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If they don't fact check the orange felon, then they are complicit in his lying.

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Donnab, the mainstream political media has become almost totally irrelevant. They have contributed to their own downfall since 2015 by pandering to the orange felon. Think about it: the GOP nominee for president is a convicted felon and in very poor physical and mental health, yet they treat it as normal and take us for fools.

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Exactly👍

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Agree. Trump hasn’t honestly answered a question he’s been asked yet. When he’s asked a question he starts lying and deflecting. Who wants to be involved in that kind of sh*t show?

That's why I have this Donald: the lying "King" t-shirt 👇 🤣

https://libtees-2.creator-spring.com/listing/lkinglb

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Exactly Donna, and Kamala has answered reporters’ questions off the cuff in between campaign stops. Agreed with the observation that Kamala knows today’s “media landscape” best and she’s handling all the tough questions well.

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I agree 100% with your assessment.

Judging from current polling, it looks like many voters are content with the Harris/Walz ticket and the way they're running it

I also subscribe to Chris Cillizza. He's a journalist/blogger and has been quite vocal about the need for Harris to have formal press conferences or one-on-one sit-downs with various journalists. According to Chris, not meeting with the press is an affront to American democracy, or some such similar yada, yada, yada. He has a blind spot towards "equality" in that he sees Donnie Dementia's "press conferences" as legitimate events, even though there was no push-back from the press to the verbal diarrhea spewing from Trumpty Dumpty's pie-hole.

For the folks just tuning in, I'll give you the quick-and-dirty recap: The only folks concerned that Harris and Walz haven't interacted with the media are (wait for it) THE MEDIA.

After the 2012 election the Romney campaign did a post-election autopsy to determine what went wrong (they sincerely thought they were going to win), and what should be changed/avoided in the 2016 campaign. (The results of this honest self-evaluation were quickly dismissed as "heresy" by the RNC.)

At some point in the future, what's left of the mainstream media will perform a similar self-assessment to figure out why they're viewed as completely irrelevant by a vast majority of Americans. I'll save you the trouble and provide you with the answer: Your demise began when Trumpty-Dumpty rode down the escalator in 2015. You failed to hold him accountable for his statements and actions ever since, and you're now reaping what you sowed.

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In addition to Mike's article, the self-examination of the media/journalism seems to be getting more attention. As bookends to Mike's post, here's a link to a great article:

https://www.stopthepresses.news/p/mainstream-media-on-a-path-to-irrelevance

As well as the following piece from Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I didn't have a link to this so it's copied from the original:

This column, about the decline and fall of America’s political news media in such a pivotal election year, has proved very hard to write — not for a lack of material, but because I can’t keep pace with every day’s new and stunning examples of bad journalism, each one spiraling a tad lower.

I'll start with the weekend's lowlight: a news story that worked up the media food chain from the muck of smaller right-wing outlets, then got boosted on X/Twitter by Alex Thompson, a widely read national political correspondent for Axios, before the New York Post hyped it in your local Wawa and eventually the New York Times felt compelled to address it. You see, an idea that has animated the right for the last couple of weeks is the fantasy that Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz is a phony. Sunday's purported news slammed Walz for a 2006 episode when his then-congressional campaign claimed he'd won a youth award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce when really it was — get this! — the Nebraska Junior Chamber of Commerce!

Never mind that the 2006 Walz campaign had corrected this tiny mistake (picture Barack Obama doing the hand thing, but even smaller), probably the work of a junior staffer, the second they learned about it. The nattering nabobs of negativism had accomplished their mission in a year when the elite mainstream media has lost its doggone mind — going after small daily clickbait like a puppy chasing its tail, demanding news conferences only to ask trivial questions, issuing ludicrous “fact checks,” and desperately seeking gravitas in the candidate just found guilty on 34 felony counts and liable for rape and financial fraud, who was dinged by NPR for 162 lies or distortions in just one news conference.

Indeed, the outrageous overinflation of the Walz story was nearly forgotten by Monday morning when the Times, which has bent over backwards to belittle the joy of Kamala Harris' wildly successful Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, published an op-ed from the editor of the conservative National Review, Rich Lowry, headlined simply: "Trump Can Win on Character." Perhaps that's true, as critics noted, if voters do what Lowry did in his piece and pretend that inconvenient facts like the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection or the fraud verdict had never happened. But while the column was ridiculed on social media, few people said they were giving up on the Times — because in this annus horribilis for the American media, many had already tuned out the NYT weeks or months ago.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The NYU professor and media critic Jay Rosen urged journalists to cover “the stakes, not the odds” of the 2024 election while Margaret Sullivan — who writes for the Guardian and her Substack after stints at the Times and the Washington Post — was more blunt in beseeching the press to ignore the pull of both-sides journalism and take seriously the threat to democracy posed by Trump, who tried to override his 2020 election loss and has made no comforting assurances that he won’t try to do that same after Nov. 5, 2024.

Few journalists — if any — have listened. Much of the righteous fury during the Chicago DNC was directed at fact-checkers from the Times, Post, and independent organizations like PolitiFact. These organizations or practices were mostly established after the endemic political lying of the 2000s — remember the Iraq War? But while no one would argue with their stated approach of tough, unbiased scrutiny of all sides, the fact-checking industrial complex can't handle the truth when one party's platform is based on a firehouse of lies and the other party is trying to be serious, if not always literal, about reality.

So Democratic convention week brought absurdities like PolitiFact tackling a DNC video that showed an actual Trump 2016 quote that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions and labeled it “mostly false” (!!) because his panicked aides later told him to walk back such a politically damaging statement. Also typical was USA Today calling it “false” when the DNC talks about “Trump’s Project 2025″ because the blueprint for his presidency was produced by the Heritage Foundation, even though most of its authors are former and would-be future Trump staffers and it offers the only program for filling jobs in a Trump administration.

C’mon, man.

It would require another column — maybe a book — to explain why this is happening. I see it as less the public’s main complaint (corporate control of the media) and more about our profession’s weird value structure, where it’s more important to be savvy, cynical, and not be portrayed as naive shills for liberalism than to care about saving democracy from authoritarian rule, on top of maybe a new and not always healthy brand of careerism from younger journalists.

The Chicago-based media critic Mark Jacob, a retired veteran editor of that city’s Tribune and Sun Times, nailed it Monday with a piece headlined “Mainstream media on a path to irrelevance.” Jacob has harsh words for how reporters have covered the race, writing that “too many political journalists are marinating in the Washington cocktail culture, writing for each other and for their sources — in service to the political industry, not the public.” But he also notes that traditional media can’t figure out how to compete for young eyeballs against sites like edgy and fast-paced TikTok. Jacob pointed out that public faith in mass media has plunged from 72% in 1976, after Watergate, to just 32% today.

You know who gets the new landscape better than anyone else? Kamala Harris.

The vice president and Democratic nominee is running to be America's first post-media president. In Chicago, much was made of the fact that Team Harris and the Democrats invited 200 sometimes fawning internet "content creators" who got VIP treatment while mainstream journalists fought over nosebleed-level seats and refrained from eating or going to the bathroom for fear of losing them.

But more broadly, Harris and her campaign is 100% focused on message discipline to build her brand and sell it to the American people in a few short weeks. The surest way to get thrown off that message discipline would be a stray answer at an open news conference or in an interview with the likes of NBC’s Lester Holt — so for now, Harris is simply not doing that.

And she's getting away with it. Mainstream journalists can carp and whine about this all they want, but when less than a third of Americans trust the mass media, few folks are listening to them. What's been really striking this year is that while traditionally deep distrust of the mainstream press has long been the province of right-wing Republicans, now it's liberals who once cheered for the media to do better who seem to be giving up on them.

This is not great. For one thing, the plunge in faith leads to cancelled subscriptions that leads to laid-off reporters or shuttered printing plants — not the vision of America’s founders who believed a free press is essential. In this campaign, I think the healthy journalistic mindset is that we want to save democracy in November, but we also want Harris to show she can answer at least a few tough questions and explain her policies beyond hopelessly vague generalities.

The reality, though, is that Harris might surge into the White House in January doing very little of this — maybe none at all, especially if Trump actually chickens out of their Sept. 10 debate in Philadelphia. Fifty years ago this summer, Richard Nixon resigned the presidency because people believed what they read about him in the Washington Post. Today, Harris feels she doesn’t need journalists at all, and a lot of the public is cheering her on. And a vainglorious elite news media with severe tunnel vision has no one to blame but themselves.

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An affront to American democracy? How about a convicted felon and insurrectionist running for president as an affront to American democracy?! Drumpf shouldn’t be allowed to run after threatening to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Why isn’t Chris focusing his attention on the travesty of justice that’s happening bc Americans won’t be able to get a verdict BEFORE they get to vote for not only a convicted felon and sexual abuser, but also a possibly convicted treasonist and election fraudster?

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All excellent and valid points and questions, to which I don't have an answer to. And I sincerely wish I did.

American media needs a real-life Danny Concannon (Timothy Busfield on the West Wing), and sadly, all of our actual journalists are closer to Ted Baxter instead.

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Yes Eric, “personalities” and show people, like on Faux News.

You are right on target with Kamala having MSM under her thumb right now.

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With the way that the media has treated the democrats/ Biden and Harris , I wouldn't trust any of them to treat her fairly !

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She is doing just fine following HER plan, not something forced on her by the corporate media. As VP she has been involved in all major work the Biden administration has carried out in the last 4 years and will continue those policies with tweaks of hers and Coach Walz' ideas added in I'm sure. As my DA and AG and Senator, I'm also certain she is infinitely qualified for this job, MUCH MORE so than Orange Hitler!

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1 trillion % THIS!!!

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As I said on your newsletter last week : I have both heard and read the media whining about her not doing any press events. Well you know what MSM? STFU. You pushed Fake Bone Spurs on us as “normal” and never to be called out. You’re just waiting to pounce on her. If you’re so starved for stories why not do a story on some of the great candidates we saw speaking, or you know, on a justice issue, or something deserving further investigation?

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And this: actually got so pissed at a writer from Vox that I sent him an email. He was going through all these reasons she should do press event or interviews like she’d be doing herself a favor when his reasoning was all basically how it would be good for the MSM, not her! I can see this being a typical MSM tactic and soon we’ll start seeing them trash her for not bowing to them. Infuriating

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So yes they’re starting their trash campaign because she’s not giving them click bait. When has Fake Bone Spurs EVER laid out a detailed policy? And they let it slide. I don’t watch Bill Maher anymore but apparently he had Kaitlyn Collins (Trump kiss ass access hound) on last week and did nothing but complain about the same thing. So they’re going after her. They can STFU. so sick of worthless “journalism”

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Like why Drumpf’s friends in SCOTUS keep allowing the rule of law to dissolve for his benefit.

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I recall when Hilary and DT were interviewed in a town hall setting. DT was asked "policy" questions and as soon as Hilary was on, she was asked about "her emails". So, yeah, Kamala will be suspicious of these media "types" demanding an audience.

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Kamala debates, tRUMP hates. She is about Policy and he is about the Police.

He is an inveterate liar, a compulsive nincompoop, a Traitor and the world's biggest LOSER!

Hey Donnie! You won't be "mithed" after Roevember 5th! And put your teeth back in.

Poligrip want a Cracker?

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Ugh: Tulsi Gabbard now working for Trump. I truly believe that like Jill Stein, she is a secret Putin-plant. Her career moves indicate this.

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I knew Tulsi was disingenuous ever since I saw her at the first democratic debate in 2020.

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A lot of the MSM companies are owned or run by the same rich old white men who hanged out with the orange prick back in the day. Hence why it seems like a good ole' boy network with them and Trump.

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why should she, it is up to her and her campaign to decide when SHE is ready!! The press doesn't get to dictate to her, they have done significant damage and have ruined people, case in point, Hilary Clinton. Also, they never stopped covering Trump, even after he left the Whitehouse!! They are complicit in his rise to the presidency and they will complicit if he is successful because they treat him with normalcy, instead of fact checking his lies and calling him out on it. Kaitan Collins was just on Bill Maher talking about how important it was to cover both sides, personally she can go pound sand!! there is nothing new to cover!! while it is important for her to do interviews, let her breathe!! lord

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Thanks for this, Michelangelo. I agree 100%! I saw Lawrence O'Donnell when he lambasted the media about their vastly differing coverage of Biden and the former guy. He showed clips of Biden and Karine Jean-Pierre getting hammered about the neurologist visiting the WH. Meanwhile TFG was allowed unchecked spewing of lies. I became concerned when I didn't see Lawrence the next night, thinking that he'd been fired, but it was Friday, his usual day off. I was relieved to hear that he was on vacation the following week and much more relieved when he was back at work on the DNC convention.

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And his “doctor’s checkups” have always been off limits to the media, particularly after the recent ear issues. His mental decline is very noticeable. Is MSM pressing for THAT info? He’s always been allowed to get away with BS, which is why we’re STILL dealing with him.

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Kamala Harris has the MSM right where she wants them: right where they belong. This is the cleverest fastest efficientest presidential candidate I’ve ever seen. And I saw Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy’s campaigns up close.

Let’s let her do this her way. While we do what she needs us to do. So far, so good!

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Totally agree. Kamala’s super qualified in every way and she’s got it together better than anyone in politics right now.

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I doubt I’ll trust these big media outlets again. But I subscribe to my hometown newspaper (Buffalo) and they continue to be professional. The editors and journalists are quite impartial yet do address the lies, etc., coming from the Trump campaign.

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Yup if she was allowed to lie& slur words then we all could do an interview worthy of a presidential candidate.

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She is telling the quietly to kiss my butt. I bet she would increase in the polls if she said it out loud.

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They’ll start couching it as she’s afraid, etc. Vultures.

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