So rules the Washington Post: In the past two days, our "news orgs" have been beating the bushes, desperately trying to solve the riddle of Melaniagate.
How do you solve a problem like Melania? It's just the kind of trivial matter our Potemnkin "press corps" loves.
It isn't that our glorious orgs shouldn't try to figure this out. It's just annoying when you see how many major matters have been thrown around in the past few days—major matters the nation's "news orgs" have never even tried to report or resolve.
These unresolved matters have often been used in fact-challenged attacks on Candidate Clinton. The children rush to analyze Melaniagate, but they've devoted years of their lives to avoiding these larger concerns:
What, them worry?By the way, what do you think of Trump's formal budget proposal? We think it's the craziest budget proposal any candidate ever produced.
According to the intelligence community, what was the motive behind the Benghazi attack? Clinton is being attacked as a liar on this score. What's the actual state of the facts?
Did Donald Trump ever oppose the war in Iraq at all? On Sunday's 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl seemed to vouch, two separate times, for the bogus claim that he did. Where are the 25 reports he said he could show us? Like a range of big TV stars before her, Stahl forgot to ask!
Did Donald Trump ever send investigators to Hawaii to probe Obama's birth? When the Times pretended to report this matter, they too forgot to ask!
We also note that the nation's news orgs have thoroughly disappeared it. But then, as Press Corps Barbie and Ken have said:
Melaniagate is lots of fun. Budget proposals are hard!
An amazing array of attacks are being aimed at Clinton this week. This is being done in the context of group demands that we "lock her up!"
As these attacks are displayed each day, the press is chasing Melaniagate. When they do attempt a bit of "fact-checking," you end up wishing they hadn't.
In our view, Kessler and Lee do a very shaky job today fact-checking last night's convention for the Washington Post. We're especially saddened by their claim that Candidate Clinton "lied" about her own name!
(Kessler and Lee: "Some viewers of the Republican National Convention may have been confused about McConnell’s charge that Clinton lied about her name. But this is indeed the case." In our view, their "reasoning" is silly, dumb, dim-witted, sad.)
The ugliness of the GOP's conduct and claims ought to be a front-page topic all by itself. Instead, the children are chasing Cribbedpassagesgate around and around—and when they do attempt to do some fact-checking, you end up wishing they hadn't.
(In our view, Kessler and Lee do a terrible job today with several other topics.)
In truth, our press corps has very few skills. To a larger extent, they lack a cultural commitment to the importance of fairness, balance, accuracy, common sense, simple decency, elementary truth.
They lost their way a long time back. Bless their hearts, but their ongoing conduct is sad.
"Hillary Clinton’s false claim of landing under sniper fire in Bosnia is one of the all-time great fact-checks at the Fact Checker."
ReplyDeleteAs a Howler reader I am unfamiliar with that claim.
DeleteMore Kessler and Lee:
ReplyDelete"The Washington Free Beacon reported in February 2015 that Clinton paid women 72 cents per dollar, compared with men. The outlet analyzed Senate expenditure reports from 2002 to 2008 and found that the median annual salary for a female employee in Clinton’s office was $15,708.38 less than the median salary for male employees."
This is how not getting your facts right about these stats (is it *for the same job*?) ends up biting you back.
You now join Bob Somerby as only the second person on this blog who has mislead people about use of "these stats."
DeleteHere is the difference. Paying women less than men for the same job is a problem with the employer. Paying women less in general is a problem with our culture. Confusing the two shows a lack of intellectual rigor.
Deleterigour
DeleteSorry AC if you think this is stupid and obnoxious, but I think the difference between the two statistics is what we are able to do about them. With the problem about women being paid less for the same job, we can, and should, enforce anti-discriminatory laws upon employers that do this.
DeleteBut the problem with women being paid less than men in general is a consequence of how men and women fill out the work force. I would hope we can come up with educational and long-term political strategies to help this situation. We are currently quite far from a culture that treats the genders equally. For example, how many women change their last name to their husband's when they get married? This is a simple, obvious indication of a patriarchal structure that is barely discussed. Hell, the USA voted down the ERA.
But why I quoted Kessler and Lee, is that the Washington Free Beacon was using an aggregate comparison of men's and women's pay to implicate the employer (Clinton). If it so happened that more women held positions in her organization that had low pay (and the men in those jobs were paid exactly the same), then is it Clinton's fault that the total average woman's pay were lower than the total average man's? The Washington Free Beacon is able to make that claim if the difference between the two statistics is not understood.
"By the way, what do you think of Trump's formal budget proposal? We think it's the craziest budget proposal any candidate ever produced."
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking Bob. I think Trump has made no formal budget proposal. I think you have been calling a tax proposl a budget for some time and have been repeatedly called to account for this by your readers. And now have taken the extra step to call it a "formal budget proposal."
I think it is crazy to call a tax proposal a budget.
It's hard to imagine how the original graphic got composed. It's surprising to think that an editor viewed it and didn't see anything wrong.
The Howler is in a class by itself. I'd call it our silliest blog — silliest and most bitter.
anon 3:56, you combine (an unfortunately not rare blend) of stupidity and obnoxiousness (and this goes for many if not all of the other above commentators). The post is about how the media focuses on relative trivialities, like Melania's plagiarism and ignores the despicable smears being spewed out left and right, and overlooks things that matter. Kudus to you though - TDH talks about Trump's "budget proposal" when he should have said "tax proposal." I don't know how you can stand being yourself.
DeleteKudus --> Kudos
DeleteHey AC - nobody thinslices like Somerby.
DeleteMeanwhile, while Kessler and Lee and jerking around,
ReplyDeleteA New Hampshire state representative who advises Donald Trump on veterans’ issues called Tuesday for Hillary Clinton to be “put in the firing line and shot for treason” for her handling of the Benghazi terror attack.
Over the weekend,
A member of the West Virginia House of Delegates is causing a stir after tweeting that Hillary Clinton should be "hung on the Mall in Washington, DC."
CBS affiliate WOWK-TV reports that Michael Folk, a Republican legislator who is also a United Airlines pilot, posted a tweet Friday night saying: "Hillary Clinton, you should be tried for treason, murder, and crimes against the US Constitution... then hung on the Mall in Washington, DC."
Thank you, WAPO for focusing on the real important stuff.
Appearing on WRKO radio from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, state Representative Al Baldasaro, a Londonderry Republican, called the presumptive Democratic nominee “a piece of garbage.”
Baldasaro, Cheeto Jesus' advisor on Veterans Affairs, said a lot worse than that:
Delete"Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire representative who serves on Trump's veterans' coalition and as a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, said in an interview with a Boston talk radio host that Clinton should pay for the 2012 Benghazi attack.
"She is a disgrace for any, the lies she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi,'" he said on the Jeff Kuhner Show Tuesday. "She dropped the ball on over 400 emails requesting back up security. Something's wrong there."
"Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason," he continued.
Courtesy of John Farmer, of Buzzworthy:
DeleteRumor has it Dems will cancel their convention and let RNC go one more week.
Tax policy is a component of the budget.
ReplyDeleteI don't think bitter is the right word. Pissed off is more like it, as in I'd rather be pissed off than pissed on.
I thought she said her name was Rodham.
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The New York Times and Huffington Post are trying to push Clinton into naming Kaine as VP. Clinton has said she will not name her VP until Saturday (perhaps earlier to supporters via text). No choice has been made yet.
ReplyDeleteThat hasn't stopped Huffington Post from implying that Kaine will not only be the VP choice but will give huge gifts to Wall Street, and that Bill Clinton and Obama are both behind that choice.
Does Huffington Post want Trump elected or are they diehards for Sanders? This stealth anti-Clinton campaign is helping Republicans and further alienating progressives. It is annoying given that Clinton has MADE NO CHOICE YET. We know the NY Times dislikes Clinton -- no mystery there.
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