Another groaning example: How hapless is our mainstream/liberal pundit class? More specifically, to what extent are our liberal pundits robotically scripted—married to Storyline?
Your question is a good one! Sadly, the answer is painful.
Be sure to cover the children's eyes! Here's the way Molly Jong-Fast starts her new column at The Daily Beast:
JONG-FAST (8/13/20): No one was shocked by Joe Biden’s pick of California Senator Kamala Harris. For months people had guessed and assumed she would be Biden’s veep. The other names on the list didn’t seem to make much sense. Many of the women on it lacked the kind of visibility and excitement that Kamala innately possessed, not to mention Kamala’s digital army and heaps of charisma. But Kamala had been impressive, commanding, and serious in the debates. Some sexist pundits worried that she had been too commanding and impressive.That assessment could hardly be dumber. It's also scripted all the way down. Consider:
Is it true that Harris was "impressive, commanding, and serious in the debates?" (She participated in five.) If so, it's hard to understand why her standing in the polls kept going lower and lower as long as she stayed in the race.
Harris got a lot of attention after the first debate for her attack on Biden—her absurd attack about mandated busing in 1974.
In time, people began to notice that Harris had attacked Biden for failing to support a policy, more than four decades earlier, which she herself doesn't support in the present day. The sheer absurdity of that stance began to dawn on various people as the days and weeks dragged by.
Today, it's hard to find am account of that attack which hasn't been carefully sanitized. Scripted pundits agree to present the attack in a more favorable light—to talk about the knockout blow Harris almost delivered.
Did Harris do well at subsequent debates? As time went on, not really. When she left the race in late 2019, she was polling at roughly 3 percent.
In short, Jong-Fast's claim about those debates comes straight outta Storyline. Even more ridiculous is Jong-Fast's scripted chaser:
"Some sexist pundits worried that she had been too commanding and impressive."
In fact, Harris has been so commanding and so impressive that her support in the polls fell from 17% after that first debate to 3% after five. But according to Jong-Fast, you had to be a "sexist pundit" to deny how great she had been.
For ourselves, we hope that Harris' performance is stellar from here on out. In real time, we were struck by how superb her kick-off rally was—and by how horrible, and occasionally dishonest, her performance was after that.
Back, though, to the question at hand:
Our liberal team is very dumb—very dumb and totally scripted. The fact is, we've been this way for a very long way.
The dumbness of this pseudo-elite helps explain how a nightmare like Trump ever reached the White House. It's long past time when we in our self-impressed liberal world need to ponder these facts.
What has Kamala Harris accomplished that demonstrates her ability to hold the most challenging job in the country?
ReplyDeleteChecking to see if she play-acted as a successful businessperson on a TV show.
DeletePlease stand by.
She was attorney general of the state of CA (with an economy that is 7th largest in the world). She has been serving as a US Senator from CA. Those credentials match those of many elected presidents, not to mention VPs.
DeleteVP is the most challenging job? I don't think so. But I assume that you, like other Republicans, are praying fervently for Biden to die before Nov.
@5:27 - I agree that state AG + US Senator match many elected Presidents. However, when I was interviewing job applicants, I went beyond just the positions they held. I asked applicants what they had accomplished in their positions.
DeleteSo, what did Kamala Harris accomplish as CA AG and as Senator?
Try visiting the campaign website and find out. If you take your voting privilege seriously, you do some research on the candidates.
DeleteCA is the fifth largest economy in the world. Broadly speaking, as CA goes, so goes the country.
DeleteDavid,
DeleteOff topic, but I'd really like to know, which of Trump's 6 bankruptcies was your favorite, and why?
David,
DeleteRemind everyone here of your stated theory that trump would use his talent and experience of being an evil corrupt motherfucker to make America great. There might be some people reading this blog who missed it the first time you made that extraordinary rationalization for voting for an abomination with no morals.
"Peace and prosperity, the best economy in 60 years and no imperialist wars for the longest stretch in, probably, more than a century..."
ReplyDeleteThanks Obama!
Harris isn't running for President. She is running for Vice President.
ReplyDeleteSomerby attributes her polling to her debate performance. Some of us felt that our favorite candidate (whether Yang or Tom Steyer or one of the female candidates) didn't get enough time on camera.
Harris brought up the issue of busing in order to announce that she is a minority candidate, black, someone who benefited from integration efforts. She did it by aggressively scoring points against Biden, because you cannot look into the camera and say "vote for me, I'm black and I understand your need". That isn't done. For a female candidate, showing strength and aggressiveness is important because if you don't, you will be considered insufficiently tough. It is that fine line that a woman must walk between being seen as a weak incompetent and being seen as a ballbuster. Harris did a good job, but she didn't get as much camera time thereafter, especially once the media decided that it was Biden's show. Amy Klobuchar tried to solve that problem by attacking Buttigieg.
But Somerby is correct that the nation didn't want any of the female candidates. Warren, with her impressive credentials and accomplishments and progressive appeal, also sank in the polls. Somerby is incorrect to blame Harris.
Bernie would be an absolute disaster as Biden's VP. So would Mayor Pete. I would have liked to see Warren on the ticket but everyone agrees that she will be more valuable serving elsewhere. Harris was picked because she is at a point in her career where being buried in that job will help, not hurt, her future plans. And that is how politics works. The VP needs to contribute by bolstering the presidential candidate, not competing with him and thus is unlikely to be one of the major contenders.
But Somerby apparently hasn't been reading any analysis, just searching for female reporters to chastise for being enthusiastic about this woman on the ticket.
Agree, good analysis. I wish you had a name that would separate you from the dumb Anon that haunts this site..
DeleteThanks, but actually you often call me dumb as well. Just your nature I reckon.
DeleteI went to name calling only after it is done to me. Are you most or all the Anons we see here?
DeleteHarris didn't do anything wrong to fall from 17% to 3%. Voters made up their minds about who to support.
ReplyDeleteYes,this is a weird criticism. “The person picked as VP DIDN’T WIN THE PRIMARIES!”
DeleteDuh.
“Today, it's hard to find am account of that attack which hasn't been carefully sanitized. Scripted pundits agree to present the attack in a more favorable light—to talk about the knockout blow Harris almost delivered.”
ReplyDeleteMost pundits are praising Biden’s willingness to overlook that horrible, horrible (lol) attack and pick Harris. It shows Biden’s maturity and lack of holding a grudge and his understanding of politics, unlike some other businessmen/politicians we know.
To be fair, there was loud and public criticism of Biden during the primaries from liberals and progressives. Harris received criticism. So did Warren, particularly from Sanders supporters and Somerby.
ReplyDeleteNow that the general election candidates have been named, it seems more important for our “team leaders” to boost morale, rather than demoralize the troops. Wouldn’t demoralization increase the chances of another defeat a la 2016?
Granted, Biden is no Gore, and heaven knows Harris is no Joe Lieberman, but it is what it is.
Also, Molly Jong-Fast is a liberal pundit, but it is likely that she isn’t all liberal pundits. That won’t stop Somerby from taking her opinion as the liberal opinion, of course.
Her piece is completely behind a paywall, so I can’t judge whether Somerby is misinterpreting her.
But this is an example of his deceptive paraphrasing. She says:
"Some sexist pundits worried that she had been too commanding and impressive."
Which Somerby turns into “according to Jong-Fast, you had to be a "sexist pundit" to deny how great she had been.”
This is how a second-grader might reason. It is a straw man.
Some sloppy partisan commenters worry that Somerby is too exacting and fastidious in his thinking.
DeleteNo, they express concern over Somerby being pedantic in lieu of cogent analysis.
DeleteYes. Sloppy partisan concern troll Somerby.
Delete'Our liberal team is very dumb—very dumb and totally scripted.'
ReplyDeleteBut what about your team of hardcore malevolent Trumptards, dedicated to the defense of DJT, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Barr, Brock Turner and Zimmerman ?
Bob's been serving up some incredibly weak tea lately. Making long treks in search of some obscure story or analysis that shows poor judgement, and then angrily say that obscure nugget is representative of our side.
ReplyDeleteI predicted Biden and his team would do the stupidest thing and pick Rice, but they did the smartest thing instead. The VP decision is the major test of a Presidential candidate's competence.
Bob prefers to wallow in his tribal theme even when events demand that good analysis is found elsewhere. The Harris pick was a highly skilled choice demographically. It shows that the Dems really want to win this time. The fact that Carlson, Trump’s lead media shill, was reduced to taking the childish angle of making fun of Harris’ name shows that they know this was a good pick and that they weren’t prepared for it.
Deletewealth inequality not seen since feudal times
ReplyDeletetrump did nothing to make it better, did make it worse
trump's failure to respond to covid caused tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths
trump's greatest achievement has been to replace Bush as the worst president ever
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ReplyDeleteSomerby says:
ReplyDelete"The commander started with a short criticism of Harris. ("I think that's probably one of the reasons she was a terrible candidate and was forced to leave the race, because she got her facts wrong. She's very bad on facts, she's very weak on facts.")"
It would have been sufficient to have stated that Trump started with a criticism of Harris, but Somerby has to repeat the criticism, even though he does not talk about it below in his essay.
He does this kind of thing so often, that it is plausible to think one of his purposes here is repeating and spreading these conservative talking points, in this case the criticism of Harris. Of course, the right hasn't made much of this particular criticism of her, since their base doesn't care about facts and wouldn't consider it a bad thing if a candidate were "weak on facts". Calling Harris an unnatural woman for being too angry is more their style, but Somerby doesn't believe in racism or sexism, so he emphasizes this attack on Harris's factual acumen by giving it pride of place in his own essay.
He did this sort of thing many times, inventing a reason to chastise the press while repeating verbatim lengthy criticisms and attacks on Hillary Clinton. This is like saying to someone "I guess you don't want anyone to know that you were accused of abusing your dog," but I want you to know that I consider that an underhanded attack. Yes, the person is nominally complaining about the attack, but also spreading a filthy untruth that the person would no doubt wish to have kept quiet. Somerby never misses an opportunity to pile on a conservative attack on a female candidate, as he did to Harris during the debates as well.
His protestations against the press are no doubt sufficient cover to appease deadrat, but I believe his larger purpose is to spread the criticisms themselves, not to reform the press. His choice of press behavior to focus upon makes that pretty clear to me, if not to Somerby's fellow travelers.
"to replace Bush as the worst president ever"
ReplyDeleteThe ghost of Ronald Reagan would like you to hold his beer.
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