Thomas Zimmer: The media keep pretending the Republicans are serious people

[Nevilledog]

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This perfectly captures the state of the political discourse on the Right.

It’s a massive problem that much of the established media will keep pretending these are serious people because they feel the need to uphold the myth that there are two roughly equivalent sides/parties.

Since mainstream journalism is predicated on the idea that politics is a game between two teams that are essentially the same and journalists aspire to “neutrality,” which they define as

equidistance from either side, whatever comes from the GOP has to be elevated to credibility.
Stating clearly what the Republican Party has become would run counter to mainstream

journalism’s eternal quest for “neutrality” and “balanced” coverage, its overwhelming desire to signal “nonpartisanship.” And so the GOP continues to be covered as if it were a “normal” party.

Occasionally, something so terrible happens that it has enough of an impact to break through this “both sides” charade of constant normalization. Uvalde was such an event. And so we’re getting editorials telling us clearly what the problem is: The radicalization of the Right.

But it never lasts. We’ll be back to pretending the GOP is a “normal” party soon. It’s also weirdly inconsequential for other areas of public policy: Republicans can thoroughly debase themselves on gun violence - and will still be treated as serious voices on taxes, welfare, etc.

And so journalists, forcing themselves to act as if they were completely oblivious to who they are interviewing, will keep approaching them with a microphone to spout their vile nonsense into, as if they hadn’t proven a million times they weren’t serious people.

It’s one of the most bizarre features of the American political discourse that it demands we pretend these are serious suggestions, coming from serious political actors, instead of

acknowledging that one side, one party, is entirely uninterested in protecting American lives.
In a healthy political culture, anyone trafficking in such deranged nonsense would be shunned and ostracized, the party that elevates them would have to pay a hefty political price.

In the U.S., that’s evidently not the case. And until that changes, nothing changes.
Addendum: In case anyone needed more evidence for the type of mainstream media complicity I am criticizing here, the NYT has this to offer.

This type of coverage is actively harmful and serves no journalistic purpose beyond upholding the “neutrality” dogma. It needs to stop.

• • •

[Midnight Writer]

1. Conservatives are trolls. It's all nonsense, inflammatory hate speech, deflection and distraction.

No debate, conversation or reasoning is possible with them.

[czarjak]

6. Deny. Deny. Deny.

[GoodRaisin]

8. And the media provides them a firm foundation to spread their nonsense from. nt

[bucolic_frolic]

2. The purpose of institutions is to protect wealth and power. Institutions are part of that.

If they put all the crooks at the top of society in jail, society would crumble and chaos would result. Being a crook helps many get to the top of society. Authorities are there to protect these people, hence they only investigate them, most of the time anyway, unless their crimes are egregious.

[barbaraann]

3. Example: Did any mainstream source name Kissinger as a war criminal in recent stories?

I don't remember seeing that in any story about his Ukraine comments.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/1/31/galant-welcoming-war-crimes/

Welcoming War Crimes: The Normalization of Henry Kissinger
By Michael R. Galant
January 31, 2017
UPDATED: Jan. 31, 2017, at 9:19 p.m.

On Thursday February 2nd, the Institute of Politics will host “A Conversation with Henry Kissinger.” On its website, the IOP describes the controversial statesman with two titles:

“Henry A. Kissinger
Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
56th United States Secretary of State”

They neglect a third, more accurate label: War Criminal.

During his brief tenure at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy, Kissinger got a lot done. In his first two years in office, he helped Richard Nixon sabotage Vietnamese peace talks for his own political gain, expanded that war into Laos and Cambodia (the destabilizing effects of which would pave the way for the rise of the Khmer Rouge and the death of up to two million people), and advocated the bombing of, in his own words, “anything that moves.”
...
More in the link...

[LenaBaby61]

4. The so-called liberal media which is anything BUT liberal ....

Because many are still running with stories about Hillary Clinton and Durham

Durham prosecutors rest case against Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann after relitigating 2016 election drama.


Marshall Cohen
By Marshall Cohen

Updated 5:48 PM EDT, Wed May 25, 2022

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/politics/sussmann-durham-rests-case/index.html

[EleanorR]

5. As Adam Davidson wrote-It is nakedly absurd political speech

The MSM knows republicans are handed absurd, unserious talking points by Heritage or the RNC or the like. They know republicans spout these absurd talking points in order to keep their funding source flowing and the wackjobs armed to the teeth.

Yet the MSM chooses to play along like republicans are presenting serious ideas. It's a sick cycle and one republicans absolutely count on to continue. The MSM helps perpetuate the myths created by republicans (family values, freedom, fiscal responsibility-all myths) and the country suffers because of it. Looking at you NY Times.

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[hay rick]

7. The midpoint between us and them is still them.

The midpoint between patriotism and treason is still treason.
The midpoint between democracy and autocracy is still autocracy.

[Evolve Dammit]

9. The GOP has been usurped by MAGA cult and no longer represents a viable party. Domestic

terrorists at this point.

[tanyev]

10. THIS!!! Of course after spending 4 years pretending Donald Trump is a serious person,

they have become experts at the pretense.

[DallasNE]

11. Both Sides And January 6th

When you check the polls Jan 6th appears as a non-event. So how has this been allowed to happen? Yup, both sides. It means that accountability is dead in America. A racist white nationalist can shoot up a black grocery store and politically nothing happens. The both sides has become racist and that is what mainstream media is now pedaling. Hate is now both sides.

[czarjak]

12. I grew up with a local media magnate. Total Trumper.