No country for old men: Last Thursday night, Donald J. Trump had finally finished his deathless convention speech.
If balloon drop delayed is balloon drop denied, the hopeful was being denied. Eventually, Rachel Maddow stepped into the breach. This was her first remark:
MADDOW (7/21/16): This is a, this is a landmark thing. Nobody quite like this has ever been nominated as a major party candidate for president. He will be the oldest man ever nominated for president in this countrty by either party."There she goes again," the analysts cried. Several tore at their hair.
Does anybody bungle trivia the way this poser does? We've told the analysts to laugh it off. Increasingly, though, they can't do so, and we're not sure they should.
Sorry, Charley! Donald J. Trump is not the oldest man ever nominated for president in this country. If we go back far enough in our history, we can find older such men.
Donald J. Trump was 70 years old as he graced that balloon-free stage. All the way back in 2008, John McCain had been 72 when he was nominated. Long before that, in 1996, Bob Dole had been 73!
Moments later, Maddow tried again. Producers had whispered in her ear. She therefore proceeded to tell us rubes what she had meant to say:
MADDOW: Speaking of reporting, I should say, I said that Donald Trump is the oldest nominee. What I meant to say was that, if he is elected, he would be the oldest man ever elected president.That wasn't exactly right either. In 1984, Ronald Reagan was 73 when he was elected for the second time. As the poser struggled on, she finally assembled a string of words which could perhaps be called technically accurate:
MADDOW (continuing directly): There have been other people his age or older who have been nominated. But if he gets all the way, he will be the oldest man ever to ascend to the White House.A person could say that was accurate. It all depends on what the meaning of "ascend to" is!
As a general matter, this sort of thing doesn't exactly matter. On the whole, Rachel and Them were just killing time with trivia in the wake of Trump's speech.
Plus, this trivia was off the cuff. Presumably, she hadn't been working from prompter.
That said, Maddow's regular nightly program has become more and more trivia-driven as the months have passed. And as she wastes her viewers' time this way, Maddow has more and more adopted a pose as a political/election lore expert.
Maddow isn't a political/election lore expert. Beyond that, her hapless staff seems remarkably error-prone of late. In her regular weeknight outings, this has produced a string of comical errors Sometimes, Maddow has made these errors. Sometimes, these errors have been made by her poor abused substitute hosts.
Increasingly, Maddow's errors have provided bits of comic relief. We'll review a few in the next few days, after which we'll proceed to something more important:
Maddow's errors are comical, but her constant use of propagandistic trivia is making her viewers dumb and dumber. Beyond that lies her abject refusal to fight the powers that be.
Maddow is paid millions of dollars per year. Increasingly, it shows.
Tomorrow: The very next night!
It is good to know that in the novel in which journalist Bob Somerby dwells, Rachel Maddow now stands out as the first media personality to have her own county named after her.
ReplyDeleteNarrative is a cognitive heuristic that aids memory by organizing information in time and place and around a central theme. We all do it.
DeleteSomerby's point, since you have missed it, is that news events should be reported in a factually correct manner. Journalists need to make sure their own narratives do not warp the truth by forcing facts to fit a preconceived narrative. Our cognitive propensity to do that in our own lives makes it doubly important that journalists resist that tendency when reporting, so that people can at least hear what really happened before they assimilate it into their own narratives.
When narrative takes precedence over facts, it makes life easier to understand and it makes it easier for us to form opinions and make decisions, but when that narrative deviates from reality too much, those decisions and opinions do not serve us well and can lead to costly mistakes.
That's why it is important for journalists to make sure truth comes before narrative structure.
Then there is Maddow. She doesn't seem to have absorbed the core values of her profession. It is right for Somerby to warn people about her because she occupies a position of trust and thus has a greater opportunity to mislead people.
Trolls, of course, operate with an entirely different set of values. They are the Trumps of discourse, sociopaths with no interest in anything except their own entertainment, ego and a childish desire to knock things down. Sucks to be them.
Only someone totally consumed by misperception of their own intellect would ever accuse anyone commenting here of missing Somerby's point.
DeleteAnd the person who makes an accusation about that person... and the person who...
DeleteAnd so on.
Yep, if you comment on the trolls, you suck. So sayeth the trolls.
The old troll narrative. A cognitive heuristic for the overly credentialed displaying that fact.
DeleteAnd so on.
It was good that Stewart came back for a routine in Colbert. It allowed Maddow new material and delivery from which to hamfistedly ape.
DeleteOld conservative southern white guy BS trashes liberal gay female commentator while letting fellow conservative whites guys get away with their lies.
ReplyDelete"Old conservative southern white guy BS..."? Bob is originally from the Boston area, he then lived in California, and now lives in the Baltimore area. Bob is clearly not a conservative either if you really understood what he has written.
Delete"Hey, wait a minute! Bob's not from the South?"
DeleteIs that your answer?
OK, how about the rest of it?
"Old conservative white guy BS trashes liberal gay female commentor while letting fellow conservative white guys get away with their lies."
So if one hits all the right "identity" marks they are above and beyond criticism?!
Delete"Maddow is paid millions of dollars per year."
ReplyDeleteYes and like the spoiled child that you are, your ego can't handle it. Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Joe Scarborough are paid millions a year too. But you have have a problem with them.
What makes O'Reilly, Hannity and Scarborough different than Maddow? Those guys are all Republicans. Maddow is pretending to be a liberal Democrat.
DeleteWhen a conservative serves Republican interests they are doing what is expected of them. When a liberal serves Republican interests (in exchange for $millions), they are screwing up and it is right to complain.
Liberal chic dictates that someone chase ideological purity, not $. Maddow is a liberal in name only (LINO?). She is actually an opportunist out for the cushy lifestyle. Who envies that? It is a soul-sucking rat race.
Chasing "ideological purity" gives you only demagogues pandering to ideologues. It is the exact reason that Trump is the GOP nominee.
Delete"Maddow is pretending to be a liberal Democrat."
DeleteYes, unlike the true liberal Democrat Somerby who believes:
-- There is no gender gap in wages.
-- Too much is being said about racism in America.
-- Sexual assaults on campus have been overblown.
-- Republicans aren't really trying to suppress minority voting because they've also close some registration offices and polling locations in some white areas as well.
-- Schools in the south aren't really being re-segregated because Bob found pictures from the Tuscaloosa school district's Web site of black and white children playing together.
-- Bridgegate still could be a "legitimate traffic study."
"Soul sucking rat race"® is a registered excuse line of those who apologize for others who tried and failed...like Showbiz Bob.
Delete"I coulda been a comedian..."
"I coulda been a pundit. Instead, I'm still stuck in my vanity blog."
DeleteOne thing you can say on Schwartz's behalf that you can't say about Somerby. At least Schwartz finished his book.
"I coulda been a comedian..."
DeleteForward to 1:50:00 and find out why he isn't.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?194516-1/funniest-celebrity-washington
irishguy gives you the nickel tour. There's many more.
Deleteirishguy can convincingly win an argument against a strawman.
Delete(S)he also proves this wrong:
"Only someone totally consumed by misperception of their own intellect would ever accuse anyone commenting here of missing Somerby's point."
"-- Republicans aren't really trying to suppress minority voting because they've also close some registration offices and polling locations in some white areas as well."
DeleteThis is like if Somerby said, "I like ice cream, but don't go around trying to convince people of the goodness of ice cream by giving them garlic flavored ice cream." Response: "SOMERBY DOESN'T LIKE ICE CREAM!!!1!"
I wonder if Somerby even goes to his Harvard Class of '69 reunions.
Delete"Hey, Bob! Waddaya been up to all these years?"
"Well, I got this blog that's read by 1,500 people a month."
4:45 - what glorious exploits do you regale your old classmates with when you go to yours? "I got new shoes today."?
DeleteSomerby is correct, Maddow will never challenge the powers that be in this country. No fight in her.
ReplyDeleteThat's why 100 cents on the dollar goes to the men who do all the real fighting.
DeleteRight you are. Don't give me all that whining about equal pay when the work is not equal.
Delete@ 9:46 & 12:01 - have another glass of testosterone.
DeleteTips And Help On How To Get Your Ex Back With A Love Spell
ReplyDeleteMy name is Junia Noel from Usa and i want to use this means to announce to the whole world the existence of strong power to cast any love spell by Dr happy living in Africa. i have always doubted love spell because i have been scammed severally by fake spell casters. i almost lost hope until i met a friend who introduced to Dr happy and gave me his number. i then called him and explained my relationship problems to him. he assured me that he will help me cast a love spell to get my Ex Lover back and that it will take two days and after which my Ex Lover shall return back to me on his knees. i decided to try him because the source of his contact was very legit. to my greatest surprise after all the long suffering, within 48 hours of contacting Dr happy, my ex lover Michael came back to me begging me and now we are happily married. Dr happy resides in Africa but i have promise to castigate his strong powers to the whole world so people who need his help can contact him for help. he is very strict and straight forward with his work and he does not delay work. you can contact him through through the following means
Email Address: happylovespell2@gmail.com
Mobile Number: +2348133873774
How I Got My Ex Husband Back...........
ReplyDeleteI am Shannon by name. Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my husband after three(3) years of marriage just because another woman had a spell on him and he left me and the kid to suffer. one day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this address Makospelltemple@yahoo.com , have help a woman to get back her husband and i gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a woman had a spell on my husband and he told me that he will help me and after 2 days that i will have my husband back. i believed him and today i am glad to let you all know that this spell caster have the power to bring lovers back. because i am now happy with my husband. Thanks for Dr.Mako. His email: Makospelltemple@yahoo.com OR. his phone number: +2348108737816.
My name is Lorna Harron, and I base in USA...My life is back!!! After 2 years of Broken marriage, my husband left me with two kids . I felt like my life was about to end i almost committed suicide, i was emotionally down for a very long time. Thanks to a spell caster called Dr Ogboni, which i met online. On one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet,I came across allot of testimonies about this particular spell caster. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb,cure cancer,and other sickness, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. i also come across one particular testimony,it was about a woman called Sonia,she testified about how he brought back her Ex lover in less than 2 days, and at the end of her testimony she dropped Dr ogboni's e-mail address. After reading all these,I decided to give it a try. I contacted him via email and explained my problem to him. In just 48hours, my husband came back to me. We solved our issues, and we are even happier than before Dr Ogboni, is really a gifted man and i will not stop publishing him because he is a wonderful man... If you have a problem and you are looking for a real and genuine spell caster to solve all your problems for you. Try High ogbonispelltemple@hotmail.com anytime, he might be the answer to your problems. Here's his contact: ogbonispelltemple@hotmail.com or call him :+2347054263874
ReplyDeleteAm here to appreciate Dr Oliha for using his herbal medicine to cure my Herpes virus. since 4years now I have been living with this virus and it has been giving me challenges, I was so perplexed cause i have been taking several drugs to be cured but all of my effort was in vain,one morning i was browsing through the internet then i saw several testimonies about Dr. Oliha curing people from Herpes virus and immediately i contacted Dr. Oliha on his email: oliha.miraclemedicine@gmail.com , i told him about my troubles and he told me that i must be cured, gave me some instructions and which i rightly followed. so he prepared a herbal medicine for me and sent it to me which i used for 2 weeks and everything was like a dream to me and my Herpes virus was totally gone, why don't you contact him today and be free from your diseases because he is very good and honest Doctor. contact him via email; oliha.miraclemedicine@gmail.com or whatsApp him on +2349038382931
ReplyDeleteHello! I'm very excited to inform everyone that I'm completely cured from my HSV 1&2 recently. I have used Oregano oil, Coconut oil, Acyclovir, Valacyclovir, Famciclovir, and some other products and it's really help during my outbreaks but I totally got cured! from my HSV with a strong and active herbal medicine ordered from a powerful herbalist and it completely fought the virus from my nervous system and I was tested negative after 12 days of using the herbal medicine. I'm here to let y'all know that herpes virus has a complete cure, I got rid of mine with the help of Dr Oyagu and his herbal exploit. Contact him via email: oyaguherbalhome@gmail.com call or whatsApp him on +2348101755322.
ReplyDelete