media – Ruby Sinreich

I can’t get over all these people who are shocked SHOCKED that right wing talking heads implored Trump to call off the insurrection but then immediately went on TV and blamed “antifa” for storming the Capitol.

No-one believed that garbage then unless they very badly wanted to. It was complete nonsense on its face.

The credulous media have blood on their hands. The vast majority of elected Republicans have been actively working to subvert democracy itself for over a decade. It’s right in front of our faces.

We cannot and MUST NOT consider “both sides” of civil rights and human dignity. If you didn’t know Republicans were trying to steal this country then you have been willfully ignoring the voices of Black people, women, the LGBTQ+ community, poor people, immigrants, and more.

Maybe you think we’re just less credible or respectable than white dudes in suits, but that’s YOUR bias. “Objectivity” is a lie.

Or as I said five years ago: No more innocent liberal surprise.

Casablanca screen capture: "Your winnings, sir." "Oh thank you very much."

Stop allowing a greedy, childish, narcissistic loser’s pathological lies to control the news cycle

March 5, 2017March 5, 2017

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The media is still continuing the same behavior that normalized Trump and allowed him to walk right into office with less qualifications than a 9th grade class president. They are helping Trump block out rational conversation about real issues by treating his insane tweets as real news. Yesterday they spent all day talking about his crazy “wire tapping” story! (It’s either totally invented or proof that a court found reasonable suspicion of him last year. If the latter, let’s talk about the many suspicious ties to Russia.)

Stop reading his tweets. Stop sharing his tweets, even to criticize them. Stop treating them like they matter or like he matters. He is an unhinged loser and a complete puppet of the White supremacist Steve Bannon. Stop acting like his childish rants are the most important news of the day.

Great reminder from my favorite cognitive linguist George Lakoff:

Remember: @realDonaldTrump’s use of Twitter is strategic.

Don’t Get Played

March 1, 2017January 3, 2018

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Last night, US president Donald Trump gave what was, by the eroded current standards of American political discourse, a very good speech. It was a very good speech full of very big lies and very cruel policies disguised as empathy.

Read: Donald Trump’s joint session address played nice for a night in front of Congress—and used a technique straight out of the autocrat’s playbook by Sarah Kenzdior on Quartz

Image credit: http://globalslant.com/2016/12/jack-dorsey-donald-trump-bad-for-americer/

Annals of Normalization

November 29, 2016November 30, 2016

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My friend and mentor Micah Sifry wrote Annals of Normalization: The Trump-Times Meeting about the very real danger of normalizing Trump’s presidency, highlighting how The New York Times is literally incapable of reporting on him accurately.

So, in the first 15 minutes of Trump’s meeting with the Times’ top brass, he offers a completely unrehearsed word salad, reminiscing about things that didn’t happen. And then the meeting continues without anyone blinking and saying, excuse me sir, nothing you just said makes any sense.
This is Trump’s reality distortion field. And even on their home turf, surrounded by colleagues, no one at the Times had the gumption to really puncture it.

Goodbye authenticity at NPR

May 5, 2008March 7, 2017

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Very sad about the demise of the NPR News Blog, which was slowly restoring that institution’s credibility for me.

Here’s a great comment that was posted on their final blog entry:

‘We would like to apologize for the way in which politicians are represented in this programme. it was never our intention to imply that politicians are weak-kneed, political time-servers who are concerned more with their personal vendettas and private power struggles than the problems of government, nor to suggest at any point that they sacrifice their credibility by denying free debate on vital matters in the mistaken impression that party unity comes before the well-being of the people they supposedly represent nor to imply at any stage that they are squabbling little toadies without an ounce of concern for the vital social problems of today. Nor indeed do we intend that viewers should consider them as crabby ulcerous little self-seeking vermin with furry legs and an excessive addiction to alcohol and certain explicit sexual practices which some people might find offensive.

“We are sorry if this impression has come across.”

-Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Video below…

Update: Greg Greene points me to this story in the Washinton Post: NPR Leader Out After Board Clash – Ken Stern’s New Media Forays Rankled Public Radio Affiliates. Which is especially stunning because during the last full week before the N.C. Primary, I have been getting more news from that little blog than from my local NPR affiliate, who amazingly chose that critical week for a pledge drive. This is bad, bad, news for NPR.
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