Christie report is an oversold dud!

FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2014

Pundit reaction is worse: On the one hand, the Christie report turned out to be a bit of an oversold dud.

On Wednesday night, Governor Christie was asked how the report could be any good, since several important figures had refused to be interviewed.

In reply, Christie said this:
CHRISTIE (3/26/14): You don’t just come to conclusions from interviews. There’s lots and lots of documents that involve all those people which have been part of the public record and will be becoming a part of the public record going forward. And you can discern a lot from that.

Some of those, at least three of them, have asserted their constitutional right not to speak. If they continue to do that, no one will ever speak to them.

RADIO HOST: So there may be questions surrounding this which you concede, that we may simply never know the answers to.

CHRISTIE: Right, but I don’t think the important questions. I think all the important questions will be answered.
Christie’s first point was certainly right. We don’t get all our facts from interviews. One example:

No one has interviewed Bridget Kelly at all. But every pundit has declared that Kelly ordered the closings.

That judgment has been based on an email. No one has felt the need to wait for her interview.

How about Christie’s second point: “I think all the important questions will be answered?”

In retrospect, maybe Christie didn’t mean that every question would be answered in this report. If he meant his report would answer all questions, his report is an oversold dud.

Plainly, the report doesn’t answer all questions. On the other hand, the report is straightforward about the fact that it can’t explain the motivation for the lane closings. And in some ways, the report is better than the punditry it has inspired.

We’re still reading the report, but it seems to include some new information about the Fort Lee matter. On the other hand, a lot of pundit reaction has been just very bad.

At the TPM Editor’s Blog, the snarky premise driving this post is extremely dumb. That said, many pundits have run with the faux conundrum driving that silly post.

Other pundits continue to wonder: How you can produce a report if you don’t interview the principals? Work like that is sad. But that’s the general state of play in this heavily tribalized era.

In our next post, we’ll look at Kate Zernike’s critique of the Christie report. But cable last night was an ongoing tribute to our low-IQ, partisan age.

On CNN, the tulip craze continued apace. Not since The Summer of Condit (2001) have so many pundits been so daft in such a synchronized way for such an extended time.

On MSNBC, poor Ari Melber was caught in the backwash of Chris Hayes’ ridiculous segment from Wednesday night. (Melber guest-hosted for Hayes.)

At Salon and at TPM, we liberals have been encouraged to view that segment in the Preferred Tribal Manner. We had a different reaction to the segment, a point we expect to explain in the coming days.

Has “cable news” ever been this dumb so completely across the board? Truly, cable pundits have come close to achieving a fully pre-rational state.

On the web, things are little better. Most disturbingly, liberals are being urged to swallow The Dumb everywhere we turn.

You can’t run a modern nation this way. On cable, the various groupings of corporate hires look like they’re planning to try.

82 comments:

  1. "But every pundit has declared that Kelly ordered the closings." Says Bob, is this true? In reality it "seems like" Christie's hired guns are fully blaming Kelly, to the bemusement and anger of some pundits

    http://www.elle.com/news/culture/christie-scandal-report-blames-dumped-female-staffer

    http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/christies_creepy_misogyny_behold_his_despicable_%E2%80%9Cblame_bridget%E2%80%9D_strategy

    We're the rubes, and Bob is playing us (again). Bob, admit you were wrong, Maddow was right and move on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob really needs to speak to the women in his live, assuming there are any.

      Across the political spectrum, women are pretty much outraged at the way this "report" treats and portrays both Kelly and Zimmer.

      And that point has flown right by our self-absorbed blogger.

      Delete
    2. Very emotional response. Perhaps from an bright, inexperienced commenter.

      Delete
    3. So . . . the report states that Kelly called a staffer on Aug. 12 to make sure Sokolich wasn't going to endorse Christie, then ordered the "traffic problems" on Aug. 13.

      And of course, that had nothing to do with anything. It was all the work of a woman distraught over getting dumped by her boyfriend.

      Delete
    4. If she was indeed in on all this, why would it be "sexist" to say so?

      Delete
    5. It is not sexist to say so. Nor it it necessary to mention whom she dates, if anyone, to document her actions.

      How did the report find the state of Wildstein's love life?

      Was having a happy wife and loving children at home what led Chris Christie to take the appropriate actions, welling with tears though he was, when this scorned woman betrayed him? The report doesn't say, does it?

      Delete
    6. So who scorned her? I hope it wasn't that dirty dog Christie!

      Delete
    7. No. Dirty Dog Christie scorned the Unreliable Wildstein(After the Unreliable One "was driving some very major projects from his Port Authority post" according to the Knowledgeable Mr. Somerby). He said nobody knew what Wildstein was doing in high school while he, Chris Christie was an athlete and student body Prexy!

      We think the guy who scorned her was the golf pro she married and had several poor white kids with (whose NAEP and SAT test scores remain a mystery), or maybe the Stepien man who the DUD report says was her "benefactor."

      Delete
  2. Somerby on March 27:

    "Last night, on a radio show, Christie made a major claim about the contents of his impending report. Lawrence played the videotape:

    “I think all the important questions will be answered,” Christie said, building up his report."

    "That was a major claim. Of course, until we see the report, the claim can’t be evaluated. That claim could be total bunk."

    So now that we have seen the report was Christie's claim total bunk? Not according to Somerby on March 28:

    "In retrospect, maybe Christie didn’t mean that every question would be answered in this report."

    Bob, only your rubes are that dumb.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Bob, only your rubes are that dumb." That is a major claim.
      Of course, until some of them comment, the claim can't be evaluated. That claim could be undermined by the apparent desertion of Bob by his tribe in these matters of late.

      Delete
    2. Bob's rubes are as easy to predict as Bob himself.

      How quickly he backtracks on his day-old hopes of a report that will answer all the major questions, then spins that into, "Maybe Christie STILL isn't lying."

      Wake up and smell the coffee, rubes.

      Christie has been lying through his teeth since this whole thing began in a desperate attempt to save his massive hide, and your leader is too stuck in his anti-Maddow script to even see it.

      Delete
    3. I haven't followed this story at all. Can someone tell me if there is evidence, any actual proof that Christie was behind or in on the lane closings?

      Delete
    4. No. And they still haven't pinned that third rate burglary on Nixon either.

      Delete
    5. To: Anonymous @ 1:42 PM
      From: Anonymous @ 3:21 PM

      My apologies.There still aren't many. But you were right.

      Delete
    6. As Rachel might say: Dude, this is your generation's Watergate! Should be a big winner in '14.

      Delete
    7. Bob anxiously awaited the release of a report written by Christie's own lawyers. It landed like a turd dropped from a tall cow's ass on the citizens of New Jersey. All right thinking objective persons recoiled in horror.
      Bob is now sifting through the report looking for a rose.

      Delete
    8. mm, what do you think chaps the Bobster's hide the most?
      The fact they did not disprove Zernike on the motive issue, or that they called Wildstein crazy instead of Mad Cow Maddow?

      Delete
  3. I wonder what Malala thinks of the report.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Malala had a gun she not shoot Taliban. She might shoot hrself if Somerby made her visit Ft. Lee again.

      Delete
  4. Did they oversell? Will that be refunded to the taxpayer?

    BTW, how about that Diane Sawyer interview? What does she draw down per annum?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Did the report address all the steps Wildstein took to that make it look as if this was a legitimate study?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean the "lane realignment"? That's the new script.

      Delete
  6. "AnonymousMarch 28, 2014 at 1:53 PM"

    And Malala would care about black kids, unlike dastardly librulz on TV who make megabucks.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Black kids aren't convinced by Christie's report.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good point! Cute AND clever!

    Education is an important issue, certainly among non tribal, non ideologues. The prevailing "wisdom" is that public schools are an utter "big gubmint" failure. Why won't, or perhaps why can't millionaire liberal pundits set the record straight as it relates to the impressive gains made my minority students?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is "prevailing" wisdom that wisdom which is advanced by the other tribe?

      Delete
    2. I love the notion that some of us are "non tribal." Bob's acolytes seem to form a non tribal tribe

      Delete
    3. I mention "the schools" to liberal friends and they basically shake their heads and bemoan "the fact" that the schools are "failing" and are nothing like back when they went to school and kids learned. It's largely an across the board misconception. Anyway, the question is- why don't our millionaire pundits have game enough to knock down these misconceptions that feed right into a number of conservative right wing memes? I have my own theories but would like to hear from the defenders of our corporate media pundits.

      Delete
    4. By "non tribal" I refer to a vast segment of voters, basically non ideological, who, when you get right down to it, decide elections. Why won't our pundits set the record straight?

      Delete
    5. Our schools today are staffed by dedicated men and women
      who are happy to be there because they love the children whose bright futures they are shaping rather than the boatloads of money they might have made in a less satisfying profession.

      As a result, never before in our history have so many bright well adjusted young adults emerged from our school system
      ready for the next rung on the educational ladder or a bright career.

      If you don't believe me just look at the test scores they have been making in fourth and eighth grade.

      Delete
  9. Dudfan weighs in.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Bob, I love your writing but any time I try to read the comments I find them intolerable. By not blocking trolls you are undermining this important blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob, I have never seen such vicious trolling before. When trolling starts on other websites it is immediately stopped, by not stopping the trolling the comment section is unreadable and severely detracts from the blog.

      Because of the trolling, I never mention this site to anyone else or write about this site even though I read all your work and value it very highly.

      Please for the sake of your work, ban trolls.

      Delete
    2. Yes. For example, look how that nasty troll just undermined
      this important blog with the irrelevant comment below at 5:55.

      Delete
    3. Fine, the trolls have won. I tried, bye now.

      Delete
    4. 5:58? You mean Bob's work is so weak it can't stand up to "trolls"?

      Or does reading opposing opinions give you a headache?

      Delete
    5. Here's another clue for you, 5:58.

      You actually have to take a separate action to click onto the comments to read them.

      So instead of your constant whining about "vicious trolling" why not do yourself a favor and simply read Somerby's posts, basking in his self-proclaimed brilliance, and avoid the comments that get your panties in such a wad.

      Or are you truly too stupid to figure that out?

      Delete
    6. I agree. Thoughtful blogs like this one usually generate thoughtful responses. Instead, this one garners trolls so bad that they discourage serious readers from responding.

      Delete
    7. Anonymous @ 10:23, it is a shame this blog does not generate thoughtful responses from serious readers.

      Did it occur to you that it might not be the trolls?

      Delete
    8. It is the trolls.

      Delete
    9. We don't know. Serious commenters are not offering opinions due to their being discouraged from commenting. This is all speculation between trolls and the non serious commenters who are left doing nothing more than bemoaning those who do particiapte.

      Delete
  11. OMB (OTB OD's on OD)

    HOW HE GOT THERE
    Part 1


    Maddow Proves It All Night Long!'

    Rachel Maddow is a Nightmare!

    Breaking: Rachel Has A Bridge to Sell You!

    Previously Enormous Story Gets Bigger!

    Chris Christie Said He Invented the Internet!

    DUMBNIFICATION STUDIES: Scandal! Malala Yousafzai Visits Ft. Lee!

    DUMBNIFICATION STUDIES: Cable TV's Inspectors Poirot!

    Chris Christie and the 21 year-old (high school) intern!

    WATCHING STORY GROW: Contradiction!

    QUESTION: COULD THE MESS IN FORT LEE NEW JERSEY HAVE BEEN A BUNGLED ATTEMPY AT A STUDY?

    I'll bet Matt In Crown Can't wait for Part 2. We may call it:
    "Watching Shrieking Chimps Throw Feces." We don't know.

    KZ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obviously a professional troll, destructive and crazed as can be.

      Oh well.

      Delete
    2. I have it on good authority that KZ himself hired a team of lawyers to investigate him, and none of them could find any evidence whatsoever that he is either a professional troll (whatever that is) or recently dumped his alien girlfriend.

      Delete
    3. OMB

      When we got their bill we had them executed.

      KZ

      Delete
    4. You didn't pass it along to the taxpayers of your planet?

      Delete
    5. We did not expend it from our royal coffers.

      KZ

      Delete
  12. I prefer "Morning Drive Cone Shuffle" myself.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The trolls have won. Bob is wrong. Cable news and mainstream journalism have never done better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really? Cause I have yet to see anyone called a troll by Bob's rubes say anything positive about cable news or mainstream journalism.

      Delete
    2. Their only reason for being here is to hate Somerby.

      Delete
    3. You're right Anon 6:59, they say nothing positive, and they take no stand. They merely snipe. Which, sadly, is pretty much in line with how much of the general public sees liberals these days.

      Delete
    4. My friend at 10:01, they are merely muse about the biggest troll around.

      You want a one line summary of all Somerby represents? I'll bring it to you from his post preceding this one.

      "That said, we’ve never seen an education reporter who seemed to understand the true state of American children or American schools."

      Bob Somerby. Best of the best. He understands what nobody else can.


      Delete
    5. I think the argument is that corporate education reporting is not representative of the "best of the best", but rather often merely a stepping stone position or proving ground gig for pedigreed recent graduates of prestige universities with little life experience and no professional education experience.

      Chomsky described the process by which journalists internalize the values that serve their corporate masters, as a filter required to rise up through the professional ranks. Somerby provides examples unfolding in the here and now.

      To conflate "nobody" which in this context represents any and everyone, with the very small number of people who actually have written about education in upper end media, and who Somerby is in fact referring to, is dishonest.

      Delete
    6. And comparing Chomsky to Somerby only demonstrates how much of a pseudo-intellectual nincompoop you are.

      Delete
    7. Nincompoop will you! Hold it right there you son of a gun!

      Delete
  14. OMB (OTB OD's on OD)

    HOW HE GOT THERE
    Part 2 (Beginning Where We Left Off With BOB's Monster Hit Post)

    QUESTION: COULD THE MESS IN FORT LEE NEW JERSEY HAVE BEEN A BUNGLED ATTEMPY AT A STUDY?

    Mayor Sokolich seems to change his story!

    Christie gets his buddy back!

    WATCHING STORY GROW: Ditto-heads speak!

    Kornacki knows what he’s talking about!

    WATCHING STORY GROW: The darnedest things!

    Fort Lee: Watching story stubbornly hold!

    Fort Lee: Working to avoid basic facts!

    WATCHING STORY GROW: Concerning that alleged traffic study!

    Rachel Maddow’s a real piece of work!

    THE NEW SAM-AND-COKIES: Horrible work!

    THE NEW SAM-AND-COKIES: Impossibly bad!

    Governor Ultrasound still hasn’t been charged! (Couldn't Resist)

    THE NEW SAM-AND-COKIES: THERE WAS NO STUDY!

    KZ (Still Spinnin the Oldies From Last Winter)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And it was a long, cold, lonely winter!

      Especially for those poor, black kids who are starving for the attention of our resident education expert, who hasn't set foot in a classroom in three decades.

      Oh woe are they that Somerby was forced to ignore them and spend so much time defending our intellectual culture from complete collapse at the hands of cable news hosts.

      Delete
    2. It would be nice if our esteemed (and well compensated) liberal pundits would take the time and effort to speak up for the progress made by minority students, as well as their oft maligned teachers. Why don't you think they don't bother to do so?

      Delete
    3. Perhaps one reason they don't can be shown here at TDH. Take the interest generated by the post Somerby wrote before this one. Two comments. Because even Bob's readers tune out when the subject is broached. Mostly what Bob attracts to his posts on black kids are people who really do hate black kids. And black adults who bear them as well.

      Delete
    4. Right, we had this discussion already. Liberals would lose personal popularity if they dared show interest. They care a lot, really they do, but until white guys with jobs say it's ok, they're going to keep it on the down low.

      Delete
    5. I take it you were one of the two brave souls who risked popularity by commenting on the last post.

      Delete
  15. OMB (OTB OD's on OD)

    HOW HE GOT THERE
    Part 3 (Fecal Flinging into February With Matt in the Crown)

    THE NEW SAM-AND-COKIES: In search of a possible traffic study!

    THE NEW SAM-AND-COKIES: What in the world is a traffic study?

    The Times’ reporting has been Wildsteinesque!

    It’s time for someone to take Rachel Maddow...!

    The Times bears down on the Christie machine!

    A few of the downsides to Scandal Culture!

    What has Christie actually said?

    Pundits just want to embarrass themselves!

    Zernike changes her basic account again!

    ALL ROADS LEAD TO BIAS: Worst night ever, plus Joan Walsh!

    Andrew Sullivan, peckish and peeved!

    ALL ROADS LEAD TO BIAS: Losing the thread!

    ALL ROADS LEAD TO BIAS: Rachel Maddow’s week that was!

    MADDOW AND THE FALSE COVER STORY!

    KZ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A nice post title to end on. And what did this Oversold Dud of a report say about the cover up/story/whatever? Why has Somerby not mentioned that aspect of this affair, which lasted from September 13 to arguably the present date?

      Delete
  16. Black kids were smart enough to see through Christie long before their test scores started to improve.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why is this funny?

      Delete
    2. I hear it was many a comment just like yours which drove Bob into blogging.

      Delete
  17. Trolls say that we shouldn't believe a report commissioned by Christie himself. That's true, IMO. But the thing is that trolls won't believe a report that absolves Christie even if it's commissioned by a person other than Christie. Even if it the Democratic-led investigation absolves Christie, Dem. party loyalists in the internet and MSNBC will say that the report is BS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, and that makes this story just like Benghazi, which is Somerby's point.

      Delete
    2. Mr. Perez and his follow on commenter, being Bob rubes, are now joining Bob in making another predictions about what others might do if some speculative event happens in this story.

      It is a tribal ritual known as the Dud dance.

      Delete
  18. An independent jury found Zimmerman not guilty. The tribe disagreed with the verdict. They were not zimmermans buddies in the jury. Give it up troll. You will only praise a verdict you like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A carefully selected white tribe found Zimmerman not guilty and badgered the only non-white selected into agreeing with them. I agreed with the verdict based on the charges. I think he was guilty of manslaughter.

      Perhaps, of course, you were not talking to me. Just members of the tribe other than your own.

      Delete
    2. "Give it up troll. ...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz.

      Delete
  19. OMB (OTB OD's on OD)

    HOW HE GOT THERE
    Part 4

    February 2014, or The Very Merry Month of Maddow

    Maddow and....
    ...................................the false cover story!
    ...................................the very large salary!
    ...................................the changing story!
    ...................................the doubling down!

    Why did they shut down the access lanes?

    Sokolich (pretty much) changes his story!

    Scandal Excitement on Cable News!

    Scandal Clowning Reaches New Heights!

    Sokolich, Foye seem to [HEART] Bill Baroni!

    Your Daily Howler Keeps Getting Results!

    ( KZ note for readers....the last headline celebrated the lack of Christie coverage and a break in the story, allowing BOB to return to serving the interest of black children by alerting us to.......)

    ALMOST KILLER CHRIS MATTHEWS STILL ON THE LOOSE!
    (Multiple episodes)

    KZ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KZ, day after day, you merrily go on, relentlessly, pointlessly, sophistically, and stupidly, in my view. Is it a mere coincidence that "KZ" rhymes with "crazy?" What is your point? Do you haunt any other blogs than this one? what is it about TDH that so inspires your rage? (I say rage becomes sometimes that does show through).

      Delete
    2. Somerby, day after day, you merrily go on, relentelessly, pointlessly, sophistically, and stupidly, in my view. Is it a mere coincidence that the first syllable in Somerby rhymes with "dumb"? What is your point? Do you haunt any other blogs than this one? What is it about Rachel Maddow that so inspires your rage? (I say rage beCAUSE sometimes that does show through.

      I happen to find KZ hilarious, AC/MA, in fact, the only thing worth reading on this increasingly ridiculous blog which has become a laughingstock.

      My question to you -- How can you possibly have a "view" with your head so far up Somerby's ass?

      Delete
    3. Irish guy, you are a known nitwit. I guess it's a matter of taste whether you find KZ hilarious, who devotes enormous effort in satirizing an obscure, little read blogger (who as I understand it posts his opinions without charge and no one has to read him) who for reasons not clear to me, he apparently loathes. (As do it seems the crew who lately have taken over the comments page). You are a pea brain to think that by merely thinking that TDH more often than not has worthwhile, intelligent things to say and that I don't appreciate KZ's hilarious satire, means that I have my head up TDH's ass.

      Delete
  20. Can I ask a serious question, since this is a thoughtful blog?

    If the Christie report was, indeed, "oversold," then would that make those who oversold it "propagandists?" And would that make those who pooh-poohed it in advance "prescient?"

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks for including the icing on the cake KZ (black kids).

    Your magnificent satire is utterly wasted on the utterly shameless, hate-filled failure of a blogger, though.

    ReplyDelete

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