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If this chapter a standalone chapter? It seems to have some good parts but much of it is also covered in other chapters… Could parts of it be augmented and added to other chapters?
It’s amazing that after two years of the illegitimate ‘President’ their bad coverage helped to ‘elect’ the MSM is still playing the CDS card.
bc for political reporters in America, making sure the Clintons “go away” remains high priority—it’s weird
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) October 11, 2018
Indeed, you’d think after two years of Trump’s assault on the media and our rule of law-not to mention his presence is an affront to our very democratic legitimacy-they’d give it a break. After all, their bad coverage is as responsible for ‘President Trump’ as anything. Yes, Comey and friends had the game winning shot for Trump with the indefensible letter but it was the media who had so weaponized the fake scandal by then that this vague statement-‘we may or may not reopen the email investigation’ was enough to swing an election.
Of course, among awful election coverage driven by a minor email scandal Dean Baquet’s Times was first among equals-Chapter A.
With all Trump’s many crimes and assaults on our rule of law and democracy itself, the media is still more outraged over the fake ‘crimes’ of the Clintons. Just as they always did, the media hates the Clintons and wants to convince us that everyone does for no particular reason just-because.
This morning Greg Sargent pointed out the extreme carelessness-just like Comey’s-of the press with its headlines in the era of social media.
At a rally on Wednesday night, President Trump accused Hillary Clinton of conspiring with Russia to try to swing the 2016 election. “There was collusion between Hillary, the Democrats, and Russia,” Trump said, adding that there was “a lot” of such “collusion.” As always, the crowd chanted: “Lock her up!”
This claim is based on an absurd and convoluted theory about the genesis of the Russia investigation that has been flatly debunked as a massive lie. But here is how NBC News’s Twitter feed treated it:
President Trump directly accused Hillary Clinton of engaging in a conspiracy with Russia to affect the 2016 election during a rally in Pennsylvania. https://t.co/9fA4h71vJ2
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 11, 2018
Of course, the media has always been obsessed with hating the Clintons-especially the NY Times. In the 1990s every fake scandal in the world was treated with the utmost seriousness and blown up into something on the level of the Holocaust-Whitewater, Travelgate, Vince Foster, even the Clinton’s Christmas list. All editorial caution is out the window once the subject is That Woman and her husband.
So two years into the Constitutional crisis the media’s bad coverage has done so much to foment they still act like the big problem is getting the Clintons to ‘go away once and for all.’
“Let’s face it,” said Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah. “The Clintons don’t know when to shut up.”
Hatch, who is retiring from the Senate this year after more than four decades in the chamber, added: “I can’t blame ‘em. I mean they’re both heavyweights in our political spectrum, but still, there’s a time to go a little slower.”
After the way Hatch treated sexual assault survivors last week-at the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing-the media still thinks he gets to be an authority on public affairs but not the Clintons, that’s where it draws the line.
Republicans have long been skeptical of Hillary Clinton but she’s also generated anger from the left. “Democrats hold her responsible for the 2016 defeat,” Berry said. “There’s a belief that a better campaign would have beaten a weak candidate in Donald Trump.”
That certainly is a belief among the anti Clinton left-who wanted her to lose all along-but that doesn’t make it true. Many are now finally acknowledging the obvious truth-if not for the interference of Russia-and the FBI she would have won.
On #Election2016: @HillaryClinton did not lose because of an upset. She lost because of a set up. At some point her victory must be affirmed.
— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) February 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/mizmaimee/status/965713042821537797
But what really gets to me and many Hillary supporters is when the media tries to erase us. We will not be erased. Many of us are #StillWithHer-look up the hashtag on Twitter-and always will be. Ok, so the GOP is griping about her-but what about all of us who welcome her return to the public square?
“Political observers see it as an attempt to buff an image that’s taken a beating in the last four years, since Hillary Clinton was last out on a book tour in 2014 as she planned her failed presidential bid.”
“It will give Hillary Clinton a chance, if she chooses, to point out the dire predictions she made on the campaign trail against Trump that have come to pass since his election. She famously labeled Trump a Russian “puppet” and predicted he wouldn’t criticize them for launching cyberattacks on the United States. And as president, he has indeed defended Russia.”
“She warned that he would denigrate NATO, and he has. She warned that he would be hostile to immigrants and embolden hate groups. This has also happened.”
“This is trying to evoke buyer’s remorse,” said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University. “It’s about reevaluating the Clintons’ lives.”
What’s amazing is how anyone at this stage doesn’t have buyer’s remorse but evidently the Chris Cillizza-Chuck Todd media still has ‘Clinton fatigue.’
Many of the rest of us have fatigue with Clinton fatigue. As for the claim of how unpopular she is, I question it.
“Her approval rating stands at 38 percent, according to a September 2018 Gallup poll. The survey showed that the former first lady’s standing dropped with Democrats after the 2016 election and hasn’t recovered.”
Gallup has been out of the Presidential polling business after some big misses-remember when they had Mitt Romney up by 7 points in 2012? Speaking of which, no one is demanding that Romney disappear and never speak his mind again after losing some Presidential elections.
So I’d like to see more polls before buying into that. Another recent poll shows that if she ran today-she’d win in a landslide.
https://twitter.com/RandySchoenberg/status/1043366501284163584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1043366501284163584&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fevilsax.pressbooks.com%2Fwp%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D3284%26action%3Dedit
So most voters-unlike the Clinton hating press do have buyer’s remorse.
As for the media who spends so much time demanding Clinton take responsibility and do some introspection they might try their own advice. There has been some. Liz Spayd did some regarding their terrible article on October 31, 2016 claiming that there was nothing to the Russia-Trump investigation.
But then Dean Baquet fired her-and fazed out having a public editor altogether.
UPDATE:
—Double down on middle of the road-ism, worry deeply about perception, fight the culture war on your enemies' preferred ground of media bias, treat the dismay of core readers as proof of a splendid neutrality— and keep up the investigative reporting. That's Dean Baquet's plan. 9/
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) May 31, 2019
To this date, one of the few MSM journalists who have done some soul searching is Amy Choznick.
I think this, from The New York Times' Amy Chozick, is the most detailed and direct admission from someone on the 2016 Clinton beat that journalists were played by Russia. https://t.co/rJI6GmYiqG pic.twitter.com/MYzuUA0rhI
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) April 20, 2018
Ok arguably Katy Tur did some in her book at least in terms of admitting the media seriously played down the Russia story pre election. But much of the press remains stuck in extreme CDS mode. Trump attacks the Times-‘the failing NY Times’-but they remain some of his best friends.
UPDATE: Regarding the MSM’s awful coverage-again they’re a very stubborn, hardheaded group
Via @airbagmoments. Two American journalists show how seriously they take the critique of their tendency to normalize him. From April 2017. https://t.co/ksaym1r00U
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 23, 2019
but none more than Baquet who apparently has his position at the Times for life. Jay Rosen has some very incisive criticism specifically of Baquet’s Times.
Baquet’s latest dog’s breakfast-as noted above-is false equivalence between Biden and Trump in Ukraine if you’re listening-both sides just need to do better, Baquet feels.
NYT's Vogel didn't respond to requests for comment and the Times did not make any editor available to discuss the handling of the Biden-Ukraine story. “Our only approach to covering all aspects of the Ukraine story is that we'll do it aggressively,” a Times spokesperson said.
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) September 23, 2019
Meanwhile NPR is neck and neck with Baquet over who can engage is the most misleading and harmful false equivalence.
NPR corrects its "we have no idea who's right" both-sides headline on its Trump-Ukraine roundup https://t.co/aa1jkEQJhH pic.twitter.com/362AlGaP1S
— John McQuaid (@johnmcquaid) September 23, 2019
I’ve often wondered how a Dean Baquet would have covered the Holocaust-got to hear both sides!
In that vein, James Fallows:
The press—argues @JamesFallows—seems to have learned nothing from its mistakes in 2016: https://t.co/HLHV5b2HIz
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) September 22, 2019
FN: Can’t access story right now because of pay wall.