A new unity like a bundle of sticks

July 19, 2024 7:02 AM

Horny for fascism - on the medias quest to put the best possible spin on Trump and MAGA.
posted by Artw (13 comments total)

Thanks for posting this. WTF is wrong with the media? This blogpost captures a lot of the worst of their reporting and the deep dive into who WaPo featured of the attendees is truly shocking. Once again, the media is letting us down and I do not understand (except it's about The Money?).
posted by bluesky43 at 7:15 AM on July 19 [6 favorites]

Todays front pages.
posted by Artw at 7:35 AM on July 19 [3 favorites]

The media absolutely wants Trump back because it's easier for them to write stories and sell outrage.
posted by ichomp at 7:37 AM on July 19 [7 favorites]

The media class has had a glimpse of a world where stochastic gun violence comes for the powerful and well-connected instead of just elementary schools, synagogues and gay bars full of faceless nobodies, decided they don't like it, decided that their own masterful rhetoric must have caused it, and gone into full retreat.
posted by Vulgar Euphemism at 7:38 AM on July 19

Despite the myth of the “liberal media”, most of the mainstream outlets are owned by ultra-rich ghouls who will see fascism as a way of protecting their wealth and power.
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:47 AM on July 19 [10 favorites]

Rest of the world: We in the US are doomed and we're likely to drag the all of you down with us.
posted by bluesky43 at 7:53 AM on July 19 [2 favorites]

I do love this phrasing from Defector, emphasis mine:

"What Trump actually thinks of Vance doesn't really matter, either, although it seems fair to guess that Trump identified in Vance, who worried in 2016 that Trump could be "America's Hitler" and has since done an ultra-unctuous 180 in his opinion of either Trump or Hitler, a shamelessness that could come in handy down the line.
posted by true at 7:56 AM on July 19 [3 favorites]

we're likely to drag the all of you down with us.

Weeee! To hell in a handbasket for us all, f***kers!
posted by BlueHorse at 8:00 AM on July 19

Ad buys probably go up when this crap billows out. The responsible editors hide in relative obscurity while the precarity of the authors keeps them in line. Meanwhile, the majority public is willing to maintain the illusion of objectivity if they agree with the reporting, and the algorithms maintain the filter bubble that limits exposure to dichotomous perspectives.
posted by grokus at 8:01 AM on July 19

As my political science professor harped on, media is plural. There are many media outlets, and for each outlet there are owners, publishers, editors, and reporters, and within each group there's variation. But clearly the vast, vast majority of reporters and editors at mainstream outlets (NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, AP) loathe, despise, and fear Trump.* The debate among that group is how to report on him objectively. For example, there seems to be a consensus that they can call election denialism a lie, but that for some topics they use phrasing like "claimed without evidence."

*This should be obvious to anyone who hasn't been asleep since 2015, but if you need evidence: "Journalists who said they were Republicans continued to drop from 18 percent in 2002 and 7.1 percent in 2013 to 3.4 percent in 2022."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:37 AM on July 19

NPR top-of-the-hour news this morning played a clip of him talking in the first few minutes of his endless speech about unity, and talked about this being the message. Then as a quick aside they mentioned, without any supporting audio: "later in the speech he heavily fell back on his attacks on the Democratic party and those that disagreed with him". DO BETTER GOD DAMNIT.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:49 AM on July 19 [6 favorites]

The media is plural but each individual editor believes they will do better if they stay in a decision making position during and after this and every election cycle. That means their first responsibility is to stay in power and relevant - that does mean ad buys and money, but it also means staying off the top of the Enemies List of any incoming regime.

Calling liars liars might reduce their access, relevance, and influence so they do it sparingly. I don't have a solution for this that doesn't boil down to "be willing to torpedo your access, career, and maybe well being in the hopes your more honest reporting results in the possibility of the lesser evil gaining political power."

It doesn't make it right, and all the ghouls who own the bulk of outlets definitely don't help, but the decision makers themselves don't see any one report or story as worth falling on the wrong side of precarity (as noted above).

I hope supporting nonprofit media helps (propublica, etc) but I'm guessing not in time for this election.
posted by Lenie Clarke at 9:01 AM on July 19

This crew is totally beatable (David Frum, The Atlantic)

The truth is that Trump’s record as president was the same as his record as a businessman: rich until the inheritance ran out.

posted by box at 9:09 AM on July 19