The Right vs. Mid to Left Media Double Standard

[LFC]

W...T...F? (paywalled)

My God it’s been a while since I’ve seen this level of journalistic force-feeding of self-wompery to what may be embarrassingly compliant Democrats. Politico Nightly is just out noting that even skeptics now recognize the demise of Roe profoundly reordered the trajectory of the 2022 midterms. And this is …. wait for it, terrible news for the Democrats! Wait, what? When I saw the headline (“Post-Roe political regrets sink in”) I figured this was about electorally focused Republicans having some misgivings about defying the views of solid verging on overwhelming majorities who wanted to keep the Roe status quo. But no, it’s Democrats who are crying in their beer because they didn’t anticipate the anti-Dobbs backlash enough a year ago and didn’t get referendums and propositions on ballots in every state.

It’s not like I think Democrats have handled this perfectly. I mean, I’ve spent like the last three months trying – it seems mostly in vain, it seems – to get Democrats to organize themselves around a pledge to make Roe the law of the land if voters give them the House and two more Senate seats. It’s sitting right there and they’re not doing it. So yeah, in the words of the almost literally immortal Mel Brooks, they stink on ice.

But c’mon! This just epitomizing the kind of heads Republicans win, tails Democrats lose mindset that is the well spring which made “Democrats in disarray” a cornerstone political cliche. Who knows how the midterms turn out but this really isn’t a bad news moment or crying in your pillow moment for Democrats. Not in electoral terms.

[LFC]

This. A million times this. The MSM has been complicit in coddling the fascists for far too long.

[LFC]

I can't even...

[LFC]

Remember John Fetterman, the guy TAC writers said was a "brain damaged" "invalid"? Remember his debate with "Doctor" Oz that was so bad for him? Yeah, the MSM blew that story as well. At every turn their political coverage has proven to be pure bullshit and generally useless. Maybe if they actually covered things like the issues they'd be worth something but that's no fun at all.

[LFC]

Frum points out the absurdity of current reporting. The Twitter whining appears to be getting more coverage. I tossed in my own bit of memery onto it.

[LFC]

[sigh] The MSM really is worthless.

Do Better!

“Democrats in disarray” became such a staple of political journalism for a while that it eventually became a meme and enough of a source of ridicule that reporters began to become self-conscious about trotting out the stale plot device.

But “Democrats worry …” remains unfazed by the ridicule. The angsty, always fretting, pearl-clutching Democrats are a staple of vague political reporting that tries to capture a political dynamic but usually falls short of any real insights.

These Democrats, featured prominently but rarely named, may or may not actually exist, but they form the narrative glue for everything from too-early campaign stories that lack much substance to Hill stories that lack any scoops on legislative wrangling to White House stories where actual access was limited.

This weekend’s gem was from Bloomberg (emphasis mine): “But the prospect of facing upstart Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is prompting whispers of angst within Democratic circles.”

Just this year (it’s early February, yall), Democrats have worried A LOT:

[LFC]

Speaking of the MSM being worthless, it was frustrating to see the coverage on ABC this morning. They were true to MSM form:

• The headline was all about the criticism of Biden, not whether he was right or not.
  
• Far from the opening coverage was the fact that Biden ordered it shot down immediately but was advised not to by the military. Apparently "listen to the generals" was so 20 years ago.
  
• Late mention of the danger to people on the ground.
  
• No tying the fact that the debris field in the water is 7 miles long to the danger on the ground.
• No mention that the military said they were able to jam its electronics.
• No mention that the military said they able to gather intelligence about the balloon by leaving it aloft.
  
• Very late mention that Chinese balloons crossed U.S. airspace 3 times under Trump but it was kept secret.
  
• No mention that it will be easier to retrieve the payload for analysis in shallow, unobstructed water than on land. I believe this is the real reason the military wanted to wait.
  

They really do suck.

[goldenvalley]

I am as frustrated as LFC on the complete inadequacy of coverage on most anything.  In the rush to get something online or on the air all context is left out except for the "he said; she said" crap that attracts attention.  I think this was especially bad because the balloon thing happened over the weekend when staff is small.

I don't watch the Sunday morning shows but I understand that a number of the nut jobs now in power in House committees are guests these days.  I've never liked these shows because they don't put someone from the minority party in these long interviews, leading to no actual knowledge being imparted about the issues. That leaves yahoos like Chuck Todd to fumble their ways through the interviews without having bothered to read up on the background beyond the talking points of the guest.  At least bringing in the opposition offers two different sets of talking points.

[LFC]

Once again the MSM falls flat on its face when reporting on something that could be researched in a few minutes with a Google search. Of course if it was Democrats... (paywalled)

With the future of Social Security and Medicare back under discussion — and not in a good way — we need to review a few points about how these subjects are discussed in the nation’s capital. This morning I saw some very solid, level-headed reporters noting that Rick Scott didn’t say Social Security and Medicare should be sunsetted after 5 years. He said all government programs should be sunsetted. And it just happens that Social Security and Medicare are government programs. In other words, these folks suggested, while Biden’s claim was technically true it amounted to a kind of cheap shot.

That’s malarkey.

Social Security and Medicare aren’t just random programs that happened to get caught up in the general sunsetting. That is absurd. Those are the central programs the federal government runs in addition to the Department of Defense. Scott claims he doesn’t want to repeal them. He just thinks they should be sunsetted after five years and then Congress can just repass them.

Please.

The point here is that every five years these programs get revisited from the ground up. The programs’ enemies, of whom there are many and almost all in the GOP, relish the opportunity. Rick Scott isn’t some random backbencher. He was in charge of the GOP’s Senate campaigns!

Nor is this the only rumblings for big cuts. The prime movers in the House spent most of last year pushing for major cuts to Social Security that would be at the top of their agenda if they reclaimed the Congress. McCarthy and others tried to rein them in a bit or rather get them to be quieter. But not much.

For most political reporters, this is like it used to be with “voter fraud.” My colleague David made the proper analogy in an editorial conversation this morning. It used to be that lots of reporters thought, “It turns out Republicans are pretty exercised about voter fraud and they seem to think there’s a lot of it. So, well, glad they’re on the case!” Over the last decade they’ve rightly taken a far more jaundiced view of this kind of malicious and deceptive GOP politicking. But when it comes to Social Security, Medicare and other social insurance programs they’re still basically there.

This isn’t a new concern of this site. It’s been central to what we do from the beginning. Not our first rodeo.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 9, 2023 15:46:36 GMT LFC said:

Once again the MSM falls flat on its face when reporting on something that could be researched in a few minutes with a Google search. Of course if it was Democrats... (paywalled)

With the future of Social Security and Medicare back under discussion — and not in a good way — we need to review a few points about how these subjects are discussed in the nation’s capital. This morning I saw some very solid, level-headed reporters noting that Rick Scott didn’t say Social Security and Medicare should be sunsetted after 5 years. He said all government programs should be sunsetted. And it just happens that Social Security and Medicare are government programs. In other words, these folks suggested, while Biden’s claim was technically true it amounted to a kind of cheap shot.

That’s malarkey.

Social Security and Medicare aren’t just random programs that happened to get caught up in the general sunsetting. That is absurd. Those are the central programs the federal government runs in addition to the Department of Defense. Scott claims he doesn’t want to repeal them. He just thinks they should be sunsetted after five years and then Congress can just repass them.

Please.

The point here is that every five years these programs get revisited from the ground up. The programs’ enemies, of whom there are many and almost all in the GOP, relish the opportunity. Rick Scott isn’t some random backbencher. He was in charge of the GOP’s Senate campaigns!

Nor is this the only rumblings for big cuts. The prime movers in the House spent most of last year pushing for major cuts to Social Security that would be at the top of their agenda if they reclaimed the Congress. McCarthy and others tried to rein them in a bit or rather get them to be quieter. But not much.

For most political reporters, this is like it used to be with “voter fraud.” My colleague David made the proper analogy in an editorial conversation this morning. It used to be that lots of reporters thought, “It turns out Republicans are pretty exercised about voter fraud and they seem to think there’s a lot of it. So, well, glad they’re on the case!” Over the last decade they’ve rightly taken a far more jaundiced view of this kind of malicious and deceptive GOP politicking. But when it comes to Social Security, Medicare and other social insurance programs they’re still basically there.

This isn’t a new concern of this site. It’s been central to what we do from the beginning. Not our first rodeo.

People like Trump and MTG and the right wing talk o sphere hide behind statements like "I didn't say those exact words" even though any reasonable person understands what is intended.  This allows people to yell "liar" when called on the obvious intent of the words they did say.  Scott didn't list the programs he would sunset he just said all government programs. MTG didn't actually say "Jewish Space Laser" she just spouted a lot of sentences that implied it with a wink and a nod. And mainstream media lets them get by with it.