Eric Boehlert: The gotcha press comes for Kamala Harris

[babylonsister]

https://pressrun.media/p/the-gotcha-press-comes-for-kamala

The gotcha press comes for Kamala Harris
Manufactured drama
Eric Boehlert
2 hr ago


snip//

CNN’s coverage was relentlessly negative, attacking her “defensive” behavior, questioning her “political agility,” stressing her “political missteps,” mocking her “clumsy” and “tone deaf” media performance; her “shaky handling of the politics” surrounding immigration.

snip//

The lack of context was also telling, coming after four years of Trump and his team ransacking the norms. In light of his dangerous tenure, the Harris controversy this week about a single border question and whether she was too casual in her response, seems quaint and rather absurd. The last time Trump’s vice president made news was because he was in danger of being killed in the halls of Congress by a roaming, insurrectionist mob unleashed by his boss. By contrast, Harris got hit with days of bad news coverage for possibly mishandling a policy question during a television interview. (By the way, CNN published a Mike Pence valentine this week.)

snip//

This kind of eagerly negative coverage springs from a media yearning for conflict. Frustrated by the No Drama Biden era, which has been completely absent of backstage White House gossip, and the kind of daily and hourly tumult that marked the Trump years, journalists are constantly overreaching trying to create news where none exists.

Consider this bewildering media narrative that’s become commonplace in recent weeks: It’s bad news for Harris that she’s taking on substantive responsibilities as vice president, such as leading the administration’s response to stemming the flow of migration from Central America, and organizing the Democratic fight against a slew of Republican suppression laws being passed nationwide. This bad-news VP meme has been relentless (“Is Kamala Harris Being Set Up to Fail?” Slate asked), and it defies logic. Instead of giving Harris credit for tackling the nation’s tough problems, the press is preemptively dinging her for possible failures. “Harris can’t win,” New York Times columnist Frank Bruni recently announced.

snip//

The right wing loves to vilify Harris. The mainstream media fails when it treats those attacks as news.

[Phoenix61]

1. I think journalist got lazy when the orange one was in office

There was an outrage every hour of every day for them to amplify. That wasn’t journalism. It seems they may have forgotten what a real story is, how to investigate it, and how to report it.

[Solly Mack]

2. Trump was the best ever 4 year if it bleeds it leads the Press has ever had - so constant reporting

on his every move brought in viewers/readers/subscribers. Well, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say some in the Press.

They had no real good intention motive to report on the bad, the crimes, or the assaults on democracy. All that was blood and as long as the bleeding continued, the non-stop reporting would too. Outrage sells.

Let the bleeding slow and suddenly a speck of dirt needs to be turned into a mountain they must climb.

He/she wore what? She/he said what? What were she/he thinking when they did this or said that - let's speculate on all the possible reasons why and let's start with the most outrageous.

[Botany]

3. Kamala is working on the problem of people coming to the border from the central triangle which ...

.... is Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. She has visited or had people go to all
of those nations and is working on trying to get stability to the region. The people
fleeing those countries are running from violence, hunger, gangs, human trafficking,
narco drug outfits, and other problems. Joe and or Kamala did not cause those problems.

I had some friends who just hosted some young people from that region and the 2 young people
and their mom fled their country after their father was murdered in front of them and if they went
back to their home village they would all be murdered and or sex trafficked.

[karynnj]

4. The idea that giving her tough problems to lead on is stupid and ignores the Obama/Biden precedent

Biden had the lead on Iraq and on the stimulus package working. Both could easily have blown up into controversies. (On the stimulus spending, even as it revived the country, all it would have taken was for someone to make an issue of any money that could be depicted as misspent. I think he was also in the lead on the deals to keep the automakers in power.

I am sure there were other things he led on, but my not remembering is likely because he never was blamed for their failure -- with criticisms being on ridiculous things like labelling him gaffe prone. That might simply reflect media interest in looking for things to be outraged by.

[Biophilic]

5. All of the above plus she's a woman. Just ask Hillary. nt