Watching a tornado get rolling must be a lot like this. In fact, I’ve seen little dust devils out in the desert on an overcast day. Suddenly there’s a cloud and you feel the atmospheric conditions change into storm mode. The wrong combination of factors happen and then the sky darkens and before you know it all hell begins to break loose as the power of nature unleashs and people leave the streets for their personal safety. Since Thursday night we’ve heard that there is great discontent with Joe Biden’s poor debate performance. We get that. But rather than that being water under the bridge, there are major *news* outlets now reporting that Joe Biden is going to spend time with his family on Sunday and discuss whether he will continue in the race. Naturally, the right-wing media is going after this like it was free beer on a 100 degree day. And most people out there believe that this is in fact true. I don’t. I’ve been watching every nano second of this developing story since the Thursday debate and what you’re about to read here is something an assignment editor dreamt up to get clicks and engagement.
Biden is expected to discuss the future of his re-election campaign with family on Sunday, following the debate that left many fellow Democrats worried about his ability to beat Trump
First on @NBCNews by @carolelee @kwelkernbc @jonallendc @mikememoli @albamonica:…
— Tom Namako (@TomNamako) June 30, 2024
Here’s the story linked to and it’s a real nothing burger. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t do damage in its own way.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is expected to discuss the future of his re-election campaign with family at Camp David on Sunday, following a nationally televised debate Thursday that left many fellow Democrats worried about his ability to beat former President Donald Trump in November, according to five people familiar with the matter.
Biden’s trip was planned before Thursday’s debate. He and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to join their children and grandchildren there late Saturday.
So far, the party’s top leaders have offered public support for Biden, including in tweets posted by former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Senior congressional Democrats, including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Nancy Pelosi of California, have privately expressed concerns about his viability, said two sources apprised of those discussions, even as they all publicly back the president.
One Democratic House member who believes Biden should drop out of the race — but has yet to call for that publicly — told NBC News that three colleagues expressed the same sentiment to him during votes on the House floor Friday. [Note: I seriously doubt that this exists. Emphasis in bold mine, so that you make sure you see it.]
House leaders have not wavered publicly, and their aides denied that they are expressing doubts behind closed doors.
“Speaker Pelosi has full confidence in President Biden and looks forward to attending his inauguration on January 20, 2025,” Ian Krager, a spokesman for the former House speaker said. “Any suggestion that she has engaged in a different course of action is simply not true.”
Christie Stephenson, a spokeswoman for Jeffries, the House minority leader, said her boss has “repeatedly made clear publicly and privately that he supports President Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket from top to bottom.”
Brianna Frias said that Clyburn, who is traveling to Wisconsin this weekend to campaign for the president, “has total confidence in President Joe Biden and the Biden-Harris ticket.
This is a nothing burger of an article which alludes to something happening but at the same time stays on the proper side of the truth by stating how major players are supporting Biden, which is the case, has been the case, and which will stay the case.
The *purpose* of an article like this is the real story, in my opinion. This article exists to get people revved up and thinking about possibilities that don’t really exist. And believing that things are a way that they are not.
Thanks for saying it Ron!👍
It’s getting very annoying to listen to.— Trixie 🌸 (@Trixie_is_Back) June 30, 2024
The corporate media, mainstream media, call them what you will, are creating news, not reporting it. This is one reason why somebody like Ron Filipkowski is running an outlet like Meidas Touch or for that matter, why you and I are here on this small blog. The MSM is an entity in and of itself and its main job is not truth and reporting. It’s main job is to keep itself sustained by providing entertainment and generating fear and worry.
NBC News has no business doing this — and you notice how they carefully tippy toe around the edges here and don’t go too far. They want to plant the idea that Joe Biden might leave the race and another Democrat take over and that they do. They use whatever credibility many decades of real journalism has given them in order to plant the notion firmly. And then they carefully don’t say much of anything factual because there is nothing factual to say.
They knew it and we know it. There’s a real sociological showdown in the making here. It’s not just about the November election and whether a sociopathic, unstable lunatic will get back into power. There’s a whole societal reckoning which is going to take place in the next several years, mark my words, about how the press reports politics and is a player, not just an objective bystander.
The MSM needs to get accountable. It’s been falling down on the job for some time now or else outlets like Lincoln Project, Medias Touch, and even tiny ones like PolitiZoom wouldn’t exist. We are all here because we bring something to the table, individually and collectively, that people are not getting from the big players.
With respect to this blog, not here for big money, which is a good thing because there is no big money. There’s one full time salary, which I earn and it is modest. (And it fluctuates. Some months are better than others.) But I’m proud and elated to be able to make some kind of a living doing what I consider to be important work. Everybody else here makes part-time wages and also gets whatever else the payoff is in terms of being pleased to be making a difference, be it ever so humble. So we’re not in it for millions of bucks, that’s for damn sure. But the MSM is.
What you’re seeing here and now is a conspiracy theory in the making, not the first one, and certainly not the last. You’re seeing manipulation of information. And you’re seeing it being done by big time players. You’re seeing this story in the same time period that you saw the New York Times, the Grey Lady herself, the Paper Of Record for this country, turn on Joe Biden and ask him to leave the presidential race, which is sheer sociological suicide. He won’t do it but they have no bloody business even bringing the subject up.
These are not small things, these events of the past few days, or I would not be taking the time to document them. These are monumental things. When I was taking journalism classes in college it was the 1970’s. It was the Era Of Watergate. The MSM was not doing what they are doing today.
This reckoning with MSM has been coming for a while. This is nothing new. There are independent journalists like Dan Froomkin who runs a blog called Press Watch, who keeps an eye on these kinds of things. He’s not the only one.
The vast irony here is that journalism is about speaking truth to power, by its very nature. And it is the small blogs, or independent journos, or the *new media* as I’ve heard Ron Filipkowski refer to Meidas Touch, which is pointing out the deception of the Big Guys, the major networks. Maybe that’s what this will be about in the end is a kind of David and Goliath match up where the truth wins out, but who wields the truth will not be who you would think.
Meanwhile, keep a sharp eye out for more stories like this one. This is a scary development and it is, unfortunately, not an isolated one by any matter or means. And disabuse yourself of any notion that the MSM is the handmaiden of the Left. Au contraire. Social media and the MSM are firmly in right-wing hands. That’s the main reason that an out and out freak like Donald Trump has been able to get where he got to in the political process in this country.
All of this will come out in the wash in a post-Trump world. But we’re not there yet.
Thank you for this brilliant article. A copy should of it should be sent to every member of the BOM, (billionaire owned media).
I am forwarding it to everyone I know, and have printed off a copy to stick on the fridge.
MSM is not liberal, it is not MSM any more, it is BOM and reflects their interests – which are not the interests of everyone else, the actual mainstream
I’m honored that you like my thoughts and that you come here regularly to read what we post. I’m so tired of seeing media-manufactured news. Opinion pieces are smething else. If the NYT wants to post an opinion piece, which they did, that’s fair game. But to couch things the way NBC did, in sheer fantasy terms, that is not okay. Now it’s a part of american “history” that Biden thought twice about running. And he didn’t. He (I am dead positive) listened to people like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and chalked it all off. But that’s not the “legend.”
Thank you for your work. l have been fighting with the bed wetters on Dkos tonight. I am shocked by this response to the debate. I quit BOM a long time aga. MSNBC I watch some. Medias Touch is my favorite and Zoom.
What we are seeing is how many people hate democracy. Not the.bed wetters, they are just fools, but the fascist capitalist and racist.
We’ve come a long ways in terms of journalistic ethics. I’ve known professional journalists in my life, print media people and broadcast both. I used to be a radio newscaster once upon a time, back in the 70’s when a lot of women got into the field (which had been closed to females previously.) You could trust the big news companies. But all that is different now. Now everybody is fighting for clicks and engagement and that’s more important than truth.
This is CNN’s ridiculous 2008 antics gone widespread through the MSM. Remember the Democratic Primary? There were two aspects of CNN’s DAILY coverage that became appalling. We had Wolf Blitzer and his CONSTANT promotion of a “Dream Team” ticket of Obama & Clinton. This asshole seemed to be creaming his jeans every time he said it when talking about the race and he said it a LOT on every broadcast. Talk about trying to make news! Then we had John King and his “magic wall” – back then giant touch computer screens that allowed writing information on them and tossing data around was a new thing and King was good at it.
For months it was apparent that Obama would be the nominee before he finally amassed the needed delegates which due to Democrat’s usually awarding delegates from primaries and caucuses proportionally instead of winner take all in a state which the GOP usually did and still does. King would do segment after segment, every day where he would literally invent an entire string of states voting in an implausible by then manner to award Clinton significantly more delegates than it was obvious by then she would get. THAT would lead to neither candidate having enough delegates come convention time and a brokered convention where “superdelegates” would be put to the test and old-school vs. new school Party types would have themselves an old-fashioned “smoke filled back room” scenario. One which would give Clinton and advantage.
This meshed nicely with Blitzer’s shameless “Dream Team” promotion giving us a major and before that well-respected outlet literally trying to create both a brokered convention and nominee. It was a disgusting, appalling display and it went on as I said literally for months! And caused me to stop watching CNN for the most part. So what we are seeing it nothing new. It’s simply far more pervasive.
And now, horror of horrors, Billionaires are whining about being “Mongo-ed” by the GOP. Must be rough when the monster calls out their creator.
Mad when their tax cuts might be rescinded or cut. The 1% tax cuts were supposedly never set to expire 🤔🤔🤨🤨🤦🏻♂️. The ones for the rubes do expire.
Ursula should I ever win the lottery instead of struggling to meet the bills…you and your cohorts are on my list! There is nothing humble about continuing to seek and speak the truth. Journalism is still alive here, so walk and talk proud. In a desert of lies you are the oasis reminding the rest of us that intelligence, character and truth still lives.
“I hope you don’t mind…I hope you don’t mind that I put into words…how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” Elton John…Your Song
We make every effort to keep it real around here and to look beneath the surface and see what’s actually there. And I’ve personally screwed up. I posted a photo that was later debunked by Snopes as an actual photo of an event and then had to print a retraction. So people make mistakes. But we own our mistakes. When we speculate we call it speculation. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s misleading people and making things up that is wrong. I’m shocked to see the big companies do it. But again, that’s why the “new media” the blogs, whatever, have come into existence.
Well used to read huff post way back… and then they changed … and still viewed during cult45 years. Less after Covid. But today’s Sunday headline 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ eff them.
This is a tough business to be in. We have months when things go well, traffic is good and then we have months when there are technical issues, lousy traffic, people get sick, you name it. Denis and I were both in the hospital last month. (He had a concussion, I had a kidney stone.) One thing I can tell you as an absolute: you can’t confuse business needs with integrity. You can’t whore yourself out. You have to keep it honest to the best of your ability. I think Huff Po may have sold out to other interests for financial reasons.
May you ALWAYS speak truth to power, Ursula, Murph, and the rest of your staff! I like the lottery idea! I’m adding it to my wish list. I’m not a gambler, Ursula! I’ve told you this! It’s why I have no desire to visit Las Vegas AGAIN! My parents lived there more than 30 years and I like to say they gambled my inheritance away! There was some money left when they passed away, but far less than there might have been! But I digress. Every month I think I’m going to send you more money, but life keeps getting in the way. I need to send you what I can and maybe that will be “seed money” which will lead to a windfall. (They do tell me that I actually have to BUY a lottery ticket to win, which seems so unfair. Smirk!)
We appreciate anything we get here, whether via donations, or people becoming patrons, or just showing up and clicking on the pieces. There’s a good solid community here, albeit a small one, which we’ve been building since 2018,and then we are able to drag in new eyeballs when we get a hit piece. It takes a while to build something like this.
So, after seeing just what msm does for shits and giggles, I think everyone needs a real pick-me-up. A guy named Frank Schaeffer has a 2 minute plus a little change video that certainly made me feel embarrassed and I wasn’t even calling for President Biden to step aside f.f.s. (although I did think he was too old when he got the nomination in ’20)–water under the bridge now.
Ought to make everyone hear stand a little taller with perhaps a bigger smile, ready to start the week. Here’s the link to the DK article with the video in it:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/30/2249899/-Just-a-TikTok-from-Frank-Schaffer-I-think-everyone-here-should-listen-to-it?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
Thank you for sharing that. There is a genius of a guy (former Republican) whose name I wish I knew. He spoke on a TikTok video and that found its way to Twitter. The person who posted him on Twitter got suspended (for copyright infringement, I suspect.) Point being, this guy was a veteran and he had the best take on MAGA I’ve ever heard, basically that Trump made stupid people think that they now understand politics.
So there are voices out there who really have it wired. Yes, they are obscure. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not right. I shall continue to search TikTok for this veteran and at least get his name and follow his work.