Starting tomorrow, the gender pay gap: Our tireless analysts awoke this morning to a peculiar TPM headline.
Anthropologically speaking, that headline was a sign of the times. TPM's headline said this:
Trump Shrugs Off NK Missiles, Bizarrely Claims Kim Called Biden ‘Low IQ Individual’At first glance, that headline struck us as strange. Upon review, it seemed like a sign of the times.
In fact, Donald J. Trump didn't "claim" that Kim had made that remark about Biden's IQ. Unless we're splitting the finest hairs, Trump was merely stating a fact.
Everyone is aware of that fact. At NBC News, Ben Kamisar reported the history thusly:
KAMISAR (5/26/19): The North Korean Central News Agency, which is run by the state, has taken an increasingly hostile tone towards Biden in recent days, with rhetoric scaling more hostile as Trump increases his own criticism of his potential 2020 challenger.Unless we're splitting the most slender hairs, Kim did call Biden a low-IQ fool. Unless you're scanning TPM headlines, where Trump's tweet to that effect was transformed into his latest "bizarre claim."
A report from May 21 pans Biden as “reckless and senseless, seized by ambition for power,” as well as a “fool of low IQ.”
We decided to check the TPM report which appeared beneath that headline. Cristina Cabrera had penned the report. This is what she wrote:
CARBRERA (5/26/19): President Donald Trump on Saturday night downplayed North Korea’s missile testing as “some small weapons,” and also claimed that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un called 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden a “low IQ individual.”Cabrera said Trump had made a "claim." Some headline writer improved the matter, describing Trump's "claim" as "bizarre."
None of this foolishness actually matters, except as a sign of the times. Viewed as a sign of the times, here's what actually happened:
What happened:A great deal of pseudo-liberal journalism now works off this win/win model. TPM saves money by hiring young reporters. In the process, TPM's readership get rewarded with pleasingly embellished claims.
First, TPM decided to save a few bucks by hiring a rather young White House reporter. Cabrera is just completing her third year out of college (NYU, class of 2016).
That young reporter then penned a somewhat peculiar report, describing Trump's accurate statement as a "claim."
Some headline writer then came along and made the story more pleasing. He or she turned Trump's accurate statement into a bizarre claim.
This silly performance by TPM doesn't actually matter. Tomorrow, we'll start to examine a serious topic, a topic which actually does.
Starting tomorrow, we'll look at recent reporting of Kamala Harris's proposal to counteract the gender pay gap. We'll start by reviewing PolitiFact's analysis of Harris's familiar but inaccurate statements about this important matter.
After that, we'll look at the way Harris's errors were wished away, glossed or ignored by young reporters all across the upper-end mainstream press corps—even by fairly recent graduates of both Harvard and Yale! Class of 2012!
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but our war-inclined species is highly tribal and deeply wired for fiction. Even within our own self-impressed tribe, we simply aren't "the rational animal," or any near approximation of that rarely-seen beast.
Anthropologically speaking, this is simply the way one human tribe was functioning in the years immediately preceding Mister Trump's Bizarre War. Within that one human tribe, the moguls were hiring the kids, and the kids often weren't "all right."
On the brighter side, many people have died for TPM's right to present that silly headline today. We should all remember this fact on this famously sacred occasion.
Trump's statement was bizarre, as was his claim about what Kim Jong Un supposedly said.
ReplyDeleteIt was bizarre because (1) Trump changed the actual statement "a fool of low IQ" into his own insult "low-IQ individual" and (2) Trump then tweeted "perhaps he is trying to send me a signal," implying that Kim Jong Un's insult was made on his behalf. Trump made it all about himself, and that is not only bizarre but reflects Trump's narcissistic pathology.
Somerby is trying to have things both ways. He wants to call the president disordered and mentally ill, but he also wants to call out journalists who use adjectives such as bizarre to describe Trump's symptomatic behavior.
Trump claimed the attack on Biden was made on his behalf. Somerby disappears the second half of Trump's tweet and pretends Trump didn't say anything unusual, so Somerby can attack a journalist this morning. This is a manufactured complaint that only works if Somerby disappears part of what Trump said.
I call bullshit on Somerby.
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Deletecall/whatsapp:+2349057261346
"Trump Shrugs Off NK Missiles, Bizarrely Claims Kim Called Biden ‘Low IQ Individual’"
ReplyDeleteYes, Bob, good for you for emphasizing the goebbelsian nature of the liberal zombie media.
But sadly you're forgetting (or deliberately ignoring?) its bloodthirsty warmongering aspect.
"Trump Shrugs Off NK Missiles" - your liberal-goebbelsian hack Josh Marshall is itching for pushing that Big Red Button, isn't he?
I'm so happy your zombie cult has no access to it at the moment, but in the future, tsk, who knows, things change... Think of it when you're casting your vote next year...
John Bolton wants to know if you've joined the armed services yet.
DeleteGood food for thought as always, Mao. How stupid are the lib zombie media's targets if they keep pushing this garbage to them? We already know and voters will protect them from themselves again in 2020. MAGA
DeleteTPM headline:
ReplyDelete“Claims Kim Called Biden ‘Low IQ Individual’”
From Trump’s tweet:
“I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual,”
From Kamisar’s (NBC) report:
“The North Korean Central News Agency, which is run by the state, has taken an increasingly hostile tone towards Biden in recent days”
Somerby:
“Kim did call Biden a low-IQ fool.”
The “low-IQ” comment came from the *North Korean Central News Agency*, not from Kim. Trump attributed the comment to Kim, though we do not know if it came directly from him. That qualifies it as a “claim”, and it is not hair-splitting to distinguish the two.
Somerby announces: “Unless we're splitting the finest hairs, Trump was merely stating a fact.”
ReplyDeleteWay to bury the lede, Bob. While you’re parsing grade-school insults, the big story there was that North Korea had launched ballistic missiles, violating UN Security Council resolutions — according to Trump’s own National Security Adviser, as well as his hosts the Japanese — yet Trump denied it, siding with Kim Jong Un, who insults the same person Trump dislikes, awwwww. It is just too easy to push Trump’s buttons.
This was not a case of “Trump merely stating a fact.”
More: Washington Post: Still angling for a deal, Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan
It is as if the North Koreans baited Trump into tweeting about them on the eve of his Japan visit, knowing that Japan worries about the threat from North Korea and would be upset about Trump's love affair with them. It is a way of North Koreans thumbing their noses at Japan, using Trump as a pawn.
DeleteTrump never listens to anyone about his tweets, so of course he plunged right in, perhaps flattered to have another country on his side against his political enemies. He is too stupid to see how he was being used, and too stupid to listen to anyone telling him not to tweet this stuff during his state visit.
Can't you just extrapolate one from the other?
DeleteANY candidate would welcome and re-tweet foreign state actors trashing their political opponent, just as ANY candidate would gladly take dirt on their political opponent provided by foreign state actors (see Trump Tower meeting).
ReplyDeletePaying too much attention to Trump's words is a fool's errand. We have long known that he will say things in order to forward some goal, whether or not the things he says are true. He often exaggerates. The important thing is that he has not relaxed any of the sanctions against NK.
ReplyDeleteTeddy Roosevelt said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." The sanctions are Trump's big stick.
"Paying too much attention to Trump's words is a fool's errand. "
DeleteSays the guy who thinks Trump has two dimes of wealth to rub together.
I'm paying attention to Trump's words. He just accused Americans of treason, and he's a Right-winger.
DeleteNext, you'll tell me that I shouldn't believe every Right-wing accusation is a confession.
Don't pay attention to Trump's words, follow his actions.
DeleteHe named John Bolton as his National Security Advisor. Based on that action, why should I think Trump isn't a war-monger?
If Trump doesn't have two dimes to rub together he's even better than we thought because he has always lived like a multimultibillionaire and is the most powerful man on the planet.
Delete6:26,
DeleteTrump's no Osama bin Laden (talk about your success stories), but yes, I see your point.
Grifters live large on other people's money. The image is part of the con -- people will assume they are legit because they appear so successful.
DeleteThe US made a deal with Iran because the EU was no longer willing to participate in sanctions. The US can impose sanctions but that is ineffective if the rest of the EU nations don't cooperate. Iran would have to be dependent on US trade for sole US sanctions to be effective, and they are not. So the sanctions aren't going to do anything because the EU is no longer behind them. Obama saw that this was happening and worked to get the treaty to use in place of the sanctions which were going away. Trump threw that all away and now has no leverage over Iran, so he is using military threat. That is a much more dangerous alternative, obviously. It also requires that the US hold hands with the Saudis because the US military presence alone isn't much of a threat.
DeleteTrump fucked up.
6:26,
DeleteWhite privilege will do that for you.
It's sad that Brett Farve died.
ReplyDeleteBart Starr died. Brett Farve is fine.
Delete8:41,
DeleteThat's what the deep state wants you to believe.
“Harris's familiar but inaccurate statements about this important matter. ...
ReplyDeletewe'll look at the way Harris's errors were wished away, glossed or ignored by young reporters all across the upper-end mainstream press corps”
TDH headline based on this: “Candidate Harris cons us rubes!” (5/21/2019)
Funny, that headline doesn’t seem to be a complaint about the “mainstream press corps”, but about Candidate Harris. And not about Harris’ “inaccurate statement”, but her “con” job. Big difference.
From 1998:
ReplyDelete‘1998 - Six hundred local women's groups, labor unions, and others across the country commemorate Equal Pay Day on April 3 by holding rallies, press conferences, and luncheons; organizing discounts at local restaurants; handing out cookies reduced in size to reflect the wage gap to local elected officials; handing out "Equal" Pay Day candy bars; marching to their state capitols; and more. In conjunction with Equal Pay Day, Vice President Gore announces new policy initiatives aimed a closing the wage gap and pledges the Administration's support for the Paycheck Fairness Act. On June 10, 1998 -- the 35th anniversary of the signing of the Equal Pay Act -- President Clinton holds a press conference at the White House and urges Members of Congress to pass legislation to close the wage gap, saying, "You wouldn't tolerate getting to vote in three out of every four elections. You wouldn't like it if someone said you could only pick up three out of every four paychecks. But that is, in effect, what we have said to the women of America." Also speaking at this event are Dr. Dorothy Height, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Gore, Tipper Gore, and several Members of Congress.’
https://www.pay-equity.org/info-history.html
From 2000: (Gore interviewed by AFSCME)
“Bain: Progress has been made in the area of pay equity. But for working women, the issue will continue to be a priority until there is total parity. What would a Gore Administration do to change things?
Gore: I’m for an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work. It’s not only good for women. It’s good for our country.
We’ve got legislation on the books now, but it doesn’t have much teeth in the enforcement. I’m for toughening the penalties on it. And I’m for legislation to move much further to really have meaningful pay equity.
I’ll tell you a quick story. My mother was born a poor girl in West Tennessee. She just celebrated her 87th birthday. She worked her way through college. She took her blind sister, my Aunt Thelma, to college with her and read lessons and took notes for both of them. She got a room at the YWCA, and she worked as a waitress in an all-night coffee shop for 25-cent tips. She became one of the first women in history to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School.
When my sister and I were growing up, there was never any doubt in our minds that women and men were equal. I see all around me, throughout this country, talented women who are doing as good or better a job as men and who are getting paid less. How long are we going to put up with that?
I’ve got three daughters. I’ve learned from Tipper. Most men that I talk to, if they’re married, would like their wives to have pay equity. They would like to live in a country that recognizes the equality of talent. We ought to enforce that law. We ought to have more protections to make sure that we have equal pay — pay equity — for an equal day’s work.
I hope that the members of AFSCME understand where I’m coming from. I want to fight for you. I need your help. Your leadership has been extremely close to me, valuable in the sense that we’ve worked together on a lot of things.
If you agree to help, together with your leadership, there’s no doubt that AFSCME can make the critical difference. I hope you’ll decide to do that, because I really want to fight for you as president.”
https://www.afscme.org/news/publications/newsletters/works/januaryfebruary-2000/gore-on-the-issues
Until someone unearths a TDH post entitled “Clinton cons us rubes” or “Gore cons us rubes”, we will assume that Somerby discovered this issue *after* Gore lost and is now using it to bash liberals as well as the media. His original focus was to push back on press narratives aimed at Clinton and Gore, NOT to criticize the candidates.
Hello friends! My Name is Wendy from Canada i have had a lot about Dr AKHERE on his good work, for bringing back lost relationship but i never believe because so many spell caster scam me because of my husband who left me and three kids over a year and two months. so a good friend of mine introduce me to Dr AKHERE just because my condition was so bad and the responsibility in my matrimonia home was more than me. my husband left me to another woman just because i don't have male child for him. so i email Dr AKHERE and told him everything, he told me not to worry that my husband will come back and i will have a male child for him. he only told me to believe on him that after casting the spell my husband will come back immediately and beg for forgiveness. he real did it for me and my husband come back to me in the nest two days. i was very happy and thanks dr AKHERE. so, i was in this situation (April 18 2014) i told Dr AKHERE that i will start shearing his testimony to every one in the word if he make me to have a male child to my husband. and he also did it as am shearing this testimony to every one out dear, that am with my new bouncy baby boy. now i believe that i am the happiest woman on earth because Dr AKHERE restore my life in my matrimonial home you can thank him for me or email him for urgent help in any bad situation i promise you he will also help you; his email address is Email him: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com or
ReplyDeletecall/whatsapp:+2349057261346
Every post that Somerby makes about the way the pay differential is discussed is heard by women as indifference to the real and ongoing difficulties they encounter in the job market.
ReplyDeleteSomerby thinks it is more important to focus on a nitpick about a widely used statistic (that stands as a proxy for the entire issue of pay equity) than to understand the subtext about support for women versus hostility toward them, especially as this connects to the alt-Right, religious conservatives, and their agenda to put women back into restrictive gender roles confining them to home and hearth and men's control.
It takes a kind of callousness to think that these nitpicks should be discussed because they at best distract from wider issues and at worst provide support to those who challenge the stats on the grounds that women are no longer discriminated against, deserve to be discriminated against, and have nothing to complain about.
No liberal takes that position, which reinforces my belief that Somerby is no liberal, no matter what he claims.
There are so many other statistics showing that women still have problems in the workplace, that there is no reason why Somerby needs "debunk" this one, giving the misleading impression that everything is OK with women's pay and women are just whining to take money away from men. This reinforces a bunch of negative, sexist stereotypes. If Somerby doesn't talk about them directly, his ongoing fascination with this particular statistic creates that impression, that women are "conning" us and trying to get what they don't deserve, like Stormy.
I see Somerby's actions surrounding this point as highly sexist and hostile toward women. It is certainly his blog and he can write what he wants, but he should know how he looks to the women who are working to change things for the better in the workplace. If I were someone like Somerby, I wouldn't want to be that guy. But he isn't writing for me.
Who is Somerby writing for? Not liberals. Not women. Not Kevin Drum, who has a wife and gives lip service to women's issues when reminded. Who?
Every post that Somerby makes about the way the pay differential is discussed is heard by women….
ReplyDeleteNo, heard by you.
Somerby thinks….
And you have access to Somerby’s interiority how?
than to understand the subtext
How about you learn to understand the text first?
It takes a kind of callousness
It takes a kind of cluelessness to write your screeds.
provide[s] support to those who challenge the stats on the grounds that women are no longer discriminated against, deserve to be discriminated against, and have nothing to complain about.
TDH is warning you that using a bogus statistic (what you call a “nitpick”) will provide a cudgel for those people to beat you with.
No liberal takes that position
You don’t speak for any liberals, except perhaps yourself.
which reinforces my belief that Somerby is no liberal, no matter what he claims.
Your beliefs are ill founded, so who cares? And others are competent to define their own position on the political spectrum. Imagine how outraged you’d be if someone declared you were no feminist?
There are so many other statistics showing that women still have problems in the workplace….
Not in contention.
that there is no reason why Somerby needs "debunk" this one
No reason you can figure out, but that’s different. TDH says the statistic is misleading and will thereby gladden the hearts of your enemies. If you could counter his claim, you’d have done it by now.
[gives] the misleading impression that everything is OK with women's pay
To you, maybe. Don’t assume everyone is as clueless as you are.
I see Somerby's actions surrounding this point as highly sexist….
How can you see anything with those intellectual blinders you’re wearing?
It is certainly his blog and he can write what he wants….
Well, that’s refreshing, Capt. Obvious.
[TDH] he should know how he looks to the women who are working to change things for the better in the workplace.
You mean he should know he looks to someone like you who posts nonsense in the comment section of his blog. Why should he know that?
Who is Somerby writing for?
Perhaps only for himself. Perhaps for you, who can’t seem to tear herself away.
A blathering idiot answering a blathering idiot.
Delete"Somerby thinks….
ReplyDeleteAnd you have access to Somerby’s interiority how?
-------
This. If only there were a media criticism blog in the area. I see it all the time in the media. The media telling me what Senators think, instead of reporting what they say they think.
For instance, do GOP Senators think their massive corporate tax cuts will lead to investment, or are they just saying they think massive corporate tax cuts will lead to investment? Unless the reporter is a mind reader, they should be reporting what people say they think, not what they think.