WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2023
Friend, did you have to ask?: We just watched the opening segment of today's Deadline: White House.
In a bit of a switch, Nicolle Wallace was soon introducing a panel made of "some of our favorite experts and friends."
We'd never heard that formulation before. She worked in one "lucky for us."
At any rate, Wallace flashed the head shot of Stormy Daniels right in the program's first minute. Soon, she was calling out to the ages:
Oh please please please please please please! Oh please, send Trump off to jail!
Nothing else matters on that show. That is its only real topic.
What won't you hear about on this show? You can be sure that you won't be asked to hear about people like these:
GRAHAM (11/2/22): [Mary] Wainwright is the kind of person you’d want as a neighbor: She’s quick with a joke, blunt and no-nonsense, and ready to help out. When the coronavirus pandemic struck, she canvassed the neighborhood handing out masks. When vaccines first became available, she knew that many of her neighbors didn’t have computers or internet access to make appointments, so she convinced officials to set up a pop-up clinic at her church. The line stretched around the block.
Even so, you might not want to live near her in Smokey City these days. Crime and violent-crime rates in the area and its next-door neighbor Klondike are routinely two to three times as high as in Memphis overall, according to statistics gathered by Whole Child Strategies, a nonprofit that works in the neighborhood. The homicide rate is four to five times as high.
When Wainwright got a new car not long ago, her son begged her to get something other than the Infinitis she’s long preferred—drug dealers like them too much and she might get carjacked, he warned. Wainwright has seen two people killed on her street. “One was laying up under my car. The other one, he got shot, ran around the church,” she recalls.
Wainwright’s sister, who lives nearby in the house they grew up in, is paralyzed on one side, but she doesn’t want to leave the neighborhood where she’s always lived, and her disability checks won’t cover much else anyway. “She spends 40 percent of her time on the floor, because of guns, shooting, just every day. During daylight hours,” Wainwright says. “That’s how bad it is in the neighborhood. You know, it is what it is. We live from day to day, and we pray at night, pray all day, pray in the morning when we get up, that we can survive the neighborhood.”
For background on this tedious matter, see this morning's report.
You won't be hearing about people like that on this popular "cable news" show. Such people don't count in our own blue lagoon. Ain't life in our blue bayou grand?
Well, you won't be hearing about Wainwright on the right wing shows either. So Mrs. Wainwright is out of luck. But I am very happy to hear that Trump will soon be in jail.
ReplyDeleteI think that is Somerby's point, that no one talks about people like her and the issues in her community (or others like it). I think Somerby focuses on the blue side because it is the blue tribe (Somerby's construction not mine) that oftentimes says they are concerned about race and issues facing black americans. The storyline goes that the red tribe could care less, so one wouldn't expect them to focus on her and her plight...again, I am not saying this is correct or not correct, just my take on bob's essays.
DeleteMeanwhile, Somerby has still said nothing about Biden's address yesterday -- that is the real news for today, but crickets from Somerby.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you want him to say. This blog is really about media criticism and not a news outlet.
DeleteOdd that Somerby is talking about blue lagoon today. The 1980 film featured a 14 year old Brooke Shields who has sex with a then-18 year old Chris Atkins in the film. Shields is now calling that child abuse given her age at the time and her inability to give consent to anything that happened. I might think Somerby was baiting his readers, except he is not that self-aware.
ReplyDeleteShields didn't have sex with him (maybe outside the movie they did).
DeleteShe was nude, both on and off set.
DeleteYou don't have to have actual sex -- being in nude scenes (as she was) and engaging in other sexual behaviors with an 18-year old, is child abuse too. That's why Roy Moore was in trouble for rolling around in his underwear with a 14-year old. Brooke Shields is claiming that she was abused because she wasn't able to say no to anything asked of her by the director.
DeleteHere is the plot: "Seven-year-old cousins Emmeline (Elva Josephson) and Richard (Glenn Kohan) survive a shipwreck and find themselves marooned on a beautiful island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Under the tutelage of a fellow castaway, Paddy Button (Leo McKern), the two learn the basics of survival. When Paddy dies, however, the now adolescent Emmeline (Brooke Shields) and Richard (Christopher Atkins) are on their own to discover sex, love and loneliness in a tropical paradise."
ReplyDeleteAh, Nicolle Wallace, the typhoid Mary of disinformation...
Well, if not dear Bob, who would be watching dembot shows on teevee? No one of course.
...did she mention that l'affaire de Stormy is more horrible than the Civil War?..
Somerby is taunting us when he asks "Who won't viewers be hearing about?" Somerby has no intention of discussing Biden's excellent job, because Somerby's main interest is promoting Republican memes. No one on the right will be giving the president his due, even though he is their president too. So, this is Somerby's way of thumbing his nose at liberals.
ReplyDeleteYou have to give Somerby credit -- he is more subtle in his disrespect than Marjorie Taylor Greene.
This is a blog that critiques media not a hard news outlet...I wouldn't expect bob to report on the state of the union, unless he was discussing media coverage of the speech.
DeleteLOL.
DeleteTDH is a blog that repeats the Right-wing grievance of the day, and certainly not a media criticism blog.
I cannot find a streaming version of Wallace's 2/8/23 show in order to see whether she talks about anything besides Trump. Since I doubt that topic would fill an entire show, I assume Somerby is lying (or exaggerating, as the Republicans call it). Tomorrow, the episode will be up on the MSNBC website so I can check then. Fact-checking Somerby is important, given how often he disappears pertinent information from his readers here.
ReplyDeleteOdd that Somerby quotes both Wallace and Graham but the only link provided to a source is back to his own essay this morning. I would call that a true "link to nowhere" of the type that Somerby used to complain about.
ReplyDeleteHere is an example of institutional racism:
ReplyDelete"“The Mississippi House has approved the creation of a new court system in which judges and prosecutors would be appointed by state officials — who all happen to be white — for the capital of Jackson, which has the second-highest percentage of Black residents among U.S. cities,” CNBC reports.
“Local residents elect judges and prosecutors in every other county court system in the state.”
Trump made MSNBC a ton of money over the years by playing the bad guy. He practically saved the network. So of course they are going continue to go to milk that for as long as they can. Their viewers love it and want nothing else.
ReplyDeleteI find it odd that Wallace wouldn't have talked about Biden's speech on her show. I doubt Somerby is telling the truth about that, if he really means that she talked about nothing but Trump. Everyone who is not a Republican has been enjoying watching Biden make a fool out of MTG and the others heckling him. If MSNBC is only in it for the ratings, why wouldn't Wallace have shown that a few times? It is ratings gold too.
Delete5:27: Of course it isn’t Trump all the time on MSNBC. That’s just all Somerby wants to discuss. You know, how Trump is deranged, nuts, sociopathic, ad infinitum.
DeleteDo I understand you to say that you think Trump is playing a role? Unless you mean Trump on NBC, which is not QUITE the same thing. Of course, Wallace did talk about Biden's speech, Bob is still trying to come up with some spin to excuse the way Republicans acted or he will just not mention it.
DeleteSteve M at No More Mister Nice Blog discusses this today:
Delete"Back in the 1980s, I did stand-up for a while. I was terrible, but I learned to respect the craft. You want to tell great jokes, but hecklers make it impossible for you to do the work you're trying to do -- until you learn how to handle them. You can't expect the heckling to stop on its own -- the fever won't break. You will be heckled. You need to be ready.
Biden took on the bullies. That's good. In the manistream media, I'm sure there'll be a great deal of sighing about lost dignity. But it needed to be done."
Personally (not speaking for other commenters), I think Trump is always playing to an audience. That is part of being a narcissist. That role definitely appeals to his supporters. Trump MAGA Extremists enjoy Trump bullying others the way Democrats enjoyed Biden's push back in his speech yesterday. No one likes to feel weak, or see their leader be pushed around by the likes of MTG. Bullies make up for their low self-esteem by pushing others around on a regular basis. Biden is not a bully or a narcissist, but he understands that you need to push back when disrespected, when dignity demands it, or else voters will not regard you as a stong leader.
Trump has been for 7 years MSNBC's golden goose. They get viewers and ratings by portraying him as the bad guy in a drama where Democrats are all heroes, great and moral (a gargantuan falsehood) and Republicans are all bad guys, corrupt and criminal (pretty much true). Trump plays that role so well that it saved all of the hosts jobs to have a lightning rod like him there to help them tell their simple story to their enraptured viewers. It was really really really great for business. And they all made a lot of money. There's no way they're going to stop. Basically, Trump is their entire business. Once he's gone, the viewers will be gone and the enterprise will collapse. The viewers just want a good show. And you have to have a good villain. A Darth Vader. But it's just a show. It has really nothing to do with the real world.
DeleteThe main problem with this theory is that Trump is gone and the viewers are still watching.
DeleteThat's why the Trump news comes before any news about Biden's Union address. You need a bad guy to make the viewers feel threatened. To give the story a problem that has to be overcome. This is not the real world. This is a show. This is storytelling. You don't tell a story about how great the good guys are. No one cares. The only care when the good guy or the damsel is threatened by an evil villain.
DeleteThe radio show very clearly when Trump left office their ratings completely tanked. There's no debate about it.
DeleteRatings
DeleteWhen Trump left, the viewers left with him. No more Mr bad Guy. That's why they trot him out with stormy daniels. It's all they have. It's their whole business.
DeleteThe ratings fell over 50%. Trump was the whole show. That's why they lead with it now. There's no mystery to it. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Except if you think what you see there is real, based on the real world
Deletehttps://www.ft.com/content/85241de6-981c-433a-9ab8-6518021d011a
Lowest rated year in their history, last year. No more Trump is working for Russia spy novel fantasy show.
Delete"In the key demo, Fox News finished first with 346,000 viewers (down 7%), followed by CNN (174,000 viewers, down 36%) and MSNBC (133,000 viewers, down 39%). Fox News’ victory marks the network’s seventh consecutive year as the most-watched network in cable television, while CNN and MSNBC both had their lowest-rated years in history."
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Delete7:51: But we were told by this blog (and by you) that it’s Trump all the time at MSNBC, and their ratings fell? There seems to be a contradiction there somewhere.
DeleteAlso, despite Fox “News” being most watched, it didn’t end up helping the Republicans too much last year.
I don't understand your point mh.
DeleteApparently not.
DeleteRight now on MSNBC's website, they list their top 11 news stories. Six of them are political stories, three of those feature pictures of Trump.
DeleteTrump is their star.
And yet, 8:31, their ratings are down. How is their supposed obsession with Trump helping them? Bob assures us that that is all they report on, including, presumably, last year, when their ratings plummeted, according to you. The viewers that Somerby holds in such contempt don’t seem to be responding to the Trump coverage, despite the original poster claiming it’s what MSNBC viewers love and want “nothing else”, and another anon said they cover Trump for the “ratings.” Then the other anon comes by to tell us their ratings were DOWN.
DeleteThe Trump story is all they have. The ratings are down because all the meat is picked off the bone. They still serve up as much Trump as they can, it's all they have and all they know. But they lost half of their viewers because the story itself has lost its ability it frighten viewers because Trump is no longer president, etc. The big money and ratings come when he is a real threat.
DeleteThe remaining viewers are addicted dead enders, some of whom don't even realize they are watching a show.
It will be a totally different network in 4 years if it is a network at all.
Correction: The big money and ratings come when Trump is a capable of being portrayed as a real threat.
DeleteHe can't when he's not president. Half the viewers left when his presidency ended. The rest are addicted dead enders. Now it's just waiting for the shakeout or, as they will privately lobby for and pray for, another Trump term in 2024.
Trump made them all rich. He was their golden goose.
Living in a world where the man running your country, the President of the United States, is being controlled by the Russian government is really, really scary. Thats why they have made movies with plots similar to that and that's why MSNBC perpetrated that ridiculous, Hollywood-born-and-bred, wag-the-dog, scary story to their unwitting viewers.
DeleteThat particular story has long since spectacularly fallen apart and Trump has left the building, so that's why they lost half of their viewers and continue to do poorly. But this has not stopped them from playing up as much Trump as they can as Bob has accurately pointed out. It's all they know.
Meh. The corporate-owned, Right-wing media (AKA the media) reports on whatever the Republican Party tells them to. That didn't change when Trump came on the scene.
DeleteCorrect. Russiagate came from the media (not liberals), who were looking for any excuse but the naked bigotry of Republican voters, as the reason Trump won the 2016 election.
DeleteTDH: Who won't viewers be hearing about?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who helps viewers see the rigged system that corporate mass media helped to build.
TDH: Oh please please please please please please! Oh please, send Trump off to jail! Nothing else matters on that show. That is its only real topic.
Our corporate-dominated mass media has a duty to stoke fervor for the two-party system that has served corporate power and dominance so well for so long. They fund NBC and others for the Dems, and for the GOP they fund right-wing ranters on thousands of radio stations, and Fox news. After all these years how Bob can you still not know this?
"You won't be hearing about people like that on this popular "cable news" show."
No, you won't hear much about the poor or the struggling middle class on billionaire-owned mass media. The fox will not help the henhouse. They helped create the rigged system that funnels nearly all the wealth to themselves and keeps the rest starving. Again I ask, after all these years how Bob can you still not know this?
Hence the cries of "inflation!" from the corporate-owned media, when Biden delivered the lowest unemployment rate in almost 6 decades.
DeleteThe media made the argument for the Fed to raise interest rates due to inflation, when the real reason the Fed raised interest rates is because workers had more leverage than the business owners.
Summary of Somerby's post: one broken record complaining about another.
ReplyDelete[Verse 2: Ladybug & Butterfly]
ReplyDeleteWe be the chocolates taps on my raps
She innovates at the sweeter cat naps
He at the funk club with the vibrate
Them, they be crazy down with the five Nat'
It can kick a plan then a crowd burst
Me, I be digging it with the Bug verse
Us, we be freaking 'til dawn blinks an eye
He gives the strangest smile, so I say, "Hi" (What's up?)
Who understood? Yeah, understood the plans
Him, heard a beat and put it to his hands
What I just flip, let borders get loose
How to consume all the beats just like juice
If it's the shit, we'll lift it off the plastic
The babes'll go spastic, hip-hop gains a classic
Pimp playing shock, it don't matter, I'm fatter
Ask Butter how I zone (Man, Cleopatra Jones)