Biden, Allies Frustrated With Media's Hawkish Coverage Of Afghanistan Withdrawal

[Nevilledog]

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Jason Linkins
@dceiver
I don't necessarily feel the need to defend the White House on this but the fact that the media abandoned their well-worn pretensions of neutrality to plump for Forever War this week is a huge disservice to the American people

Biden, Allies Frustrated With Media’s Hawkish Coverage Of Afghanistan Withdrawal
After years of ignoring Afghanistan, many close to the Biden White House — and the president himself — feel some major outlets are adopting a pro-war sta...
huffpost.com
6:53 PM · Aug 20, 2021

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-media-coverage-afghanistan-withdrawal_n_612014d6e4b0c69681087cd7

*snip*

“The media tends to bend over backwards to ‘both-sides’ all of their coverage, but they made an exception for this,” said Eric Schultz, a deputy press secretary under President Barack Obama. “They both-sides coverage over masks, and vaccines, and school openings and everything else. Somehow [the Afghanistan withdrawal] created a rush to judgment and a frenzy that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

Matt Duss, a foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the de facto leader of the party’s progressive wing and Biden’s rival in the 2020 presidential primary, offered a similar assessment.

“The extent to which the media is privileging voices who have gotten this wrong for years is ridiculous,” he said. “What we’re seeing is an attempt by the Washington foreign policy establishment to expiate its sins of over 20 years by putting this on the Biden administration.”

Journalists who cover the Pentagon spend an inordinate amount of their time with current and former military officials, many of whom go on to lucrative gigs with military contractors that profited from the Afghanistan War. It’s that kind of chumminess that contributed to the media’s amplification of the specious case for the Iraq War in 2002 and 2003.

*snip*

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Seriously, what happened to the media?

Things are going about as well as anyone would have expected. If we had withdrawn slowly, there would have been an instant response from the Taliban that would have been worse than it is today.

It's like reeling in a big fish. You have to let the fish think it's winning before you pull back on the reel.

[uponit7771]

2. Putin's Whore killed 500k Americans by lying about virus M$M spent a FRACTION of time on that

... than the non butter smooth looking exit from Afganistan.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Fuck 'em

Their approval is meaningless. Hate to say it, but that’s one thing agent orange understood.

[lucca18]

4. The media is in a feeding frenzy.

Attack, attack, attack.
They are doing more harm than good.
It’s as if they are possessed.
Very disturbing to watch.

[betsuni]

5. Just saw PBS: Biden's reputation is damaged, squandered, his empathy and competence: inoperative.

It was the Bay of Pigs, the fall of Saigon, Dunkirk, the Suez crisis.

Hell, why not throw in the Titanic, fall of Rome, alien invasion, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together ... mass hysteria!

[Hoyt]

6. Don't see many elected Democrats coming to his defense right now, at

least regarding the execution of withdrawal and evacuation of Americans and allies. If they get most out, that will change.

[doc03]

7. If a Republican was President there would a Republican

on each and every news network defending him. That's what they are good at they get their talking points and do their Gish Gallop until the media jumps to the next story.

[dalton99a]

13. +1

[UTUSN]

8. K&R for, yeSssss!

[Steelrolled]

9. The media is like the weather.

Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

[BannonsLiver]

10. Echoes of the Iraq lead up in late 2002 early 2003.

I’ve had neocon PTSD this week. Waiting for Rumsfeld to rise from the dead.

[betsuni]

11. Ugh. The poetry of Donald Rumsfeld.

The Unknowns

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns.
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

[Greybnk48]

12. I'm disgusted and shocked with a lot of my "heroes" in the media,

except for Lawrence O'donnell and Ari Melber right now.