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You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Media

Media

Overdone (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  December 15, 20201:39 pm| 169 Comments

This post is in: Media, Open Threads

When an elite media figure’s gross behavior results in a rare moment of personal accountability, his fellow aristocrats are irresistibly compelled to convert the tawdry tale into a Greek tragedy. The Times published a representative sample of the genre today: “The Undoing of Jeffrey Toobin: How a leading man of legal journalism lost his sweet gig.” Honest to Christ, that’s their actual title.

Here’s an answer to the question posed in that ridiculous title that doubles as an explainer for anyone who’s blissfully unaware of the Toobin saga: Toobin masturbated on camera during a Zoom meeting with colleagues and got fired. Now, I assume choking the chicken in front of coworkers is a firing offense at most reputable companies, but the Toobin incident requires a 10K-word rehab tour in the “paper of record” because reasons:

Now that name [Toobin] was a punchline, a headline, a hashtag (#MeToobin) — and a point of debate. For as many people were excoriating Mr. Toobin for lewd and inappropriate behavior in a virtual workplace, others were thinking, or even saying, “there but for the grace of God go I,” acutely conscious of all the private or potentially embarrassing moments they’d stolen in this odd new zone where we now meet our colleagues.

The false equivalence in that sentence is absurd, mind-boggling and daft. It’s also insulting to the hundreds of millions of professionals who’ve managed to keep working during the pandemic without “accidentally” jerking off in front of their colleagues.

I’ll believe our elite media is learning when they can resist the urge to convert literal wankers into tragic heroes. Meanwhile, here’s a clip that better represents the dislocation of our Zoom-haunted world:

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/ceo242gqZz

— Dr. Breea Willingham 🍷 (@DrBWillingham) December 11, 2020

Open thread.

Overdone (Open Thread)Post + Comments (169)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Turn The Calendar Over, Already

by Anne Laurie|  December 3, 20206:53 am| 269 Comments

This post is in: Media, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Trumpery

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lit the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. Before lighting the tree, Pelosi said, ‘Tonight, we gather once more before this symbol of peace and hope to give thanks for the blessings bestowed upon our great nation’ pic.twitter.com/nPJUuYZA4T

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 3, 2020

… While the fickle media reports: WH Occupant Back on His Bulls*t…

show full post on front page

Now that's what I call a truth sandwich. Thanks, @AP. More like this, please. Via @AmarAmarasingam pic.twitter.com/0wDazTlem4

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) December 3, 2020

Seriously, it’s good news that the Very Serious Media is treating Trump like last month’s celebutainment. Yes, he — more specifically, some portion of his administrative enablers and/or deluded followers — is still dangerous. But we no longer need to parse every tweet or scrutinize every puke-funnel interview for clues as to the next impending disaster…

In a 46-minute Facebook video, President Trump recycles misinformation and unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the election. Members of his own administration say no proof of such fraud has been uncovered. https://t.co/1ABPNs2gbK

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 3, 2020

Trump escalates baseless attacks on election with 46-minute video rant https://t.co/Ro20kCmMmM

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 3, 2020

picture this hypothetical: a sitting president suggesting it would be good to void the results of an election and have the military take control

EXCEPT THIS IS NOT A HYPOTHETICAL

instead of acknowledging it's happening, gop elected officials are just sort of averting their eyes https://t.co/Uc51zYT17C

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) December 3, 2020

ProPublica reporter & CNN analyst:

It was 46 minutes of my life I'll never get back, and everything Sydney Powell has been saying except for minus Hugo Chavez. It is arguably – and this is significant – the 46 minute span in which Trump has told the most lies. https://t.co/d9s9adIgXQ

— Jessica Huseman (@JessicaHuseman) December 2, 2020

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Turn The Calendar Over, AlreadyPost + Comments (269)

Late Night Open Thread: Our Too-Often-Failing Media Needs A 12-Step Program

by Anne Laurie|  November 26, 20201:07 am| 53 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Media, Open Threads, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up

Yes we fvcking do. https://t.co/sIXYJ4hGfe

— Four Seasons Total Manscaping ???????? (@SJGrunewald) November 24, 2020

Yes, they know it was bad for the country — and in the long run, for them — but Donald Trump’s Insane Malevolent Clown Party tour was so fun!

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I'm so sorry this is happening to you. https://t.co/xKXtG5JH3f

— Karajan My Wayward Son (@davidabenner) November 24, 2020

That Jake Sherman tweet is part of a long thread; he dutifully admits this will be a professional administration, but as a Politico reporter, professional is not necessarily good for his day job.

i mean, in the abstract, this is 100% true, and if i were a reporter for the NYT, i would probably avoid being so incredibly, stupidly obvious about how you're carrying the goalposts to an entirely different stadium.

— gonelikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) November 24, 2020

and to be clear this obviously isn't a bad thing, it's just hard to top the sheer keystone cops absurdity of stuff like Four Seasons Total Landscaping

— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) November 24, 2020

Politico has just become one long whine about how Joe Biden is hiring professionals rather than entertaining lunatics, not leaking to them anymore, and not 'spicy' like the Trump admin.

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) November 24, 2020

Not to pick on @seungminkim too much, but reporters breathlessly tweet every Trump utterance, like FLOODING my TL with his words. Biden introduces half-a-dozen members of his cabinet and this is literally all she shared: pic.twitter.com/ZwLqq0y0wV

— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) November 24, 2020

it's not anywhere near the most important thing about a biden administration, but i'm looking forward to the zeal with which they freeze out and starve this whole fucking rotten industry of trade publications for lobbyists

— gonelikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) November 24, 2020

oh *now* you folks want to find your courage, great https://t.co/Y4pHnmNKI7

— gonelikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) November 24, 2020

The Trump Presidency:

How it started | How it’s going pic.twitter.com/8Z1yJTxyMt

— Four Seasons Total Manscaping ???????? (@SJGrunewald) November 25, 2020

Late Night Open Thread: Our Too-Often-Failing Media Needs A 12-Step ProgramPost + Comments (53)

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The NYTimes Field-Trials Its Official Biden Hate-Stalker

by Anne Laurie|  November 18, 20205:31 pm| 212 Comments

This post is in: Biden-Harris 2020, Information Warfare, Media, Our Failed Media Experiment

I really, really hate this type of reductive framing where the media (& the 'left') just boil down someone with an impressive record to one single descriptor, which is of course the most negative possible framing.

Basically invalidated all the good accomplishments they've had. https://t.co/UaNwo5Fn8O

— Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 (@Wilson__Valdez) November 17, 2020

Sure, court stenographer Maggie Haberman may have provided four years of comfy-chair interrogation to the Trump Crime Cartel, but now that there will be a Democrat in the White House, the NYTimes is bringing back the snipers. And Politico alum Ken Vogel has been diligently laundering ‘troubling implications’ concerning the Biden family for years now!

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like, i very much hate haberman's reputation-laundering shop for ivanka and kushner, but vogel's been an active participant in a full-blown disinformation campaign

— golikehellmachine (@golikehellmachi) November 17, 2020

Never forget Ken Vogel laundered Rudy Giuliani's crazy bullshit to give the Trump Admin pretext to shakedown the Ukrainian president. https://t.co/p0Q5d0QBKb

— CIA Operative (@OpBlackstone) November 17, 2020

Or…

-Journalist who played an integral part in laundering the Russian govt's disinfo operation on our election
or
-Journalist who ambushed an elderly, immigrant mother to write a hit piece on the president of a progressive think tank, who he has a vendetta against

(KEN VOGEL)

— Centrism Fan Acct 🔹 (@Wilson__Valdez) November 17, 2020

Be prepared for four to eight years of ‘just raising an important issue’ and ‘but the troubling implications’ from this smarmy little wad…

"There is a story here, we've told some of it, there's more to be told… That said, the way that Rudy is inserting himself into it, is both not helpful I think to Rudy and to Trump… he's getting the facts wrong" – @kenvogel w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/pFOVi56BPU

— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) September 20, 2019

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: The <em>NYTimes</em> Field-Trials Its Official Biden Hate-StalkerPost + Comments (212)

Open Thread: Sunday Night Media Trumpery

by Anne Laurie|  November 15, 202011:37 pm| 106 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., GOP Death Cult, Media, Open Threads

Trumpery Open Thread:  Sunday Night Media

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
.

Odds are every one of these ‘plans’ is the random fantasizing of a defeated narcissist, but still: ROOTING FOR INJURIES.

this ends in tears but not for fox

— kilgore trout, four seasons appreciator (@KT_So_It_Goes) November 12, 2020

show full post on front page

One p.s.:

Fox News could very easily reverse the situation by blowing smoke up Trump’s ass about needing to “team up”.

He’d just shift to saying he was “taking on corrupt mainstream media”.

He doesn’t care what the excuse is. He just needs one.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) November 13, 2020

Unsure who's going to win here because OOH, Murdoch is an infinitely better businessman but OTOH, what's Fox gonna do, tell its audience "So… that guy we've been telling you to believe over the rest of the world for years in the face of all evidence? About that…" https://t.co/v5XTFhGp9N

— Starfish Who Just Wants To Grill (@IRHotTakes) November 12, 2020

Thread, but I would add here: Most damaging thing Fox might do to him post-election is just *not engage with him.*

Right now, they have incentive to cover "Media/Dems are being v unfair to Trump!" But then there'll be other targets: Biden admin, AOC &c. They may just… move on https://t.co/uglQWFrKJI

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) November 12, 2020

it's also sort of saying the quiet part loud about fox news. a president should never be able to say "I'm the one who made you successful" to a news network https://t.co/GVb5jIJUV1

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) November 13, 2020

I hope Trump goes back to hosting celebrity apprentice but this time whenever he tries to fire anyone, they sue him and refuse to leave

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) November 13, 2020

The GOLDEN GOOSE EGG, two-time loser of the popular vote!

He has come up with a new nickname for himself. And now I have a mental image of him laying eggs. https://t.co/UFb2ptLn41

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 12, 2020

Open Thread: Sunday Night Media TrumperyPost + Comments (106)

Trump Crime Cartel Death Watch Open Thread: Murdoch Has Declared Trump A Sunk Cost

by Anne Laurie|  November 9, 20206:47 pm| 152 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Excellent Links, Media, Trump Crime Cartel, Schadenfreude

Here's the clip as Fox News finally pulls the plug on Team Trump https://t.co/7XPEBhWmdk

— Jack Blanchard (@Jack_Blanchard_) November 9, 2020

This has been brewing for some time, of course. From the Washington Post, “The long love affair between Fox News and Trump may be over”:

The last day of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign began just after 7 a.m., as polls opened on the East Coast, with a call to “Fox & Friends,” the television morning show that had turned the reality star into a U.S. president. He got his usual hero’s welcome. But it was no longer enough…

…[H]is remarks quickly turned pointed that Tuesday morning as he boasted about how well he had done in the job of president, despite unexpected challenges — not from China or Russia or North Korea, he said, but from the United States. And he mused rhetorically about what had changed the most for him since 2016.

“Fox,” he said, answering his own question. “It’s much different now.” As the hosts sputtered, he elaborated: “In the old days, they wouldn’t put sleepy Joe Biden on every time he opened his mouth. . . . It’s a much different operation — I’m just telling you.”

It was the last day of a campaign Fox had done so much to support, but it was a preview of the war — now one week old but months in the making — that may have permanently ruptured the bond between President Trump and his once-favorite television channel. As he faces expulsion from the White House, Trump has vowed revenge on the network that propelled his political career, according to close White House aides — perhaps by publicly attacking Fox or undermining its business model by endorsing a competitor…

In recent months, he had begun to complain — on Twitter and to his aides — that Fox had turned on him. That impression was only heightened when reports emerged that Murdoch was telling associates that the president was going to lose…

Which leads to this excellent, if daintily-phrased, NYTimes article from last week — “New York Post Shifts Tone on Trump as a Top Editor Plans His Own Exit”:

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… With Mr. Trump headed toward a likely defeat, top editors at the tabloid told some staff members this week to be tougher in their coverage of him, said two Post employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

In addition to the shift in tone, there will be a change in personnel: Col Allan, the Australian tabloid wizard who was once seen in the Post newsroom wearing a Make America Great Again cap, will call an end to his career of more than 40 years at Murdoch papers in New York and Sydney.

Mr. Allan, who was The Post’s editor in chief from 2001-16, rejoined the paper as an adviser in January 2019, just as the presidential campaign was underway. Since his return, he has had a strong hand in shaping coverage, several staff members said. He confirmed his planned retirement in an email interview…

Several staff members said Mr. Allan had more or less run the newsroom since his return. “I have contributed little other than some minor advice,” Mr. Allan said of his work on the paper’s election coverage…

Col Allan is an old-fashioned tabloid thug who was brought back specifically to grease the skids for Trump’s re-election. If Murdoch (or whichever Murdoch kid is making the decisions this week) has given Allan his walking papers, it’s a pretty blatant announcement that they’re not throwing good money after bad.

Trump Crime Cartel Death Watch Open Thread: Murdoch Has Declared Trump A Sunk CostPost + Comments (152)

“Interesting” Read: If Only This *Were* Haberman’s Professional Obituary…

by Anne Laurie|  November 9, 20209:33 am| 185 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Excellent Links, Media, Trumpery, Our Failed Media Experiment

I wrote about a dominant figure at the end of an era https://t.co/9VFhXD8pHp

— Ben Smith (@benyt) November 9, 2020

To be honest, were *I* Maggie Haberman, I’d have been a lot more suspicious of ‘(No Longer) #BuzzfeedBen’, the man Dean Baquet hastily hired in the wake of Smith’s much-circulated hit piece on… Dean Baquet. But it seems they’re old friends, fellow miscreants in the newsbeat trenches, so…

Of course, Haberman — and her NYTimes bosses — couldn’t resist what must’ve seemed like a victory lap! But when you read the piece, well… those sneaky barbs:

… That was the beginning of the end of one of the most astonishing runs in the history of American journalism. Ms. Haberman has been, for the last four years, the source of a remarkably large share of what we know about Donald Trump and his White House, from the Mueller investigation to his personal battle with the coronavirus to his refusal to accept defeat. She’s done more than a story a day, on average, and stories with her byline have accounted for hundreds of millions of page views this year alone. That’s more than anyone else at The Times…

Politics used to be covered as a kind of a sport, but it doesn’t feel like that anymore. (John King of CNN was jeered for calling vote counting “fun” on election night.) And despite the television glamour and lucrative book contracts that flooded in for reporters in the Trump era, the real work of reporting is painstaking and exhausting: getting people, one by one, to tell you things they should not, and then telling your readers about them.

Ms. Haberman was particularly well-suited for this journalistic moment because of her sheer relentlessness and hunger, and her lack of smug self-satisfaction. She seems to need to prove herself every day. She texts while she drives, talks while she eats, parents while she reports, tweets and regrets it, doomscrolls. She hates Twitter so much she stepped back from the platform in 2018 and wrote an Op-Ed about it, and then started tweeting again. (Relatable!)…

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… I learned to report from Maggie — and to fear her — in City Hall in New York, where she was a reporter for The New York Post, and where she first covered Donald Trump. When I arrived in 2001, Ms. Haberman cut a striking figure there: She wore a leather jacket and smoked cigarettes on the building’s iconic front steps, chatting with the cops.

But she did her real work in Room 4a, in the basement, where the junior reporters for the tabloids and assorted other misfits like me were relegated, downstairs from the legendary main press room, Room 9. Room 4a was a cluttered office with mismatched desks and, once, a squirrel. I sat facing her and every morning watched her routine, which was terrifying. First, she picked up the competing newspaper, The Daily News, and leafed through for stories she wished she’d broken, deducing who had been the source of each one. Then, she called the sources — she already knew them well, of course — and chatted in a friendly way, before telling them she felt genuinely betrayed that they hadn’t gone to her, that she was worried she’d be in trouble with her boss for getting beaten and, honestly, that she was incredibly angry at them…

She’s often the only one able to reliably confirm facts in Mr. Trump’s chaotic and dishonest orbit. She was also under his skin: He attacked her personally on Twitter and sparred with her in person, but kept giving her interviews until last year. This Oct. 19 he tweeted directly to her about his confidence in winning the election and his “BOFFO” rallies…

Her most recent Bad Tweet came on Oct. 14, when she pasted in a quote from a New York Post article on photos and documents the paper said it had taken from the hard drive of a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden. She’d intended to raise an eyebrow at the mention of F.B.I. involvement — suggesting they hadn’t found the information serious and, perhaps, a hint as to where Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani got the information. Democrats interpreted her tweet as simply promoting a story whose origins were shadowy. “MAGA Haberman” trended. She sent a round of frantic texts to friends asking if she’d screwed up, and ultimately deleted the tweet.

Mr. Trump’s own Twitter account is mostly hidden behind warnings these days. The president, though, will go. And Ms. Haberman is not going to move to Washington to join the new White House team, she said, but instead anticipates covering some blend of the new administration and the enduring Trump orbit from New York. She hopes that she’ll break more news, and worries that she’ll lose her touch. “I’m dispensable,” she said, an assertion that Times editors would take issue with…

Smith’s piece was only released last night, and it’s already drawing unfavorable attention. Of course the NYTimes is not going to be swayed by a bunch of vulgar social media abuse, especially abuse directed at a ‘beloved’ legacy hire, but I can’t imagine this is going to help Haberman’s search for a new sinecure…

it is incredibly inappropriate for any media institution, almost all of which failed seriously in their coverage of Trump, to give itself a celebratory handjob in print now.

— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) November 9, 2020

For the record, ethical journalists treat their sources as human beings who should be protected and listened to, not people who can be manipulated into a scoop and bullied away from other journalists

— Zack Kopplin (@ZackKopplin) November 9, 2020

The NYT is a "legacy" publication in the same sense of the word as in the phrase "legacy admission" pic.twitter.com/VkXus8HAAn

— Zoomcock Archivist (@canderaid) November 9, 2020

The New York Times bears clear and direct responsibility for Trump’s election in 2016.

They have never even acknowledged their mistakes and the cost let alone atoned for them.

Now they’re heaping praise on themselves for having profited wildly from their failures.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) November 9, 2020

“Interesting” Read: If Only This *Were* Haberman’s Professional Obituary…Post + Comments (185)

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