I saw former RNC Head Michael Steele doing his pundit thing and he spoke a truth that his colleagues in media don’t want to hear, much less do something about. He flat-out stated Democratic nominee has a very, very high bar to clear (and noted the same was true for President Biden) while the bar for Trump is and always has been pretty much non-existent. Or if there was one it was on the ground and easily stepped over. He’s right and we all, and more importantly EVERYONE at news outlets know if voters have been suckered by Trump, drawn into his MAGA world it was because news outlets HELPED him sell his schtick!
I’ve written about this before. I’m sure it won’t be for the last time. Sure, sometimes the chattering class laments what Trump has done, and talk about his enablers. Sometimes they even acknowledge their business has been part of the problem of the rise of Trump and Trumpism/MAGA. However I call bullshit on them. It’s almost always them whining ‘how are we supposed to deal with the likes of Trump?’ Well for starters they SHOULD have been using words like LIAR and BUFFOON from the beginning. Call him out as the combination Carnival Barker and sleaziest of used car salesman he’s always been. They, especially NBC which had all those outtakes from The Apprentice could have and should have exposed the actual reality of the personae of Trump we saw on The Apprentice.
That’s what should have happened back in 2015 when Trump started laying waste to the rest of the GOP field in the Republican primary debates. His candidacy could have and should have been over before Iowa and New Hampshire. However he was good for ratings and the money that came with them. As CBS’s Les Moonves famously said (on behalf of his colleagues who ALL felt the exact same way) ‘It might not be good for the country but it’s good for CBS.’ We all know the quote money is the root of all evil but the actual quote is ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ Trump IS evil and New Yorkers all knew it. Therefore every major TV outlet and many of the biggest print ones knew Donald Trump and how despicable and downright evil a person he’s always been. But they loved the money they could make off of him more than this country. Not just the good of this country by the way, but that of the free world.
So, Michael Steeles devastatingly accurate talk about the proverbial bar being set at a damned near impossible height for Harris (or Biden or frankly anyone else including Republicans that might challenge Trump) and the one set for Trump. Sitting on the ground. Hell, it’s set in a shallow trench just wide enough and deep enough to keep it level with the f**king ground. And if Trump STILL tripped over it (you’ve seen how he drags a leg sometimes) mainstream media would contort itself into pretzels to give him a pass while holding Harris or anyone else to having to clear an Olympic Gold Medal pole vault height!
Salon has an article up talking about this. It starts off referencing that live press conference President Biden gave after the NATO summit. I watched it live (and went back and watched it again) and it was a true tour de force. After months, hell a year or more of HARPING on Biden’s “fitness”, “mental acuity” or “cognitive skills” by highlighting the verbal gaffes and mispronounced words that have been part of him his entire public life (because he overcame a classic, ‘fight to spit out the words’ stutter) they always had ready made material. ‘See? SEE?’ they kept saying. Biden’s brain is turning into mush was the theme they foisted on the public. It was enough to damage President Biden’s image with the public and scare the hell out of Democrats. And it forced a good person, and a great leader with a still great mind and grasp of policy to step aside.
Meanwhile Trump was, every time he spoke (even though it was always in friendly environments) spouting a word salad of nonsense, idiotic policies, unrealistic promises and outright lies. And during the same time Biden was getting the screws put to him over even the tiniest of gaffes Trump had regularly begun slurring his speech, and losing his train of thought to actually having to take seconds to figure out what the hell he’d just said and wanted to try and say!
Yet as Salon noted during that press conference where Biden displayed a wide-ranging and masterful grasp of world politics and national security that would have made any predecessor envious news outlets, no doubt butt-hurt over not getting Biden to melt into a puddle before their oh so awesome fierce questions ignored all that. Instead they chose to focus on his one embarrassing gaffe, where he messed up and referred to the President of Egypt as the President of Mexico. It’s not like the southern border hasn’t been a hot topic AND everyone knew it was a minor slip-up but THAT was the story news outlets wanted to tell.
The linked article goes on to note Biden’s (admittedly poor) debate performance and again refers to the reporting of that press conference:
That press conference came in the shadow of the Hur report, in which the special counsel made a gratuitous comment about Biden being an elderly man with a bad memory. From that moment on almost every story about Joe Biden was framed in terms of his advanced age and the question of whether he was up to the job. The drumbeat continued for months until Biden’s disastrous debate performance validated the narrative and it continued until the day he withdrew from the race. No one in the media cut Joe Biden any slack for his performance.
A decision had been made in the executive suites and boardrooms of news outlets. FORCE President Biden to step aside. It’s no secret why. Ever since 1968, but especially in the age of 24/7 cable news they’ve dreamt, lusted even for a so-called Brokered Convention. Complete with protests outside that would get violent and cause mass arrests, actual fights on the convention floor, all kind of closed door meetings the pundits could speculate on, and as much as a week (if not more) of ballots trying to pick a candidate. A true ratings bonanza! And then still more ratings from all the post convention stories. That’s the dream every four years. You know it as well as I do. However no one EVER thought Trump would step aside, but they also KNEW that the GOP wouldn’t stand up to him. So, if they were going to get their precious brokered convention this cycle it would have to be the Democrats giving it to them. Hence the decision to trash President Biden and force him from the race. Meanwhile as Salon notes:
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been speaking nonsense and spouting gibberish on the campaign trail and the media is covering for him by pretending that his verbal incontinence actually makes sense or by ignoring it altogether. Yes, there’s been some mordant chuckling in the media over his bizarre comments about “the late great Hannibal Lecter” and his meandering tales about electric boats and shark attacks. Those stories are all delivered with a twinkling eye-roll as if to say “Oh that wacky Trump, there he goes again” as if it’s just a funny little anecdote, apropos of nothing.
To say journalists have gone out of their way to ‘normalize’ Trump is a huge understatement. The same is true of the Republican Party which so long ago completely surrendered to Trump. I agree with those who say the problem was there before Trump came along, that he’s the full-blown manifestation of the disease that’s been rotting away the GOP for a long time but what Trump did is rip off the devil’s mask. And worse give others cover to let their own darkest, most vile and hateful tendencies loose upon this country and others. I’m not a widely read writer and certainly no influencer on social media but here’s someone who is, and he nails it:
Once again @jbouie gives a fundamental lesson in journalism pic.twitter.com/bCA8xSII7F
— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) September 2, 2024
That’s not all. It’s true that some outlets (MSNBC at least) played the clip of Trump being asked an actual decent (and fair) question at that town hall (someone has no doubt lost their job over the woman having been picked as one of the four attendees who got to ask Trump something directly) about child care. In case you missed it you really need to see this:
Donald Trump’s answer on how he will make childcare more affordable: pic.twitter.com/Hwu7R5aIt6
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 5, 2024
The author of the Salon article doesn’t hold back on the NYT:
“Here is how the New York Times wrote that mess of a response up:”
After his speech, Donald Trump was asked how he might address rising child care costs. In a jumbled answer, he said he would prioritize legislation on the issue but offered no specifics and insisted that his other economic policies, including tariffs, would “take care” of child care. “As much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in.”
If Trump actually shows up for the debate next week (I still say it’s even money he’ll find a way to weasel out) I’m sure of one thing. Harris can give the greatest debate performance in all of human history, and Trump can pee and crap his Depends so badly it flows out from behind the podium. Then play with matches and set the podium on fire AND of course word-salad his way through lie after lie and batshit insane ramblings over and over and it won’t matter. If Harris never misspeaks a single word, gets every fact exactly right and clearly articulates responsive answers to every question and even gets in some clever quips at Trump’s expense it won’t matter to the media. They will find SOMETHING, whether it’s a lock of hair that falls out of place, the height of her heels, the “inappropriate color of what she wears, SOMETHING to focus on other than telling the f**king truth. Of pointing out TRUMP is the one (not Biden) who has lost it mentally in recent years.
News outlets put a LOT into driving Biden out of the race and at the “proper time” to create a ratings bonanza sh*t show of a Jerry Springer Show Democratic Convention. President Biden and Kamala Harris denied them that, as did the Democratic Party. The media, and not just the bosses but a lot of the “talent” want their goddamned pound of flesh and if feeding Harris (and Walz) into their meat grinder AND propping up Trump via if not blowing off his mental INSTABILITY entirely at least making light of it then they will.
I urge you to read the linked article. I’ll put the thrust of it in starker terms than Salon did. We don’t have a case of different standards for the two major Party candidates. The Democratic candidate has a nearly impossibly high standard that the media insists must be met. And that same media has NO standard at all for Donald Trump. Face it folks, news outlets in general will NOT do their jobs this fall just like they’ve REFUSED to do so in the past. It’s all on us, regular folks to get out there and if only one person at a time inform fellow voters of the truth. And the truth is plain enough to see. Kamala Harris is a highly intelligent, hard working person with a stellar career of public service devoted to helping others and with definable beliefs and positions as well as policies that are in line with what most Americans actually want. And Donald Trump is clearly experiencing the onset of dementia (how far along is a matter of opinion) who has only ever cared about himself.
That is the TRUTH. And no major news outlet is about to make that the theme of their coverage. They want their ratings/ad revenue Trump BLOOD Money. Or they are just plain scared of him. Or both.
“If there is a country in the world that has committed unspeakable atrocities, it is the United States of America.” Nelson Mandela
Cue up the thumbs down…
Sadly we have plenty of company. Just take a look at history and you’ll find “good” countries that have committed atrocities. It doesn’t make it right that we’ve done so, but it’s worth keeping in mind we’re not even close to being unique in that regard. Mandela is widely admired and deservedly so but he’d have been the first to admit the UK and many other countries that promote freedom were as complicit with helping the old South African regime that imprisoned him in power.
In our country, we go to prison first, THEN become president.”
Nelson Mandela
No way Scott. This country HAS committed so many f*cking atrocities it should NEVER be looked at as anything other than a very dark alley-certainly no light on a hill b.s. I live in a state where you can see the result of this country’s attempt at genocide and it is sickening. I’ve lived in the south and have seen the abject poverty p.o.c. deal with all the while a bunch of ignorant wipipo across the tracks, who could not name probably five presidents we ever had (and likely not the current one), live in decent housing having sufficient money from jobs forbidden (at least by the companies) to the p.o.c. Let’s not even get into the horrors we EXPORTED by way of wars we had no business being involved in. Our support of the allies in WWI and WWII do not erase the very, very, horrible things we have done as a country.
If you’re looking for some shining city of freedom on a hill, looking at this dung pile of a country is the wrong place to look.
True Denis. It’s all the facts and culture that supports this fascist child killing nazi that PROVES that quote is as valid today as when he said it. I wouldn’t bet money he gets less votes than he did in 2020, where he got 10 million MORE votes than 2016. Fool me once didn’t work that time around. Everyone could see the racism, misogyny, grift, lies, pissing on the military, etc., yet he increased his vote total. Despite everything…he’s free of ANY real consequences prior to the election,(thanks Merrick), and it isn’t inconceivable he could cheat his way back in. What should we do then with the oath we took in the military when this sick country allows such a thing to happen? You and both know the citizens will fall right in line. In 1930 the Germans thought the nazis were crazy…then the entire remaining citizens in the late 30s fell right in line when a gun was stuck in their face. Trump will just be a dumb Hitler…and who’s going to stop him this time? Surely not the 99% who never served.