[Politics] Effing Trump and the Media.
- Thread starter Eacaraxe_v1legacy
- Start date
Recommended Videos
When was this ever not the case? His anti Immigration and general "America first" platform has attracted these kinds of people since at least 2015.ObsidianJones said:
As Saelune pointed out and as we get messages here, it's always been Hillary and the Media and the Moon affecting the Tides and what not. But from what I've seen in real life and on this forum, when people point out the racism angle, up come the defenses and the "how dare you insinuate that"s.Shadowstar38 said:
You're right, it's always been the case. The question actually is, where we ever allowed to point it out? Like with Police Brutality, the disparity of sentencing between the races... you know, what I, Saelune, Lil Devils X and the crew have been bringing up constantly.
Yep.ObsidianJones said:
The fact that a president elected in 2016 is (almost certainly) racist, and at minimum provides spectacular moral support for racists is kind of awkward for many people supporting him. Obviously they need to deal with that, so it becomes a great big game of denial, equivocation, and fudging. As long as a person convinces themself hard enough, they don't have to deal with it. Then there are the people for whom racism is far less important than their tax cut, and then the other racists out there, where the objective is, cynically, just to pretend because they know racism looks bad publicly.
But really, again, this is also a lot about the wider Republican Party's psychodrama. That's their boy in the White House, and calling him out is uncomfortably like admitting they've screwed up.
Well, as a journalist... working for a corporation... I guess its up to me to says this. Thanks. I know I do what I do and put up with the things I put up with to try and inform people about what is going on. From what Trump signs, to what he tweets, to the 95% OF SHIT I COVER THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUMP AND CO. AND YOUR "DULLARDS" PAY AS LITTLE ATTENTION TO AS THEY DO ANY OF THE TRUMP SHIT.Eacaraxe said:
So that's our fault, just agree with Trump that WE are the enemy of the people. That's real fucking intelligent, about as intelligent as when Trump does it. You wanna know WHY some major news networks really started slanting their coverage... because YOU WANT THEM TO. You people want us to tell you what to think, because it is easier than thinking for yourselves. Bias in media is a convenience, a time-saver, and as a sad consequence... profitable. And if reporting on what Trump is tweeting keeps the lights on long enough for me to air a report about flooding leaving a pothole that has damaged several cars or a local school board meeting where they are thinking about a decision specifically aimed at disenfranchising transgendered students... You bet your ass I'll keep reporting on the tweet. If even ONE person pays any attention to the other stories... it was worth it. You even linked published stories to illustrate your points on what we supposedly AREN'T reporting on... that made total sense. How about people taking some fucking responsibility for informing themselves and paying some damned attention even when we aren't talking about the current circus in D.C. How about realizing that what is going on in your city hall and at the county courthouse is actually affecting your daily life more than anything happening in the White House. How about even knowing who your city councilor, or county commissioner, or state representative even IS?
But no, fuck it, its our fault, right? Jesus Christ, why do we even fucking bother. Sorry, we hear it from our president and it gets to me. And then to turn to my videogame website and see the same ignorant media bashing... lumping MY efforts in keeping MY community informed with the profit chasing of my corporate management... well as I said, Thanks. That sure makes me more apt to care about Johnny Q. asshole I'm trying to keep informed.
I mean, what do you expect? Either they dont believe their is a disparity or they think you deserve it. Always pointing out when you may, possibly, do something negative. But disregarding any action that does actual damageObsidianJones said:
The only difference I see between now and 60 years ago is that they don't hang minorities. The arguments are the same, the rhetoric is the same. It hasnt gone anywhere and probably won't.
The lesson is, stop trying to win them over. They will either hate or have apathy towards you despite evidence, them breaking their own principles or how you treat them.
I'll do what I can, but as a Midwest U.S. radio journalist I do have to admit... we talk about the Royals more than we might otherwise. My news director's wife is absolutely captivated by the British Royal Family and I swear he throws some stories in just for her.trunkage said:
Another post for which we can rue the lack of a like button.Kyrian007 said:
It's true. The media is a business that needs to make money, and the money comes from the general public, and so the media service the general public. If they report shit, it's because that shit sells better.
If we want it not to be this way - to have a news media that prioritises facts and important stuff even if people would rather see videos of cute kittens - then we need to end the capitalist consumer-based model of news media. That's a political task of awesome proportions, as it's basically going to strike right at the heart of the concept of free press. Due to these conditions, what keeps media on the important stuff is a public that values it doing so. And thus we, the public, get the media we collectively want and deserve.
Arguably, we are lucky there are enough journalists out there who still care to get the important stuff reported.
My condolences.Kyrian007 said:
Actually, I disagree insofar as I believe journalists aren't the "enemy of the people". I do agree insofar that corporate media is the "enemy of the people". As in, news media has an institutional problem, not an individual problem. You should not get personally defensive at call-out of institutional problems, or even being part of a problematic institution. Because, sorry, you are part of a deeply problematic institution.
Bit of an anecdote. My degree is in poli sci. In pursuit of that degree I took my fair share of journalism classes. First thing of substance and relevance the faculty member (great guy) said in the survey class said, was journalism is the fine art of telling people what they don't want to hear. And, frankly, infotainment isn't journalism.
Not even talking about ideological bias yet. Though, I'd certainly argue whatever ideological biases are present, are in service to the biggest bias in the mass media today: bias toward profit.
Here's the thing. In the contemporary media landscape, those three statements aren't compatible. Because the problem isn't a dichotomous equation of whether stories get published or not, it's a matter of framing and priority.
Just in newspapers, the rules of thumb are...what, again? four out of five readers only read headlines, half of those that read copy won't continue past the fold? For the life of me I can't remember the rule of thumb and the stats for those who only read the front page, but I remember it to be pretty staggering.
NYT's expose on Timber Sycamore was and damn well should have been the Pentagon Papers of our era. We trained and armed ISIS under circumstances of highly dubious legality, and when that blew up in our faces not only did we not stop doing it, we started training and arming al-Qaeda as well. Instead it gets buried on page...what again, 68?
That's the problem. When stories that matter get buried so far down even educated and media-savvy folks have trouble finding them, in favor of the circus, they quite frankly may as well not be printed at all. I find this shit because I've learned that when Trump tweets dumb shit and the media full-court presses against it, something's being hidden and it's time to start digging, and usually it's within the alphabet agencies.
I just wish more people would recognize the very clear, very obvious, pattern and stop dancing to the tune of Trump's fiddle.
Now, if you want to have a conversation about why this is the case -- Reagan era and post-Reagan media deregulation, the information age revenue crunch, and warring between legacy and new media -- I'll happily have that conversation.
First, I do, and wish I didn't. They're bigger assholes than you'd find in Washington.
Second, I already am well aware considering our municipal governments are in the process of shutting down homeless shelters and cracking down on hotels/motels that house homeless/low income folks, on promise of later low-income housing with no clear plan or apparent intent behind it, while jacking up property and utility taxes as an intentional push to gentrify. You best believe I'm taking action, especially considering we're still dealing with the AIDS bullshit of a few years back and the fentanyl nonsense, and running homeless and low-income folks out of available housing is the worst thing that can be done right now.
Third, great bootstrappiest of bootstrappy bootstraps argument. How are people supposed to get there from here if we don't even teach media literacy in schools or the media itself, and worse, major outlets actively promote media illiteracy? Call me an optimist or a romantic, but I genuinely believe the American populace doesn't want the circus; the problem is, media illiteracy has been so deeply ingrained in the American psyche at this point, "the circus" and "fake news" itself has been weaponized, gaslighting the American public to the point the difference is all but meaningless.
That's exactly where I'm going with this. Substantively, we don't have a "free press"; we have a press wholly subsumed by major corporations and ultra-wealthy, which acts in accordance to their will and interest. We're in a landscape in which the government needs to intervene to protect the freedom of the press. We need to re-regulate media corporations and break up the major conglomerates, institute regulations on what can and cannot be called news, and how news should be published especially with regards to clear distinctions between news and opinion, and articles and sponsored content/native advertising. We need more media literacy education, and we need stronger public broadcasting.Agema said:
- Apr 1, 2009
- 15,526
- 4,295
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
This is one of the reasons that the dems should really push impeachment. It would really force all of trumps crimes to the forefront and force the media to cover them and not allow them to just jump to the next stupid thing he says. Even if there is no chance for removal it will really focus on all the crimes of his administration.
You're kidding me right? The House has the current impeachment motion on the floor [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-trump-impeachment-vote-expected-in-the-house] literally as I'm typing this. Not that you could tell, because corporate media is busy talking about the Cohen probe and/or Epstein-Trump tapes. Considering the stupid shit that happened yesterday on the House floor with Cleaver, that's where the country's eyes ought to be.Worgen said:
[Well strictly speaking it seems as if there's a filibuster about Iran going on at this exact moment.]
Here's the facts.Eacaraxe said:
Politicians in this country are picked and chosen by the people. As stupid as the people are, they are still the people who elect law makers to make the decision. That makes catering to them more important than enforcing the law they were actually elected to do. And the common Republican people are actually Trumpists, as they forgo traditional Republican mindset any time their real leader says anything different.
No matter how much is found about this man, the Trump Loyal will remain the Trump loyal. There are people who were in it who have fallen off, but there is a large contigent on the population who literally feel this man can do no wrong. That all facts are made up lies.
That means the unsure of where they lie need to be made COMPLETELY SURE that this 'president' is cancerous to the nation as a whole as well as the planet with some of the things his administration as rolled back. His character needs to be called into question, his shady dealings, his outright abuse and/or ignoring of the constitution and the station that it allows him to operate in... these things need to be shown for everyone to see so those unsure can say "Oh, ok. I see why they are trying to Impeach him".
This is different than when Republicans were claiming that we need to Impeach Obama because he was Bla..tantly "Bad" for the American Republic. There is legitimate cause for concern with Trump due to his conduct, his ties, and constant violations of the Constitution (be it the Hatch Act [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/us/hatch-act.html], The ignoring Congressional Subpoenas [https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/29/trump-resists-subpoenas-ignores-congress-constitution-column/3595860002/], his Promises of Pardons [https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/a-clear-cut-take-care-violation/587101/], etc) and the like.
But how many people even remember all these things? It isn't the problem of the Media. If the media constantly reminded of the Constitutional Crisis of Pardoning Joe Arpaio [https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/25/pardoning-joe-arpaio-would-be-a-constitutional-crisis-trump/], they would rightfully look like they are beating a dead horse because they have an axe to grind with Trump.
Reminder, we're only a few weeks after from the second anniversary of that happening.
Trump has such a steady stream of fuck ups that people can't keep a hold of all of them. They become a blur. It's not up to Media to keep everything in the country's conscious. It's the media's job to report it. The burden is up to us to hold it in our hearts and take these people to task.
Let's take every last word you wrote at face value. Then why crap up the signal-to-noise ratio reporting for days on end about tweets?ObsidianJones said:
What exactly new information does three days' worth of reporting on a tweet add?
- Apr 1, 2009
- 15,526
- 4,295
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
Having a motion to impeach isn't impeachment proceedings. Actual proceedings would be "real" news that couldn't be ignored since all the charges coming out would need to be covered and all the evidence would also need to be shown. There has been enough talk about impeachment that the news about it maybe but not yet being a thing, isn't really news, its just olds.Eacaraxe said: