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@wdlindsy@toad.socialMarcy Wheeler looks at a Washington Post editorial taking Kamala Harris to task for not providing policy proposals — even as the editorial admits that WaPo has not demanded similar proposals from Trump, even as Trump provides none.
She writes,
"Trump has been running for 21 months; his campaign is more than 90% over. The Vice President has been running 43 days; her campaign still has almost 60% to go."
#KamalaHarris #Trump #media #WashingtonPost
/1
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/09/02/the-soft-bigotry-of-no-expectations-on-trump/
"And yet they’re putting demands on the woman in the race, making no such demand on the white male former President.
The press has gone 21 months without throwing this kind of tantrum with Donald Trump. Given that, this column says more about the failures of journalists to hold Trump accountable than it does any shortcoming on Kamala’s part."
"At some point, the traditional media needs to explain why it is so much more rabid about getting policy from Kamala than Trump.
Journalists need to come to grips, publicly, with why they apply this soft bigotry of no expectations to Donald Trump."
"Kamala Harris is succeeding in accomplishing something none of Donald Trump’s adversaries have since 2016: Turning off his political oxygen supply by refusing to engage with his manufactured spectacles of insults and taunts, or with the often wholly substance-free issues that preoccupy the press."
~ David R. Lurie
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/kamala-harris-strategy-for-dealing-with-trump
"For over a decade, nearly every non-Trump candidate has played by the same rules in their interactions with the press. The first rule was the presumption that members of the 'fourth estate' posed important and 'tough questions' because the voting public needed answers to them. The second is that any politician who refused to fully engage with and answer the press’s questions was acting dishonorably and likely had something to hide."
"But what those rules didn’t take into account is a reality that’s only grown more apparent in recent years — that the press often asks insipid questions, and indeed can easily be manipulated to serve as conduits for entirely bogus claims and theories pushed by GOP partisans."
"He commands the press."
~ Greg Olear
And to its shame, the press allows itself to be commanded. He commands, the media bow.
Commanded by that man, of all people in the world.
What does this say about the character of those who arrogate to themselves the right to mediate reality to the rest of us? About their integrity? About their moral fortitude and moral insight?
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/2024-the-year-of-the-two-incumbents
Parker Molloy notes how New York Times shames itself by soft-selling the extremist Hitler-quoting Moms for Liberty:
"The article, 'Conservative Moms, Charmed by Trump, Would Rather Avoid His Misogyny,' frames the group as just your average, run-of-the-mill conservative group of moms — the 'suburban women' Trump needs to appeal to if he hopes to win in November…."
~ Parker Molloy
An excellent statement by Mark Jacob on what journalism isn't that begins this way:
"Journalism isn’t the mere act of turning on the microphones and letting politicians talk.
Journalism isn’t inviting proven liars to come on your TV show and lie to your audience, and then thanking them for it.
Journalism isn’t a process for normalizing a madman."
And Mark Jacob ends with these lines:
"Journalism isn’t measured by clicks.
Journalism isn’t measured by ratings.
Journalism isn’t measured by salaries.
Journalism isn’t a task that’s possible if you tolerate lies.
Journalism isn’t easy, but it’s damn important, and more people in the news industry need to start doing it before they wake up one day and realize that journalism has become illegal."
@wdlindsy “#NextQuestionPlease “ is the response hack #journalists should expect more often, whenever they’re just shilling for #media #oligarchs instead of reporting the #news. 
#USpol
@ChemicalEyeGuy Well-stated. I very much agree.
"A free press is not judged by perceptions of truth or deceit.
It is judged by variety.
And that it angers some, and pleases others."
SearingTruth
@wdlindsy great thread, thanks for putting it together.
@absolutspacegrl You're welcome. I'm glad you found it helpful, and thanks for telling me that.
@wdlindsy Well at least he thinks it will turn out like 1932
@JonChevreau Yes — and thanks for pointing out that his essay really wasn't about that single statement I extracted from it. As always with what he writes, it was a good, coherent essay.
@wdlindsy "oPeN bOrDeRs!!!11shift+one"
@wdlindsy Yes. This.
@SueDiOh Thanks for finding the commentary valuable.
@wdlindsy This 
is how it’s done.
Mud-slinging has been a staple of American politics since its inception. We should never have tolerated the practice in the first place, and it’s well past time to leave it behind. No more “that’s just politics” excuses. Make it stop by refusing to let it have any effect.
@deriamis There's that, for sure. I'd say the Trump era represents a whole new incarnation of this ugly old tradition, too, and foundational to it is the use of social media and the Internet to spread toxic disinformation and hateful memes.
@wdlindsy There is definitely a double standard here for Kamala vs Trump.
@DebErupts Yes, very much so. And I think Marcy Wheeler's right to underscore the fact that they're putting demands on the woman in the race they don't make of the white man.
@wdlindsy @Cdespinosa My term for this is “newsworthy bias". https://jackwellborn.com/2021/07/22/newsworthy-bias/
@jackwellborn @Cdespinosa Thank you. A good term for it.