"You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you."-@michelleisawolf https://t.co/rmu0P0odMD
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) April 29, 2022
"Reporters have long considered the role of White House correspondent to be the crown jewel of American political journalism. But during the age of Biden, it's become a bore." https://t.co/PaJZXmmhD3
— Paul Vieira (@paulvieira) April 29, 2022
Just a little amuse-bouche, a friendly beat-sweetener for #NerdProm weekend! (Or maybe a subtle shiv from the reporters who didn’t get invited to the WHCA dinner, rich in easy clip lines for the haterz):
… Some of those covering the most powerful office on the planet say that the storylines, while important, and substantive, can lack flair or be hard to get viewer attention. There is industry-wide acknowledgment that viewership is down. Television outlets have been quick to turn their attention to other stories and bolster other units. There is a sense that the main saga of American politics is taking place outside the confines of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and that the journalists covering it — Donald Trump and the future of democracy — may reap the career rewards.
The Obama press room launched a whole cohort of journalists into media stardom. The Trump press room launched another. The Biden press room?
“I can’t think of any [stars],” said a well-known television news executive. “I don’t really watch the briefings.”
The dulling down of the White House beat is not due to a lack of reportorial talent in the room. Nor has it meant that the work being done hasn’t been important: major stories are being broken regularly on everything from the Covid fight, to the war in Ukraine, to inflation, immigration and legislative battles over the social safety net. Rather, what is happening is the fulfillment of a central Biden promise. Running for office against Donald Trump — the most theatrical, attention-seeking, Beltway-panic-inducing president in living memory — he pledged to make Washington news boring again.
And, well, mission accomplished sir…
How *dare* he! Doesn’t he know who we are?!?
Gone are the Tweets that sent newsrooms scrambling. So long to the five alarm Friday news dumps that had editors frantically rearranging weekend plans. Bye-bye to the massive TV budgets for White House specials and the firehose of publishing deals for books about the administration. NPD BookScan, which tracks book sales in the U.S., said that prominent books about Trump released in his first two years of office outsold Biden books during his first year and a half by, what an official there said was, “essentially 10:1.” A newly released biography about Jill Biden, by two well-respected Associated Press journalists, sold just 250 units in its first week, according to the company.
For the vast majority of Americans, and even plenty of people in Washington, it’s all been a relief — the minute-by-minute churn of presidential politics is no longer so omnipresent and existential in their lives.
“It’s not such a bad thing that there’s a new sense of sobriety in the White House briefing room,” said Eric Schultz, a former deputy press secretary under Obama. “The histrionics probably got out of control. It is serious business… It’s probably good for democracy for this to be less personality based and more about the work.”…
Haberman weeps! (No, srsly…)
But for the White House scribes, the ones shaking out their tuxedos and cocktail dresses to gather for the White House Correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, it’s been an adjustment at best and deflating at worst.
“It’s a boring and difficult job. It’s tough to be a White House correspondent if you want to break news, they’re so airtight,” another reporter who covered both the Trump and Biden White Houses from the briefing room. “There’s no Maggie [Haberman]. Who’s the Maggie of the Biden administration? It doesn’t exist.”…
I LOVE that no one is gonna make bank just nodding along as the current President drones on for forty minutes about how he passed the 'is this an elephant' test.
I LOVE that you now have to work like all your starving non-stenographer colleagues do.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) April 29, 2022
the funniest thing about that politico piece on the failchildren of the white house press corpse is that i came away from it thinking that peter doocy is literally the only member of that august body who actually knows why he's there
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) April 29, 2022
they genuinely miss the sociopathic President with a sad comb over and fifth grade reading level who literally tried to destroy democracy.
talking about actual policy doesn't sell. It's deemed too boring. pic.twitter.com/ZyBBNaHqmH
— Karl Bode (@KarlBode) April 29, 2022
If people here seem mad at the media it's because we all watched them having a blast in the Trump era and being pouty complainers in the Biden era.
— The Substack of Boba Fett (@agraybee) April 28, 2022
germy
danielx
Policy is so BOOOORRRING! And nobody ever got rich writing books about policy insights or got invited on a talk show! We want nicknames! We want our Donnie back!
What a bunch of whinging brats.
geg6
Boo fucking hoo. There are few I despise more than the Village Idiots.
Spanky
I completely disagree with this statement. There is no evidence of reportorial talent.
germy
Lester Holt or David Muir ask her about this yet?
Ken
If they’re bored, maybe they should ask to be reassigned? Or switch jobs entirely — I understand that the economy’s created a huge number of jobs recently, or they could try being a tiktok influencer.
Spanky
@germy: Why should we care what some crazy-eyed yahoo state senator thinks?
Peale
Boo hoo hoo.
And he makes them go to Delaware. Delaware! And not the beach part where their summer homes are, either.
Kropacetic
Whose job is it to make a story interesting, again? I believe that’s what we call “finding an angle.”
Steeplejack
@germy:
Jeez. At first I thought, “Heh, nice snark.” Then I checked and remembered that she is an actual MAGA nut deluxe. Parody is dead, or on life support.
Starfish
Karen Tumulty is here quoting Megan McArdle as if she has a point, and Max Boot is retweeting her.
This is peak brain-dead press nonsense. Who has seen the years of further radicalization and said, “Yes, what we need is for people holding extremist positions is for them to yell at each other with the same talking points for years to come.”
The only people who think that is good are the ones who do not see themselves affected by the issues involved.
Kropacetic
@germy: At least that loyalty to the global white supremacist agenda is an ethos…
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
rikyrah
The MSM resents the competence of 46 and his Administration. They preferred being Dolt45’s stenographers???
rikyrah
@Peale:
He goes phucking home. HOME
Where he spends time with the grandkids and goes to CHURCH!
And, they whine about it??
But, since he isn’t PROFITING FROM IT???
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
Betty Cracker
It’s unfixable with the current Beltway crew. They should be retired to the private sector to write PR puff pieces for oil/tech barons and other paying scum.
News outlets that cover the White House (which should not include the GOP propaganda outlet called Fox News) should beef up their international news bureaus and rotate correspondents through foreign capitals and DC.
I sincerely believe we’d get better coverage. Couldn’t be worse anyway.
karensky
The Haberman thingy at the end is so on target. Thanks
NotMax
Possibly of interest to some, statistics regarding Twitter and the hierarchies of so-called social media: #1 — #2.
Joe Falco
Maybe if they go back to their roots and stand outside the White House in the pouring rain, some future president can take pity on them and throw them a gaffe they can make money off of reporting. In the meantime, fuck ’em.
OzarkHillbilly
My favorite quote:
Starfish
@rikyrah: I think he is skipping the dinner part of their stupid party this weekend.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly: BECAUSE YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE
p.a.
What minority percentage of these tools have the capacity to analyze policy initiatives anyway? Never mind the ones using paid liars from AEI, Heritage etc for the counter-quotes.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: Well, yes I am but I don’t need Jen to make that obvious. ;-)
Kay
@Starfish:
Twitter benefits media people financially. They use it to promote their own paid work. It’s essential to sell all the newsletters and individual projects they do in addition to working for outlets. They’re the absolute worst people to weigh in on it because they have a direct financial interest in it and they’re really the only people who do.
No one is linking to their 500th “cancel culture” analysis on Facebook. Megan McArdle needs Karen Tumulty quoting Megan McArdle on Twitter. Twitter is for them. The ordinary rabble who criticize them on Twitter are also for them, because the measure is driving engagement.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly: I knew I should put a disclaimer!
NotMax
Happened to see some dweeb from Politico appearing on MSNBC the other day, before lunging for the remote.
Dude looked to be all of 16.
MagdaInBlack
@OzarkHillbilly: LOL..that is exactly the response I was expecting from you ?
Soprano2
None of this is one bit surprising. These are people who feed off chaos, so TFG was a fulfillment of their wildest dreams and Biden is their worst nightmare. They felt important and needed, they were the center of attention. Now they actually have to figure out how to make news from the White House interesting to their audience that is used to the TFG “crack”. Michelle Wolf had them pegged to a “T”.
I’m not a bit surprised about their attitude toward Jen Psaki, either. They don’t care about learning about what the administration is doing – they care about tripping her up so they can get on TV.
Starfish
@Kay: It feels like there are Republicans who have learned from “Ted Cruz says stupid things on Twitter to gain engagement” and are doing more of that now. Elise Stefanik seems to be doing a lot of it lately.
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: If I didn’t say it, somebody else would have. I just beat them to the punch.
Amir Khalid
@Starfish:
I remember the Karen Tumulty whose coverage of healthcare issues at TIME was brilliant. She hasn’t been anywhere near as good since she joined The Washington Post.
Jerzy Russian
@zhena gogolia: Like all powerful tools, pronouns can be dangerous if used incorrectly.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Journalism receives no exemption from the Peter Principle.
Spanky
@Amir Khalid: How much of that is on her vs her editor’s decisions?
different-church-lady
@Starfish:
Soprano2
@rikyrah: I think what they’re maddest about is how little leaking the Biden people do. They lived off those leaks when TGF was there.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s okay, it’s not your fault. ?
Starfish
@different-church-lady: You make excellent editing choices.
Tony Jay
Same thing over here. The UK political media luuuuurrrrvvvve them the Saggy White Minstrel Show Johnson provides. Every day there’s another scandal or a trolling of ‘The Woke Left’ or a Minister whose gormless maneuvering they can pick over for style tips.
Policy? That’s boring. Honesty? Integrity? Concern for anything outside of the insular Westminster bubble? How naive. Democracy? Responsibility? Accountability? Pffft, that’s not savvy.
So you end up with what we have. A media monolith that uniformly wants to keep Tories (especially these Tories) in power because they can all sell more newspapers or newspaper subscriptions on the back of their atrocities.
But don’t make the mistake of saying that in their comment sections. They have thinner skins than an extra-small featherlite condom on a statue of Long Dong Silver.
Ken
They weren’t doing that, either. They couldn’t even push back effectively when the first big lie about inauguration attendance came out, and it went downhill from there.
Betty
@NotMax: Jake Sherman? I routinely turn him off. Recently before discussing McCarthy, he actually said something to the effect of “Now I am not making excuses for him, but he has a lot on his plate.” Good grief!
different-church-lady
Well, yes, after four years of heroin, vitamin tablets can seem a little dull.
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: Wait… there’s a statue?
Amir Khalid
@different-church-lady:
Well put.
RaflW
James Fallows, in his substack talks about nerd prom. As anyone who has read Fallows over the years can imagine, he’s not sympatheic to their boredom. Nor has he been. He quotes himself from his 1996 book:
Hence his title for today: Nietzsche Goes to the Nerd Prom. He ponders if time is a flat circle.
Who is whining changes, but the pampered vanity of the WHCA doesn’t.
lollipopguild
These are people who would like the world to come to an end so they can be on TV reporting it. And win a prize for their reporting.
UncleEbeneezer
@Starfish: These people can’t seem to grok that presenting the false appearance of a legitimate debate, is one of the most long-running and effective ways to spread racism, misogyny, lgbtqphobia etc. It’s literally what JAQ-ing (just asking questions) is all about. It is weaponizing the respect that most people (rightly) have for debating ideas and suckering them into debating shitty ones like whether Black people are inferior or Trans people are monsters etc. The whole point is to spread __ist/__phobic idea and get it out there. Nothing more.
Peale
I have to admit I miss debating whether to invade Greenland this week or Venezuela the next or South Korea a week later.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think of “White House correspondent” as a real reporting beat. Not much of their “breaking” news is stuff they actually dig up; it’s more “Hey, the White House suddenly announced x” or, formerly, “Trump did a tweet!”
Back in the day it was more of an on-deck circle for nightly news anchor. Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, Sam Donaldson and Brian Williams were all White House correspondents before moving into the big chair. Nowadays there are so many mini-anchors that I don’t think the White House beat is as important. MSNBC has a different anchor practically every hour during the weekdays.
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx: I blame my parents.
Starfish
@UncleEbeneezer: Seriously. The technique is so old. From anti-vaxxers to the people who do not believe in evolution, they love to debate an expert, preferably at a university to make themselves look more credible. I debated professor so-n-so at the university of such-n-such because the establishment is threatened by my points, which are completely valid and not at all made up.
MagdaInBlack
@Ken: I’m kind of stunned that they would think that what they were doing was somehow “saving democracy.”
Era: I shouldn’t be, I know, but jeezuz.
Kropacetic
@Starfish: I like how they use the lazy Republican framing around debate.
I won’t engage Republicans who are obviously deep down the rabbit hole. It’s not about only wanting to debate my “side.” It’s that I don’t want to waste my time with fools and liars. Occasionally I find an honest R and manage to have a normal conversation.
It doesn’t help that the “sides” are basically anyone who wants any form of government vs nihilists.
UncleEbeneezer
@Starfish: And then they Gish Gallop by overwhelming the other person with too many bullshit claims to possibly refute.
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: I was just about to. But it was going to be in your defense, something like, he’s really a lower case asshole, not all caps.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: True, but there’s much potential for real, important work, just in covering WH announcements. How does policy X affect real people? They could go find some to interview! No book deal in that though.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Because you’re trying to make the administration look like an asshole!
What happened to the press conferences where information was actually requested and actually provided? Now it’s all clever gotcha questions with paragraphs of lead-ins and context. Just ask the fucking question already.
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Society is to blame!
geg6
@Kay:
This. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
OzarkHillbilly
@japa21:Heh, but I’m glad you didn’t. I wouldn’t want you imperiling your eternal soul by bearing false witness.
@kalakal: My parents were part of society, so they still get blamed.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
I agree about that! I’m talking about how the networks themselves have structured the position.
Starfish
@Kropacetic:
I love to argue on the internet.
Since the war in Ukraine, some positions on Twitter have become so nonsensical that I can’t tell if these are real people or bots that exist to try to provoke people.
Even though my husband repeatedly laughs at me and asks me, “Is someone wrong on the internet?” because he knows my personality and tendencies, the idea that the people with the bad faith arguments may be bots sucks all the joy out of it for me.
I dropped people at the beginning of the Trump administration for their foolish “Well, I don’t believe in government” takes when they could not be bothered to take a side on “Hey, the escalating anti-Muslim rhetoric is going to go somewhere.” That place was of course the Muslim travel ban. And then it got worse from there.
A Streeter
@Spanky: I take the statement not as saying that there’s reportorial talent, but rather that the evident lack of it is not the reason for the “dulling down of the White House press beat.”
Another Scott
Haven’t clicked the link, because, well, Politico. But in the excerpts above, I see that the on-the-record quotes are uncontroversial. But all the juicy ones are from some nebulous anonymous person. That’s Politico’s MO. That’s how they shape the story and reader’s reactions.
It’s a pox.
Cheers,
Scott.
Wapiti
Those ‘elite’ journalists love them some war, too. An average journalist like Wolf Blitzer can turn a few days in a foreign hotel room into a solid career. People’s life being turned to shit (or, ended, :shrug: ) is an opportunity for these journalists to make serious money.
NotMax
Repeated from late yesterday, this vile creature is running for the Utah legislature essentially unopposed.
Soprano2
@debbie: Because they aren’t trying to get information, they’re trying to get on TV or be retweeted a lot for their “gotcha” moment. That’s what they’re rewarded for, so it’s not surprising that’s what they do. Why else keep asking the same question over and over?
Starfish
@UncleEbeneezer: Yes.
Imani Gandy made this point a few weeks ago in response to a Judd Legum saying that he would debate the anti-choicers.
Imani saying that is super powerful because you know she has been on this beat for years, and she is such a powerful voice. That she thinks she could not debate these fools speaks to how hard it really is.
kalakal
The UK govt in the form of haunted pencil Jacob Rees-Smug has just described Brexit as a failure
In short, he and his fellow EEG scan no shows have discovered that imposing border controls has administrative costs which to their surprise makes importing and exporting more expensive. The world beating solution is to have no checks on goods from the EU while the EU merrily has checks on goods from the UK, ergo UK companies have a huge administrative load that their EU competitors do not. This must be a historical first, self sanctioning as an economic policy. I can only assume his brain died of agoraphobia
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/29/jacob-rees-mogg-brexit-disaster-leaving-eu-boris-johnson?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Mike E
…paging Villago delenda est…
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Against those odds, you never stood a chance
sdhays
@Soprano2: Reporting what people told them, either officially or unofficially, is what their jobs are. It may not be what we think their jobs are or should be, but that’s why they are there. That’s why it’s so ridiculous how much self-regard they have and how they are considered such great reporters. They hang around DC hoping someone is going to tell them something salacious.
It can be useful, but it’s not the be all and end all of reporting, even though the modern media seems to believe it is.
Kay
@geg6:
There’s no real “engagement” between McCardle and an ordinary non-celebrity on Twitter. I read Twitter. She doesn’t respond to random “Mike in San Antonio” accounts. She responds to other media people or high profile liberals who are employed in or around politics. I don’t care about this media content marketplace I’m witnessing – I don’t have anything invested in changing it, but that is what I’m witnessing- not a “town square”. If McCardle and Mike in San Antonio were sitting in a room and he criticized her work she would have to respond to him. On Twitter she doesn’t. He’s just one of tens of members of the rabble she can ignore.
The structure of the marketplace is suited to sell their work. It’s not suited to some broad ranging citizen debate. It’s rare to see ordinary people engage with each other on Twitter. They’re commenting on what some higher profile person said. There’s little or no engagement between the commenters.
opiejeanne
Trying one more time:
Is anyone interested in a meet-up in Chicago next week? We will be in town on May 6, 7, & 8, leaving on the 9th. We have tickets to a 1 pm Cubs game on the 6th but should be free by 6 pm. Other than that we are flexible. We have a list of things we want to do, like the architecture boat tour on the Chicago River, visit the Field Museum and the Art Institute.
RaflW
@Starfish: The person whose twitter handle is “asymmetricinfo” refuses to admit that the two political parties are asymmetric in their polarities and the faithfulness of their arguments.
I’d slap my forehead, but I am not willing to even symbolically injure myself for Ms. Arglebargle.
sdhays
@kalakal: Wow.
Kay
@geg6:
The debate on Twitter is “Up to Down” or “Up across with another Up”. There’s no Down to Up or (especially) Down with Up. In an actual town hall meeting it’s almost all Down to Up. Media people on Twitter have WAY more influence than ordinary readers and users. It’s not even close and it’s ridiculous to pretend it is.
It’s way more important to media people- the people who sell content- than it is to ordinary people too, probably unlike Facebook, which a lot of people love and use exclusively to connect with other ordinary Facebook users.
Mike in NC
I disagree here. I think at best he had a third grade reading level. Probably suffered from a learning disability as a child before those things were properly diagnosed. He got shipped off to a private military academy to fix that and it obviously didn’t work.
RaflW
@Soprano2: The lack of leaks suggests two things to me. One, the Biden WH is probably pretty firm in their position that leaking doesn’t help, and has some sort of enforcement threat in place. But, two (and I think the more relevant): The people working in the Biden WH believe in the project, are damn busy doing it, and trust Psaki and the comms team to get the messages out about their efforts.
Maybe reporters could do some digging around to find out what has all those West Wingers so darn busy!
Jinchi
The funny thing is that Huckabee-Sanders ended press briefings, so there was no room for talent to be in for the last year of TFG’s presidency.
prostratedragon
@opiejeanne: Bring jackets; looks like it’s going to be chilly. Weather permitting though, I recommend the boat tour. I’m not current on the pub scene, though again weather permitting I know of one potential spot down LSD from the museums, which I think will still have outdoor seating.
opiejeanne
@Soprano2: All the gossip and scandal of the previous administration, and there was some Thing or several Things every damned day.
I like a boring government, that just goes about our business in an orderly fashion, and works to make our lives better.
Amir Khalid
@kalakal:
Any sane person knew that well before the 2016 referendum. Fifty points from Tory House for denying the obvious.
RaflW
@NotMax: Trevor J. Lee, esq., is still on the “meet the team” page for business lawfirm Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar, PLLC in Salt lake City.
Shall one construe that the entire firm is OK with his transphobia and eliminationist rhetoric? It sure would be nice if politics reporters would ask questions of these candidates peers. He’s a partner in the firm, for chrissakes.
germy
@Spanky:
I don’t know. Does fascism disappear if we don’t pay attention to it?
Jinchi
That was my impression when I heard people obsessing about their twitter ratio. The implication is that if people reply to your tweet, they probably hated it, and if they liked your tweet they have nothing more to add.
Kay
Alex Pareene is a liberal writer who writes for liberal outlets but also sells his work independently:
No puffed up, grandiose lecture about how Twitter is a “town square”, no scolding about the “illiberal Left” – he’s just telling you what the business model is for them. I appreciate the honesty.
NotMax
@RaflW
Obligatory?
:)
trnc
For any WH correspondents who feel like their beat is too boring, there’s plenty of excitement in Ukraine. How you manage to get in would probably be quite a story in itself.
germy
@Kay:
I thought he was being sarcastic? A comment on the big-name blue checks?
OzarkHillbilly
You and me, Corey.
eta and before anybody jumps all over me, go and watch it. It’s not what it sounds like.
narya
@opiejeanne: I would consider it . . . except I have to go to Madison next weekend!
prostratedragon
I saw this on my Guardian box and had to stop very soon thereafter:
germy
@prostratedragon:
Things are getting better for Sirota. So that’s something, anyway
prostratedragon
@OzarkHillbilly: Jen “The Mirror” Psaki
NotMax
@RaflW
Before jumping to conclusions, might be a different T. Lee? Per the article linked above,
Matt McIrvin
God. THIS is why we are fucking doomed.
Lord save us from Presidents who are fun for the media to cover. They think it’s all a sitcom.
Kay
@Jinchi:
And the high profile Twitter users could change that if they wanted to – if they actually had some lofty committment to “free ranging debate” and a “town hall”. Maggie Haberman could take a criticism from “Mary in South Bend” and engage with it, but she won’t. Because that’s not what Twitter is for- Twitter is for promoting their work and engaging only with other higher status users.
Matt McIrvin
I was already taking an extended break from Twitter when the Musk business broke. It was a good decision. You all saw what it was doing to my head.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Wow. And Lee beat out far less radical Republicans for that nomination.
Matt McIrvin
@Jinchi: My experience was that friendly discussions about non-political subjects, like mathematics (there is a lot of good stuff on math Twitter), would get replies that were positive. But that was all low-volume–the numbers would be in the single or double digits. When you get into posts with hundreds or thousands of likes or replies, that’s when the ratio logic applies–if a thousand people reply without liking, you’ve got haters.
NotMax
@trnc
Where they would end up filing stories a la Damien. And another.
//
James E Powell
@Betty Cracker:
Too easy. I want them busing tables, washing dishes, and scrubbing bathrooms in rural diners throughout the midwest. Then will they learn about their RealAmericans®.
kindness
I think Jen Psaki makes it hard for the WHPC to get a Gotcha! moment. She’s more informed and smarter than most the people in the room and they know it. Doocey is the only one who thinks showing everyone he’s Fox’s yappy dog idiot is a good thing,
Kay
@germy:
He does use it to promote his work. They all do. It’s just most of them insist they’re engaged in something else, that the PUBLIC has some personal, vital interest in this promotional/sales tool.
The public will continue to have the debates or fights they have with or without Twitter. None of these people read “MAGA Mary from Arkansas” anyway. Twitter could consist exclusively of higher profile accounts and it would change not at all.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike in NC: Donald Trump’s parents were abusive, like Donald Trump himself. They shipped him to a private military academy because to parents like that, institutionalizing the abuse is the way you deal with a kid who seems to be wayward.
Omnes Omnibus
@narya: Ha! And I won’t be in Madison because of Mothers’ Day.
kalakal
@prostratedragon: Don’t read the comments, they’ll do awful to your blood pressure. Exactly the sort of ignorant wazzocks that Schrodingers Cat rightly detests.
opiejeanne
@narya: Well, fooey. Or is that phooey?
I thought Mothers Day was tomorrow, the 1st of May, when I booked the train, and that I’d be home for our kids if they wanted to do something. I should have checked the calendar.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
The Politico article is weirdly boring. It’s about how they launched careers on Obama and then Trump and now (not) on Biden. It’s about as interesting as reading “Top Performers in Real Estate Today”.
I think we make a category error when we describe these people as “conservative” or “ideological”
What they are is “conventional” and RIGIDLY “traditional”. It’s a prestigious job that is supposed to lead to a more prestigious job (a slot on cable news, according to the article) and a huge bump in income. That’s how it’s supposed to work. It hasn’t with Biden, so things are “out of order” and must be aligned.
narya
@Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t realize you were there. If we get Great Taste tickets, I’ll post it here–there are always a ton of things to do that week.
kalakal
@Amir Khalid: Heh, it could be taken direct from the Remainer manifesto. The best bit his job title is Minister for Brexit Opportunities The only ‘opportunity’ he has so far found is to try to hit reverse
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
The Fox news guy says it outright. He says it’s working okay for him to continue to occupy this prestige stepping stone and he’s happy to wait for his inevitable, hugely lucrative cable slot on Fox. The reward he’ll get for adding “inflation” to every sentence he utters.
kalakal
duplicate deleted
Alison Rose ???
We did one of those career aptitude tests in high school, and my top result was journalist. At the time, I seriously considered pursuing that path in college. Thank the fucking Lord I didn’t, because I wouldn’t want to be associated with whiny ass little bitches like these people in any way, shape, or form.
kalakal
@James E Powell:
I like the way you think
prostratedragon
@kalakal: I couldn’t even get past the opening couple of paragraphs in the article.
RaflW
@kalakal: The part that I find so demoralising about this isn’t even the self-harm, though that’s a ridiculous own-goal. It is that the Tories seem able to hold onto power when they are utterly sclerotic and corrupt.
Bodes ill for us over here in the other half of the ‘special relationship’ anglophone wank-mocracies.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I think that the format of Twitter makes really good discussion impossible unless volumes of people involved remain very low. The fact that any individual *sentence* in what you write can trivially become the seed of a new thread going off on a tangent that is completely divorced from the context in which you were trying to say it, to the point that that context is physically hard to find–this encourages hot takes, punchy punchlines and vilification, and also makes engagement perilous unless it’s a very small and obscure discussion. It’s just a bad medium for anything serious. Even smart, good writers get pulled into hot takes, venting, picking fights and doom-mongering. And I know a thing or two about doom-mongering.
Sure Lurkalot
@kalakal: I don’t care if they have some table waiting type job, but absolutely, if they are so interested in what the salt of the earth Americans say and think, make them go live where they do. No more lazy ass takes after which you go back to your fancy apartment to get ready for your Michelin star dinner before the play.
kalakal
@prostratedragon: I was practically spitting blood.
@RaflW: Absolutely. It’s the English* version of MAGA, both the base and “top”
The Tory cabinet ounce for ounce could rival Trumps for corruption, malice and incompetence. Nearly all the leading Brexiteers have a) dual nationality with an EU country and/or b) shifted their money there eg Rees-Smug’s business shifted to Ireland, Farage has a German wife, Lawson lives in France.
For incompetence I present Nadine Dorries the Secretary of State for Digital Culture, Media, and Sport. Currently trying to defend the deeply unpopular forced privatisation of the Channel 4 tv station ( their news program was mean to the Dear Leader) in a recent interview she defended it by proclaiming the success of the privatisation of Channel 5. When it was pointed out to her that channel 5 has always been a private company she repeated the claim.
Kathleen
@Ken: I had the same reaction.
Kathleen
@UncleEbeneezer: Whch is why I started calling them “Mainslime Media” in early 2000. For that very reason. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were lauded for being “satirists” during the 90’s. It’s been a quick downward slide since.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s an excellent little video. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
feebog
Charlie Pierce didn’t dub it “Tigerbeat on the Potomac” for nothing. The blame lies solely with Joe Biden for competently doing his job and Jan Psaki for being the smartest person in the room at every press conference.
RaflW
@Kay: This is indeed why Baquet was so full of merde when he said twitter would take the place of a public editor.
None of the reporters or editors at the NYT have any incentive whatsoever to engage in ordinary conversation with schlubs like us, even if we’re subscribers. (They still manage to have their thin skins pricked by the ‘tone’ of the critiques, tho!)
Tenar Arha
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, SWTG it’s clear they clearly long for their lowest difficulty setting back. Trump gave all the smarmy access beat stenographers that “I’m an investigative powerhouse” feeling because just semi-accurately repeating the crazy THEY were experiencing felt heroic.
Another Scott
@kalakal: Something seems to be seriously broken with the British press – even more than what we accept as normal.
Magic 8-Ball says “Outlook not so good”
:-/
Grr…,
Scott.
Old Man Shadow
I would like something Old Testament Biblical to happen to all of these fuckers.
RaflW
@NotMax: Ahh, I should have looked more closely. I believe the term of art is “I regret the error” (but I actually do).
Scout211
For many of us olds and middle-aged, the rapid change from news with news reporters and journalists to splashy infotainment has been sad and disturbing.
Every media company has to compete with social media to catch viewers attention so the companies can make money. It just seems like the news has slowly turned into one giant TikTok with news reporters more like influencers these days.
Man, I sound old.
kalakal
For any who may retain any doubt after Tony Jays epic diatribes as to the all round splendidness of the British Government may I present Mark Spencer, leader of the Commons ( the UKs answer to Pelosi) MP.
Recently Priti Patel the Dalek acting as Home Secretary accepted a $4,000 freebie to the latest James Bond premiere. The justification is that it was part of her work because her department includes MI5.
Here is Spencer being grilled by Chris Bryant MP head of the Standards Committee.
https://twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1518955367065137154?s=20&t=z9Nyqsr0lAatOARi62Pv7Q
Kay
@RaflW:
I just think that when you read analysis of Twitter that is written by the people who most benefit financially from Twitter the more sensible way to approach what they write is not “free speech” but instead “this is an absolutely vital tool for their business model”. Is it about “you” or “us” or “democracy”? Really? I’m just a reader and even if I weren’t I wouldn’t be engaging with Maggie Haberman or McCardle. They would never engage with me. There’s no upside at all to them doing so. I also don’t particularly want to, but if I did.
So maybe the “public square” part of Twitter is part-of-the- rabble Twitter members engaging with each other? This is how the public will hash out their differences, talking with each other? No, because there’s almost none of that on Twitter.
schrodingers_cat
Twitter like anything else is what you make of it. When I follow journalists whose beats I am interested in I don’t expect them to respond. I have had Twitter conversations with some media folk on occasion and I am a tiny account with less than 400 followers.
I have also had engagement with Twitter mutuals who are BJers. Twitter has been a great source for COVID19 related announcements as I followed my governor and other lawmakers.
I have also connected and followed lots of Democrats who are not overwhelmingly white and who didn’t think that EW was the best presidential candidate in the last cycle.
Also too, Cat Twitter, I have mutuals from around the globe and we do interact!
Plus it has been invaluable in following the news from India. I have had lots of constructive engagement with mid sized Twitter accounts of writers and journalists some of who have become mutuals. Plus I can interact with many directly in Marathi and Hindi which keeps my language skills from getting too rusty.
Twitter for all its flaws is what this place used to be. And it is even better because I get to tweet in 3 languages.
There is more to Twitter than the “progressive” bubble this place has become.
scav
@kalakal: Fabricant defending Flobalob’s Lockdown Boozefests as just exactly what all the Nurses and Teachers were getting up to at their work ranks high on an incompetence scale, tone-deaf version. Extra point for the fan-boy cosplay hair style, but as he’s expressed apologetic noises, his Toryfrontery score has slipped.
Bill Arnold
@Amir Khalid:
“Project Fear” was an effective pejorative term.
We’ve seen some of that more recently with COVID-19 in the US; right-wingers mocking people as irrationally fearful for taking and advocating for basic precautions to reduce the chances of community spread of an infectious disease. I’ve personally heard ordinary non-political people mindlessly echoing it.
kalakal
@Another Scott: GB* news was launched about 6 months ago to fill the percieved need for a British version of Fox for the poor underserved RWNJs.
It gets an average audience of 7 ( and a bewildered dog ) and is a total shitshow heading for bankruptcy.
*popularly known as Gammon Broadcasting. Gammon is slang for Brexiteers/ English RWNJs , due to their appearance, sweaty flushed Pink
RaflW
@Kay: Well said. My issue is the transparently absurd idea that the Times “no longer needs a public editor because twitter.”
I know the NYT is a piñata around here (by me, too) but as the so-called paper of record, they’re just refusing to be approachable or accountable. Twitter ain’t it, surely. But it was their excuse.
Kay
The slightest criticism of Elon Musk elicts this reaction. You “hate” him if you’re not fawning all over him. From the self appointed free speech defenders, no less.
The funniest part is how they portray it as bold contrarianism. A lot of people admire celebrity rich people. It is the furthest thing from “bold”. Just be one of the hundreds of millions of people who admire celebrity rich people. Completely normal.
Kay
@RaflW:
Did the public editor help? I bought the WaPo because I was reading it so much but after Iraq and the insane overplaying of the Clinton emails – bridge too far for me and the NYT. Some mistakes are too big to ignore. They won’t get a third chance from me.
Amir Khalid
@kalakal:
Who the hell names their kid after a department store?
Another Scott
@kalakal: Ah. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
It is genuinely funny how the man himself, with his own Tweets, is just demolishing any notion anyone could have had that this is about “free speech”
Musk vows to “finish” the fight with the Democratic Party on the platform he’s buying. What “fight” you’re wondering? Weren’t we told repeatedly that this was not about ideological or Party promotion and dominance like THREE DAYS AGO?
Rupert Murdoch is a model of subtle owner influence compared to this guy.
His critics could not do a better job showing what he is than he is doing. They should really just let him take it from here. Elon Musk is the best Elon Musk myth shatterer out there.
RaflW
@Kay: I’m annoyed as heck with Musk because he’s used making an okay electric car company into a platform to weigh in on everything from L.A. subways to wether to take wellbutrin.
He’s abusing a well-worn track in American life: Be successful at something, ergo you’re a multi-dimensional genius about everything.
kalakal
@Amir Khalid: :) :) :)
Matt McIrvin
It’s a classic self-fulfilling characterization, I suppose.
Another Scott
@RaflW: @Kay:
Elon knows that “mindshare” is the real coin of wealth and power. Just like TFG did.
Every tweet about Elon is one less bit of attention to Ola Källenius and M-B’s EQS and their demonstration of 1000 km range in their EQXX.
The best way for the sensible world to take power away from Elon and TFG and all the rest is to stop giving them mindshare.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
He vows to “finish” his fight (?) with the Democratic Party. I don’t know- I can read and this is a political actor. Why not just admit it? He won’t be the first right wing multi billionaire. What would be shocking if he wasn’t one.
What’s funny is watching him make it impossible to deny he is a political actor with every Tweet :)
I can’t imagine what Democratic Leadership did to Elon Musk but it must have been bad. I bet it’s because they’re the only people even attempting to regulate his business interests and enforce US law and raise his taxes and perhaps make it harder for him to union bust, but there’s no “free speech” angle in that so it won’t sell newsletters. He can’t be mad at them for giving him huge public subsidies for his car company, right? Talk about ungrateful.
Ken
Handy to have a refuge in case you accidentally(?) destroy your current country. Though if they crash the London real estate market, they’ll have to go further than Europe. The Moon might not be far enough.
Planetjanet
@kalakal: Thanks goodness I had not reached for my coffee as I read this. Touché.
kalakal
Just came across this wonderful parody of Boris’ Britain
https://costadelsolupdate.com/brexitland-goes-bust/
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Ken:
If pushing back effectively means getting the administration to admit the truth, then, to be fair, that was never really an option in the Trump administration.
RaflW
@Another Scott: I muted Musk a year ago. Only unmuted him a couple days ago to see a few samples of his inanity. Mute going back on now. (It won’t matter very much, but if millions of us mute him, it would lower his views and drop him at least a bit in the almighty algorithms.)
Ruckus ??
…they genuinely miss the sociopathic President with a sad comb over and fifth grade reading level who literally tried to destroy democracy.
The most truthful sentence about SFB and a way to large segment of the press. Self centered, far more concerned about their careers that their asking asinine questions of an asinine excuse of a human is far more important than living in a country that is being destroyed from the inside by that sad comb over with a first grade reading level who has sold whatever little soul he ever had to the lowest bidder.
(No I didn’t mistakenly change fifth grade to first grade level)
Captain C
@Starfish: Village Idiots: “You need to listen to their good points or you’re a bad person!”
Us: “OK, what good points do they have?”
VI: “YOU need to figure this out!!!”
Us: OK, but what points of theirs do YOU think are good?
VI: “I can’t answer that or I’ll be biased!! But you’re definitely in the wrong, whatever you do or say.”
James E Powell
@Ruckus ??:
That their careers are what matters most is shown not only by their saving critical information for their books, but by their heated defense of that practice.
They are not good people.
Kay
I wonder too if their diagnosis of the reduction of audience engagement is just wrong. People were home a lot more during the pandemic. They were much more reliant on news media for information than they ordinarily are, even just about the pandemic. Maybe they’re just going back to their ordinary level of engagement, back at work, out and about, which included almost no one watching the White House press events.
Another Scott
(Points to a RawStory piece.)
Eyes on the prizes.
(via EclecticBrotha)
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Kay: I think you have something there.
Another Scott
A day or few ago, a jackal said they were going to be at a political event and were looking for ammunition to counter “grooming” screeching. It seems there’s a crowdsourced list:
GoogleDocs – 812 and counting #RepublicanSexualPredators.
Via Joe Conason at NationalMemo via kelly2277 via Cajsa via EclecticBrotha
Cheers,
Scott.
RaflW
@Kay: For one thing, Biden’s EEOC is investigating Tesla.
Kay
@RaflW:
Well, Musk announced he intends to “finish” his fight with the the Democratic Party – from a ordinary multi billionaire that might sound like a threat to hold off regulators, but I understand this billionaire is nearly mythical, like a twinkly fairy.
What if the simple answer is the answer? He wants to own the platform to both make a profit and push his political alliances and interests- and those two things are the same thing to him, especially because of his extensive involvement in deregulation efforts. Government.
Take away the Space Magic Spangly Crown and isn’t that what this looks like?
kalakal
@Another Scott: Good grief! That list is horrific
Omnes Omnibus
Below the level of the big names, there is a lot of that available on Twitter if you choose to use it that way. Being careful who you follow and with whom you interact, can make Twitter a very valuable place to be. Following people like Hilzoy and Magi_Jay is a way to have interesting ideas and articles that you might not otherwise see put in front of you. Illusory_Tenant and Nada_Elmikashki are real useful for WI politics; so are Ben Wikler and the Dem Reps and candidates. And then there are the various niche twitters, where engagement and discussion happen a lot. It’s a tool, and it can be a valuable one. You also have to be able to know when Twitter as a whole goes mad, and shut it down for a while.
mrmoshpotato
Fucking press corpse!
“We want the fascist manbaby back! Biden is so adult and BOOOORRRRIIIINNNNNNGGG!”
And their profession was given explicit protection under the US Constitution! Fucking hell!
JoyceH
I see a lot of Twitter discussion on this thread, so hope someone can help me out. For some reason, for the past few days, my Twitter feed has become inundated with tweets about – Kenyan politics. It’s not anyone I follow, all the Tweets are headed ‘you might like’. Somehow the Twitter algorithms have decided I’m interested in Kenyan politics, and I am SO not. Is there some way I can convince them of that? And how might this have happened?
Ruckus ??
@zhena gogolia:
Thank You!
I needed a laugh this morning…..
Just got back from my daily walk and your comment was the first on the screen.
schrodingers_cat
@JoyceH: You can click on the 3 dots to the right and choose the option that says that you are not interested in the topic.
JaneE
We actually used to talk policy during lunch hours with co-workers. Far from boring, we had arguments over why it was better to do x over y. That was back when you could point out a flaw or possible unintended consequence and those arguing for it would try to come up with a work-around or mitigation. It usually started with some idiot trying to say a problem was “simple”, and the fix was “simple too” and even the people who were closer to his side would jump in with all the reasons why nothing in a country our size was simple at all. “What’s your solution?” was an invitation to spend an hour arguing over some issue, and “why would they do that?” was an invitation to criticize whatever compromise had just been signed into law. More often than not, what made it into law was far from perfect, but difficult to improve none the less. The good old days.
Another Scott
@JoyceH: I don’t have a Twitter account. But in case this is helpful:
Twitter – Turn off personalized content based on your 3rd party web activity.
ReviewGeek – How to keep suggested tweets off your feed
HTH a little. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
@OzarkHillbilly:
Somebody – I recommend Jay Rosen – can explain to One Reporter that it doesn’t have to be that way. One Reporter could try journalism.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
at this point what interests me most about Musk and twitter is: will he back out of the deal and claim it was “cancelled”, and/but if he goes through with it, will some other site pop to take all the Musk-haters and people who want to remain anonymous?
Tony Jay
@different-church-lady:
Of course there’s a statue. You’re talking like you don’t have one.
What do you hang your keys on?
Ruckus ??
@James E Powell:
They are not good people.
Sure they are! Just ask them.
I know there are good people in the journalism field, people that actually think about what they write, not how much they are going to get paid to write it. But our society praises money and having more of it get higher praise. Work has become for so many people not what you do to earn money, but how much you make for doing it, a decent output or not. Money has become the most important thing, and it’s putting the cart before the horse. Or more appropriate it’s killing the horse because it costs money and effort to have one and the cart should move itself. The fact that it can’t isn’t important. The people they work for are all about the money, not earning it, although they think they do, it’s all about having it. And because of that it’s not important how they get the money, the product produced for the money isn’t important. Most of us work as producers of product, be it solid, liquid, or thought. But any more it’s the quantity of product not the quality that is considered important. And the shittier the product the less it costs to produce so if you can sell a cheaper product at a better profit you are a genius.
They are all about cheaper, crappier products.
Wapiti
@Kay: I had to come back to this to laud you for this idea that twitter “debate” only flows from top down, or top to top. Mind blown. Truth received.
Another Scott
@Kay:
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Beau of the 5th Column – Cawthorn being undercut by NC state GQP, not those in DC. Maybe?
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
Maybe some things are moving on student debt relief. TheHill:
Biden knows how to do this politics stuff. Here’s hoping that Congress does its part to fix more of the educational funding system (which will ultimately depend on more sensible votes in Congress). And here’s hoping that voters understand that good things will only happen if they turn out to vote.
Cheers,
Scott.
WhatsMyNym
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well Musk sold a chunk of Tesla stock this week, knocking the price down. Maybe he’s just using this as a way of selling Tesla stock before it crashes back down to reality.
justsomeguy
@Spanky:
Talent & integrity get culled out before they can reach that level. Only deferential drones are allowed to be courtiers of Versaille, and favored employees of the ruling class.
Another Scott
+1
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus ??
That first tweet, the quote:
“You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you.”
SFB gave them eyeballs no matter what they wrote, his inability to do anything but sell his 10000% useless ass, to people that have more than enough of their own useless ass selves and think that money and hate are the only keys to life took them little time and even less effort to get paid to write about. And it gave the haters the keys to the hate vehicle, the concept that overthrowing the government that doesn’t let them hate to the degree that they want is wrong.
Hate is the human emotion that we need because, well humans, but it is extremely easy to end up with hate as the emotion that we can expound on and it’s easy for hate to be the overriding emotion in life. Having that emotion fed a study diet of acceptance by other haters is likely to be the human emotion that is supposed to protect us, be our downfall if we can’t see that it is not the best way to grow and evolve.
Hate and greed are something we all are capable of and are supposed to guard against accepting as the only answers but are the easiest let take control of our personalities if we aren’t careful. And many humans are not at all careful.
Another Scott
@WhatsMyNym:
Maybe. Musk is flighty and shoots off his mouth a lot. He may not have thought more than 6 hours ahead.
I’m still interested in what the SEC is going to do…
(via soonergrunt)
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
@Another Scott:
James E Powell
@Another Scott:
I predict it will do nothing because there will be nothing that can be done.
germy
different-church-lady
@prostratedragon:
Trooooooooooooooool…..
There go two miscreants
@JoyceH: kilgore trout has some advice that may be of use here:
(thread)
https://twitter.com/KT_So_It_Goes/status/1520452373055000582
(via @johnrog1)
Another Scott
@There go two miscreants: Interesting. Seems a little heavy handed at first glance (how do new sincere users ever gain enough followers, etc., if they’re blocked by everyone “famous” that they come across??), but it shows how bad the problem is.
The comment about the “Megablock” add-on strikes me as something that Twitter should do on its own. It shows that the technology exists – Twitter just doesn’t care enough to make the site much more troll resistant. And it’s one of the reasons why I’ve never seriously considered getting an account there…
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.