The Politics Thread

[OzFrog]

 

 

“A source”. And kinda not surprising it’s Swan again. Access journalist if ever there was one (notwithstanding THAT Trump interview).

[Juliajms]

Normally, I would feel some kind of sympathy for someone who gets destroyed like this by sibling. However, since Trump is only wearing a human suit, it just doesn't matter. I'm glad at least some of the people in his family seem normal.

[sivad40]

I'm currently watching this.

[DRW50]

I heard about the heavy grilling Muir gives Kamala in that. Just another example of the media bias. They will do anything for Trump. 

[Toups]

 

I haven't seen the interview yet, but to be fair, Kamala shouldn't be grilled?  She shouldn't be given tough questions?  Maybe I'm just not as pessimistic as you are but I highly doubt the majority of the media and journalists are rooting for Trump to win.  That just doesn't make any sense. 

[Juliajms]

Probably not the majority of individual journalists, but it does make sense that the higher up types would. Trump brings in the money by being a continual train wreck that people can't look away from. Psychopaths gravitate to the CEO position and to journalism as well. Just sayin'.

https://www.cbc.ca/doczone/m_features/psychopaths-top-10-and-bottom-10-professions

 

[Faulkner]

 

[DRW50]

 

You're in Canada, right? Their media isn't like ours, sadly. That's about all I can respond with. Several network heads have bragged about how good Trump is for them money-wise. One of the head honchos at the New York Times basically writes press releases for the Trumps, and her mother works for the Kushner family. They aren't very subtle. 

 

Anyway, in other news:

 

 

Edited August 24, 2020 by DRW50

[Toups]

 

I pay some attention to American media and the majority of the time, they're taking down Trump.  The. NYT is always putting out negative stories about Trump. Sure there might be the occasional pro Trump stuff.  I just don't believe the media is actively trying to reelect Trump.  Don't see it. 

[DRW50]

 

I'm happy for you, but I will have to agree to disagree. I'm glad you are able to watch them without disgust.

[sivad40]

I had an associate from another board that I used to post on who was Canadian and he was a liberal and he thought the media was too hard on Trump too. He thought the Democrats needed to compromise with Trump more when it came to the funding to the Wall. I told him that you don't live in America and you don't see how much the media caters to Trump. It got me to thinking, does Canada have Fox News, OANN, conservative talk radio and other oulets? They don't realize that Trump has many enablers that want to see him re-elected and do the dirty work that they have wanted to do for decades.

[Juliajms]

What!? I'm glad that didn't happen.  It was a total boondoggle.

[AdelaideCate007]

I think Trump is horrible of course, but I have to also admit that from my view on American TV news media, I don't see a pro-Trump bias either. I have CNN on the telly constantly and CNN is usually always going in on him and having guests that are anti-republican. I know it doesn't make a difference in the US, but most of the media here is also clearly very against him too or at least thinks he's bad for conservatism.

 

We do get Fox News here in Australia and I assume that's very pro-Trump, but I never watch that to know. I do see pro-Trump/Republican  articles from the NY Times and Washington Post, but there are also just as many anti-Trump stories.

 

I guess maybe you have to live there, but from my point of view, I don't see it. He obviously has enablers in conservative media circles that will do anything for him, but I don't see it more mainstream news outlets.

[Vee]

 

You don't live here, so sorry, you don't get it. They may not all love Trump, but they love what he does for their business and ratings. And the mainstream media has been cowed by the right wing and Republicans in this country for being too 'biased' against them and elitist since 1984 when Reagan won in a wipeout; many of the elite media are of that era or grew up around it. And the right wing spent most of the '90s convincing the media they were too out of touch with the middle of the country and the American heartland, and viciously attacking media for any hint of 'bias'. As such, because of this generational conditioning, they slant a great deal of coverage to GOP talking points. Many may disdain Trump individually, but ultimately they adhere to soft GOP principles and POV unless forced not to. There is a double standard for Democrats and Republicans - Democrats are expected to take hard questions and always answer how they'll pay for any even speculative program, while Republicans are never challenged on how to balance the budget or why they're making more tax cuts for billionaires. They are allowed to spew talking points largely unchallenged in live interviews (note the shock when Chris Wallace and even longtime access journalist Jonathan Swan actually held Trump to the fire), while Democrats, even when they offer a full vision, are called 'too prepared' and yet also 'not for anything but anti-Trump' (or in the past, anti-Bush). Why? Because the GOP has drilled into the media that they are the party of both authentic Americans and fiscal hawks, and the Democrats are elite and pretentious. The media sees themselves in Democrats and so runs from it, overcorrects and sanitizes and normalizes Republican behavior. NYT headlines are regularly softened; note that they still refuse to use the word 'lie' much re: Trump. They print his wild allegations as credible by not immediately refuting them in the headlines or opening paragraphs, which is often what people read and internalize. After the white supremacist riots in Charlottesville, they attempted to call him 'the comforter in chief' when he egged on the Nazis. And CNN "attacks" right wing guests, but it has most of those guests on their regular payroll as commentators. Having them on to spew their talking points and then have an anchor act shocked and appalled is the equivalent of pro wrestling, all fake - especially when they allow Trump to run his events live, but rarely give Democrats equal time. CNN once held on an empty podium for Trump for almost an hour waiting for him to show up. They don't do that for Democrats - ever.

 

When Michelle Wolf called prior Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on enabling Trump's endless lies, his fascist maneuvers, bigotry and putting children in cages at the (useless) WH press corps gala, the press corps and every major media figure at the Times and most networks called her outrageous and said she'd gone too far, but she was right. When Sanders left her post, these same media figures joined her at her private farewell party at a local DC bar - so long as no one gave their names to the rest of the press. As Kellyanne Conway leaves, you're already seeing media figures cheering her 'leaving for her children' and congratulating her on a job well done. Why? Because Kellyanne Conway, a racist piece of right wing trash who spent every day on the job lying to the American public and calling these journalists liars and enemies of the state, just like Sanders before her, is a primary source for access and on-background info in the Trump administration to most of these journalists and media figures. It is a game. They are friends and Conway will have a regular paid talking head post on CNN and MSNBC within a year, just like the rest. It is a club, and we are not in it.

 

Without a full understanding of our daily intake and how our media got here, you have no idea what kind of subtle and overt bias we face everyday.

 

 

That is always the media framing for Democrats, no matter the issue or what insane shít the GOP does - 'why can't the Democrats compromise?'

Edited August 24, 2020 by Vee

[ChateauCardboard]

Yeah, but we also have SkyNews which is just as corrosive as Fox (and owned by Murdoch). They are doing as much damage to Australia as Fox has done to the US and I hold them 50% responsible for the Libs winning last year. Thank God we are half way through their term. I envy America being so close to a (hopeful) course correction.