Can President Hillary Survive the Media’s Fake Scandals? - By Joy Reid

[DonViejo]

Good luck governing next year while guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of the press, and as Republicans call her both accidental and illegitimate.

Joy-Ann Reid

08.26.16 1:00 AM ET

With Donald Trump’s campaign continuing to careen into incoherence, it’s becoming increasingly clear that barring some unforeseen circumstance (or low non-white voter turnout) Hillary Clinton will likely win the presidency. However, she will never win the peace. Hillary seems destined, if she wins, to be a president without popular devotion or even a public honeymoon. And she will likely spend four, or eight, years at constant war with a hostile press.

Why the relationship between Mrs. Clinton and the media is so fraught is a complicated tale. Journalist Jonathan Allen last year tackled the miserable web of mutual distrust and distaste that has defined the “rules” by which the press has covered the Clintons for more than a quarter-century. The fact that many journalists approach the Clintons—especially Hillary Clinton—with a presumption that she has done something that if it’s not outright corrupt is at least worthy of looking into, inevitably colors the way the public views the former secretary of state, and the way they respond to her in the polls.

But the negative public perception of Mrs. Clinton often feels more visceral; almost primal, than something produced merely by bad press and polls. She is also a woman of a certain age, who has refused throughout her life to play by the Rules of Public People. She is a poor public speaker, who lacks the pleasing air of a more expert retail politician (though she is clearly wittier and more personable in small groups or one on one.) She refuses to be conventionally stylish. As first lady, she never evinced a flair for fashion or a knack for popular culture, the way Michelle Obama has or Nancy Reagan or Jackie Kennedy did; nor did she evoke the “momly” air of a Barbara Bush, or the quiet spousedom of Laura. And Clinton has never had the “good sense” to pretend she doesn’t actually want power, the way women are “supposed to.” Her assertive wonkiness and sometimes callous, sometimes tone deaf statements in defense of her husband or herself have even led some younger Americans to blame her even more than Bill Clinton for the policies of his administration.

Perhaps most importantly, Hillary Clinton has steadfastly refused to cultivate a relationship with the Washington press corps; there are no cute nicknames; no rides on the “straight talk express” and few uncontrolled encounters. She has, instead, made the rejection of the media, and the people who work in it, a feature of her public life. Her campaign has deployed a literal rope line to keep the press penned in and at bay. That incenses reporters, who feel entitled, on behalf of the public, to face time with the candidate. Indeed, it has been nearly 265 days since Clinton last held a press conference; though it’s not hard to anticipate how that would go.

-snip-

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/26/can-president-hillary-survive-the-media-s-fake-scandals.html

[beachbumbob]

1. Hillary has a lead in spite of the media....the media can't fix trump....

[synergie]

13. Though they seem to be fine with the lack of transparency from anyone other than Hillary,

regardless of how much personal information she releases, and how little her opponents match her. They don't bother to actually uncover anything about Trump, they let Bernie get away with failing to keep his word about releasing tax returns, and they never ask anyone for emails, not even when it's millions erased during a time when we know the administration lied us into a war that was costly in financial terms and in human life.

[MoonRiver]

2. YES SHE HAS AND YES SHE CAN CONTINUE TO DO SO!

[DURHAM D]

3. Once again Joy Reid shows herself to be the only

media person who is honest and can get to the root of this matter.

[BlueCaliDem]

7. ^^^This!^^^ But also Lawrence O'Donnell. But the BEST media person is Joy Ann Reid!

I never miss her show. She's currently grilling some Asian person - Spencer Hsu from The Washington Post - on her show, pointing out the media bias against Hillary Clinton while the media have been quiet during the Bush era.

I have become increasingly annoyed with the "fix Trump, dump on Hillary" meme currently infesting our media on all levels. The ONLY person who is actually pointing this out is Joy-Ann Reid.

It's easy to dump on Hillary Clinton because she's equally hated on the extreme-Left as she is on all levels on the (always-wrong) Right, but this has got to STOP.

[Iliyah]

4. ABC and J Karl definetly had that slant against HRC.

Not once did they mention about T-rump's new campaign managers. Made it seem like it was all HRC with the racist attacks. Me and the store owner just shook our heads in disgust.

[One of the 99]

5. Karl is a RW shill

who should have been fired when he lied in '13: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Karl#Controversy

[synergie]

14. Yes, this false equivalency BS is getting quite old.

[DFW]

6. Oops. Just one tiny little phrase, with such big meaning, is out of place

"That incenses reporters, who feel entitled, on behalf of the public, to face time with the candidate."

ON BEHALF OF THE PUBLIC? What is this, 1974? In this era of Fox Noise and self-censorship by serious journalists for fear of offending their paymasters, it has been a loooooong time since most journalists have acting on behalf of the public. Many have to turn to humor to even be allowed to pose difficult questions (e.g. Jon Stewart). While it may not always be completely clear on whose behalf some journalists are acting, precious few these days are acting on behalf of the public. My dad was one of those journalists who DID act on behalf of the public. He lived and died by that creed for fifty years, and by the time he was on his deathbed, he was appalled at what his life-long profession was morphing into.

I can easily believe Joy Reid acts on behalf of the public. That can be said about precious few of her colleagues.

[ChazInAz]

9. My hope.

If we can get an actual, functioning Congress in place, it is my hope that we'll see a resuscitated FCC that will be enabled to go after the sleazemeisters, rumor-mongers and blatant liars that are infesting our newsrooms. (Looking at you, Fox.)

[DFW]

10. Fox already went to court to affirm their right to lie while calling themselves "news"

They used a first amendment argument--and WON!

[BlueCaliDem]

8. I'm so sick and tired of the "Hate-Hillary, Love Trump" meme currenlty infesting our M$M. She gets

attacked if she has heartburn with lies from Faux News Channel and their partners-in-propaganda, all U.S. M$M.

ONLY Joy-Ann Reid is shining a light for the vast majority of Americans who are poised to cast their vote for her. You'd think they'd be more respectful for the frontrunner, since they employed a kid-glove approach with Cheney and Bush, but when it comes to Democrats, there's no end to trumping up scandals and perpetuating them until they find another non-scandal to blow out of proportion.

These days, the M$M is hard, if not difficult, to read and watch. They're all working 24/7 to legitimize DumbTrump. Clearly, to them, ANY Republican in the White House is better than any Democrat.

[Hekate]

11. Excellent read. IMO why should HRC ever have a press conference? It's a hazing ritual....

...among a pack of people who by and large treat her like dirt, act like the GOP is the default party no matter what, and are gleefully willing to pass along any lie or false equivalency about her. Why should she ever trust them?

Hillary is doing fine in spite of them all. The ones she chooses to have face-time with on her terms should feel honored and use their access to help the American people understand a thing or two, rather than encouraging the pack to continue tearing her down.

That said, I am feeling kind of grim about the next 4 or 8 years. I had hoped to feel joyful and optimistic, but between the media and the Murkins, I'm not.

As to Joy, her show comes on rather early in my time zone, so I only catch her when she's subbing for someone who appears later. Do they ever rerun Morning Joy?

[mopinko]

15. i agree. why would she?

if they arent gonna cover the debunking of the lies that are gonna be told about her, why the hell should she cooperate w anyone in an industry that has sold itself to the highest bidder?

[PatSeg]

16. I didn't even notice that Hillary

hasn't called a press conference and couldn't think of any reason to do so. Sounds like a made up issue to me. Press conferences are for major announcements or perhaps in response to an important event.

No, I'm afraid they don't rerun Morning Joy, at least not yet.

[Hekate]

17. Certain segments of the media population have been whining all along that she won't do pressers....

In fact, Hillary has given quite a few interviews. She gives speeches of great substance that are picked to pieces and then ignored. When she talks about hard stuff they whine that it's hard to understand and that she's not witty and she's not a soaring orator.

Well we have a soaring orator in office right now, and he's witty too-- and look how he's been treated. Regarding Obama's oratorical skills, I think he's virtually a one-off in my lifetime. (I'm old enough to remember Jack Kennedy, and he was excellent, but he had only 3 years.) No one will equal Barack Obama for a long long time.

[PatSeg]

18. And when it comes to JFK,

I was surprised to hear that he was a terrible public speaker in his younger days. It is not necessarily a natural skill. Meanwhile, someone can be a great orator and a terrible leader. History has given us a lot of dictators with extraordinary speaking skills. A candidate should be judged on many levels.

I do have to say that Hillary's speech the other day was outstanding. I don't expect to see any soaring rhetoric from her any time soon, but I do think we'll see an exceptional leader.

Pressers are often just media stunts used by candidates to get free publicity. I remember Romney's disastrous press conference after Benghazi before he even knew any details. It was really embarrassing.

I'd like to see Hillary do more one-on-one interviews and maybe some more late night appearances like Jimmy Kimmel. It gives us a chance to see a very human side of her.

[Crash2Parties]

12. After the fourth or fifth "scandal" was debunked, many stopped listening...