Two interesting Twitter threads on journalists falling down on the job. I’ll excerpt some important parts and add links to the entire thread. First, Lauren Boebert’s profile in the NYT:
How does the New York Times write an article about Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert without mentioning her four arrests and court no-shows? Without mentioning her husband’s arrests for exposing himself and domestic abuse?
Where her restaurant Shooters Grill is mentioned, the reporters point out that the servers can be armed – but they fail to note that Boebert is accused of allowing minors at her establishment to be armed. If charged, it would be a felony. Why gloss over her sordid, relevant past?
One wonders whether a profile of a Black or brown freshman Congress member would be so forgiving. This piece is about Boebert’s radical behavior and agenda – particularly as it pertains to guns. Her history casts doubt on her claims of being a responsible, law abiding gun owner.
Second, the thousandth article on Trump’s feelings in the WaPo:
Trump World people, more than any other ecosystem, uses journalists (who are happy to oblige, in exchange for leaks) to put out narratives they want out there… not just in general but narratives they want TRUMP to read.
This is because, a big thing in the WH, is to put an article in front of Trump. (Trump doesn’t read books but he does voraciously read articles.) So you want a report that says how loyal you are to him and then, whoops, that article finds its way to his desk.
Recently, I’d heard (and this isn’t any big intel I had — everyone knows this) that Trump is fuming about how his people have sort of checked-out on defending him. (He’s right about that, actually.)
So I was wondering, “When are [Trump Aide Jason] Miller’s three-amigos at @WashingtonPost going to coincidentally write an article claiming Miller — who has actually barely gone on TV recently — is someone who has Trump’s back?”
The second one is long but worth a read – she’s a former Trump WH employee, so she’d know. The “three amigos” are Phil Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker, and this is the story she’s talking about.
Hildebrand
Of course, all these ‘access journalists’ will go straight back to whining incessantly because the Biden administration (like the Obama administration) won’t leak. They will whine about a lack of transparency and whatever other knavery they trot out to flog folks who don’t leak, leak, leak. It’ll be right back to, ‘if only Obama had drinks with Republicans, the country would be saved’ kind of nonsense.
I’d like to see a long expose on ‘journalists’ like that. And name names.
natem
@Hildebrand: Maggie Haberman, Gossip Girl in Residence at the Times, tweeted out, then almost immediately deleted, her precious insight that the mob at the Capitol insurrection was just like BLM protestors who were pushed back from the barriers to the White House in the summer.
Full mask off moment if you ask me.
Jeffro
Even after four long years, it’s still amazing to me that this country has a president* who
I hope Uncle Joe ignores the living fuck out of Twitter, never looks at cable news unless absolutely necessary, and gets a normal PDB full of all that intelligence we taxpayers are footing the bill for.
OGLiberal
Somewhat on topic because there was something in the WaPo pieces that referred to Mitch’s schedule for an impeachment trial – when does Schumer become majority leader? I know the two GA guys aren’t seated yet – how long until they are? And does Loeffler get to sit in Ossoff’s seat until he’s sworn in? (I know Purdue is already out) Just wondering why Mitch is still running things and were hearing about a schedule that he provided that goes beyond 2020 – I get that the trial likely won’t happen before inauguration but why does Mitch gets to set the schedule beyond that…or thing that he can?
dmsilev
@Jeffro:
That was a decent part of the story of how he won the primary. And actually the reverse was a decent part of the story of how Harris’s Presidential campaign stalled out, so hopefully she’s taken the two examples to heart.
Hunter Gathers
“You’re going to have to take out the mentions of her arrests and her husband’s behavior.”
“Why?”
“Several reasons: One, our marketing department has been badgering me for years about getting our subscription rates among Trump supporters to increase and leaving those facts in the piece won’t help those numbers. Two, you are being hyper-partisan by pointing that out and Baquet won’t stand for that. And three, I mean, have you looked at her? She’s hot and I’d like to think that she might let me get to second base.”
Jerzy Russian
I wonder if we will recognize good journalism when (or if) we ever see it again.
dmsilev
@OGLiberal: As I understand it, the absolute latest deadline for certification of the Georgia votes is the 23rd, so figure the day after that. Could be earlier though. The other piece of the puzzle is when will Alex Padilla get sworn in as Harris’s replacement. I presume that will happen on the afternoon of the 20th (so that she can be the one to administer the oath rather than having Pence do it), but I haven’t seen any definitive word on that.
germy
If Colorado media is anything like my hometown media, then more than 50% of the local journalists have been laid off or accepted buyouts. And the remaining reporters don’t want to get death threats every day.
Anyone in a small town who tries to write an exposé of a rightwing, popular & connected local businesswoman will get a ton of threatening emails at the very least, and most likely mysterious looking pickup trucks driving slowly past their houses. These business people are usually buddies with law enforcement and have customers who’d love to intimidate any “nerd” writer who dares publish uncomfortable truths.
There are some real characters in our area (job creators they call themselves) who get nice puff pieces in our newspaper. No mention of the DUIs or sketchy political views.
evap
@OGLiberal: I don’t know exactly when they will be seated, but it can’t happen until the vote in GA is officially certified. The deadline for counties to certify is Jan 15, and then the SoS has to certify by Jan 22. It could happen sooner, and I don’t think our GOP SoS will try to delay once the counties certify. Since Loeffler is filling out a term that ends in two years, she gets to stay until Warnock is seated.
Cheryl Rofer
@OGLiberal: From RollCall:
We also need Harris as VP to break the tie, so the Democratic Senate will be a reality sometime after January 20.
sdhays
@Jeffro: I caught a few minutes of the PBS News Hour last night, and they reported that the “President” spent all day watching the impeachment proceedings on TV. So now, the 2 hours he used to allocate for real work has also been reallocated to watching how much the TV hates him now.
We almost literally don’t have a current President.
OGLiberal
@dmsilev: Assuming Padilla gets sworn in on 1/20 (or earlier), that should make it 49-49 on 1/20 with Kamala the tie-breaker. Or, if the GA certification gets pushed to the latest deadline, is Loeffler still the #50 GOP senator, leaving Mitch as leader until at least one of the GA Dem senators is sworn in?
germy
Dr. Bornstein is dead.
That long-haired dude; the one who called Trump the healthiest individual to ever become president.
Jeffro
@sdhays: he’s been golfing, tweeting, and watching Fox News for his entire presidency (when he wasn’t busy chucking paper towels at hurricane victims, praising ‘very fine people,’ or spreading Covid-19 all around the Midwest during his rallies)
We haven’t had a president for a single day in the past four years. We’ve had a malicious, ignorant orange hobgoblin crapping all over our Constitution and humping our flag, but there’s not been a president in sight.
mrmoshpotato
@Hildebrand:
What? Biden’s not going to have a Kellyanne Conjob in his administration?!
indianbadger
From the time I really started paying attention to how the media was being manipulated during the lead up to the Iraq War-II; (I am an immigrant so I never paid that much attention to national security and foreign policy in general before this); I have felt that access journalists of all kinds (political, sports, entertainment etc.); are stenographers. They provide insight only insofar as to know what the people they are writing about want you to know. Nothing objective. And for me this includes the White Hose Press Corps, sadly. These people depend on access for their job, and therefore cannot be objective. And we suffer for it.
germy
A.J. Delgado (former senior advisor to Trump)… her whole thing seems to be hating Jason Miller.
I understand; I hate him, too. He seems to be garbage.
But so often the connected insiders pretend their platforms are investigative, when they’re actually about settling old personal grudges.
Miss Bianca
@germy: This is fucking bullshit – *plenty* of Colorado media – my paper included – (I know this because I WROTE THE DAMN ARTICLES) put this information about Boebert out there. It did not make one damn bit of difference. The goobers in my district wanted the mouth-breathing, slack-jawed, “guns and God and Constitootion, mah rights” gun bunny no matter what.
And now we got what they wanted, good and hard. God save the mark.
Geminid
@germy: I followed the CO 3rd race through local and Colorado state media. Boebert’s past arrests were covered, as well as the food poisoning her pork sliders caused. But it’s a republican district, and her past may have only turned a ten point win into a six point win. A lot of people don’t vote for candidates so much as they vote against the other party. So-called “negative partisanship.”
Bill Arnold
@germy:
The part of me that believes that the D.J.Trump package is evil suspects possible cleanup of a loose end.
cain
@Hildebrand:
I think though – as as a strategy, you need to manipulate journalists and actually give them stuff so that you can control their conversation. I think in the end, we held them in contempt (which is understandable) but then they went off and came up with their own bullshit.
I think this turn around – give them something and use them as a tool as part of de-Nazification. As part of the executive branch that soft power is something to be exploited not rejected.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: And I bet you had at least one big truck show up at your house.
germy
@Miss Bianca:
The Shannon Watts excerpt I quoted is from the same twitter thread as what’s quoted here on this front page “Accountability” thread.
I don’t know anything about CO local journalism. I only know what I’ve observed in my neck of the woods.
I’m glad you got the information out there. Even if it was ignored at the time, it’s still a valuable archive.
Have you seen a lot of layoffs and buyouts and media consolidation in CO?
Geoboy
@germy: Well, I guess we don’t have to worry about revoking his license to practice medicine.
debbie
Glenn Beck first exhorted his listeners to follow the I Am doctrine, which sounds like Stuart Smalley’s I Am Somebody. Then he launched into an explanation of the Reichstag fire, except that Libtards were the Nazis. Or maybe the Communists, it was hard to tell. Click.
Brachiator
@Jerzy Russian:
A good chunk of journalism, maybe the majority, has always been like this. And Beltway journalism is the epitome of lazy, narrow-minded provincialism.
What is sad is that this kind of lazy kiss-ass journalism continued even as Trump manipulated, excoriated and marginalized the press. They refused to learn anything from this. Had some reporters been killed during the Capitol insurrection, the rest of them would continue to kiss up to their sources and seek Trump’s favor.
prostratedragon
@Bill Arnold: I always thought he was an extortion or blackmail victim.
germy
@Geoboy:
He’s practicing medicine in heaven now.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: If they don’t have four-wheel drive and balls of steel, they ain’t making it up my driveway.
My publisher, however, does keep a gun in his desk drawer at the office. Because *he’s* certainly been threatened.
dmsilev
@germy: She absolutely hates Miller. No secret why; they had an affair, she got pregnant, he stiffed her on child support.
(All the sordid details here)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OGLiberal: Until the Inauguration, the tie-breaking vote is Mike Pence. So definitely not before then.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
I once had someone pantomime shooting a long gun at me.
Wonderful thing to see out my window.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
I have a buddy in her district. He calls her Crazy Gun Gurl.
I’m in Denver and “her story” got plenty of attention as you said.
People forget that CO has many of the classic urban/rurl divide politics. Ours just happened to be divided by the Continental Divide. Western Slopes has always been righter than right.
germy
@dmsilev:
Oh, I didn’t know she was the one.
Miss Bianca
@germy:
Yeah, sure – and plenty of newspapers and journals that have had to cut back on their publishing schedules or stop paying journalists because of COVID. I’m just getting started back with one of them that had to cut some of us off like that. And I’m also just lucky that I’ve been able to get paid (a tiny bit) to keep writing for the other. And that my publisher likes my work.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Some article/obit called him “loquacious, hirsute and eccentric.” So now one of my life’s goals is to have that (presumably non-existent) article about my eventual passing begin with “taciturn, hirsute and eccentric.”
different-church-lady
@OGLiberal: Pence is still the tiebreaker until noon on the 20th.
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
How is that that death threats have become the go-to response for anything in America?
Miss Bianca
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: True Fact: An acquaintance of mine went to the right-winger candidate rally in my county this fall (I refused to cover it). Gun Bunny is sitting at a table. My acquaintance M goes up to the table and says, “so, you’re running for the House of Representatives?” Gun Bunny fixes him with a glare and says reprovingly, “I’m running for CONGRESS.”
OGLiberal
@different-church-lady: Yeah, so if GA certification goes beyond Noon on the 20th, Kamala is the tie-maker, not tie-breaker…because Loeffler will still be Senator until Warnock gets sworn in.
germy
@debbie:
And they complain about “liberal cancel culture” while they make death threats.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@germy:
Agreed, but the paragraphs she quotes show how completely absurd the fluffing of Miller is — he’s characterized as not defending Trump while literally being quoted in defense of Trump in the next couple of paragraphs of the story.
different-church-lady
@Bill Arnold:
Embarassment?
Miss Bianca
@debbie: It certainly has been in my neck of the woods, ever since the former publisher of my paper wrote an editorial mocking the open-carry gun nuts who have made the annual Fourth of July parade so hideous with their presence. That editorial also spawned the birth of the right-wing rag that sprang up in our county afterwards, like a particularly poisonous toadstool.
I have been seeing some signs that its influence may be waning – God, make it so!
different-church-lady
@OGLiberal: she isn’t even a tie-maker — she can’t vote unless there is already a tie.
ETA: I should have read your first question more carefully — I see now you were asking why Turtle gets to run things beyond the 20th.
Kelly
Oregon’s Jeff Merkley was opposed by a clearly crazy Qanon mom who received 39% of the vote. 61 to 39 is a resounding victory but that is also 912,814 votes for a crazy person that has never held a public office. Jeff won the cities.
Just One More Canuck
@germy: Heaven? Perhaps a little lower than that.
OT, but this headline from TPM is hilariously predictable:
Trump Plans To Stiff Giuliani On Legal Fees After Failing To Steal Election
Cermet
@Hunter Gathers: Uh, she is a rump supporter – so you are to just grab her by the pu**y whenever you feel like it.
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
Team America: FUCK, YEAH!
different-church-lady
@Cermet: no no! They only let you do that “If you’re famous.”
germy
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Oh I agree, it’s absurd.
Miller is simultaneously not defending and defending. I wonder why he wants to stay on the trump train, though. Isn’t it going off the rails? I wonder what he thinks he’s up to.
germy
@Miss Bianca:
Former publisher… did they chase him out?
Or did he retire after deciding he’d had enough?
Brachiator
@germy:
I didn’t realize that he was another victim of Trump’s spitefulness. From CNN
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Had incumbent Scott Tipton taken Boebert’s challenge more seriously, he might have used character attacks on Boebert’s record to good effect. But he had $300,000 left in the bank when he lost his primary by 8 points. After that Republican tribalism was enough to carry Boebert.
Cermet
@germy: Been there but it was a sniper (later caught) that just missed me while I was driving on an interstate. Fun time. My car side window didn’t make, through.
Cermet
@different-church-lady: True! (Or wealthy.) Sorry.
danielx
@Just One More Canuck:
Because of course he does, and Rudy should have expected nothing less/more. Rule #1 when doing business with Trump:
Get Your Money Up Front….or as much of it as possible.
Because you won’t get it later.
Chyron HR
@germy:
No, it looked like he died, but in Independence Day: Resurgence it turns out he was just unconscious.
cain
@dmsilev:
What a sad story – and it shows how shitty the Pro-Embryo movement is. I wonder if she has realized that just about everything in the conservative movement is fake. Nothing is real over there – it’s all about grifting.
CaseyL
I’m not sure if it’s always been this way and we, the Public, were blissfully unaware, but what we’re seeing in news rooms, and in public offices, is workplace politics.
Newsrooms are places where a lot of people work in close proximity. There will be affairs, bad breakups, and toxic work environments. It will absolutely affect how news is covered. People do not want to work in a hostile environment every day, day after day. They’ll go along to get along.
Ditto the Halls of Congress. Another – intended! – consequence of the GOP deciding, from Newt Gingrich on, not to socialize with the Democratic caucus and in fact to treat Democrats like shit, is to create a work environment so hostile that Democrats wind up caving in on important matters just so coming into the office is not a living hell.
It’s abusive. It’s deliberately abusive. Unfortunately, it gets results.
Matt McIrvin
@Chyron HR: That’s because he was an android.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Retired. Still living in the community.
@Geminid: Yeah, I know. I can’t imagine what made him fall asleep at the switch like that. But as you know, it’s the crazies who drive the Republican primary vote.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Wingnut Head Canon version of the Constitution again. The way people argue their personal fanfiction lore for various media franchises like Star Wars I suppose there is no surprise they are doing the same with real life law and history.
Just One More Canuck
@danielx: One of the comments on TPM says that Roody Colloody should be used to ‘pro bozo work’
Blue Galangal
The NYT is irretrievably corrupt and complicit.
Just Chuck
@cain:
Naw, they don’t do it just for the money: there’s also the bonus of hurting as many people as possible.
Feathers
@CaseyL: This is one of the reasons why studying history is important. Not just the dates, but the details of at least a few historic events. It will always turn out that personal animosities drove a great deal of what happened. Stupid ego issues, Not wanting to let down a friend. Wanting a new wife. Counter argument is that things go the way they do because of wider trends and XXX. But at the personal level, it’s almost always about the petty.
I also remember someone talking about working at The Washington Post. A new employee was told that you could write whatever you wanted about Kay Graham, she could take it and saw it as her job. But you could get into real trouble writing about her friends. That might get a request for a correction or to stop covering the story. I’ve always remembered that. People know their own faults well, but are supposed to publicly maintain that their friends are flawless. If you realize that, it can explain a lot of what goes on at media organizations.
danielx
And this is a guy that knows from evil shit.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Sorry to clutter things up to see if I’ve got my math straight.
With Perdue out and Ossoff not yet confirmed, there are 99 current sitting Senators plus the VP. Loeffler’s still in place, giving the GOP 51 seats until Warnock replaces her, with 48 Democrats (Ossoff makes 49 when confirmed, Warnock makes 50 and knocks the GOP caucus down from 51 to 50).
The ascencion of Kamala Harris to VP vacates her seat, so at the moment she is sworn in, there will be two vacant seats, to be filled by Ossoff and whoever is selected by Governor Newsom to complete Harris’s term, and with Loeffler still in place, the balance will be 51 GOP, 47 Democrat until the Georgia results are accepted and Harris’s replacement is sworn in.
So Moscow Mitch can still control the calendar, and can still make mischief, but on the other hand, he represents a party that just tried to overturn the 2020 election by use of force, so I suspect that Biden and Harris will Not Be Amused (and Merrick Garland might authorize a few discreet fact-finding expeditions to Kentucky).
(Of course, part of Moscow Mitch’s shenanigans might be to jam a spoke in the wheels of Garland’s confirmation as AG.)
gvg
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I think Kamela controls when when resigns up to the 20th, so she can do it earlier and have her replacement sworn in ahead of time ready to go. Her replacement has been already named-though I forget the name. I
There is talk about waiting till she is VP so she can swear him in but I don’t know if that is real law. Who swears in Senators? Anyway, I think there is a new Senator minutes after she is sworn in.
Uncle Cosmo
Nope. Loeffler is Republican #51 right now. Kamala can’t tie any vote before Warnock and Ossoff are seated unless at least 3 GOP members aren’t voting, and then only until she resigns her seat to become VPOTUS at noon on December 51, 2020.** After Warnoff, Ossock and Padilla are sworn in the Senate will be evenly divided.
** Well fuck, it sure feels that way. Sue me.
eclare
@danielx: That was epic
MisterForkbeard
@gvg: Yeah. After Kamala is sworn in as VP they’ll immediately (or the next day, whatever) swear in his successor. He’s already been named and so on.
Kathleen
@natem: Axis Maggie’s gotta race card. She’s burnishing her brand for gig in Trump’s new network.
Kathleen
@CaseyL: That’s an excellent point.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@gvg: Alex Padillia(the Secretary of State) has be designated by Gov. Gav. to replace VP-elect Harris.
Kathleen
@Blue Galangal: Some enterprising publication needs to investigate NYT finances. Follow the money. Something is very rotten.
karen marie
@OGLiberal: I really do not like Schumer, and I really don’t like him being the one to negotiate any “power sharing” with McConnell, but here we are.
EthylEster
@dmsilev: my two cents => Birth control is not that hard a concept.