The Media/Journalism Thread

[DRW50]

In another example of our immature press corps, and also of the Washington Post being a shitpile, here is a WaPo reporter yukking it up over making herself the story by showing Neera Tanden's tweets about Lisa Murkowski to Lisa Murkwoski.

 

 

[Vee]

 

 

We are a long way from finishing the fight to kill the filibuster if it happens, and the minimum wage push will continue (though we'll need to pressure Manchin and Sinema more in order to pass it one way or the other). But Beltway press are pretty desperate to manufacture drama within the Dems and the WH now because they don't like seeing the GOP on the back foot. They're not used to it, it's not where they live when they rush around getting hot tips from Mitch McConnell in the halls of the Capitol, and it makes them insecure.

 

There's also the whole Tanden/Seung Min Kim debacle as @DRW50 alluded to above. Online harassment of Kim is unconscionable and unacceptable no matter who's doing it. And Tanden has lived Very Online and should account for some of that. That being said, a lot of reporters, not just Kim, pushed to drum up discontent in that process (digging up years old tweets) and churn the waters in part due to their resentment at Tanden being critical of the Capitol Hill press, and it has been evident in how they've handled the story today. It's not dissimilar to how if you read Maggie Haberman's feed, as a NY press flack, you'd think absolutely everyone on Earth is obsessed with de Blasio and Cuomo. I am an ex-NYer but I do not give two [!@#$%^&*] about Andrew Cuomo.

 

Politico has seemed especially trashy and desperate since a lot of their people (Jake Sherman, Bresnahan, etc.) left to create the equally gossipy Punchbowl - after that came the new mission statement about 'making mischief' right on the heels of the Capitol siege. Here, their Republican roots are showing even more. This is just not in touch with actual reality and sentiment in the eyes of the public, it's Beltway GOP-loving fanfiction. And it doesn't connect with voters or show in polling.

 

 

[Franko]

The entire post is dead-on, but these two points are especially true.

[DRW50]

@Vee I have defended Politico in the past as I think they have produced some good work alongside the vacuous material, but this stuff reminds me of why I have been reading less of their site. That column is embarrassing, especially the references to a "cult of Ron Klain." Seeing supposed journalists trying their best to whip up melodrama and hysteria because they are addicted to drama and want to seem cool and fun is incredibly sad. 

[Vee]

Oh how the turntables, etc.

 

 

[Faulkner]

Where he belongs...

[Vee]

Beltway media are excitedly RTing a Maureen Dowd column (which I am not linking) punching down at any criticism of the press from the left, of course. They only react this way to critique from liberals, which has intensified considerably in the last five years, because they are conditioned to be deferential to the right and disdain/feel ashamed with the right's identification of them with the left. The fight raged all day on Twitter, but here's some commentary on Jon Ralston's haughty agreement with it.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2021 by Vee

[Khan]

And then you had Maggie Haberman's condescending ass telling every Twitter user who disagreed with Dowd that they are just too simple-minded to understand what journalism is or what journalists do.  It all made me so damn angry.  It still makes me so damn angry.

[Vee]

Not to repeat myself, but it really is thrilling to have seen Halperin fall so far and be fully and undeniably unmasked as a right wing shill, banished to a fringe network:

 

 

[DRW50]

Jon Ralston is still seething over all the abuse he got from Bernie dead-enders over some questionable claims he made about supporters throwing chairs. It's unfortunate he does not have enough perspective to step back and realize smearing all progressives and agreeing with someone as consistently brain dead and malicious as Maureen Dowd. That's what you get with the 'liberal' media though. They hate us and they will always hate us.

[Vee]

 

[Vee]

Thread:

 

 

I think Baron did good work at the Post and of course before that. I also think he is far from beyond reproach or critique.

[Faulkner]

 

[Vee]

 

[Khan]

Maureen Dowd: "Believe me, you want us on that wall."

 

Not if it means you get another crack at selling us all down the damn river just so you can keep spooning with fascists.

Edited March 2, 2021 by Khan