Post Time! The Media's Horserace Narrative

With the hastily- arranged run down to Mexico by neo- fascist wall builder Donald "Rump" Trump, the amoral media has yet another opportunity to "normalize" the Rump candidacy.  As Charles Pierce points out, the trip isn't to garner Hispanic American votes, or the votes of squishy Republicans who want a veil of respectability in order to vote Rump.  No,

 ... it's primarily aimed at the suckers in the elite political press, some of whom, I guarantee you, will fall for this malarkey because…optics! He has a gift for dominating the news cycle! And all this on a day in which ABC and the Post are tootling the call to the post because of their new poll showing that Hillary Rodham Clinton is as unpopular as Trump is among likely voters. Whee, kids! As Fred Caposella used to say, the crowd is moving closer to the rail and that can mean only one thing—it is now post time!

Like the gleeful little nihilists they are, the "mainstream media," this time in the form of ABC News and the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, takes credit for their ability to damage the "sane, competent" person standing in the way of a Rump regime:

Clinton’s rise in unpopularity follows renewed attention on her use of a private email server and alleged conflicts of interest over her connections to the Clinton Foundation fundraising while she served as secretary of state.

Mainstreaming more of the halfwit email server nothingburger, in service to right- wing Clinton pursuer Judicial Watch, and the Clinton Foundation's "alleged conflicts of interest" (alleged by the same right- wing noise machine and some media watercarriers like the AP) will certainly pull those numbers down to horserace levels! You've done your jobs well, you useful idiot ratf*ckers!  Every poll point up or down will now be portrayed by the media as "Rump's comeback, race tightening!" (Enjoy the view from inside President Rump's enhanced, barbwire "press pen!")

All of which makes it easier to understand why there's one group that's far, far, far more unpopular than Clinton or even Rump:

Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans' skepticism about what they read on social media. 

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public's view of other institutions.  (our emphasis)

Not trustworthy!  Sad!

BONUS: Now, the Rump fluffers in the media are whining that Rump didn't take them to Mexico for his "visit." Not to worry; he'll bring back some tequila for them and everything will be "Presidential."

The Lying Game

Republicans and their media enablers have been peddling The Narrative for decades that Hillary Clinton has a "trustworthy" problem: that, well, she lies.  We're willing to postulate that some of this narrative has roots in (1) the hounding of the Clintons by their political opponents and the media for 25 years, and their consequent desire to erect privacy walls to deflect that hounding, (2) the urge to use cautious, niggling, lawyerly language when a simple declaration is in order, and (3) blahblahblah who gives a crap - it's a lazy, phony narrative.

That said, though, the next time someone tells you "Hillary lies" on Facebook, in a conversation, etc., feel free to cite this data from the independent fact- checkers at PolitiFact (click on images to enlarge):



Displayed differently, with other politicians listed dating back to 2007, here's how she compares:


(Credit: Robert Mann, dataviz)

In the longer duration chart directly above, you'll notice neo- fascist pathological liar Donald "Rump" Trump fares even worse, hitting about 78% Mostly False, False, Pants on Fire.  Which makes sense -- the longer time his lips are moving, the more lies spew out.

You'll also notice Republicans hold down the top 14 spots.

Tweets Of The Day - The Long And Winding Narratives

Please enjoy two & a half decades of people asking HRC the same "question." "People hate you: please respond." https://t.co/AqlkUzPmfV

— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) August 4, 2016

So interesting to see cable nets and print reporters using emails to try to create equivalence/"balance" between Trump and Clinton

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) August 5, 2016

We're in an Armageddon election with a neo- fascist, existential threat to our country and the world representing the Republican Party.  This is how the feckless, insipid media respond.

See also post below.

Funny/ Not Funny

“In the last 24 hours, Donald Trump has refused to endorse Republican leaders up for re-election, accused John McCain of failing veterans, suggested Americans pull their 401(k)s out of the stock market, threw out a crying baby at a rally, fought with the father of a dead soldier, and suggested President Obama was responsible for the death of troops during George W. Bush’s time in office. Said voters: ‘Yeah, but I’m not sure I trust Hillary Clinton.’ ”  -- "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on the tired narrative about Clinton that won't die, a narrative that the corporate media is all too happy to keep alive.