The shape of political discourse: We will guess that most Americans have never heard of Diamond & Silk.
Until this April, they'd long been part of the Fox News Channel clown machine. In a new report, The Daily Beast visits them in their Gethsemane:
CARTWRIGHT AND KIRELL (8/16/20): Several months after Diamond & Silk were dumped by Fox News for promoting crazed COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the Trump-worshipping vlogging superstars have seemingly declared war on the right-wing cable network.The simpering siblings had dared to ask questions! For that reason, Fox gave them the boot!
In an excerpt of their new book, obtained by The Daily Beast, the MAGA siblings rant about the ordeal surrounding their April ouster from the Fox News family. Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson repeatedly throw the network under the bus—at times revealing how Fox brass told them to “keep on fighting” even after the network publicly dumped them, other times suggesting the network cut ties with them as a retaliatory “hit” against President Trump.
And in one particularly revealing section, Diamond & Silk grumble about how Fox’s white primetime stars have gotten away with pushing COVID-19 misinformation similar to the claims that resulted in the Black duo’s expulsion.
The book, titled Uprising: Who the Hell Said You Can’t Ditch and Switch?—The Awakening of Diamond and Silk, is due out this Tuesday via conservative book titan Regnery Publishing.
The right-wing sisters—who’d been contracted to produce videos for streaming platform Fox Nation—were dumped by Fox in late April after spreading coronavirus conspiracy theories claiming that the death count was “inflated” to make Trump look bad; that the virus was “deliberately spread” by either “deep-state snakes” or the World Health Organization; that a vaccine will be used for “population control” by Bill Gates; and that 5G technology is being used to infect people, with an “on and off” switch for the virus.
“We had dared to ask questions,” the duo claim of the rants that got them axed.
Diamond & Silk are part of the brain-damaged minstrelsy Fox once maintained by booking the so-called New Black Panther Party for endless appearances on the now-defunct nightly program, Hannity & Colmes.
The sheer stupidity of their appearances was, of course, the point. Having said that, we'll also ask this:
How much sharper is a lot of commentary about matters of race on the other two dumbbell "cable news" channels, CNN and MSNBC?
The spectacular clowning, it burns! But so does the lack of sharpness and the devotion to memorized tribal script.
That said, The Crazy is now a regular part of American political discourse. So is The Really Not All That Sharp and also The Just Flatly Wrong.
The Crazy's destructive, but so is The Wrong. More on this topic all week.
How NBC cable fought back: Fox News may have had the New Black Panther Party in tow, but Chris Matthews had the Clinton accusers.
Matthews' ridiculous sessions with Gennifer Flowers and Kathleen Willey were about as dumb as The Dumb ever gets. Beyond that, in a deeply ugly matter which was quickly disappeared, one of his brain-damaged sessions with Willey almost got a journalist killed.
No one said a word about this while it was going on. This was corporate "cable news," and mainstream careers hung in the balance. For the record, Matthews' endless trashing of Hillary Clinton is obviously one of the ways Donald Trump got to the White House.
No one will ever discuss that obvious fact because, in the end, nobody cares. Don't believe claims to the contrary. Vast amounts of what you're handed is utterly phony and faux.
"How much sharper is a lot of commentary about matters of race on the other two dumbbell "cable news" channels, CNN and MSNBC?"
ReplyDeleteGood question, dear Bob.
I'd say your liberal cancer-media definitely are sharper. Because, unlike the Fox News show you described, your liberal cancer-media are methodically delivering your cult's goebbelsian propaganda. Same cancerous shit on all channels, all the time. Deliberate, coordinated. Goebbelsian brainwashing is the goal of your cancer-media, and they do it professionally, no question about that.
That Fox News show, on the other hand, sounds like normal sensationalism; making money by delivering eyeballs to advertisers.
Yeah. And that's the difference, dear Bob, in my opinion.
Next time, try English, comrade.
DeleteAre you the fella complaining that google can't translate his gibberish?
DeleteAnd that's the difference, dear Bob, in my opinion.
DeleteNow that we know the Establishment's opinion (hat tip: Mao), can we move on to discussing reality?
Мао лижет свою задницу
Delete
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Here, dear Bob, Matt Taibbi, making fun of your zombie cult's dumb mantras.
ReplyDeleteFor your reading pleasure.
Compared to your zombie cult's mind-numbing dembottery, "a vaccine will be used for “population control” by Bill Gates" is definitely a most welcome relief..
Yet, still, the number of deaths caused by Trump's criminal negligence (he tried to gaslight the virus, like it was Chuck Todd) climbs over 170,000.
DeleteMatt Taibbi is a hack, a pseudo progressive grifter, who caters to his largely Republican audience; however, in fact Matt provides no mockery, he merely notes that Dems use words. Shock!
DeleteProgressives have canceled Taibbi and he is mad about it.
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, declaring his support for Joe Biden and describing Trump's presidency as "terrifying" and "actively doing damage to our security."
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That's quite a guy the trump cultists are backing, quite a guy.
An update, from Matt Taibbi, for those who choose to participate:
Delete"Note to readers
Schedule change for this evening
Matt Taibbi
Aug 17
I tried to start the DNC drinking game at MSNBC's scheduled start time of 7 and was nearly blasted after twelve minutes. New start time: 9 p.m."
Taibbi is cancelled. Get over it.
Delete"How much sharper is a lot of commentary about matters of race on the other two dumbbell "cable news" channels, CNN and MSNBC?"
ReplyDeleteHere's the problem. Somerby doesn't see the difference between the lunatic fringe on Fox and the mainstream meda AKA liberal media. That suggests that this is Somerby's problem, not ours. That's what dementia will do to you. Or maybe he is illustrating the point that insanity has been normalized and now no one can tell the difference between the two.
I don't buy it. There are still enough dismayed people to suggest that the lunatics have not yet taken over the asylum, even if Somerby wants to convince us that liberals have gone crazy (that's a laugh, coming from a Bernie supporter like Somerby).
Somerby is confused when he considers the Clinton accusers as another version of Diamond and Silk. Those ladies are an example of misogyny, not idiocy. Only men who hate women would use those pathetic women to attack the President. Someone had to hate Monica to use her the way she was double-crossed and played by Lucienne Goldberg and the Starr bullies. That attack on Clinton reinforced all the sexist stereotypes and tropes while feminists were accused of being hypocrites for continuing to support Bill Clinton. But Somerby sees this as a clown act? No, it was worse than that, just as both Diamond and Silk, and Somerby's treatment of them here, is racist to the core. They have a book out -- that's why their conflict with Fox is being hyped to conservative audiences by Regnery Press.
"No one will ever discuss that obvious fact because, in the end, nobody cares."
Feminists and women's organizations cared about what Matthews did and they complained about it. No one listened, it's true, but that isn't because NO ONE cared, unless you consider women to nonentities, as Somerby seems to do.
I cared and I still care about how Hillary was treated. I feel bad every time Somerby comes out with this dreck. When he says no one stuck up for her, he ignores the major effort invested by her campaign, her surrogates, and her supporters. But only men seem to count in Somerby's world. Black women are clowns on Fox and white women are more clowns on MSNBC (because comedy is his world and he is a serious stand up comedian, not an actual clown himself), and no one defended Bill Clinton (except the whole country).
From Politicus:
ReplyDelete"Q Have you ever encouraged Mr. DeJoy to slow the mail, Mr. President? Have you ever encouraged the Postmaster General — a big donor to you — to slow the mail?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not at all. Wouldn’t do that. No, I have encouraged everybody: Speed up the mail, not slow the mail.
And I also want to have a Post Office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year, as it has been doing for 50 years.
What the transcript doesn’t include is a reporter then asking Trump, “How can you speed up the mail, Mr. President if you remove the machines?”
Trump responded by turning around and walking away."
Note that the inconvenient question and Trump's response were deleted from the official transcript -- Somerby would not know about this response unless he watched a video of the full interaction on a liberal website.
This strongly suggests that there are no magic ways to ask Trump questions that will prevent him from giving stock answers and just plain refusing to answer. That makes Somerby's frequent complaints about various reporters just an exercise in bashing the press. Our President is at fault, not the media.
Trump DID answer. Maybe he was lying, but he clearly denied doing anything to slow up the mail.
Delete“How can you speed up the mail, Mr. President if you remove the machines?”
DeleteTrump responded by turning around and walking away."
Trump DID answer David
You really are a moron, David.
Somerby would have us believe that Trump's father never loved him, that he neglected or abused him by being strict or punishing. Actually, that is how Fred Trump treated Donald's older brother. Donald himself was over-indulged, encouraged, enabled, and given millions of dollars to bail him out of his business failures. The bragging, womanizing, denigration of others, lying, were all traits that Fred Trump admired and encouraged, and mostly shared with his son. This is the way Fred and Donald Trump are portrayed by Mary Trump in her new book. There is little doubt that Trump is treating his own sons similarly. The others in Trump's family went along with Donald in the same way as Republicans have gone along.
ReplyDeleteUnless you want to see this country run by a dynasty of Trump's children, it is time to stop him NOW. He isn't going to stop himself, and Somerby clearly isn't interested in this election, so we need to get out there are do it ourselves.
The whole point of today's essay was for Somerby to call Diamond and Silk names, Stupid and Faux.
ReplyDeleteHere is an essay by Erik Loomis (Lawyers, Guns & Money Blog) that explains where Somerby is coming from, why he keeps attacking liberals, why he thinks sexism and racism should not be a focus of anyone's reform efforts, and why he is wrong (I strongly agree with Loomis):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/08/on-class-reductionism-and-the-american-left
What I don't understand is why Somerby is being so coy about his reasons for attacking liberals and decying efforts to reduce racism and sexism. Why doesn't he come clean about this stuff? Is he afraid of the Socialist label, does he worry that he'll be called a Marxist if he follows Marxist directives, or does he think all of the liberals will leave if it becomes clear that this is a Bernie/Progressive/Marxist/Socialist blog, and then he won't be able to berate them any more?
Maybe he thinks that criticism is how people are convinced of things and he believes that if he doesn't yell at liberals every day (and twice on most days), no one will be attracted to his ideology?
Read Loomis -- the scales will fall from your eyes (at least about Somerby and his intentions).
Somerby is a narcissist, this is a vanity blog.
DeleteMany years ago, Somerby had some minor influence on political discourse. Those days are long gone, but they were the highlight of his life. What we are witnessing now is a slow motion temper tantrum.
If you don't like where Somerby's coming from, why do you keep coming here?
DeleteFor those of you unwilling to follow the LG&M link, it's about the success of the Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America in canceling a talk by a Marxist professor, one who supported Bernie and once complained of Obama's "repressive neoliberal politics." The professor's sin? He was being reactionary for arguing that the left's emphasis on the effect of COVID-19 on black people undermined multiracial organizing.
DeleteThe first comment on the Loomis piece was priceless:
Join the Judean People's Front! Death to the People's Front of Judea!
Of course, Loomis' essay explains nothing about TDH's "intentions," although it's instructive on the politics of the circular firing squad popular on the left.
First off, TDH doesn't "decry" efforts to reduce racism. He merely pointed out that you have to be brain dead to spend time attacking Tucker Carlson for pronouncing Harris' first name to rhyme with Pamela.
Secondly, TDH is anything but coy about his reasons for attacking liberals. He says they're lazy, unprepared, and addicted to narrative. Now, that's as may be, and if you disagree, present your case, but you have no access to what TDH is afraid of, what he worries about, or what he "really" thinks. So why worry about those things?
If you read the entire article, you would have seen the discussion of the primacy of class before race being advocated by the faction who has been attacking "liberals" and opposing their emphasis on so-called identity politics (racism, sexism), in keeping with Marx. That is the part that applies to Somerby, who has reflected that hostility toward liberals and toward anything critical of racist or sexist behavior that appears in the news.
DeleteTDH's criticisms of liberals are ridiculous on their face, and no, he has never explained his reasons for his name-calling. You apparently consider the name-calling to be true of liberals and thus requiring no explanation.
Somerby reveals himself every time he writes, as do we all. You insist that his thoughts, feelings, beliefs are entirely private and they are, except that he keeps opening his mouth.
I personally said that I didn't consider Carlson's mispronunciation of Harris's name to be racist, just deliberate. A professional newscaster takes care to pronounce names correctly, so I must assume he was deliberately doing it, or he is not competent at his job. Since he gets paid big bucks and has been around a long time, I assume he was doing it on purpose.
I also do not judge what I read by the comments. I find that segment from Life of Brian very funny, but I think that the small number of Bernie supporters who are chasing Democratic Socialism are not representative of the Democratic Party (which they have been trying to take down) and do not have wide appeal outside enclaves of activism in Brooklyn and San Francisco. That's why Bernie couldn't get nominated. The left has always had its extremists; in my youth it was the SDS. So what? Somerby's views only make sense if he is part of that factionalism, since liberals are not actually "lazy, unprepared, addicted to narrative", etc.
My question is why Somerby cannot be honest about his views. Bernie is.
If you read the entire article, you would have seen the discussion of the primacy of class before race ... in keeping with Marx. That is the part that applies to Somerby,....
DeleteThat is the part that's pretty much in your own head. I looked for the phrase "identity politics" using the blogspot search tool. I found 17 instances, all but one of which were in quotes that TDH found salient. I can't remember a time TDH adopted a Marxist class analysis of any issue.
TDH's criticisms of liberals are ridiculous on their face, and no, he has never explained his reasons for his name-calling.
I find some of his criticisms ridiculously hyperbolic; I find that some aren't. But he explains his reasoning constantly -- laziness, inaccuracy, and narrative-driven behavior, all tied to particulars of the topic of the day. In this, he may be in error, but don't say he hasn't explained himself.
Somerby reveals himself every time he writes, as do we all. You insist that his thoughts, feelings, beliefs are entirely private and they are, except that he keeps opening his mouth.
I happen to agree with you. But what I insist is that judgments on "thoughts, feelings, and beliefs" beyond the printed word are unreliable and likely to tell us more about the judge than the judged. It would be different if we could converse with Somerby and ask him questions. But we can't.
Somerby's views only make sense if he is part of that factionalism, since liberals are not actually "lazy, unprepared, addicted to narrative", etc.
TDH's views only make sense based on the evidence he presents and the logic he employs. That is, independent of what "faction" he belongs to.
My question is why Somerby cannot be honest about his views. Bernie is.
I think all this means is that you like Bernie and dislike Somerby. My question is why you cannot be honest about your view.
Somerby does not provide convincing evidence for his assertion about liberals. The burden is on Somerby, a burden he is unable to shoulder. Does Somerby's narrative hold with anybody?
DeleteThe internal problem with liberals is that the Dems turned neoliberal in the 90's.
Clearly the article was indeed addressing the class vs race issue. As far as Somerby goes, that is giving him too much credit. He thinks denying racism and sexism is good electoral politics.
DeleteIf Somerby went after conservative media the same way he goes after "liberal" media, he would also fail to make his case; his methods are just ineffectual.
DeleteSo many Anonymi; so little sense.
Delete@3:16 Somerby does not provide convincing evidence for his assertion about liberals.
TDH is certainly hyperbolic in his indictment of all liberals. I think bizarre his complaint that mathematical logicians should help with our political discourse. And I don't think any amount of preparation will allow reporters to to corner Trump: when his lying fails, he simply walks away from the questioner.
But when TDH says, "Vast amounts of what you're handed is utterly phony and faux," I think he meets his burden by pointing out Chris Matthews. YMMV, of course.
@3:23 Clearly the article was indeed addressing the class vs race issue. As far as Somerby goes, that is giving him too much credit. He thinks denying racism and sexism is good electoral politics.
Yes, the article addressed the class vs race issue, but I can't recall TDH addressing that issue, so I don't see how it's relevant.
What exactly is giving TDH too much credit?
Please provide a quote from TDH that says it's good politics to deny racism and sexism.
@3:32 If Somerby went after conservative media the same way he goes after "liberal" media, he would also fail to make his case; his methods are just ineffectual.
Like "most Americans," I'd never heard of Diamond & Silk. But TDH has made the case to me that they're part of the Stupid & Faux right-wing noise machine. Are you not also convinced?
Since nobody reads his blog, TDH is likely "ineffectual," but that's not the issue.
TDH is a view into a past that may never even really existed.
Delete"Vast amounts" is utter nonsense in these times of new media. Chris Matthews has not been relevant for years, if he ever was. It does not take much sophistication to see what is "phony and faux" in politics. Trump voters know he is full of shit, they do not care, and they will never be persuaded to vote liberal. They are motivated by racism, sexism, and the cults of capitalism and Christianity.
MSNBC has never been liberal, from Jack Welch to Andrew Lack, it has always been corporate and Republican. It was the 90's Dems that aligned with corporations and market supremacy.
I agree TDH is not addressing class vs race, that is giving him too much credit.
TDH has many posts warning about the dangers of accusing others of racism and sexism. He thinks they are too slippery, too poorly defined to be of use politically. He seems to think it is immoral, as it is unknowable what is in one's mind. The Daily Ostrich is more apt.
Diamond and Silk are known by many if not most due to their prevalence in media, and known as clowns, that is their shtick. Nobody complains when TDH goes after liberal clowns like Matthews, other than a preaching to the choir complaint.
If TDH's methods were more potent, more people would read it.
You illustrate all the frustrations of talking to Anonymi.
DeleteIf TDH says "vast amounts," you just say that's utter nonsense. If I point to Chris Matthews, whose almost quarter century career of spewing bullshit on cable television itself qualifies as delivering vast amounts, you say he's never been relevant.
Not only it easy to find plenty of students of the media who disagree with you, it's hard to believe that his bosses would pay him $5M a year if he were irrelevant. In any case, the question is bullshit by volume, not relevance.
If TDH points to MSNBC as the liberal counterbalance to Fox News, you say that MSNBC has never been liberal. But it took only moments in the google to find the political demographic breakdown of the audiences for MSNBC and Fox News.
OK, so maybe it was another of your cohort who linked to the LG&M analysis of class and race. But you don't get to complain when you hide behind a group nym.
TDH has many posts warning about the dangers of group branding and some posts criticizing particular charges of racism. I doubt you can support your claim that TDH writes that all accusations of bias are out of bounds.
If I say that TDH has made a convincing case that Diamond and Silk are "Stupid and Faux," you just retort that the case was too easy to make.
Your final complaint is that TDH's methods are without force. I agree. I'm the guy who says that nobody reads this blog, but as I also said, that's not the issue, so why bring it up?
Maybe you're not even responding to my comment.
Politicus said: "President Trump said Tuesday he would grant a full pardon posthumously to Susan B. Anthony, a famed women’s rights advocate who played a critical role in the women’s suffrage movement."
ReplyDeleteLet's see Trump actually do it, not just talk about it.
It is an oddity that a President would pardon someone for an act of civil disobedience meant to call attention to an inequity. This is like pardoning the lunch counter sit-in activists. The arrest isn't the point. It was meant only to draw attention to racial discrimination.
Susan B. Anthony never did pay her fine, after being convicted of illegally voting. The 19th Amendment was named the Susan B. Anthony Act. Why does she need a pardon? I think Trump is missing the point and reaffirming authority over women's voting by pardoning her, which is the opposite of what he perhaps intends, if he is attempting to lure suburban female voters. I'd prefer to see him support the ERA, because that is something current that is important to women.
"Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) earlier thanked his supporters for helping advance issues on which he campaigned. He urged their support for Joe Biden, warning, “The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.”
ReplyDeleteLet's see if Somerby can get behind Biden, or if he continues to make arguments that support Trump.
This comment has been removed by the author.
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