Andrew Weissmann: I am sick and tired of "the horse race" coverage of the election.

[Dennis Donovan]

Link to tweet

Andrew Weissmann
I am sick and tired of “the horse race” coverage of the election. It is not the job of the media to keep the race close or to hold candidates to vastly different standards in a misguided effort to show you are even-handed by being critical of both sides. When in fact you are not applying an even playing field.
In a word: do better.

[Clouds Passing]

1. The current state of media in the US is abysmal. They know it and don't care.

They are coconspirators and tools of the fascist billionaire's secret society.

[Wicked Blue]

5. It's all about PPProfits!

News reporting is virtually dead.

[Clouds Passing]

7. And brainwashing us unwashed masses.

[Wicked Blue]

10. This too

[Magoo48]

34. True. Those journalists with any conscience left are hobbled by corrupt, corporate billionaires.

The information is manipulated, and censored, and professionally spun for the Borg.

[BaronChocula]

2. Please say this again Andrew Weissmann

and again and again and again while on air with that network to which you eloquently contribute.

BTW, I love it when you're on.

[jmbar2]

3. Glad to see him speak out!

Hope he has some influence with MSNBC.

[dchill]

4. Right? 👍

[GreenWave]

6. Preach it Andrew!

[Cha]

8. "Hence the reason we're trying to boycott @ABC @NBCNews @CBSNews @MSNBC @CNN"

Link to tweet

TY & AW!

[RANDYWILDMAN]

9. Fox sets a sickenly uneven standard

and the rest try to keep up

and it has been happening since they called it for Bush....

Media conglomeration has not helped in the least.

Affairs used to ruin you (unless you were a repub)
Making fun of disabled people used to ruin you (unless you were a repub)
Committing crimes used to ruin you (unless you are a repub) (fuck you Reagan, Bush SR,Bush/Cheney, Trump you are all criminals)

Media companies love this dumshit, he helps them by creating news everyday...news is supposed to be Boring and not everyday..that is the legacy of Biden back to normal and back to boring. News is not entertainment and the news companies have forgotten that.

[Zoomie1986]

24. The media were at it before Bush as well

Did you miss their incessant coverage of that lie known as Whitewater?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. Most media that Americans 'consume' is owned by far too few. Break 'em up.

[Hope22]

12. As usual...

The voice of reason. Thank you Andrew!

[Warpy]

13. I turned them off with great prejudice 20 years ago

for doing the same fucking thing. They weren't quite as blatant in favoring Dubya, but they did make sure nobody knew what Kerry was allk about by doing those fucking voice overrs so no one could hear what he was saying.

Plus, increasingly, the prancing painted pnies all think they don't report the news, they make the news. If they took any classes in journalism, they slept through them.

I can't imagine turning broadcast news back on. The vertical monopolies will need to be broken apart first, and that requ9res a massive overhaul of the USSC because I doubt antitrust laws will pass muster now.

[love_katz]

16. I did the same in 1984.

The corporate McGreedia declared that Ronnie Ray gun ( deliberate misspelling) had won in a landslide. It was early afternoon and most people on the West coast hadn't even gotten home from work yet, let alone made it to the polls.

Many of us came to believe that this contributed to the so-called landslide, because why bother to go stand in line if the election was already decided.

Eventually, the upshot was a movement to pass the needed amendment to legalize voting by mail, and there was push back against the media networks to not declare the final results until after the polls had closed.

I still believe that 1984 was the election where interference in the process by the McGreedia became blatantly obvious.

[Warpy]

19. I missed that one, I was working evenings

and 12 hour nights, so I didn't watch much television. I had a set and when my bedside clock said 5:00, I'd flip on the TV to find out if it was morning or night in winter (Boston being fucking depressing in winter) but I can't say I watched much. I never saw the news, just read the paper.

TV news has always been full of horseshit and institutional lying. Even Uncle Walter lied to everybody during Vietnam because all the officials were lying to him and he wasn't listening to the damaged, angry guys who'd come back from that war, knowing it was based on a wjopper of a lie.

So kudos for turning it off even sooner than I did. Maybe if I'd watched it, I'd have joined you.

[Puppyjive]

14. And they are glorified drug dealers

Every commercial is a pharma commercial. They are losing my viewership. All they want is ratings so they can get more money.

[BonnieJW]

27. Thats why drugs are so expensive

Pharma isn't using the money for R and D. It's all going into advertising.

[iluvtennis]

15. So totally agree with you Mr Weissmann - the horse race mess is SICKENING. n/t

[DFab420]

17. It's a shame we've completely lost the ability to hold the fourth estate responsible for anything.

Feels like even if we boycott, call advertisers or protest directly online, the money comes from in no matter what and they system is just broken beyond repair.

[Sympthsical]

20. Because the people complaining about them

Are the same ones who are watching them all day.

I would never know what goes on with cable news if I didn't read it here every day. (And threads are often given vague titles, so sometimes I get tricked into it and have to piece together what's being discussed). And that goes double for Fox News.

And that goes triple for Twitter. All the pundits and commentators and amateur political "experts" do nothing but comment on cable news all day everyday.

It's a baffling enclosed little ecosystem of incestuous political affiliations and journalistic mutual masturbation sessions.

If people would just turn it off like they're forever threatening to do, it'd go away. (It'll probably die in 20 years anyway, because its viewers are dying, and no one under 50 is taking up the slack - we don't have cable).

[DFab420]

21. You know you can watch pirated streams right that don't produce any views for them yea?

Keeping an eye on their bullshit and posting about it here to let people know what the corporate narrative construction is part of the fight against misinformation as well.

[Sympthsical]

30. LOL, no one's pirating MSNBC

It's very simple. If I hate someone like Ben Shapiro and think he's toxic - which I generally do - I'm not rushing to his YouTube page, subscribing, and liking his videos. Why? Because that helps him. That pays him. That tells the algorithm I'm interested in him and recommends him to other people who share my interests.

That's what people do by watching, discussing, and passing around media they ostensibly hate.

Now if you'll excuse me. I must venture forth and cancel the NYT for the 13th time this week. But this time I mean it, you guys. I'm gonna hit that button! Any second now. . . . No, now . . . . ok, now . . . definitely this time . . .

No one's "fighting misinformation" by watching cable news eight hours a day. They're just watching it, no matter what justification they're managing for themselves.

I'm not drinking. I'm relaxing. It's different.

[DFab420]

36. Oh ok you clearly know everything then.

[D_Master81]

18. This is the result

This is what happens when the GOP works the officials for 30 years that they have a “liberal bias”. They have to come up with ways to criticize democrats to even out the coverage.

[wishstar]

22. Years ago WashPost admitted they purposely didn't report Bob Dole's affairs

WP had all the evidence about Dole's shocking affairs but didn't write a word about it and later defended their decision to not publish any negative articles about Dole saying that he was already behind enough in the race against Bill Clinton. In other words, they wanted to keep the race closer by hiding Dole's transgressions from the public while continuing to go after Bill Clinton.

[democrank]

23. Well chosen words

Thank you, Andrew Weissmann.

[Zoomie1986]

25. The only way the cable news traitors will ever learn

Is to cancel subscriptions--and tell the provider why. CNN, Fox and MSNBC make more money from cable subscriptions than they do advertisers. Fox in particular doesn't need any advertising revenue at all to be profitable.

Cut off their primary revenue stream. They'll either learn to become serious news broadcasters...or go out of business.

Their choice.

BTW: For the rest of your TV entertainment needs, just about every show is available through streaming. You do not need cable anymore.

[ariadne0614]

28. It would be fun to see a mass exodus from corporate media to FSTV.

Free Speech TV is about as “of, by, for” actual people as it gets.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

35. Cut the cord back in 2005

I stream everything now. Not giving the Punditocracy a penny of carriage fees. Between here, Beau of the 5th and CBC/BBC, I'm staying current on the news. I don't even watch the OTA news broadcasts. Who needs to see 20 ads for drugs with side effects worse than the disease?

[bullimiami]

26. Exactly.

[Mr. Sparkle]

29. They make billions from the horse race, whether its real or imagined.

[Kaleva]

31. Nobody is forcing Weissman to follow the media

[Trueblue Texan]

32. I love Andrew Weissmann. nt

[meow2u3]

33. If I want to watch a horse race on TV, I'll tune into Fanduel Sports

Otherwise, I want to see the truth about the election as opposed to right-wing biased bothsidesism that effectively lowers Democrats to Repubicans' level by the double standards the media uses to create false balance. They give the impression that lies are to be given equal or greater weight than the truth.