commercial news. With rare exceptions, local and national news broadcasts don’t address hard hitting issues, and news is dumbed down and presented as infotainment.
Margaret, I did the exact same thing TODAY. well almost the same thing. I cancelled everything. It felt good didn't it?
As did i
God help us, but the U.S. press is not capable of seriously covering serious subjects, including a presidential campaign and election. This is especially painful to me because I'm a retired news reporter and editor, having covered business and government, including Congress, federal agencies and the White House. I also wrote columns about economic and environmental issues. Today, the press seems only interested in clickbait for the internet, and reporters and editors treat Trump's ocean of lies as equal to the honest efforts of other candidates, even with hyperbole a common element of political discourse. This is shameful, but, alas, today's press -- along with Trump and his cult -- have no shame.
I'll bet you didn't go to an Ivy League "Journalism" school where the professors were otherwise-unemployables (if they were any good, they'd be doing the job), and the "education" was parroting back their bullshit.
I did not. In state university undergraduate and grad schools (North Carolina and Virginia), I studied political science, economics, law and journalism. Several of my j-school professors spent their summers working for nearby newspapers to keep up their skills and knowledge.
And there you have described why you arrived at your first job ready to do it and become better at it.
Thank you. Kind of you to say that.
If you went to Chapel Hill and Charlottesville, their standards are the same as the Ivies. They are the capstones of state university systems for those states. They are not the same as the more regional colleges. Only Columbia has a school of journalism so the writers you are maligning, didn't attend Ivy schools of journalism. Peter Baker of the NY Times never completed college, Maureen Dowd went to Catholic U, I could go on.
One final note, the nearest paper of any size near Charlottesville is in Lynchburg, it use to be two, the Advance and the News. Now they are one. They were owned by the Glass family, who were strict segregationists. In fact, Carter Glass (co-author of the Glass Stegall Act) enthroned segregation in a speech in the House of Representatives. "Discrimination! Why that is exactly what we propose. To remove every negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without materially impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate."
So working there was not exactly the pinnacle of journalism.
Little tidbits everywhere. Thank you. Maureen Dowd used to be a favorite til she got too impressed with herself.
Carol-Ann-Glass sounds just like the Rs of today as they purge voter rolls and try to throw out votes from predominantly “Negro” voting districts. Racism plays an outsized role in our politics and society. Let’s hope this election shows us that people who love this country can come together regardless of skin color to defeat people who depend on dividing us.
There were notable journalists leading newspapers in North Carolina, such as Wallace Carroll in Winston-Salem, for whom I worked, and Frank Daniels in Raleigh. Yes, the universities in Chapel Hill and Charlottesville are excellent, arguably comparable to the Ivies, which is why I went to those places after doing well in high school. But my response had less to do with the newspapers than with the fact that many of my journalism professors did more than teach procedure and theory; they worked summers at newspapers to keep up their skills and knowledge, which was beneficial to their students. Also worth noting: a person does not have to go to j-school to be a journalist; studies in history, economics, political science and other specialties are likely more important. I studied those subjects in undergrad school; I went to grad school to write a thesis on crime reporting.
Ready to run 👍
I don 't know, TCinLA. It sounds as if you applied to an Ivy League school and didn't get in. Why so bitter and angry?
Nope, you are totally wrong. But I did have to put up with the fillum skool morons in Hollywood, and was happy to be in a position to fire several for incompetence and lack of talent.
Trump and the media are playing their same tired old game. Meanwhile Harris/Walz and our army of volunteers are doing the work required to win.
Thanks Heather, the reporters in Trumps Press Conference or as the IHIP podcast (great and funny) call him “Donable Lecter” how dare he compare J6 with the March on Washington. The first a violent insurrection leaving many dead a wounded to subvert the Constitution, the other wanting the promise of the Constitution peacefully. The major media outlets don’t recognize this, they bully Joe Biden but they are cowards in front of Trump. Trump did not answer one question of which most were t-ball shits, unbelievable!
Real reporters like we saw at NABJ are the ones making a difference. Those attending Mar al Lago should change their professions.
Meant to say t-ball shots! Sorry
Right the first time…
Given a chance to interview KH on the tarmac, they asked about Tr*mp. And they wonder why she won’t give them more time. Useful tip: consider reporting rather than repeating. And take Lawrence O’Donnell’s remarks to heart.
The media has got to do better. Harris takes time to answer questions, and "their questions were about Trump and his comments." Really? Unbelievable! The Harris-Walz movement may be the beginning of a revolution for democracy. Its no longer about tfg!
If he thinks this attempt at a press conference will make him a viable candidate (as I'm sure he tried to accomplish), he just proved he's NOT!
"
Trump this, Trump that, Trump Trump Trump…it’s all clickbait. That’s what he wants, more and more attention. He couldn’t handle that V.P. Harris is in the limelight with Walz, so he does a circus act to get the crowd going. And he’s the clown waving his hands back and forth. I started watching it and turned it off after the comment about M.L.K. He looks demented. Imagine a world where we never hear or see him again. That’s my I have a dream comment.
He's used to having a deck stacked in his favor. But as Lawrence described so well, we deserve much better than that. We're not going back!
So used to having the deck stacked. I feel so fortunate to having been born into a poor family. Not destitute but poor. Stacked decks equal empty shells.
I'm from the working class myself. All I needed was a chance. And that's all that Kamala is promising.
All I ever wanted. Inherited money seems to be a curse. Made fools out of the ones I know
100% agree. I have that dream. He is so obviously an empty suit. There is no there there. Yet the pretense goes on.
This election will not be about the news media. As Lawrence squarely stated, they’ve learned NOTHING since 2016 about in depth reporting. So don’t read them, watch them, financially support them. Don’t take the bait. Instead, get out the vote. Period.
Here’s a great story. My neighbor got a phone call from her brother in South Dakota, apologizing to her. He was a MAGA , Trump maniac who tortured his family with false “‘facts” spewed daily on FOX. Then he saw the rally with Tim Walz, looked him up, and saw all he’s done for Minnesota. Told his sis he was ashamed and now sees Trump for the crazy hater he is. Didn’t want to be like him. One at a time, folks. Focus on spreading that news of what we can do. Ignore the rest.
Let’s hope this revelation occurs in family after family as sanity and peace is restored.
I’ve been hoping Walz would be the bridge back to reality for MAGAs. Thank you for sharing this story!
Glory hallelujah
what a picker upper
It's funny - as I was reading the opening paragraph, which mentioned the Republicans "briefly talked about suing to make sure that Biden, rather than Harris, was at the head of the Democratic ticket," it reminded me of what we saw from Elon Musk this week.
Angry that advertisers have fled his platform, unwilling to pay for the pleasure of placing their brands next to extreme content (such as anti-Semitism, racism, and conspiracy theories), Twitter (I refuse to call it 'X') sued the companies for not advertising with them. The entire event was even accompanied by a pathetic video from the CEO, Linda Yaccarino, who clearly made the video for an audience of one.
https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/mediocrity-in-the-extreme
Just like Trump staffers used to preen and attack the press in clips they knew would land on Trump's screen. The formula is the same: Medicrity + Sycophancy = Disaster
It's Xitter, pronounced "shitter."
I notice that the verb is still "tweet", as in "he tweeted".
TC, you're right. It should be "Xat"
- Kids could call them 'poops'.
That remains preferable to using the past tense of TC's pronunciation in your format. :-)
I often spell it “Shitter.” Coincidence?
I recommend that Trump should be called “Shit-talker Trump”
The Daily Show had a clip of Elon saying that he didn’t want the advertisers money. “They can f**k themselves,” he repeated. They took his advice and now he sues. I hope that clip is played for the court.
I hope so, too. And I also hope that at least a few of them self-proclaimed geeks and tech bros stop fawning over Musk and start seeing him for the narcissistic, aggressive and explosively dangerous little dictator that he really is.
Great adjectives
Daily show did a good commentary on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEQp7tOQs5U at the end after the commentary on the press conference.
I refer to that disaster as "Elmo's Twitterx".
Then there's Jay Kuo's Saturday "Just for Xeets and Giggles!"
I'm adding a giggle.
Or "Xitter".
I do enjoy these erudite discussions!
Well, the sorry truth is that Musk has wrecked Xitter. I see some fairly obvious lying and disgusting attacks from people toward their fellow humans there. Some of them are convinced that CNN is overly favorable toward Democrats, but I’d question that after Trump’s encounter with President Biden.