The Corporate Media continues to pursue the appearance of fairness in their coverage of the 2024 election by treating True and False, Normal and Outrageous, as equally valid.
You have said everything I shout at the media every single day. What can anyone add? The behavior of the press corpse ( so appropriately named) has been reprehensible during the 4 year debacle of the time the orange cheato spent as "president", and their ridiculousness continues to this very moment. Like most thoughtful, educated, knowledgeable readers I must choose carefully what and who to read. Frankly the word puzzles interest me much more than what passes for journalism today. At least a good many people know the corporate media has joined the dark side for the money clicks can bring. It is good that Kamala Harris does not fall into the trap to divulge her policies. Why do that? These things whatever they may be, are aspirational at best, dependent on a congress willing to work in behalf of the vast majority of Americans who are sharing a very small percentage of the total economic output of the nation. It is this majority that understand who is really creating the wealth the few at the top continually suck in thanks to loopholes, lax enforcement, tax cuts, and sleight of hand wealth hiding in Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming...not to mention the cesspool of the "real" estate industry. VP Harris should stick to her plan of not giving details that the corpse will misconstrue and mess up while at the same time ignoring a convicted felon who cannot go from A to B with anything approaching coherence.
Thank you, Linda for pointing out that no would-be presidential actions are available without a reliant Congress. It is so sad that civics is not taught in all 50 States. In a democracy of any sort it is imperative that ALL citizens, native born or naturalized know how their government operates. In the US, that means knowing there are three (Constitutionally) independent branches of government and the basic responsibilities of each.
Excellent. I see no need for her to divulge policies because they want her to. Biden/Harris had clear , workable policies and when they bore fruit, Corporate Media put them on the back page and Donald’s latest hairdo on the front. Why their supposed interest now?
Because we have lost our independent press to foreign interests and Russian hacks. VP Harris’s response to Dana Duh Bash’s repeat of a tfg lie about her mixed heritage was spot on. “Next question!” And some media hacks criticized her for not answering the lie. You cannot trust a compulsive liar. That’s the bottom line. Donnie Wannabe Dictator is supported by Putin and others. He is their useful idiot.
A great piece, for which you deserve thanks, and I give them. But I go back to two points.
One is that if anyone here has read Timothy Crouse's masterful The Boys on the Bus, about the 1972 presidential campaign, we are seeing the same behavior.
The other is a story I shared. At our local paper, an editor friend of mine got tipped to a great human interest story. He assigned a reporter, who begged off of it because the other reporters teased them about it. They weren't covering "real" news, like whatever county commissioners said in public (what they did behind the scenes never seemed to interest these people). Worse, when all the reporters got together for coffee and lunch, the others teased them for doing this story. That person is now a major figure in DC journalism. And the trends continue.
funny...I met Tim Krause once and liked him immediately because he'd retained a lot more of his bad childhood stutter than I had. unfortunately, he's remained (so far as I know) a one-book guy.
of course, so was Robert Caro until he started publishing the vast, still-unfinished LBJ epic...
has anyone noticed that pretty much everybody who gets zoomed on TV with a loaded bookshelf behind him or her (sorry, but old habits die hard) feels obligated to have a copy of "The Power Broker" in a very visible position?
Much of this article, including the info about James Fallows and Norm Ornstein, is taken from Rebecca Solnit's recent essay in The Guardian, to which I include a link.
What you guys get, and what gets published, sometimes are different things. If you look at the post here on Substack, you will see; I thought the recognition was in the first draft but it was in the second. Mistakes happen.
Maybe you didn't hit the "update" button? Anyway, I went on Substack, and attribution is still missing. Solnit is, after all, the person who wrote "Men Explain Things to Me."😊
If his campaign is flailing, why the heck are the polls so close? I have always given them little credence, but many believe in them as confirmation bias.
It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. Somebody said that. And it is a given with cults, sad to say. Especially true when Rupert continues to show other entities how to rake in the dough.
Recently on a substack (can't remember which) the cover was blown on Nate Silver's 538 (which he left last year to form his own substack called Silver Bulletin) for several reasons: it was owned by a right winger (can't remember who - Peter Thiel?), he was dumping all sorts of polls together, many of which were provided by right wing groups and which had used "messy" polling, and which a great number of these polls included a percentage of right wingers who far exceeded the actual percentage in the US population. So, data from his aggregated "polls" was actually just a bunch of garbage, representing the "base" more than anything else. Nevertheless, his stuff finds its way into corporate media (of course) where it gets reported as "fact." That's why I give polls little credence, as you do. It's a business, and like corporate media, it's all about profit, nothing else.
Thanks Tom. I had my TV service disconnected over a year ago now and haven't missed it for a minute. [And no it had nothing to do with cost - it was only $35 a month] I discontinued my newspaper when my Independent Senior Residential apartment ended the 24/7 desk and security services. [I could not longer have the newspaper delivered to my apartment - they were stacked near the front office and by the time I got downstairs they were gone] So, all my news comes through my computer. I disconnected the TV because I became so angry with CNN my formerly favorite news channel. I admit to being a news junky, but I want my news to be honest and truthful.
I agree with every word you wrote in this Substack, Tom. I had already read trump's garbled "speech" (I would not have called it a speech - real speeches aren't rambling soliloquies - or streams of consciousness.
When I looked into 'cryptocurrency' several years ago, it seemed to me a get rich quick scam for those who 'owned' the companies.. Government currency is backed by the GNP and the gold bars in Fort Knox and yes money fluctuates in value; but top me that is more valid than some rich kids idea of economics.
I call it a ‘stream of unconsciousness’ Fay. Nothing makes sense, the ramblings of an empty brain’s last synapses firing. It would be sad if the reality wasn’t so terrifying.
Thank you, Derek. I like the 'stream of unconsciousness' it is so descriptive. I wish it were his last synapses firing. I keep hoping for either a massive heart attack or massive cerebral hemorrhage.
In psychiatric nursing, we were taught the disorder is called "loose association" or "derailment." The person talks in chains of semi-related ideas. It is a thought disorder and should be a significant news story.
ha! psych nurses are some of my favorite people. god knows you folks are essential in any setting where there are so many psychiatrists (or, to be more specific, psychiatric residents) running around and feeling important.
I never worked as a psych nurse. I worked in a burn unit, CCU, ICU, ER, med-surg, and skilled nursing. Psych nursing skills learned in school are needed in all areas of nursing.
I assume you've noticed that TFF has actually addressed that issue with his insistence that he's doing what he calls "The Weave." is it possible that his busted brain really BELIEVES this? I suppose on one level it's true (a level of no importance, but still some kind of "level") inssofar as he begins with an incoherently-phrased lie and usually ends with the same one; still, it remains nothing but random loose threads.
He believes this garbage and much more, particularly the parts he made up because he certain he’s infallible and therefore right about all things. Some folks seem to enjoy being bullied and lied to. Count all of us out on that score.
The print edition of the New York Times, at least the one we get in Queens, decided that a two-term Republican vice president endorsing a Democrat was “not fit to print.” As far as I could tell, no mention Saturday or Sunday. Newsday, which has similar deadlines, did have the story.
Does anyone doubt that if Al Gore had endorsed Trump it would have been a front page story, probably the lead?
The New York Times needs to die. Actually, it's already dead, it just needs to admit it. That fuckwit DNA failure running it now is truly a worthless piece of shit and an excellent argument against inherited wealth.
Grey is now the color of the Lady’s complexion as she lies in her casket. Will a new mainstream news outlet come along to replace her and her former venerable position in world news? Talk about money flowing to a new venture based on accurate information in the mainstream—it would leave the others way behind coughing from their dust.
It’s sickening what the lamestream media is doing with their “reporting” of trump’s word salads plus their double standard of questioning the proposals of Biden/Harris but giving trump a pass. That’s what happens when the press is compromised by wealthy owners and oligarchs with their overriding agendas that are diametrically opposed to factual reporting and real journalism. It’s always money, money, money and its insipid corruption of anything it touches, and there’s lots of Milo Minderbinders out there pursuing the almighty dollar, no matter the cost to others.
Mary Trump closed her substack piece today with this: "American democracy depends upon a thriving fourth estate to function optimally. That’s not what we have right now. Not even close. Independent media is doing its best to step up, but there is still a void left by the failures of those traditional outlets people have been relying on for decades. They are failing us, settling for “both-sides” laziness at the expense of objective facts and, ultimately, democracy. The American people deserve to know what we’re up against. We deserve to be told that there’s a maniac on the loose."
Thank you for so passionately outlining the truth about our corporate owned media in the US and the UK. I can only offer my personal experiences of being in the presence of some of the newly crowned, by the criminal plunder of neo liberal economic deregulation, new wealth monarchy. They seem to truly believe that they became rich through their own cleverness, not the cruel exploitation of our earth and us. Together with this bizarre self belief they also lack emotional empathy to the same degree as they possess pseudo intellectual vanity. The latter often expressed through a bitter hatred of real experts in all fields of knowledge. They are shockingly obdurate in their resistance to any new information or progress that threatens their narrow wealthy worldview. As a clique they are a bit mad, like Trump. Mad as in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre mad. How do we all survive let alone fight such group insanity ?
That speech was Trump weaving information to the questioner and company. He said the following:
My tariffs will bring in so much money it’s going to boggle your minds. Your childcare problem is pfft compared to the trillions we will vacuum in off the taxpayers who will bear the cost of the tariffs I put in place. This will reduce the deficit and pay off the national debt while at the same time it will weaken the electorate, you know, the people. You already understand my position on tax cuts for people like you who have come to hear me speak today.
You will have your childcare if you support me and my plan. The Sheriff of Nottingham.
I am seeing more commentary pointing out the malpractice of the legacy press. I’m not sure how much it will take for the newspapers and broadcast outlets to reform. I suppose they won’t reform themselves no matter how embarrassing it gets. Too much money at stake for the owners, too much cultural confirmation bias for the “unemployable trust fund babies” (as Tom says), of the editors and broadcast producers. But I hope this counter-coverage will inoculate the news consuming public.
Jefferson’s words on the responsibility of the press:
"Since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press confined to truth needs no other legal restraint.”
On what, presumably & subsequently was the realty:
"nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."
Maybe that’s all that needs to be written to the NYT, thousands of times.
****
They should change their motto to:
‘’We alone will interpret the truth’
I remember from a long time ago, MAD Magazine’s take on it:
You can go all the way back to Rona Barrett and Larry King as far as the media sucking up to The Thing From Jamacia Estates. Nothing new, except the name.
"sanewashing" is actually a word I've never seen before. I LIKE it. short, clear, punchy...it's continuing to grow on me.
yes, this environment is insane. and the NYT is, at least on the level of crazy, getting stronger all the time. fuck them. I don't quite understand the game they think they're playing.
obviously, with pieces from both the editor AND publisher stating very plainly that TFF is an unacceptable presidential choice, they KNOW how essential it is that TFF never again hold the reins of POWER. but then they immediately revert to their weird (word chosen quite deliberately) bothsideserism, even when doing so is profoundly misleading. change "misleading" to "delinquent." for example, the long story on the front page today about the sick relationship between TFF and That Prick Musk (TPM? how does that sound??), framing it like they're both regular guys whose opinions can sometimes be a tad...uhh..shall we say "peppery?"
I badly wanted to burn the whole paper in the bathtub, but realized I have no exhaust fan and I'd just as soon stay with my polluted brain and leave my remaining lung alone.
debate tomorrow, and I'm anxious about it. the following day, I'm supposed to finish working on my will. there is no "actual" relationship between the two events, but it suddenly felt like there's a "karmic" one of some sort. the main trouble with old age is that handling it requires an elderly person to possess the strength of a twenty-year-old.
if I cancel the NYT before next Sunday, I might never have to peruse the results of one of those infuriating "focus groups" ever again.
The MSM has devoted so much unwarranted attention to Trump and other national baubles, bangles, and beads (Kardashians, pro atheletes' salaries, lies designed to elicit outrage, etc.) that they're on a permanent high from their own exposure to incidents and utterances lacking context. There's a reason NY won't ever vote for Trump, and it's called context, the real context of this immoral and decrepit guy's history in NY. He was not NY's "favorite son" for a reason. Make that reasons, as in context.
But context requires actual reading, decoding and interpreting and weighing against a base of information, three skills Americans are increasingly light on, so the MSM feeds them headlines the way we feed snacks to pets, in small and frequent bites. All these snacks keep us fat, entertained, and stupid.
You have said everything I shout at the media every single day. What can anyone add? The behavior of the press corpse ( so appropriately named) has been reprehensible during the 4 year debacle of the time the orange cheato spent as "president", and their ridiculousness continues to this very moment. Like most thoughtful, educated, knowledgeable readers I must choose carefully what and who to read. Frankly the word puzzles interest me much more than what passes for journalism today. At least a good many people know the corporate media has joined the dark side for the money clicks can bring. It is good that Kamala Harris does not fall into the trap to divulge her policies. Why do that? These things whatever they may be, are aspirational at best, dependent on a congress willing to work in behalf of the vast majority of Americans who are sharing a very small percentage of the total economic output of the nation. It is this majority that understand who is really creating the wealth the few at the top continually suck in thanks to loopholes, lax enforcement, tax cuts, and sleight of hand wealth hiding in Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming...not to mention the cesspool of the "real" estate industry. VP Harris should stick to her plan of not giving details that the corpse will misconstrue and mess up while at the same time ignoring a convicted felon who cannot go from A to B with anything approaching coherence.
Thank you, Linda for pointing out that no would-be presidential actions are available without a reliant Congress. It is so sad that civics is not taught in all 50 States. In a democracy of any sort it is imperative that ALL citizens, native born or naturalized know how their government operates. In the US, that means knowing there are three (Constitutionally) independent branches of government and the basic responsibilities of each.
Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming. Our very own Cayman Islands.
Also North Dakota.
Don't forget the Supreme Court. They deserve "credit" too.
Excellent. I see no need for her to divulge policies because they want her to. Biden/Harris had clear , workable policies and when they bore fruit, Corporate Media put them on the back page and Donald’s latest hairdo on the front. Why their supposed interest now?
Because we have lost our independent press to foreign interests and Russian hacks. VP Harris’s response to Dana Duh Bash’s repeat of a tfg lie about her mixed heritage was spot on. “Next question!” And some media hacks criticized her for not answering the lie. You cannot trust a compulsive liar. That’s the bottom line. Donnie Wannabe Dictator is supported by Putin and others. He is their useful idiot.
A great piece, for which you deserve thanks, and I give them. But I go back to two points.
One is that if anyone here has read Timothy Crouse's masterful The Boys on the Bus, about the 1972 presidential campaign, we are seeing the same behavior.
The other is a story I shared. At our local paper, an editor friend of mine got tipped to a great human interest story. He assigned a reporter, who begged off of it because the other reporters teased them about it. They weren't covering "real" news, like whatever county commissioners said in public (what they did behind the scenes never seemed to interest these people). Worse, when all the reporters got together for coffee and lunch, the others teased them for doing this story. That person is now a major figure in DC journalism. And the trends continue.
funny...I met Tim Krause once and liked him immediately because he'd retained a lot more of his bad childhood stutter than I had. unfortunately, he's remained (so far as I know) a one-book guy.
of course, so was Robert Caro until he started publishing the vast, still-unfinished LBJ epic...
has anyone noticed that pretty much everybody who gets zoomed on TV with a loaded bookshelf behind him or her (sorry, but old habits die hard) feels obligated to have a copy of "The Power Broker" in a very visible position?
A one-book wonder, but what a book!
It took Caro a while to get going since he researches with a nail file, but it's sure paying off.
I have done some interviews via Zoom. I refuse to have The Power Broker behind me.
Hi,
Much of this article, including the info about James Fallows and Norm Ornstein, is taken from Rebecca Solnit's recent essay in The Guardian, to which I include a link.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election
I enjoy your work, but shouldn't you cite her name when using so much of her essay?
I did.
I admit to being an unthorough reader at times. But I was unable to find her name in what I read. 🤷♀️
Thank you for responding, in any case.
What you guys get, and what gets published, sometimes are different things. If you look at the post here on Substack, you will see; I thought the recognition was in the first draft but it was in the second. Mistakes happen.
Hi again,
Maybe you didn't hit the "update" button? Anyway, I went on Substack, and attribution is still missing. Solnit is, after all, the person who wrote "Men Explain Things to Me."😊
Go up to "return to thread" then scroll up to the post and hit "read." Second sentence, first paragraph.
Thanks. So glad to see it there! (They don't make updates easy to find, do they?)
Tom cites her name in the first paragraph.
If his campaign is flailing, why the heck are the polls so close? I have always given them little credence, but many believe in them as confirmation bias.
It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. Somebody said that. And it is a given with cults, sad to say. Especially true when Rupert continues to show other entities how to rake in the dough.
Recently on a substack (can't remember which) the cover was blown on Nate Silver's 538 (which he left last year to form his own substack called Silver Bulletin) for several reasons: it was owned by a right winger (can't remember who - Peter Thiel?), he was dumping all sorts of polls together, many of which were provided by right wing groups and which had used "messy" polling, and which a great number of these polls included a percentage of right wingers who far exceeded the actual percentage in the US population. So, data from his aggregated "polls" was actually just a bunch of garbage, representing the "base" more than anything else. Nevertheless, his stuff finds its way into corporate media (of course) where it gets reported as "fact." That's why I give polls little credence, as you do. It's a business, and like corporate media, it's all about profit, nothing else.
I didn’t know that about Silver, but it makes sense.
Thanks Tom. I had my TV service disconnected over a year ago now and haven't missed it for a minute. [And no it had nothing to do with cost - it was only $35 a month] I discontinued my newspaper when my Independent Senior Residential apartment ended the 24/7 desk and security services. [I could not longer have the newspaper delivered to my apartment - they were stacked near the front office and by the time I got downstairs they were gone] So, all my news comes through my computer. I disconnected the TV because I became so angry with CNN my formerly favorite news channel. I admit to being a news junky, but I want my news to be honest and truthful.
I agree with every word you wrote in this Substack, Tom. I had already read trump's garbled "speech" (I would not have called it a speech - real speeches aren't rambling soliloquies - or streams of consciousness.
When I looked into 'cryptocurrency' several years ago, it seemed to me a get rich quick scam for those who 'owned' the companies.. Government currency is backed by the GNP and the gold bars in Fort Knox and yes money fluctuates in value; but top me that is more valid than some rich kids idea of economics.
I call it a ‘stream of unconsciousness’ Fay. Nothing makes sense, the ramblings of an empty brain’s last synapses firing. It would be sad if the reality wasn’t so terrifying.
Thank you, Derek. I like the 'stream of unconsciousness' it is so descriptive. I wish it were his last synapses firing. I keep hoping for either a massive heart attack or massive cerebral hemorrhage.
In psychiatric nursing, we were taught the disorder is called "loose association" or "derailment." The person talks in chains of semi-related ideas. It is a thought disorder and should be a significant news story.
ha! psych nurses are some of my favorite people. god knows you folks are essential in any setting where there are so many psychiatrists (or, to be more specific, psychiatric residents) running around and feeling important.
I never worked as a psych nurse. I worked in a burn unit, CCU, ICU, ER, med-surg, and skilled nursing. Psych nursing skills learned in school are needed in all areas of nursing.
It certainly should be a topic of news
I assume you've noticed that TFF has actually addressed that issue with his insistence that he's doing what he calls "The Weave." is it possible that his busted brain really BELIEVES this? I suppose on one level it's true (a level of no importance, but still some kind of "level") inssofar as he begins with an incoherently-phrased lie and usually ends with the same one; still, it remains nothing but random loose threads.
Didn't he confirm his busted brain belief when he bragged that "many, many people" thought his "weave" was just "brilliant"?
He believes this garbage and much more, particularly the parts he made up because he certain he’s infallible and therefore right about all things. Some folks seem to enjoy being bullied and lied to. Count all of us out on that score.
The print edition of the New York Times, at least the one we get in Queens, decided that a two-term Republican vice president endorsing a Democrat was “not fit to print.” As far as I could tell, no mention Saturday or Sunday. Newsday, which has similar deadlines, did have the story.
Does anyone doubt that if Al Gore had endorsed Trump it would have been a front page story, probably the lead?
The New York Times needs to die. Actually, it's already dead, it just needs to admit it. That fuckwit DNA failure running it now is truly a worthless piece of shit and an excellent argument against inherited wealth.
Grey is now the color of the Lady’s complexion as she lies in her casket. Will a new mainstream news outlet come along to replace her and her former venerable position in world news? Talk about money flowing to a new venture based on accurate information in the mainstream—it would leave the others way behind coughing from their dust.
You have a wonderful way with profanity. I didn’t realize the Times guy was yet another creature of inherited wealth.
Right on Tom. Great article. You are one of my few trusted sources. A man who doesn't bury the lede.
By the way I love your WW 2 history pieces.
It’s sickening what the lamestream media is doing with their “reporting” of trump’s word salads plus their double standard of questioning the proposals of Biden/Harris but giving trump a pass. That’s what happens when the press is compromised by wealthy owners and oligarchs with their overriding agendas that are diametrically opposed to factual reporting and real journalism. It’s always money, money, money and its insipid corruption of anything it touches, and there’s lots of Milo Minderbinders out there pursuing the almighty dollar, no matter the cost to others.
Mary Trump closed her substack piece today with this: "American democracy depends upon a thriving fourth estate to function optimally. That’s not what we have right now. Not even close. Independent media is doing its best to step up, but there is still a void left by the failures of those traditional outlets people have been relying on for decades. They are failing us, settling for “both-sides” laziness at the expense of objective facts and, ultimately, democracy. The American people deserve to know what we’re up against. We deserve to be told that there’s a maniac on the loose."
Thank you for so passionately outlining the truth about our corporate owned media in the US and the UK. I can only offer my personal experiences of being in the presence of some of the newly crowned, by the criminal plunder of neo liberal economic deregulation, new wealth monarchy. They seem to truly believe that they became rich through their own cleverness, not the cruel exploitation of our earth and us. Together with this bizarre self belief they also lack emotional empathy to the same degree as they possess pseudo intellectual vanity. The latter often expressed through a bitter hatred of real experts in all fields of knowledge. They are shockingly obdurate in their resistance to any new information or progress that threatens their narrow wealthy worldview. As a clique they are a bit mad, like Trump. Mad as in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre mad. How do we all survive let alone fight such group insanity ?
Sounds like you are referring to people afflicted with affluenza.
😺
I have met one or two of whom you speak. So many more are on my periphery, and in control of way too much
That speech was Trump weaving information to the questioner and company. He said the following:
My tariffs will bring in so much money it’s going to boggle your minds. Your childcare problem is pfft compared to the trillions we will vacuum in off the taxpayers who will bear the cost of the tariffs I put in place. This will reduce the deficit and pay off the national debt while at the same time it will weaken the electorate, you know, the people. You already understand my position on tax cuts for people like you who have come to hear me speak today.
You will have your childcare if you support me and my plan. The Sheriff of Nottingham.
I am seeing more commentary pointing out the malpractice of the legacy press. I’m not sure how much it will take for the newspapers and broadcast outlets to reform. I suppose they won’t reform themselves no matter how embarrassing it gets. Too much money at stake for the owners, too much cultural confirmation bias for the “unemployable trust fund babies” (as Tom says), of the editors and broadcast producers. But I hope this counter-coverage will inoculate the news consuming public.
Also, re Elko, Nevada: So funny!!!
Likely after it is too late
Jefferson’s words on the responsibility of the press:
"Since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press confined to truth needs no other legal restraint.”
On what, presumably & subsequently was the realty:
"nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."
Maybe that’s all that needs to be written to the NYT, thousands of times.
****
They should change their motto to:
‘’We alone will interpret the truth’
I remember from a long time ago, MAD Magazine’s take on it:
‘We print all the news that fits’
You can go all the way back to Rona Barrett and Larry King as far as the media sucking up to The Thing From Jamacia Estates. Nothing new, except the name.
"sanewashing" is actually a word I've never seen before. I LIKE it. short, clear, punchy...it's continuing to grow on me.
yes, this environment is insane. and the NYT is, at least on the level of crazy, getting stronger all the time. fuck them. I don't quite understand the game they think they're playing.
obviously, with pieces from both the editor AND publisher stating very plainly that TFF is an unacceptable presidential choice, they KNOW how essential it is that TFF never again hold the reins of POWER. but then they immediately revert to their weird (word chosen quite deliberately) bothsideserism, even when doing so is profoundly misleading. change "misleading" to "delinquent." for example, the long story on the front page today about the sick relationship between TFF and That Prick Musk (TPM? how does that sound??), framing it like they're both regular guys whose opinions can sometimes be a tad...uhh..shall we say "peppery?"
I badly wanted to burn the whole paper in the bathtub, but realized I have no exhaust fan and I'd just as soon stay with my polluted brain and leave my remaining lung alone.
debate tomorrow, and I'm anxious about it. the following day, I'm supposed to finish working on my will. there is no "actual" relationship between the two events, but it suddenly felt like there's a "karmic" one of some sort. the main trouble with old age is that handling it requires an elderly person to possess the strength of a twenty-year-old.
if I cancel the NYT before next Sunday, I might never have to peruse the results of one of those infuriating "focus groups" ever again.
The MSM has devoted so much unwarranted attention to Trump and other national baubles, bangles, and beads (Kardashians, pro atheletes' salaries, lies designed to elicit outrage, etc.) that they're on a permanent high from their own exposure to incidents and utterances lacking context. There's a reason NY won't ever vote for Trump, and it's called context, the real context of this immoral and decrepit guy's history in NY. He was not NY's "favorite son" for a reason. Make that reasons, as in context.
But context requires actual reading, decoding and interpreting and weighing against a base of information, three skills Americans are increasingly light on, so the MSM feeds them headlines the way we feed snacks to pets, in small and frequent bites. All these snacks keep us fat, entertained, and stupid.