#The Press

[tomi4i]

Journalism has a vital role in shedding light on what entities like Israel want to keep in the dark.

Israel killed over 100 journalists in 10 weeks.

[macmanx]

It’s a good day to stop supporting the NYT, and start supporting your favorite independent journalists, or your local NPR and/or PBS stations.

[palatinewolfsblog]

“The profession of journalism ought to be

about telling people what they need to know -

not what they want to know.”

Walter Cronkite.

The Art of Gravitas

(for my old Friend @acommonloon ) ...

[typhlonectes]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Quote by Elizabeth Spurlock Lambert : Jake Tapper just lied about Democratic governors getting together to discuss getting rid of Biden. When called out on his lie by many of those governors who were named and were pissed that he lied about a meeting that they said didn’t even happen, he deleted some of his tweets, but he didn’t retract or apologize and they are now just feathers spreading in the wind.

Politico lied about Biden family members privately trashing Biden’s campaign advisers. That never happened, and Politico doesn’t have any sources who would even know if it did. And it gets worse- a Biden aide even refuted the story before it ran, and they ran it anyway.

The NYT (who never endorsed Biden, including not in 2020 either) is so bitter about him never giving them an interview that they openly call for him to step down as they get caught being on Trump’s payroll.

NBC lied that Nancy Pelosi called for Biden to step down and when she got pissed and corrected the lie, Jen Psaki, Biden’s own former press secretary, kept repeating it anyway.

Politico also lied that Governor Whitmer said that Biden would lose Michigan. She never said that. They never corrected.

Bloomberg lied (by twisting facts) about Dems doing a virtual roll call about Biden being the nominee. That’s a lie.

Carl Bernstein lied to CNN that Biden was having memory loss at a restaurant in June 2023. The restaurant he named has been closed since 2019. He also wasn’t even there. He cited “unnamed sources” who he says told him. It was reported uncritically and without a fact check by CNN even though it’s not even possible that it’s true.

David Folkenflik of NPR deliberately omitted half of Jim Clyburn’s quote. Bad faith Biden-hater Andrea Mitchell asked Clyburn if he would support VP Harris *if Biden dropped out*. Clyburn answered that direct question in the affirmative, but then spent a long time taking exception to the whole premise of the question and said he doesn’t think Biden should drop out. Folkenflik omitted the part where Clyburn took exception, and only reported that Clyburn would support Harris if Biden drops out. I would count the omission as enough of a distortion of Clyburn’s answer that it was a lie.

This attached data compiled by media matters shows that the political media was pushing these “Biden is old and has dementia” stories even *before* the debate where his stutter got triggered because they let Trump spew a lie tornado all over the the stage at him. They need their bias confirmation now. Which is what they’re doing.

The biggest problem our democracy faces in the 2024 election is voter suppression.

We never hear about that problem. Why?

Because a close second problem is that two institutions which are crucial to protecting our democracy- the press and the courts- only work if they practice disciplined ethics. Neither institution has any accountability in 2024 for not being ethical. Who enforces ethics on the Supreme Court? Who enforces ethics on cable news and political news media? All we can do is not fall for it.

The next time you hear a story where “sources” have told CNN or MSNBC or Politico or NBC or NPR or anybody anything about “insiders say”, just don’t even believe it. “Some people are saying”. That’s what they are getting away with. I’ve been amazed at how many people I’ve seen it work on!

[retropopcult]

"New York, New York. Newsroom of the New York Times newspaper. Reporters and rewrite men writing stories, and waiting to be sent out. Rewrite man in background gets the story on the phone from reporter outside." Photographed 1942 by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information.

[cheery-cherry-cherub]

IF ANYONE SAW THIS ITS NOT TRUE

[captainpirateface]

We went to a newspaper press!

[ytcomments-archive]

[crying-on-the-six]

[hezigler]

The greatest failure of our democratic republic is that of the fourth estate.

[beatleshistoryblog]

LECTURE 16: MORE POPULAR THAN JESUS: This footage demonstrates quite clearly the intense level of controversy in the United States – particularly in the southern states – stirred by John Lennon’s remarks in an interview with journalist Maureen Cleave in early 1966 about The Beatles being “more popular than Jesus.” Lennon’s fellow Brits – even devoutly religious Christians – understood that Lennon was commenting on the increasing secularization of the country, and how The Beatles – and other forms of popular culture – often supplant organized religion in stirring intense devotion among followers. But in the United States, his comments were ripped completely out context, made to seem as if Lennon had been boasting, and sparked a number of “Beatle Boycotts” and public demonstrations against the band during their third and final tour of the United States. These protests were among many unpleasant events in 1966 that pushed The Beatles off of the touring stage and deeper and deeper into the recording studio. 

[macmanx]

The return to power of Donald Trump, who has called journalists enemies and talked about retribution against those he feels have wronged him, has news executives nervous. Perceived threats are numerous: lawsuits of every sort, efforts to unmask anonymous sources, physical danger and intimidation, attacks on public media and libel protections, day-to-day demonization.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * *

“Now I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind and exits in another. The writer gets no points just because what’s inside the box bears some linear resemblance to “real life”—he can put whatever he wants in there. What’s important is that something undeniable and nontrivial happens to the reader between entry and exit.” ― George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

Lee Friedlander,  Washington DC ,  1962

more

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dave Whammond

* * * *

Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. Double Standard.

July 8, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

JUL 08, 2024

The mainstream media continues its whisper campaign against President Biden, as they report that anonymous “senior leaders” talk “in private” about approaching Joe Biden to urge him to drop out. At least Adam Schiff had the guts to express his qualms in public respectfully, even though I strongly disagree with his views (on this subject).

One evolving narrative among the press is that the Biden administration “concealed” the truth of Biden’s cognitive state—which supposedly justifies their righteous anger. Bull****. This is another example of a double standard applied by a media that is intent on driving Joe Biden out of the race—damn the facts!

Joe Biden has been transparent with the American people about his health—which cannot be said about Trump.

Remember Trump's unexplained visit to Walter Reed for a treatment that remains secret to this day? Or showing up to a debate in 2020 knowing he had tested positive for Covid but concealed that fact from Joe Biden, the debate moderators, and the American public?

Or having a doctor release a statement about Trump's health that was dictated by Trump? Or when the White House physician provided false information about Trump's vital statistics—like his weight—and said that Trump might be the first president to live to be 200?

Amid all the calls for “cognitive tests” for Biden—but not Trump—journalists are committing malpractice by failing to note that President Biden released a detailed summary of his annual physical in February of this year.

The full report is here: Health-Summary-2.28.pdf (whitehouse.gov). The examination included consultations with neurological experts at Walter Reed hospital. I urge you to read the entire report and consider how you would measure up to such a battery of tests!

[...]

So, Biden did have a “detailed neurological exam” four-and-half months ago. The widespread media demands that Biden “take a neurological exam” should be directed to Trump instead.

Predictably, this “proof” won’t be enough for the media. Just as the media refused to accept a certified copy of President Obama’s birth certificate, the goalposts will keep shifting.

The issue is not Joe Biden. It is Donald Trump—and the media’s arrogant refusal to apply the same scrutiny to Trump that it is applying to Biden. If they did, they would be demanding neurological exams of Trump and his withdrawal from the race. So far as we have been informed by Trump, his cognitive test consisted of recalling five objects: “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” Can you say, “double standard”?

Why isn’t the media making demands that Trump submit to “extremely detailed neurologic testing” by experts from a nationally recognized hospital?

The answer is simple. Trump has quashed dissent within his party. Anyone who dares raise a voice in dissent is the immediate recipient of anonymous death threats and public ridicule on Trump's vanity media platform. And Trump's para-military press surrogates leap into action, declaring that the dissidents are dead to MAGA.

So, the press's application of the same standards to Trump has no upside because it won’t incite the mass panic among Republicans that Democrats are willing to supply by the bucketful.

I accept at face value the good faith of readers who say they have lost confidence in Biden because of the debate or any other reason. That is a personal judgment only you can make. But I again remind everyone that “Biden should withdraw” is not a plan. If you believe a different path to victory is appropriate, then you must devote yourself to that path with all the vigor and financial resources you can muster.

[...]

Timothy Snyder (author of On Tyranny and Substack blog Thinking About), addressed the role that the press has been playing in whipping up “fascist froth” that helps Trump. See Timothy Snyder, Fascism and Fear (substack.com)

There are three tests of good faith for those who are proposing that President Biden step down. The first is recognition that Biden’s first term has been one of extraordinary achievement. The second is a plan for what the Democrats would do, should Biden withdraw, to select a nominee and win the election. The third is recognition that the threat of regime change is what might justify changing the nominee.

If I am right that much of the energy behind the Biden pile-on is displaced fear of a regime change, much of the media will continue to generate fascist froth for Trump, whether or not Biden is the Democratic nominee — unless, of course, journalists confront their fears, and keep the issue of regime change inside the story, and provide a constructive alternative alongside personal criticism.

[I inverted the order of Snyder’s two paragraphs above so they made more sense in a short quotation.]

And, finally, Rebecca Solnit wrote what I wish I had written. See her essay in The Guardian: Why is the pundit class so desperate to push Biden out of the race?

Solnit begins:

I am not usually one to offer diagnoses of people I’ve never met, but it does seem like the pundit class of the American media is suffering from severe memory loss. Because they’re doing exactly what they did in the 2016 presidential race – providing wildly asymmetrical and inflammatory coverage of the one candidate running against Donald J Trump. They have become a stampeding herd producing an avalanche of stories suggesting Biden is unfit, will lose and should go away, at a point in the campaign in which replacing him would likely be somewhere between extremely difficult and utterly catastrophic. They do this while ignoring something every scholar and critic of journalism knows well and every journalist should. As Nikole Hannah-Jones put it: “As media we consistently proclaim that we are just reporting the news when in fact we are driving it. What we cover, how we cover it, determines often what Americans think is important and how they perceive these issues yet we keep pretending it’s not so.” They are not reporting that he is a loser; they are making him one. And so it goes with what appears to be a journalistic competition to outdo each other in the aggressiveness of the attacks and the unreality of the proposals. It’s a dogpile and a panic, and there is no one more unable to understand their own emotional life, biases and motives than people who are utterly convinced of their own ironclad rationality and objectivity, [also known as] pundits.

Here's my advice to everyone—regardless of what side of the issue you take regarding Joe Biden’s continued candidacy. The issue is Trump, not Biden. Whether Biden drops out is not something you or I have control over. (Readers frequently write to me and say, “Please tell Joe Biden . . . .” The only thing Joe Biden knows about me is my credit card number.)

Joe Biden has control over his choices; his close advisors and family have influence; some senior leaders in the Democratic Party have some influence. They are talking amongst themselves. Let them have a rational, private conversation not played out on the front pages of the NYTimes and WaPo minutes after the latest exchange of views.

However, the one institution that has demonstrated it cannot be trusted to deal with this question is the media. They have a perverse financial incentive: Chaos = profit. They are agents of chaos at this moment in pursuit of the mighty dollar.

I believe that Joe Biden is the best candidate to defeat Trump, that replacing him at this point poses unacknowledged and unknowable risks, and that those who advocate a different path have the burden of identifying and funding an alternative candidate.

Our task has not changed. It is our moral and patriotic duty to alert all Americans about the threat posed by Trump and his fascist plan to undermine democracy. We have plenty of work and precious little time left to accomplish our task.

Let us channel all our energy away from debating Joe Biden’s age and health into defeating Trump. In that task, we must speak with one voice.

[MORE]

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]