SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2023
Comfort from "dear, dear friends:" Given a second bite of the apple, the late Roger Ailes caught on.
At MSNBC, it took a great deal longer. Believe it nor not, the channel started like this:
MSNBC was launched on July 15, 1996. The first show was anchored by Jodi Applegate and included news, interviews, and commentary. During the day, rolling news coverage continued with The Contributors, a show that featured Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, as well as interactive programming coordinated by Applegate, John Gibson, and John Seigenthaler.
MSNBC gradually increased its emphasis on politics. After completing its seven-year survey of cable channels, the Project for Excellence in Journalism said in 2007 that "MSNBC is moving to make politics a brand, with a large dose of opinion and personality."
In January 2001, Mike Barnicle's MSNBC show started, but it was canceled in June 2001 because of high production costs. In June, Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer said that he would not have started MSNBC had he foreseen the difficulty of attracting viewers.
[...]
In the aftermath of September 11, MSNBC began calling itself "America's NewsChannel" and hired opinionated hosts like Alan Keyes, Phil Donahue, Pat Buchanan, and Tucker Carlson. This branding makeover, however, was followed by declining ratings.
Indeed, the channel had started "under a partnership between Microsoft and General Electric's NBC unit." At that time, General Electric was being run by CEO Jack Welch, the conservative near-billionaire.
Presumably, Welch's political orientation helps explain the way the channel conducted its years of war against Clinton, Clinton and Gore—years of war our blue tribe's journalistic and academic friends have never agreed to discuss. At any rate:
As you can see from that early lineup of personalities, MSNBC wasn't designed, at its inception, to supply liberal viewers with a reliable cadre of imaginary TV friends.
The channel wandered in the desert for several decades. Today, though, it relies on the presence of an imaginary friendship cadre as no TV channel has done since the day when The Mickey Mouse Club finally went off the air.
Under current branding arrangements, the channel's hosts all agree to pretend that they and the channel's many contributors are a group of close personal friends.
We first mentioned this drift years ago, with respect to certain types of silly programming on The Rachel Maddow Show. That said, it was Nicole Wallace who memorialized this childish behavioral construct with the standard introduction she employs on her highly popular weekday afternoon program.
Here she is, at the start of yesterday's two-hour program:
WALLACE (9/1/23): What has become totally normal for Donald Trump and his closest allies under increasing legal scrutiny is where we begin today with some of our favorite reporters and friends...
Wallace went on to introduce the trio of favorites and/or friends who constituted her first panel. On this occasion, she didn't employ the gruesome "Lucky for us" tagline, in which we viewer are assured that we're amazingly lucky to have such luminaries under contract as our official friends.
The claim that everyone is each other's friend, "dear friend," or "dear, dear friend" is now a standard part of MSNBC branding. In such ways, the channel's massively overpaid corporate employees talk down to the channel's remarkably tolerant viewers—and we viewers have shown our gratitude by tuning in in record numbers to visit each day with our friends.
The Michel Mouse Club began each show with a roll call of our (9-year-old) friends. The Fox News Channel adopted that format as of February 1998.
Unlucky for us, MSNBC eventually followed suit.
You'd almost think that the childishness of this friendship branding would speak for itself. Given the way we liberals have traditionally described ourselves, you'd almost think that we'd be turned off by being condescended to in such transparently fraudulent ways.
Reality has turned out to be different! According to experts, at times of significant turmoil, we humans are hard-wired to seek the comforts of the tribe. We seek the reassurances of friends—of friends who say the things we want to hear and tell us nothing else.
On MSNBC, the friends have agreed to discuss one topic:
Trump Trump Trump Trump Jail
The friends discuss that topic and virtually nothing else. The dumbness of this selective behavior rivals the comedic awfulness put on daily display by the friends at the Fox News Channel, starting at 5 a.m. every weekday morning.
According to major anthropologists, we humans are built to seek epistemic comfort and reassurance at turbulent times such as these. During Donald J. Trump's first year in the White House, the late Janet Malcolm unwittingly described this psychic tie in a lengthy profile of the Maddow Show in the New Yorker.
Malcolm had a long career as a very major journalist and author. In the passage show below, she described the way she herself had bonded with Maddow's "performance of the Rachel figure" during this very bad time for our tribe:
MALCOLM (10/2/17): Maddow is widely praised for the atmosphere of cheerful civility and accessible braininess that surrounds her stage persona. She is onstage, certainly, and makes no bones about being so. She regularly reminds us of the singularity of her show (“You will hear this nowhere else”; “Very important interview coming up, stay with us”; “Big show coming up tonight”). Like a carnival barker, she leads us on with tantalizing hints about what is inside the tent.
As I write this, I think of something that subliminally puzzles me as I watch the show. Why do I stay and dumbly watch the commercials instead of getting up to finish washing the dishes? By now, I know every one of the commercials as well as I know the national anthem: the Cialis ad with curtains blowing as the lovers phonily embrace, the ad with the guy who has opioid-induced . . . constipation (I love the delicacy-induced pause), the ad for Liberty Mutual Insurance in which the woman jeers at the coverage offered by a rival company: “What are you supposed to do, drive three-quarters of a car?” I sit there mesmerized because Maddow has already mesmerized me. Her performance and those of the actors in the commercials merge into one delicious experience of TV. “The Rachel Maddow Show” is a piece of sleight of hand presented as a cable news show. It is TV entertainment at its finest. It permits liberals to enjoy themselves during what may be the most thoroughly unenjoyable time of their political lives.
It may sound like this passage was part of a criticism of Maddow's mesmerizing performance.
In truth, the profile was anything but. Donald J. Trump was now in the White Houe, and Malcolm seemed to be deeply grateful for the delicious comfort food she received each evening from this TV friend.
As it turns out, we liberals enjoy being talked down to every but as much at the less intelligent Others who tune in to Fox.
We may not realize how many topics are going undiscussed as our imaginary TV friends stick to the one topic we love:
Trump Trump Trump Trump Jail.
We may not realize how shaky the reassurances are as we keep getting told that Robert Mueller (or Jack Smith; or Fani Willie) is only moments away from frog-marching Trump off to jail. As we continue to tune in, we seem to want that bedtime story and we display no signs of wanting anything else.
Public schools? Health care costs? Procedures at the border? There's no sign that we want to know about such topics. We want Trump-in-jail and little else.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but a nation can't survive this way. To appearances, the corporate owners of MSNBC aren't about to try something different.
Presumably, Rashida Jones is a very capable person. She succeeded Phil Griffin as head of the channel in February 2021. Right at the end of a profile in the Washington Post, she revealed her basic interest:
BARR (5/24/21): MSNBC still commands an unusual devotion from its fans. During the first three months of 2021, committed MSNBC viewers watched the network for an average of 433 minutes per week, compared to 325 minutes for comparable Fox viewers and 291 minutes for CNN viewers, according to Nielsen data.
“We have audiences that will sit there and watch for hours and hours and hours,” Jones said. “So, how do we get more people into that camp?”
Not that there's anything wrong with it! But we sit and watch for hours and hours and hours. Lucky for us, we get to feel safe among our cadre of imaginary dear, dear friends.
We ignore the topics flogged by the imaginary friends on Fox. But some of those topics are real.
"Segregation now," George Wallace once said. This is a pseudo-journalistic version of that destructive instinct.
And next time you watch MSNBC concentrate on how many people they introduce that are ex members of the CIA or FBI or Homeland security etc.
ReplyDeleteOr argued cases before the Supreme Court.
DeleteMSNBC is really just a communication outlet of the FBI and CIA. Notice all the spooks on next time you watch it.
DeleteBoo!
DeleteHunter made millions.
ReplyDeleteJared made Billions, and we were paying him.
DeleteHunter made about $4.5 million, this was during the time after Joe Biden was VP and before he was POTUS.
DeleteHunter, a lawyer, was paid by Chinese and Ukrainian businesses for consulting work.
For the ignorant, getting paid for work has been a basic concept of society for hundreds of years.
Republicans wanted to make hay from this circumstance and investigated Hunter for years, spending millions, however, they failed to find anything illegal or even corrupt.
This is in stark contrast to the Trump Crime Family, who routinely engage in illegality and corruption, enabling them to skim and scam billions off American taxpayers, leveraged corruption with foreign entities, and from alliances with our enemies.
The Hunter issue is a loss for Republicans because Americans can relate to Hunter and the loving relationship between the POTUS and his son.
Again, this is in stark contrast to the Trump Crime Family, where, for example, Donald recently threw his own son under the bus during deposition questioning for an upcoming trial. Trump has said that his sons are idiots, and has often remarked on his daughter’s appearance in a sexual manner, even expressing sexual attraction for his own daughter. This is unsurprising considering his own abusive childhood, which has resulted in attempts of sexual assault with over 20 women, including raping his own wife, and even a minor.
Trump doesn’t just need to go to prison for his illegality, he needs help from mental health professionals as he is a deeply wounded and dark soul, which is, in part, why right wingers find themselves relating with him.
Popadopoulos testified that Hunter knew that Joe knew.
DeleteKnew about Obama being a gay coke head?
DeleteSure, sure.
It’s weird how right wingers aren’t creeped out that Trump wants to fuck his own daughter, and in lieu of that, sexually assaulted a bunch of women, and even an underage girl.
DeleteAlso weird that they aren't creeped out by those toddler beauty pageants, in which they dress in adult female drag and are majorly sexualized at very young ages, with the urging of their parents. There is nothing innocent about that -- it is what actual pedophiles get off on.
DeleteI agree with you to a certain extent. However, it will be difficult to deal with these other issues while Trump and his followers, as a result of their actions, control the news agenda. Until Trump is crushed in the next election, and is found guilty of crimes and marched off to jail, it will be hard to deal with these other issues, thanks to the ignorance of his supporters.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, there's this other guy:
Delete"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rejected $350 million in federal funds meant to help tackle climate change—just months before Hurricane Idalia flooded his state." https://trib.al/taT4ZKD
Bob's story of Fox (some of those stories are true, which ones Bob?) would seem to be leading to the terrible story of them have to pay out three quarters of a billion dollars (possibly much more to come) for trying to con America about Trumps empty claims. Surprise, it's all about the cruel treatment of Trump at the hands of MSNBC. Notice Bob stops before naming Wallace's panel, it's because they are all informed and experienced people who actually know what they are talking about, unlike Bob.
ReplyDeleteAmericans like Ruby Freeman and Shane Moss mean nothing to Bob. They are black women, there to be used and pushed around. The shadow of their abuse besmirches Bob's beloved confederacy. His lizard brain long ago forgot how to argue honestly and with dignity.
CNN and MSNBC are media corporations pushing a corporate, neoliberal agenda, just like Fox News.
ReplyDeleteA major difference being, CNN and MSNBC play it straight while Fox News actively cons their viewers for corporate profit.
This is demonstrated by studies that show that Fox News viewers are less knowledgeable, and that when they switched to CNN for a month, they actually gained knowledge.
There is no study or evidence that indicates CNN or MSNBC has a significant electoral impact, or that their viewers watch in a childlike stupor, as suggested by today’s remarkably ignorant blog post.
Viewers of FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC are more knowledgeable than average. The average person doesn't follow the news at all.
DeleteViewers of Fox News are less informed than viewers of CNN or MSNBC. Those Fox News viewers should more properly be lumped with those who do not follow the news, because they are not getting any news on Fox and thus cannot be considered to be watching a news network.
DeleteWhat motivates bullies? Has @2:16 extensively watched Fox News in order to form her/his harshly critical judgment? So, why does his commenter take the trouble to attack Fox News. We see this sort of behavior aimed at any prominent person or institution on the other side. Conservatives and liberals both do it.
DeleteI guess this is a part of tribalism. One aspect of tribalism is to support one's own tribe. Another aspect, which we're seeing here, is to attack the other tribe. This means that someone can make an outrageously false criticism, and then that false criticism will be repeated and amplified by a large group of bullies.
Some opinion leaders are paid to write columns that bully. I can understand that. But, many people, like @2:16 do the bullying for free. Evidently they get pleasure of it.
CNN and MSNBC viewers are more knowledgeable than Fox News viewers.
DeleteTribalism is, in part, how we overcame right wing chattel slavery and right wing fascism. It will play a role in how we will overcome right wing wage slavery.
Somerby and his fanboys have fundamental misunderstandings about human behavior, leading to embarrassingly ignorant claims, and weirdly conflating edification with bullying - that’s called cognitive dissonance.
It has not been confirmed whether or not Hunter's business associates emailed Joe over 1000 times while he was vp using Joe's 3 hidden pseudonym accounts.
DeleteI believe that is still just speculation at this point.
Yes, it has been confirmed that such a thing did not happen.
DeleteA major reason why the Hunter story does not get any traction is because what Americans get from the story is a dad providing loving support for his son as they both deal with the tragedy of his other son dying.
DeleteThe Bidens come off looking caring and humane.
The trolls are confounded that they keep trying but keep failing to attack Biden because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature.
A real crock of sh*t, @3:09. The commenter is bullying Fox? Bullying?
DeleteThe fainting couch is over there ----->.
Hunter's crimes have very very little to do with his father.
DeleteUnlike the Trump family's industrial-strength embezzlement while he was in office.
DeleteRe:2:06. DIC as usual purports to be a fact based commenter, with no evidence presented that would support that claim. Au contraire indeed. There have been multiple studies of Fox viewers and and their knowledge of current events, not enough to my liking, but enough to state that there is no evidence that Fox viewers are more well informed than those who view no news media. A 2012 study out of Farleigh Dickenson University concluded that Fox viewers were the least well informed among those watching specific cable networks, and including those that watched none, and this included CNN and the Comedy Channel. Pew research data showed that in March of 2020 38% of Fox viewers compared with 72% of CNN viewers were concerned about the COVID pandemic and study of content revealed that Fox was far more likely to dole out misinformation about the virus than other cable outlets. A 2016 study in which Fox viewers were paid $15 per hour to watch CNN concluded that compared to the control non crossover Fox group, these viewers became more skeptical regarding misinformation about the election results and COVID, the effect beginning on day 3 . No doubt some of these differences are the result of Fox viewers having lower educational levels than those of other outlets, and being predominantly elderly white males with more than their share of inbred biases and agendas, but the latter study suggests that Fox viewers have the capacity to learn that a media outlet that has paid out over 700 million dollars for its election lies is untrustworthy. Not holding my breath regarding DIC who doesn't even bother to fact check his comments.
DeleteAnd nobody is bullying you here, DIC, we're just not tolerating your ill informed fact-less musings.
DeleteCiti Bike Karen lied and was factually guilty of attempting to bully a Black teen off a bicycle.
ReplyDeleteThe young man successfully bullied Karen off the bicycle. Then, having incurred no expenses, he opened a gofundme account to profit from his bad behavior.
DeleteThe person who keeps bringing up Citibike Karen is just trolling. You don't have to take the bait.
DeleteI'm trying top build solidarity for Karen. Am I really the only one that cares?
DeleteHere is a more balanced account of what happened.
Deletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/citi-bike-sarah-jane-comrie-teenager-new-york-b2347070.html
Karen likewise incurred no expenses, she unnecessarily hired a lawyer on her own volition. She also makes over $100k/year. The teen and his family, who are indigent, received death threats, they may have to move.
DeleteThe Black teen was holding onto the bike, about to re-rent it so as to avoid the higher tier rental rate (his family are poor immigrants) when Citi Bike Karen came along and tried to bully him off, trying to pry his hand off the handlebars, snatching his phone away, crying crocodile tears, yelling for help and falsely exclaiming he was touching her (he was not), trying to mislead others that she was the victim when in fact she was the aggressor.
Instead what happened was a White passerby stopped and suggested she just rent another bike, there were several available, which is what the Black teens had also been suggesting, at which point the tears disappeared and she promptly did that, rented another bike and went home.
Later she hired a lawyer to put out a false narrative, supposedly conning fools like “imp”, claiming she had rented the bike (while struggling to take the bike from the teen, she swiped the QR code, but the teen easily re-docked the bike.), when in fact this was the bike the Black teen had been renting all day, taking breaks every 45min to avoid the higher rate.
This Karen is a grown and educated woman, she was well aware of the racially charged environment of our country, particularly between White women and Black males, and even locally in NYC, where just a few weeks prior a White ex Marine choked to death an un housed Black man in the subway for being too loud while having a mental health moment (no doubt “imp” will want to push a false narrative on this case as well).
To be so willfully ignorant of the circumstances is to strongly suggest you are a racist. I have no qualms calling out fuckwad racists like “imp”.
I don’t say this lightly, I’m not inclined towards insults, but sometimes you have to stand up to bullies and racists; Imp you are a disgrace and a piece of shit.
What I read was that the woman claimed to have already rented that particular bike. My source said that she had a receipt that proved her contention.
DeleteDavid, read the comment, or a fact-based article - your source is wrong, or you misinterpreted, or you’re willfully misleading; the kid had been renting that exact same bicycle for hours, re-renting it every 45min to avoid the higher tier rate, he was literally holding the bicycle when the woman approached him and tried to grab it from him and in the course of trying to bully him off the bike, she swiped the QR code, renting it momentarily while she struggled to grab it from the kid, but the kid was able to easily re-dock the bike since he was already holding onto it, ending her temporarily renting it.
DeleteHer receipt actually disproved her claims, and then, as it turns out, the kid had receipts himself that showed he had been renting that exact bicycle all day, thus exposing her fraud.
https://newsone.com/4592993/sarah-jane-comrie-update-citi-bike-teens-mother-speaks-out/?_gl=1*1l15m3w*_ga*a1RoRG1GRmZzbHFQakUtb1hJX2lEbVoxYmUwNzA5Q2dsXzkxOFkzTHRDYW9rU0JpQUtwRGhjYlhzT1RocEcyeQ
As is usual, Fox promoted a false story about this encounter. The performative aspect of this encounter by the Karen is pretty obvious in and of itself.
DeleteHe was off the bike, standing next to it. (She couldn't possibly get on the bike if he's already on it!)
DeleteHe was trying to maintain control of the bike while not paying for it. He'd ride for a while, then dock it, then ride again. While it was docked and he wasn't paying, he prevented other customers from renting it.
It was docked, so Karen took it. He shoved it back into the dock with her on it. He was wrong, she was right.
He and his friends posted a video to publicize the incident.
Her employer publicly condemned her and put her on leave. Having a reasonable fear of losing her job, she hired a lawyer and started a gofundme.
Being in no legal jeopardy, having incurred no expenses, the young man nevertheless started a gofundme of his own. So he profits from his misdeed.
Maybe Karen has been reinstated in her job, I don't know. But if she has, it's a result of her lawyer's work, which was possible because of her gofundme.
Karen did not lose her job, and her lawyer played no role in that, his role was to push a false narrative; she earns a high income and did not need crowd funding, it was just profiteering off of racism. The kid comes from a poor immigrant family, that has been under attack with death threats.
DeleteThe kid was holding the bicycle, he only docked it momentarily so as to avoid the higher rate, this is a well known and common practice among Citi Bike users.
Karen did not “took it”, she struggled to grab it from him, trying to pry his hands off the handlebars and snatching his phone away.
This is a grown woman trying to take a bicycle from a kid. Worse she feigned victimhood in a racially charged environment that could have easily led to the kid getting hurt. Her actions were repugnant and dangerous.
She was wrong, and he was right, and without the fog of racism, this is plain to see.
That young man was maintaining control of the bike while not paying for it. Karen needed it and was willing to pay for it.
DeleteThe kid was holding onto the bicycle because he was resetting the rental to avoid the higher rate, which is commonly done, he had been doing it with that exact bicycle for hours. The kid needed the bicycle to get home, as he could not afford other modes of transportation. His family are immigrants, legally indigent.
DeleteKaren makes over $100k per year, she could have taken the subway, got a taxi, Uber, etc. There were other bicycles available to rent, she lost her cool and tried to bully the kid off the bicycle he had been renting for hours, was holding onto, and was about to re-rent. Ultimately her bullying was unsuccessful, and when a White guy passed by and said “just rent a different bicycle” she dropped the pretense and rented a different bicycle and went home. But she was still steamed, how dare a Black kid not bow down to her higher position in society, HOW DARE HE. So she cooked up this fraudulent scheme with a lawyer, blaming the victim, in order to profit, and putting the kid in jeopardy of racial violence. Karen is a repugnant, morally corrupt person, and so are her defenders.
The right wing Supreme Court Justices, such as Alito and Thomas, work at the behest of their billionaire benefactors, like Harlan Crow.
ReplyDeleteI find Rachel Maddow charming, even though I totally disagree with her.
ReplyDeleteChris Hedges and Norman Finkelstein look at identity politics and cancel culture -- from the left:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnCf18IRvFk
From the horseshoe-theory left.
DeleteFor hundreds of years the Right has been using identity politics, because it is highly effective, and now the Left is perceived to have awoken to its usefulness and the Right are whining like little crybabies.
DeleteIn reality, the Left has been using identity politics for decades, but was overshadowed by the neoliberal wing of the Dems for the last 40 years.
The Right would not have to deal with identity politics if they would stop oppressing people; however, as long as right wing oppression continues, identity politics will continue to be highly effective at combating right wing oppression and motivating both electorally and for progress.
Like everything, political affiliations are on a spectrum. Hedges and Finkelstein are “old school” class reductionists that have not bothered to keep up with fields of study like psychology, anthropology, and sociology, and thus are stuck with outdated ideology.
This unfortunately allows racists like 1:44 to take advantage that the Left has a relatively broad coalition, to attempt to insert a wedge that furthers their own right wing agenda.
Fortunately, Hedges and Finkelstein are not influential among the Left, so this attempt is ineffectual.
"Presumably, Welch's political orientation helps explain the way the channel conducted its years of war against Clinton, Clinton and Gore—years of war our blue tribe's journalistic and academic friends have never agreed to discuss."
ReplyDeleteSomerby continues to insist that it is the job of the press to critique what is said on other networks, but that is what the press does. It sees its job as reporting on news but journalists don't make news, even when they say ridiculous things and even when they are propagandists masquerading as journalists.
It is hardly surprising that right wingers would say mean and inaccurate things about Democratic politicians. People may have forgotten that MSNBC used to be conservative, so it is useful for Somerby to remind us. But Somerby has spent no time criticizing Fox since he became a conservative here. He mostly only mentions Fox to tell his readers that they hear things liberals don't, and to urge liberals to watch Fox, while ignoring their blatant demagoguery, spreading of disinformation and lies. MSNBC on its worst day in the before-times wasn't as bad as Fox has been routinely since its inception. It exists solely to advance conservative interests.
"Today, though, it relies on the presence of an imaginary friendship cadre as no TV channel has done since the day when The Mickey Mouse Club finally went off the air."
ReplyDeleteOr Fox and Friends or the Today Show or Good Morning America, or any number of similar shows.
The Mickey Mouse Show was not like any of these shows. It introduced the Mouseketeers who then provided continuity around separately produced serials, such as Spin & Marty, the Hardy Boys, the Boys of the Western Sea, Corky & White Shadow, etc., and Disney cartoons and live segments, such as Roy Disney drawing at an easel. It was innocent entertainment for children.
Somerby's continual references to that show is intended only to demean the adults who show civility on talk shows. I consider civility a huge improvement over the rude talk-over shouting on political talks shows, such as the old Joe Pine (emulated by Rush and Tucker). The verbal disorder on Fox is simulated combat, a kind of violence that right wing viewers seem to be hungry for. The left may seem phony in its friendliness but I think that is only in contrast to the extreme rudeness of the right.
Somerby should grapple with the attraction to violence on the right, instead of comparing MSNBC to a kiddie show. Kids loved the Mickey Mouse show. If MSNBC had truly emulated it, it might have been a lot more successful.
Or maybe it just gripes Somerby that folks on MSNBC seem to have friends. Not everyone does.
That was Roy Williams. Roy Disney was Walt Disney's elder brother and partner.
DeleteYou're right, thanks for the correction.
Delete"Not that there's anything wrong with it! But we sit and watch for hours and hours and hours. Lucky for us, we get to feel safe among our cadre of imaginary dear, dear friends."
ReplyDeleteDepending on the time of day, many people who have the shown on are not actively watching it. It is background noise while they engage in other activities around the house.
At my house, we only turned on the TV in order to sit down and watch some anticipated show. That is called appointment viewing. When I got married, I discovered that my in-laws had the TV on all the time, including when no one at all was watching it. It was a background noise to everything else going on in the kitchen. I found it distracting and it drove me crazy to be trying to talk to someone with that competiting for attention. But the others didn't even notice it. I am the same way with music -- I either listen to it (paying attention) or turn it off.
I suspect that other families may divide up along similar lines.
I don't know what subliminal messages might be received by someone who is not paying attention to Fox News but is still hearing it, going on and on about how liberals are the devil and Biden is a pedophile. When someone is not paying attention, I think messages can seep in without being disputed or challenged. It takes conscious awareness to decide what is a lie and whether to trust someone's word.
There are plenty of elderly and disabled people who watch a lot more TV than people with jobs and household chores to do. If someone is watching TV for entertainment value instead of information, then Fox is perhaps going to be their choice. That may be why the older age groups skew conservative. Fox presents a circus of outrage and builds kind of a "what dumbfounding thing will they say next" sense of anticipation. Listening to lawyers is bound to be boring compared to a segment on ball tanning.
ReplyDeleteJanet Malcolm doesn't speak for me. I have no problem getting up in the middle of a show to do the dishes. Maybe it is because Malcolm and Maddow are both of the same age and are both New Yorkers. But Malcolm assumes that her experience must be everyone else's when that is patently ridiculous. Somerby obviously doesn't identify with Maddow at all.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm owned a dishwasher.
DeleteJanet Malcolm died at age 86 in 2021.
DeleteAt any rate, there’s zero reason to ascribe Malcolm‘s opinion of Rachel Maddow to every single liberal, but that’s what Mr. non-logic Somerby does.
"We may not realize how shaky the reassurances are as we keep getting told that Robert Mueller (or Jack Smith; or Fani Willie) is only moments away from frog-marching Trump off to jail."
ReplyDeleteIs Somerby truly unaware that Jack Smith and Fani Willis (not Willie) have already frog-marched Trump to jail? Being rich, he got to turn himself in and then was let out on bail. Mueller didn't try, because was a Republican working under Trump. But I think our faith that Trump will eventually be brought to justice has been validated by both Smith and Willis, whatever the juries decide.
When Trump is convicted in DC, Somerby will just move the goal posts.
DeleteYes. I don’t know if what sadder, if Bob is or isn’t getting paid off.
Delete"Public schools? Health care costs? Procedures at the border? There's no sign that we want to know about such topics."
ReplyDeleteMorning Joe tried to talk about the MS public schools and their improved NAEP reading scores but Somerby jumped down his throat for SIX AND HALF FUCKING WEEKS!
It may be safe to say that Somerby has no interest in public schools, based on that huge overreaction. Had Joe been aware of Somerby's hissy fit, he might not mention schools again for decades.
Being hypocritical is a feature for right wingers, not a big.
Deletenot a bug.
DeleteBob’s own attempts to discuss Trump’s indictments have been pathetic. That he has problems with the job anyone else is doing is laughable.
ReplyDeletePrecisely
DeleteThe millions paid to Hunter by the corrupt companies was for his legal advice, more or less.
ReplyDeleteThe companies were not corrupt and neither is Hunter. His legal crimes are that he did not pay some taxes and he illegally owned a gun. These crimes are typically not prosecuted, but so be it.
DeleteHunter’s real crime is having a loving father, and a bigger penis than Trump’s. This is what really triggers the right wingers.
Hunter earned about $4.5 million for the work he did, which is the normal pay for those non-corrupt and legal circumstances.
Were Hunter corrupt and to engage in illegality like the Trump Crime Family, he would have scammed billions from Americans and alliances with our enemies, like the Trump’s did. Instead Hunter did the same work he’s been doing his whole career, earning the same pay.
It drives these right wingers nuts they can’t get traction with this story, and it’s hilarious to watch. Worse, this story makes the Bidens look good to Americans, a loving and supportive relationship between a father and his son, which is in sharp contrast to Trump who just recently threw his son under the bus to try to save his own skin, calls his sons “idiots”, and is openly sexually desirous of his own daughter.
It’s a delight every time these morons post their nonsense, they just keep digging their grave while reminding everyone of the decency of the Bidens and the disgusting cravenness of the Trumps.
RFK's rise in the polls may be related to his desire to prevent shady communists from passing millions to important politician's offspring.
DeleteRFK has been dead for decades.
DeleteHis son’s polls keep dropping because RFK jr is a lunatic right wing neoliberal pushing right wing conspiracy theories tinged with racism.
Furthermore, he’s never mentioned the Trumps profiting off corrupt deals with China, Saudi Arabia, etc.
3:41 why bother posting false claims that are so easily debunked?
I doubt if either Biden will see an extended jail sentence.
DeleteJoe Biden had a good excuse for lying about what he knew.
DeleteJoe Biden knew it was bedtime, so he did have a good excuse for lying down in bed. Since he is a grownup this is fairly unremarkable.
DeleteIt’s weird how once was it was proven that Citi Bike Karen was at fault and a fraud, the media, and Somerby, just dropped the story. Similar to how the same media barely covered the Montgomery Boat Brawl, where some White racist rednecks tried to assault a Black man, unaware there was a crowd of other Black men nearby that saw what happened, came to his defense, and whooped those White racist rednecks’ asses. Somerby did not even mention the event. Right wing Whites just stared at the ground and pretended nothing happened, shaking in their boots, like the servile cucks they are.
ReplyDeleteKaren is innocent. The young man was a jerk.
DeleteIn the Montgomery case, the black man was innocent, and the whites were violent -- worse than jerks.
In a conflict between whites and blacks, sometimes the whites are wrong, sometimes the blacks are wrong, sometimes they're both wrong.
There was a time not so long ago when the black person would have been judged at fault, regardless of the facts. Today, many people want to make up for this injustice by judging the white person to be at fault regardless of the facts. Would it not be preferable to decide what happened based on the facts?
DeleteWhat would Somerby's coverage of each event look like? How would the media continue to cover the Citi bike Karen story? What would be the story?
DeleteI guess you feel like the city bike Karen's story should not be dropped even now. So what should the media be talking about it today for example?
Based on the facts, Karen is guilty of trying to bully a kid off a bicycle, and then profiting off her own repugnant behavior.
DeleteSomerby covered the Citi Bike Karen episode as an example of a rush to judgement of racism in a world where racism is no longer a major concern. When it turned out Somerby was wrong, he never corrected his error, and the media never bothered to look into the facts that exposed Karen as a fraud.
The Montgomery Boat Brawl episode demonstrated that racism is alive and well, and was also a rare case of racist Whites getting their comeuppance, so Somerby just ignored it, and the media coverage was perfunctory.
Karen is innocent.
DeleteCiti Bike Karen is factually guilty of trying to bully a bicycle away from a kid, and then of fraudulently trying to profit off the event. Karen was the aggressor, the kid was the victim. This is demonstrated by evidence: the video, the kid’s receipts. Disregarding the evidence to assert a false claim, makes your nonsense incoherent and irrelevant.
DeleteThe receipts show that the young man was not renting the bike when Karen came along, that she rented it, and that the young men ended her rental by shoving the bike into the dock with her on it.
DeleteShe has not tried to profit. She needed a lawyer because her employer suspended her. The young man, however, was not in any legal jeopardy and incurred no expenses. Yet he started a gofundme, and anything he gets from it is pure profit.
You have left out a huge amount from your account of what happened, imp. The young man in question was being threated with legal action, by Karen the pure.
DeleteKaren’s lawyer publicly said he wouldn’t sue the young man and didn’t want him prosecuted. He just wanted Karen to be reinstated in her job.
DeleteIt would have been cool if Rittenhouse was there. He could have shot and killed both of them.
DeleteHe should have addressed that to her employer, not the right wing mob.
DeleteThe receipts showed that the kid had been renting and re-renting that exact bicycle for hours. He had momentarily docked the bike in order to re-rent it and avoid the higher rate that incurs after 45 minutes.
DeleteDuring Karen’s struggle in trying to take the bike away from the kid, trying to pry his hands off the handlebars and snatching his phone out of his hand, she swiped the QR code which started a rental; however, Karen never got on the bicycle nor had control of it, and the kid easily re docked it, ending Karen’s seconds-long rental.
The kid did not shove the bike, and Karen was not on the bike. There’s video of the incident, so your claims are demonstrably false.
The fact that you have to lie to support your claims indicates an incapacity for rationality and a lack of integrity.
The kid comes from a family of poor immigrants and could not afford any other mode of transportation, he needed to rent the bicycle to get home.
Karen’s lawyer played no role in her employment situation, all he did was craft a false narrative for the media and ignorant suckers.
Karen makes over $100k per year, she didn’t need to hire a lawyer, nor need crowd funding to afford one. Furthermore, she didn’t need to bully a legally indigent kid to get a bicycle, there were other bicycles available to rent, or she could have easily taken the subway, a taxi, an Uber, a Lyft, etc. All things the kid could not afford, his only option was the bicycle, which he explained to Karen.
Karen is morally repugnant, and so are her defenders.
Democrats are getting happier and happier about how well their war in Ukraine is doing. At this rate it should only cost us a couple of trillion.
ReplyDeleteWhich admittedly is a lot of money to spend for nothing.
The Ukrainians disagree with you.
DeleteIt’s costing us about 5% of our defense budget, which is a small price to pay for Putin getting his ass stomped. Heck yeah, we are happy about it.
DeleteIt's so exciting to stomp Putin's ass with only a little less than 100 billion dollars!
DeleteHeck yes we are happy!
And the victories keep adding up.
No one is more against the war than the Ukrainian people.
DeleteYes, it would be nice if there were no wars. Tell that to the Russians.
DeleteYes, the invasion was Russia's fault.
DeleteIt's gratifying to know that the Democratic leadership are demanding strict oversight over the billions we are handing over to this notoriously corrupt country.
DeleteNATO expansion is a bad idea. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a crime. These two statements don't contradict each other.
DeleteIMO the US spending on Ukraine is the right policy, even though the amount is humongous, lots of the money is being stolen, and Ukraine's ultimate prospects are dim. Putin's brutal aggression must be resisted, because it will not end on its own. We saw this with Crimea. After Putin annexed Crimea, he didn't stop. If he annexes all of Ukraine, I don't think he'll stop there. He's power-mad, like many historical figures, such as Hitler, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, etc.
DeleteAll we have to do is pick up the phone and negotiate with him.
DeleteAlexander the Great eventually stopped, because his army refused to go on.
DeleteThe amount the US is spending is relatively trivial, and the results are significant.
DeleteIn a world without imperialism, NATO should not be necessary; however, considering the context of our current circumstances, we’d be fucked without it.
A partially decent take on Putin/Russia, DIC.
DeleteWait, have you been watching CNN? You sly devil!
In this context, the power mad party is the United States. Does anyone reading this disagree that the United States is power mad?
DeleteAs it currently operates? Anyone? Does anyone dispute that?
For example, no one could say that Russia is more power mad than the United States right now. That would be a completely crazy and absurd claim.
DeleteNo American reading this has ever in their lifetime had one moment when their country was not at war.
We are the preeminent imperialist power mad warmongers of the galaxy.
No one else could comes remotely close.
These AI trolls are hilarious!
DeleteIt would be so funny for people in other parts of the world to see Americans here are discussing how other countries are power mad.
DeleteThink about it. How many wars has China been in in the last 50 years? 2? How many have we been in? Like 75.
Many of us don't realize that we live under and benefit from the bloodiest most ruthless warmongering empire in world history. And we all support it. Just so we can have blenders and patio furniture.
Am I wrong? What country could be described as more power mad than the United States?
No one is arguing that America has not engaged in imperialism.
DeleteAmerica is a democracy, though.
In America, sometimes the imperialist right wing gets voted in, sometimes they get voted out.
If you examine the history of Russia, you can see that since about the year 500, it’s been engaged in nonstop imperialism and run by fascist dictators.
This is not unique to America or Russia, this has been going on for about 10k years, and every region has given it a go.
I’m all for America paying reparations for its misdeeds, Germany did after the right wing Nazis were defeated, it was the intent behind Reconstruction until that was demolished by the right wingers.
Someday we may reach utopia - a return to our natural roots of egalitarianism, but until then, it’s mostly about choosing the lesser evil.
In that context, NATO serves a useful purpose, and the tiny amount we spend defending Ukraine is well worth stopping yet another Russian imperial fascist.
Thank you for your non sensical rationalizations, false-choice breath!
DeleteWith China, do you count the war against their own Christians or the war against Tibet? What about the cultural revolution? I would count all of those, since you are counting every single little undeclared conflict that the US assisted allies in fighting.
DeleteFrom Political Wire;
Delete"“The incidents, which U.S. officials describe as a form of espionage, appear designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites. Officials familiar with the practice say the individuals are typically Chinese nationals pressed into service and required to report back to the Chinese government.”
And they've been visiting Mar a Lago too.
From Rubber Hose:
Delete"I don't really follow economic news that much. But I see enough to know that economic numbers for China are really bad these days. I think the biggest tell is the fact that China has been releasing less and less economic data in the last few years. But what really does interest me is the weird divide between the utter gloom about China's future in the economic press, and the rest of foreign news coverage that simply assumes that China is a rising superpower and will continue to rise indefinitely. If China is really in that dire of straits then it will hobble Chinese power and influence. Are political writers just ignorant of China's economic predicament? Or are economic writers prone to project any bad news into a economic catastrophe?"
I don't think Somerby knows where China is.
Voters overwhelmingly think President Biden is too old to run for re-election and give him low marks for handling the economy, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll
Delete12:11 The economies of superpowers fluctuate. If this cretin is trying to argue that China is not a superpower, he should state it directly and then proceed to make his case with sources.
Delete@1:43 -- why do you even bother?
DeletePeople thought Biden was too old to run in 2020 too. Look how that has turned out.
DeleteThere is fluctuation and then there is fluctuation. This is being discussed all over the media.
DeleteGreat. If either of you too idiots want to make a case to China is not a superpower then make the case. With sources.
DeleteChina doesn’t have a global network of military bases.
Delete11:01 your rant is incoherent, when and if you are able to provide a reasonable, evidenced based, and coherent counterpoint, I’m happy to address (debunk) it.
DeleteI watched Yasmin on MSNBC Reports at 12:36 (Miami) ET. She discussed DeSantis's actions insisting that FL redo Lawson's district in order to disperse African American voters and prevent him from winning. She threw to two colleagues, one a Miami report and the other a former congressman, who described the details of the situation, sticking to facts and not opinions. They called Yasmin "Yasmin" but no one was called a dear friend and there was no joshing around. It was straightforward and professional and very clearly explained.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed a lot of promos for other MSNBC shows. I am watching on a cruise ship's cable feed and there are no ads. I speculate that the actual ads were replaced by promos for private cable services. I suspect that Somerby may be watching something similar, with pharmaceutical ads replaced by MSNBC promos. I can see how he would get tired of them, but that pharmaceutical ads are annoying too. It is unreasonable to expect any money-making network to have no commercials and no promos at all.
Is this Somerby that would not occur to Somerby or is he trying to con his readers?
Sorry for mangling the last sentence. It should be:
DeleteIs this something that would not occur to Somerby or is he trying to con his readers?
He’s trying to con his readers.
DeleteThis has been known and discussed for years.
Somerby’s posts are generally trite and boring rehashes of right wing talking points, but due to the long term context of his blog and the interests and motivation of his readers, they are provocative in a way that can spark discussions that have value in sharpening our discourse.
Somerby is a pernicious, malignant, and ignorant force, but we readers/commenters keep this space alive and kicking.
The Turning Point, a new documentary series produced by Trevor Noah, seems good. I am planning to watch it.
ReplyDeleteI think you butt-commented, I’m guesng?
DeleteKaren is innocent.
ReplyDeleteOf what? Please be specific.
DeleteKaren Carpenter? I reckon she’s innocent, but she’s also dead.
DeleteI find her hyped drumming skills to have been overrated.
DeleteMy favorite drummer might be Narada Michael Walden, particularly his work on the song Lila’s Dance.
DeleteAlso I really like Simon Phillips, particularly on Mike Oldfield’s Crises and his live performance of Tubular Bells.
Alphonse Mouzon is another favorite, particularly his work with guitarist Tommy Bolin, so good!
Tommy also worked with Walden, check out the live version of the song Delightful.
John Bonham is hard to beat (is that a pun?). In My Time of Dying is orgasmic (really puts Dylan to shame).
Billy Cobham, can’t not mention him, he’s still alive! Amazing stuff with both John McLaughlin and Tommy Bolin.
Bill Bruford is great, a bit one-note (ha!).
Phil Collins gets an honorable mention, decent enough drumming, but the mention is for being part of Brand X, a monster of a band, even though he screwed then over financially.
Cubby the Mouseketeer drummed with the Carpenters, too.
DeleteAnnette
DeleteFunicello
DeleteTalk about drums!
DeleteCubby really did tour with the Carpenters.
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubby_O%27Brien
I think at this point Biden is 81 years old.
ReplyDeleteHe's 80. He turns 81 in June.
DeleteBiden is 80, his bday is 11/20/42.
DeleteTrump is 77, his bday is 6/14/46.
Biden currently leads Trump in polling average by 0.7.
A recent poll asked what words first come to mind:
For Biden - Old/outdated/aging/elderly
For Trump - Corrupt/criminal/crooked
Age is not an electoral or performance issue for US presidents, as this has been accounted for by having a line of succession. Furthermore, 8 US presidents have died in office (about 1/5 of all presidents), 4 were assassinated, 4 died of natural causes. We have also had presidents elected and serve who had various mental incapacities, often related to age.
A corrupt president is a more serious issue that can negatively impact our society for years.
In this context, Biden has the advantage over Trump.
So it looks like Biden would be 82 if he was ever sworn in for a second term.
DeleteTheoretically he could still be president and be 87-years-old. Twice as old as the average.
But I think we can all agree that is a really crazy proposition. To have a person that old run a country like ours.
There are some reports that Biden will stop embarrassing himself, realize it's over and hand the reins over to Harris or what's his name, the white guy from California.
DeleteThey're all white guys.
DeleteBiden would be the oldest president, as he has been for his first term, as Trump was for his term.
DeleteYour thinking is nonsensical.
“A person” does not run our country, we are a democratic republic, not a monarchy or dictatorship. In the US, the president has limited power that is shared with the legislative and judicial branches.
For example, Biden has been unable to enact many of the policies and appointments he supports due to right wing opposition, in Congress and the Supreme Court, to societal progress.
Furthermore, issues like age and physical and mental capacities are accounted for in our laws and codes, we have, for example, a line of succession for the president. In fact, the US has dealt with many such circumstances over he years, with little to no negative impact to our society.
On the other hand, we have little agency in dealing with a corrupt president, which can be devastating for our society.
In this context, the elderly Biden has the strong advantage over the slightly less elderly but corrupt Trump.
An 87-year-old bureaucrat running our army? No thanks.
DeleteI think we should concentrate on RFK or Marianne Williamson to represent Democrats. Or if we can speak directly to whoever is in charge of this Biden appointment, get them to change their minds about this guy.
DeleteI would prefer to see some young blood in there.
A US President is the so called “Commander in Chief”, but does not “run our army”, they oversee an administration, and has limited powers.
DeleteWikipedia is a good source to better understand the logistics of US government and governance, which is most heavily influenced by the French philosopher Montesquieu.
As already discussed, age is not a concern for US presidents, the US accounts for such circumstances.
Repeating a zombie claim does not reanimate it, it just makes you seem brain dead.
RFK has been dead for decades and as such can not serve as a US president.
RFK jr is a right wing neoliberal that espouses lunatic conspiracy theories tinged with racism, thus his dramatic drop in the polls, he is not relevant.
Williamson has decent politics but is no spring chicken (71), has no experience to equip her to be effective as a president, and also her polling is going nowhere.
Mental ability peaks in youth, maybe around age 25-35, which is up to a decade before it is legal to become president, after that age, it flattens for everyone, but then is countered by experience and wisdom that grows with age.
This is likely why relatively youthful presidents like Clinton, W Bush, and Obama were less effective in comparison to older, wiser presidents like FDR, LBJ, and Biden, who were able to use their experience and wisdom to overcome the neoliberal tendencies of the younger guys.
Something that can diminish the advantage of the experience and wisdom that comes with age, is corruption, which is the case with Trump.
I will not support a party that nominates an 82 year old as president. That is a broken party.
DeleteMaybe we can get the vice president, Harris to run instead of Biden.
DeleteThe Democratic Party is likely the most successful political party in modern times, if not in history - certainly in raw numbers; it’s hardly broken, if anything it is on an upswing, finally starting to rid itself of its neoliberal wing.
DeleteThis is a trivial fact to such a degree that to counter it will lose one their credibility.
If one does not support a political party, the most likely reason is that they do not support the policies of that party. There are other reasons as well, but probably the least likely of these is related to age, as has been thoroughly discussed above.
In the US, there are two main political parties, you are free to affiliate with either one.
When you go to vote, there will be a list of candidates, and you can vote how you like.
The Republican Party is also highly successful, but has attained its success in recent decades through corrupt means, such as gerrymandering and voter suppression. They are a right wing party that supports enriching corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the working class, and supports cultural notions like sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. If the Republican Party appeals to you, more power to you.
I'm going to write in Cornell West.
DeleteSure, sure. You can only vote in America if you are a legal citizen.
Delete"We ignore the topics flogged by the imaginary friends on Fox. But some of those topics are real.
ReplyDelete"Segregation now," George Wallace once said. This is a pseudo-journalistic version of that destructive instinct."
How is it that when a reporter reports on news, he or she is somehow "flogging" a topic?
George Wallace did run on a ticket of maintaining racial segregation and preventing courts from interfering in local states practices. But I do not see any journalists on CNN or MSNBC who are promoting segregation along the lines of Wallace. I also do not see them maintaining a segregation between those holding right wing beliefs and those on the left. They put out their stories and they don't know or care whether anyone watches them or not. There is no screening out or restriction on the right that would prevent them from watching other cable stations besides Fox.
The real news networks (CNN and MSNBC among others) ARE focused on reporting facts and avoiding conspiracy theories, unverified anecdotes, bizzarro right wing opinions (such as about ball tanning or the world exploding at Burning Man). That should not be a barrier to the right. Further, there is no advocacy of such a division. I'm sure Yasmin and Ari would love it if the right came over to watch their shows.
Yes, we are going to maintain self-segregation by avoiding the ridiculous right wing outlets. Because they are not a source of information and they are not even entertaining (because thet are too infuriating). If this is a ruse by Somerby to get liberals to watch Fox, it isn't going to work. Not because the left believes in segregation, but because the left believes in facts, truth, and avoiding disinformation.
Yes. I have mentioned this in the past but it is so telling as to bear repeating: months after Charles Murdoch left the board of Newscorp, he was asked why. He said that 1) he had no control as a board member over the media outlet's content, 2) there is a role to be played by conservative media in a balanced public discourse, but 3) he could no longer be involved in presiding over a media enterprise whose business model involved the dissemination of misinformation. This fact, announced to the world by Rupert Murdoch's son, months before their $700 million settlement , would barely budge the needle for Fox viewers, who need to have their deepest prejudices parroted back to them in any form, including fake news.
DeleteHere is a very clear explanation of why this RICO prosecution in GA echoes the segregationist bad old days. If you didn't know about this stuff, you don't know anything about what is happening in Georgia politics. When Somerby claims this is about segregation, he is clearly declaring that he is for the wrong side in this dispute.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.salon.com/2023/09/04/atlanta-crucible-of-democracy-how-the-citys-tortured-history-got-us-here/
Eugenicists have been joining forces with white nationalist to forecast a catastrophic collapse of US population. MTG doesn't understand any of the big words, so she is predicted that the world will collapse in 2030. The crazies are still coming out of the woodwork:
ReplyDelete"Some event speakers include "Malcolm and Simone Collins, who have attracted significant coverage on both sides of the Atlantic for their warnings about slowing birthrates in advanced economies and how this will lead to 'catastrophic population collapse,'" as well as "Charles Haywood, the former shampoo magnate who the Guardian revealed as the founder and sponsor of a far-right network of fraternal lodges, the Society for American Civic Renewal, and who has speculated about his own future as a 'warlord' in 'more-or-less open warfare with the federal government' in a post-collapse America."
Global Project on Hate and Extremism co-founder Heidi Beirich told the news outlet, "It's not surprising to see far-right folks, eugenicist types and white nationalists joining forces at a conference like this. They have become bedfellows. The far right has long fretted about a demographic winter, and though they don't necessarily say it openly, what they are referring to most often is a fall in white birthrates."
Somerby is focusing on segregationists when these are the scary people.
How can Somerby watch for hours and hours and still not know what is meant when they talk about segregation in GA?
ReplyDelete