Robert Reich takes media to task over coverage of Biden's speech

[Doc Sportello]

Last edited Sun Sep 4, 2022, 12:26 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/04/biden-speech-democracy-attack-media-coverage-republicans


snip

It is dangerous to believe that “balanced journalism” gives equal weight to liars and to truth-tellers, to those intent on destroying democracy and those seeking to protect it, to the enablers of an ongoing attempted coup and those who are trying to prevent it.

Two Sundays ago, CNN’s Brian Stelter, host of the show Reliable Sources, put it well:

“It’s not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue. It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues. It’s required. It’s patriotic. We must make sure we don’t give platforms to those who are lying to our faces.”

Not incidentally, that was Stelter’s last show on CNN.

[GreenWave]

1. And yet when IQ 45 says watch me flick this booger

They are there in droves.

[SheltieLover]

2. Kicking for visibility

[dchill]

3. And now John Harwood has left CNN, as well.

[Martin68]

4. Reich is right. Even the best of our media keep falling back into a default position of

treating Biden as if he is not contending with the consequences of a Trump presidency, a court packed with extremists, and an electorate that includes a significant number of anti-democratic fascists. They can't seem to help sticking to the false equivalencies and outmoded rules that just don't work anymore.

[ShazamIam]

5. I have noticed that for the last few weeks or so, I don't hear cable or tv saying, "the big lie,"

anymore. Now they are really doing cover story and validation of that lie, as if it now legitimate, for TFG and MAGATS to
keep repeating, the election was stolen.

[llmart]

6. +1

And how long did it take the talking heads to even use the word "lie". They had all sorts of ways to couch his lies in other terminology, but never used the actual word "lie". It wasn't until almost the end of his time in office before they'd call it what it was.

[Traildogbob]

9. Gonna be sickening

I love college football, so unfortunately some good games are broadcast on local ABC,CBS and NBC. All owed by Sinclair. So watching some great games these last few days, I have been slammed with right wing political adds. The worst here in WNC are the (R) Budd adds, he’s running against (D) Beasley, a great woman, former Chief Supreme Court judge in NC. He wants to ban history and science until after 6th grade, but then gotta have Jesus approval of content.
And this shit will ramp up post Labor Day as it is full blown campaign time. And these weak minded fools up here that sent Meadows and Cawthorn will be at the pigs feeding trough of Bull Shit like Biden eating fetuses to fire up civil war talk.
I Keep remote in hand, (for mute and switching games) and duct tape it to that hand, so I can’t throw it at the big screen.
Damn bull shit media and brain dead fools with the lies crammed into those skulls by billionaires. And Free Speech TV has to beg for funds 4 times a year. Just To raise enough to operate, basically the amount Hannity spends on a dinner party for his Russian advisors.
Fuck CNN, run Briana run. MSNBC needs to go full 180 Fox to save this damn democracy with facts, and zero fear of saying “lies” and “Fascist GQP” and exposing the Orange traitorous slug every minute. Send Mitchell to CNN for Briana.

[NNadir]

7. I've removed all bookmarks to CNN. We century don't need a 2nd propaganda outfit.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

8. TV wants millions of campaign money. For this, they must have a horse race.

[NoMoreRepugs]

11. Exactly. Money above EVERYTHING.

[markodochartaigh]

10. Truth vs Lies and Ignorance

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way throughout political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
Isaac Asimov, 1980

Ignorance and apathy are the Achilles' heels of democracy. The US is engaged in an experiment to see whether any semblance of real democracy can be maintained in a society in which one third of the population is apathetic and one third ignorant of the truth.