QOTD -- The Real 2024 Media Scandal

 

"... The great irony is that there absolutely was malfeasance by the media in its coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign — not in how it covered the sitting president, but in how it covered the challenger.

"Donald Trump assaulted the Constitution he had sworn to defend after he lost reelection in 2020. He invited his followers to Washington long after the votes had been counted, whipped them up into an angry mob and then sicced them on his own vice president and Congress to coerce them into awarding him a second term.  [snip]

"The political media’s efforts to normalize him notwithstanding, it was plain from all of Trump’s open talk about revenge and his vows to grab extra-constitutional power that America was risking a slide into autocracy if voters returned him to the White House.

"An even sadder truth is that, faced with a choice between democracy and the promise of cheaper Doritos, America went with the Doritos.

"We were never going to get the latter, and, as is becoming clearer by the day, we’ll be lucky to get through this with some semblance of the former." -- S.V. Date, concluding an op/ed in HuffPo, "Yes, There Was A Media Scandal In 2024. No, It Wasn’t About Joe Biden."  There's a certain symmetry after all to myopic Jake Tapper rising to the top of the political media as the Malignant Fascist rose to the top of our political system. 

BONUS:  They're still at it, of course --

 

The MAGA movement just basically redubs all Trump appearances so that they don't hear the craziness. It's the way they deal with cognitive dissonance, and that won't change. But then the New York Times helps out with headlines written as if nothing crazy at all happened: /2

[image or embed]

— Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) May 25, 2025 at 10:16 PM

 

WTF, AP? Trump wasn’t just “accused” of “getting facts about [the supposed South African genocide] video ‘twisted’”. He DID get them twisted. He lied about it (or his subordinates lied to him about it). THIS ISN’T IN QUESTION! @froomkin.bsky.social @fairmediawatch.bsky.social

[image or embed]

— Left I on the News 🇨🇺🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️ (@leftiblog.bsky.social) May 24, 2025 at 9:59 AM

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The Olympic cauldron here was unlike any other, a hot-air balloon that rose nightly above Jardin des Tuileries. That garden, the largest in this gorgeous city, is bordered by the Louvre on one side, the Seine on another, the Rue de Rivoli to the north, and is a short walk to the Champs-Élysées. What a picture. What a place.

The Olympics needed a reset. Paris provided it. In competition, sure, but the competition always has a way of burying whatever controversy du jour precedes it, regardless of where the Games are held or how the Chablis-sipping bureaucrats from the International Olympic Committee profit from it all.

Leon Marchand and Stephen Curry. Simone Biles and Summer McIntosh. Gabby Thomas and Katie Ledecky. Stars, all.

But the showstopping star here was the city of Paris, a stage without peer. It would be one thing to have a beach volleyball court that sits in the shadow of an iconic monument, another to stage fencing in a breathtaking palace, yet another to put the equestrian competition in the gardens of a 17th century chateau. Paris did them all, and more. [snip]

Staging the Olympics is fraught. The Games, for most, are a television program that largely revolves around what their American broadcast partner, NBC, needs and wants. That can be a direct contrast to the needs and wants of the citizens of the city and country that hosts them. The IOC doesn’t care.

But for future Olympics, there is now a modern model, and a renewed spirit, that were embodied here. After the drudgery that dates back more a decade, both are welcome.

The competition almost always elevates the Olympics beyond whatever issues — self-inflicted or otherwise — threaten to hamper them. What played out in Paris were parallel tracks: athletes who deserve to be lifted up and admired, and a city that inherently elevates and inspires. We may not see such a perfect marriage again...

While we didn't watch most of the games, there's no doubt the athletes, Paris, and France acquitted themselves very, very well.

The bad:

... The senator [Junior Demagogue Vance] brought up the ongoing migrant crisis and again blamed Harris and the Biden administration's policies, such as ending "Remain in Mexico."

When asked how he and Trump would accomplish their stated goal of mass deporting as many as 20 million immigrants – a proposal experts previously told ABC News would be a "nightmare" -- Vance said they would take a "sequential approach."

"I mean do you go knock on doors and ask people for their papers? What do you do," Karl asked.

"You start with what's achievable," Vance said. "I think that if you deport a lot of violent criminals and frankly if you make it harder to hire illegal labor, which undercuts the wages of American workers, I think you go a lot of the way to solving the illegal immigration problem."

"I think it's interesting that people focus on, well, how do you deport 18 million people? Let's start with 1 million. That's where Kamala Harris has failed. And then we can go from there," Vance said... (our emphasis)

He's an ambitious, reckless little sociopath, smaller bore than the large caliber sociopath Malignant Loser.  But a dangerous one nonetheless.

The ugly:

Former president Donald Trump is trying to downplay his presidential opponents’ rally crowd sizes, falsely claiming that “nobody was there” at a Detroit event hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz.

Trump, who is obsessed with the size of his own crowds and frequently exaggerates attendance numbers, is “unhappy” with the number of people who have been attending Harris and Walz’s campaign events, as Rolling Stone reported last week.

“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” Trump ranted Sunday on Truth Social. “There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane,” Trump wrote. “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.”

In a subsequent post, Trump included an image showing a crowd looking at the vice president’s plane and claimed without evidence, “Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!”

Trump is lying. Multiple news channels broadcast the event via live stream, where the crowd is clearly visible. Photographers from the Associated Press and many other national and international outlets captured the attendees. Local news reported that “about 15,000 people filled the hangar” and the crowd was “spilling out onto the tarmac and cheering as Air Force Two arrived.”

In response to Trump’s claim, the Harris campaign posted a screenshot of Trump’s post and wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “1) This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan 2) Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week… Low energy?  (our emphasis)

 

 

The Malignant Loser's "public nervous breakdown" continues apace.  He must be defeated. He will be defeated.  But it won't be because the Republican- wired corporate media focused on his mental illness.  Imagine if President Biden or any other Democratic official had posted delusional nonsense like this, and how many weeks of breathless, feeding frenzy coverage it would get!

News Media Can't Handle The "Truth (Social)", Cont.

 

In our continuing coals to Newcastle display of evidence of the Malignant Loser's AUTHORITARIANISM, UTTER UNFITNESS, DERANGEMENT, AND BUFFOONERY (to borrow from his MANNERISMS), here are more recent droppings on his failing Truth Social platform, offered freely to the eternally misdirected media:

More here from earlier.

You're welcome, intrepid newshounds!

BONUS:  USA Today's Rex Huppke is of a like mind, and turns the table on the media's narrative.

News Media Can't Handle The "Truth (Social)"

 

Here are just a few recent posts (screenshots) of the Malignant Loser's failing "Truth Social" "truths" that you almost certainly won't see covered by the news media.  Do they seem to you to be the droppings of a stable genius and future leader of the country?  (click to enlarge)

Career criminal and convicted felon complains about the law pursuing him and trying to hold him accountable for his crimes (notwithstanding the illegitimate Republican Supreme Court's immunity decision).

Imagine if a Democrat -- President Biden or anyone else -- posted this type of lying, delusional attack on the justice system.  How many minutes or column inches would you see the news media spend on calling out the Democrat?  And yet, time after time, year after year, the convicted felon Malignant gets a pass from the news media.  In 2020, Brian Klass put his finger on the problem that carries through to today:

"... Trump gets away with it because the previously unthinkable has become routine. As a species, we are drawn to fresh and surprising information — something we could call “novelty bias.” What would surprise you more: Trump amplifying a lunatic conspiracy theory in a tweet or him unequivocally praising the sacrifices of immigrant nurses and doctors during the pandemic? The former happens all the time; the latter would provoke breathless commentary. Is Trump finally making his mythical pivot to being presidential? Is this a new general election strategy? For every other mainstream politician, that dynamic would be inverted..."

That's coupled with a base that would -- has to -- believe just about anything that came out of their cult leader's mouth, and has so for nearly a decade.  It's hard to admit to yourself you've been hustled for that long, so the convicted felon Malignant Loser is free to lie outrageously without fear of losing his voters.  And all the while the news media looks for "novelty" and ignores the derangement at our peril.

Once again, the future is in our hands.  Democrats have been outperforming the polls for two years now, and in November they need to show up and outperform them once again.

BONUS:  this --

If Biden’s name appeared in Epstein’s flight logs even ONCE, it would be front page news.

Trump’s name appeared 69 TIMES — yet there was 𝗻𝗼 media coverage.

Why does this keep happening? 🤨

— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) July 7, 2024

 

 

QOTD: "Not Some Tiny Group"

From Politico's mostly conventional wisdom takeaways from the Malignant Loser's win in the South Carolina Republican / Insurrectionist / Forced Birth party primary, this fact:

"Behind every silver lining, there has been a cloud for Trump during the GOP primary, and otherwise sunny South Carolina proved no exception. With about three-quarters of the expected vote in, some 40 percent of voters rejected Trump.

That number itself isn’t a problem in a primary. But it includes some serious reasons for concern in a general election. Trump lost moderate and liberal voters to Haley by a wide margin, according to exit polls. And, according to AP VoteCast, a bit over 1 in 5 GOP primary voters said they would not vote for Trump in November if he was the party’s nominee.

Perhaps the clearest illustration of this dynamic came in the city of Charleston, where Haley racked up more than 80 percent of the vote in some precincts.

Haley saw Trump’s soft underbelly, and underscored it in her remarks, telling supporters he 'drives people away.'

'I’m an accountant. I know 40 percent is not 50 percent,' Haley said Saturday evening. 'But I also know 40 percent is not some tiny group. There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative.'”  (our emphasis)

Don't tell the Beltway media that 40 percent isn't some tiny group; they don't do math well. If the Malignant Loser were winning 80 or more percent of the vote in the primaries, one would be justified in saying the South Carolina primary was "a trouncing" as Politico did. Consider that Haley fell short ten points of splitting the vote 50-50 with the Malignant Loser, similar to how she performed in the New Hampshire primary. 

While the Malignant Loser is certain to clinch the nomination following the primaries in March, if the trend persists, he's running just 10 points over half the vote. That's a significant number that are looking for a Trump-lite alternative in upcoming primaries. However the broken and cynical political media want a Biden - Malignant Loser horserace as soon as possible, having grown tired of covering the also-rans and being eager to discuss Biden's age. We'd like to see Haley remain in the race for as long as possible to cause the Malignant Loser's campaign to spend funds fighting her, and to continue her increasingly negative attacks on the Malignant Loser that remind voters of his criminality and extremism. 

BONUS:  Tengrain sees the same thing.

(composite: The Telegraph)

 

Journalism Fail: The 2024 Election Campaign

 

We're quoting this column by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Will Bunch at length because it goes to the heart of the failure of American journalism (once again) to explain what's really going on in our politics today. There's a bit more at the link, but this is the heart:

They stood on an arena stage in Milwaukee under a massive sign that read “Democracy” — the metaphorical 800-pound gorilla that loomed over this strange political event but was never really discussed. When the dust finally settled after two hours of the first televised debate of the 2024 GOP primaries, nothing — from the rude kids-table outbursts from the impertinent Vivek Ramaswamy to the doomed efforts by Nikki Haley or Mike Pence to be the grown-ups in the room — actually mattered inside the airy Fiserv Forum except for one thing.

All those not-so-wonderful people out there in the dark. A mob that raged, and which ultimately ruled.

This audience seemed to only care about The Man Who Wasn’t There — Donald Trump, who was too busy refueling his private jet for his next arrest to bother attending. The restive crowd reached its peak when its bête noire, the anti-Trump turncoat Chris Christie, dared try to challenge Ramaswamy’s outburst that POTUS 45 “was the best president of the 21st century.” It filled the basketball arena with boos.

The pro-Trump ruckus was such that Fox News coanchors Brett Baier and Martha McCallum dramatically turned around to face the audience. “So listen,” Baier said, “the more time we spend doing this, the less time they can talk about issues you want to talk about.”

LOL. As the night dragged on, the only “issues” the crowd seemed jazzed about were brash challenges to scientific truths that it considers elite liberal pieties — like Ramaswamy’s false claim that climate change solutions have killed more people than climate change — or authoritarian vows of violence, like Ron DeSantis’s promise to render any drug dealers at the border “stone cold dead.” None of the eight people on that stage “won” — only Trump, his angry mob, and a 21st-century brand of American fascism that is the enemy of democracy, the writing on the wall.

If you watched the hours of TV news coverage during an especially momentous week in August, there was little sense of that reality, and for long stretches of pundit blather, none at all — as talking heads gave earnest high school debating marks to candidates who are all but ignored by the GOP voter base. The disconnect deepened the next night as Trump turned what would surely be his comeuppance — his surrender at Atlanta’s bug-infested county jail for fingerprinting and a mugshot ― into an outlaw display of authoritarian force.

It was a remarkable night of imagery over substance, yet there was little discussion of why this accused felon was getting a phalanx of dozens of motorcycle cops, comprising police who are drawn to Trump’s authoritarian bluster like moths to the light. Trump’s glowering mugshot instantly became the most-talked-about picture in American history — yet not one pundit was able to explain why tens of millions of everyday voters are so eager to return to the White House this man who attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, or why his poll numbers rise with each indictment. I guess the 20th-century author and socialist Upton Sinclair really nailed it when he wrote, ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

He then goes on to call out specific "journalists" whose salaries depend on not understanding what's going on (the pundits' names doubtless will be familiar to you).  

What should journalists be about?  It seems obvious, but for the zillionth time:

These are the stakes: dueling visions for America — not Democratic or Republican, with parades and red, white, and blue balloons, but brutal fascism or flawed democracy. The news media needs to stop with the horse-race coverage of this modern-day March on Rome, stop digging incessantly for proof that both sides are guilty of the same sins, and stop thinking that a war for the imperiled survival of the American Experiment is some kind of inexplicable “tribalism.”

We need to hear from more experts on authoritarian movements, and fewer pollsters and political strategists. We need journalists who’ll talk a lot less about who’s up or down and a lot more about the stakes — including Trump’s plans to dismantle the democratic norms that he calls “the administrative state,” to weaponize the criminal justice system, and to surrender the war against climate change — if the 45th president becomes the 47th. We need the media to see 2024 not as a traditional election but as an effort to mobilize a mass movement that would undo democracy and splatter America with more blood like what was shed Saturday in Jacksonville. We need to understand that if the next 15 months remain the worst covered election in U.S. history, that it might also be the last.

We're not at all sanguine about the media -- whose salaries and corporate profits depend on not understanding -- doing that.  For a reliable predictor, just look at recent history.  In fact, looking for the media to "save" us from full- on fascism simply by reporting what is in full view for everyone to see is almost counterproductive.  We need to be in charge of our own democratic destiny.  We can't leave it to others, especially to dishonest brokers in the media.  

As Bunch notes, there was nothing about "democracy" at the Republican "debate" except for the backdrop.  What was on display in Milwaukee, from the candidates, the audience, and from "The Man Who Wasn't There" is "brutal fascism." That's the understanding that forms the reality of our politics today.

(Photo:  "Blood and soil" too obvious?  Irony lives on in Milwaukee / Joshua Lott, Washington Post)

QOTD -- Threats

 

"...[M]any business leaders, media executives and others desperately want to duck the radicalism of the Republican Party. They suggest there is a sensible center that each party should aim for, and they cast left-leaning figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) as equally problematic as former president Donald Trump.

"A months-long, heavily hyped standoff that ended with a bipartisan compromise will encourage this wrongheaded analysis of what ails American politics. We are now headed toward a presidential election in which a truly radical, antidemocratic person (Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis) looks to have a strong chance of being elected president. And the biggest priority of many in the news media and the business community will be to play down that person’s radicalism to show objectivity and neutrality.

"We didn’t default. That’s good. But the extremism of today’s Republican Party remains a huge threat to the country. This deal is a relief. It’s not cause for celebration." -- Perry Bacon, Jr., concluding a Washington Post op/ ed, summarizing the problems we still face after the debt ceiling disaster was averted:  a radical Republican/ Seditionist/ Shooters Party and a craven media unwilling to stand up for the truth and democracy.

 

Lost Causes

 

Oliver Willis, having witnessed the latest example of the corporate media rolling over for fascists in the form of Lesley Stahl's tongue- bath of Rep. Marjorie "Traitor" Greene on last Sunday's 60 Minutes, is convinced there's no hope in expecting that media to change.  Instead, he offers two responses for progressives:

Stop holding fire on the media. Criticizing the press isn’t the same as Donald Trump declaring them the “enemy of the people.” Press criticism is a long-held American tradition and while it is unlikely to produce real change in the underlying dynamic, it at least educates others about the media that is being consumed. Most politically active Americans are terrible at media literacy and don’t understand that a lot of this coverage is bad. They wrongly view the press as neutral and give the people pushing Greene and Trump and the rest too much of a benefit of a doubt.

Promote progressive media and progressive breakthroughs in the mainstream media. Liberals don’t need the equivalent of Fox News, digital cults devoted to worshipping Republican politicians. But there isn’t anything wrong with a fact-based news outlet with a progressive point of view (and yes, I work for one). Similarly, it is worth it to reward progressive breakthroughs within the mainstream media with attention, showing political leaders that their messages can work while showing mainstream media gatekeepers that it isn’t only right-wing coded stories that can add to their bottom lines (the only thing they really care about)...

We would only clarify that Democratic elected leaders at all levels need to be much more aggressive in calling out Republican- friendly media malpractice.  There are worse things than not being invited back on a program or to a reception -- like losing your democracy.  They should take a cue from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who knows how to deliver an appropriate, timely punch.  

The corporate media is not going to challenge the burgeoning fascism being offered by the Republican/ Seditionist Party;  we know that from the last 8 years, and that the only thing that matters is getting eyeballs on the product and money in the bank (and Fox "News" isn't alone -- see Moonves, Les).  They're going to give the fascists as much print and air time as they need as long as the profits go up. 

We don't usually quote Lenin here, but what he purportedly wrote rings true, to the effect that capitalists will sell you the rope to hang them with.  Problem with that today is that all our heads, and democracy's, would be in the noose.

The Washington Post's Toxic Wasteland Opinion Section

 

It should come as no surprise to you that Fox "News" has some bedfellows (but, no, it's not Newsmax or OAN).

The invaluable Dan Froomkin of Press Watch takes a look at the Washington Post's editorial board and its "disinformation- spewing" right-wing op/ ed columnists.  Here's a snippet:

You might think it would be impossible to move further and even more disastrously right when your stable includes the likes of Thiessen, Olsen, Abernathy, Parker, Hugh Hewitt, Megan McArdle, and George F. Will.

But [Post editorial page editor David] Shipley’s marquee move thus far has been to hire two more derivative right-wingers as weekly columnists: Jim Geraghty and Ramesh Ponnuru, both of whom will also continue to serve as editors of the National Review.

Geraghty is a Ron DeSantis stan. In a column for the Post before getting his permanent gig, he wrote about DeSantis that “plenty of Americans across the partisan divide would have good reason to root for him.” Why? Because “he fights for policies, not to prosecute vendettas.” Like so much of the Post opinion offerings, that is laugh-out-loud funny.

Ponnuru was an early, fact-unencumbered culture warrior, who has written that Democrats support “killing unborn children at any stage of pregnancy.”

They join a cast of disinformation-spewers who add nothing to the national discourse.

This, remember, is the newspaper with the "Democracy Dies in Darkness" line under its front page header.  The darkness descending here is palpable.

In normal times, unlike the one we're living in, having an opinion page serve as a forum for ideas from across the political spectrum would be par for the course.  We're old enough to remember Walter Lippmann and Joseph Alsop sharing space on the Post's op/ed page.  But, with a 24- hour right- wing media ecosystem dedicated to pushing lies, conspiracies, and democracy- undermining narratives, what we don't need is more of the same on the pages of one of our national newspapers.  But, for corporate media like Fox "News" and Jeff Bezos' Post, it's always going to be about the "green," not "red and blue."

Here's what Froomkin believes should be the case:

Post Opinion should be the go-to for people who believe government can make things better.

That would entail publishing essays that explore solutions, and that expose the bad faith of  people and institutions that stand in the way of progress.

Yes, that would include conservative voices – but smart ones, original ones, with integrity, committed to verifiable facts.

In times like these, when there’s an obligation to expose readers to the lies and fantasies that are a major part of the national discourse, Post Opinions could do that too, but with full transparency, so readers don’t grant lies the credibility of the Post brand.

Froomkin goes on to give thumbnail sketches of the right- wing disinformation-spewers, and why their presence on the pages of the Post is harmful to our democracy.  

One more example of the Post's promoting damaging, false narratives:  here's their sole editorial cartoon today from right- winger Mike Beckom, a deceitful pots- calling- the- kettle- black "both sides" defense of the rat hole that is Fox "News":

There is an organization fast becoming a disgrace, and Froomkin gives you a good picture of which one it is.

(Image:  proposed new tag line for the Post)

NBC News Launched New Smear On Paul Pelosi

 

If you're a viewer of a certain corporate tv news network, you might want to switch channels:

NBC News reporter Miguel Almaguer had what seemed like a scoop on Friday about an intruder’s attack last week on Paul Pelosi. The curious new details he presented on the “Today” show quickly went viral on right-wing sites and social media accounts.

One problem: Much of Almaguer’s account was inaccurate, based on flawed information provided by a source who was unnamed in the report, according to people at the network. Those people said Almaguer was incorrect when he reported that the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave police no indication he was in danger when he answered the door. In fact, San Francisco police have said that Pelosi was struggling with the intruder, David DePape, when they first saw him.

But before NBC News’s hasty removal of the video from its website — accompanied by a vague note that the story “did not meet NBC News reporting standards” — it spawned a sinister new narrative...

We won't stink up this post any further with this particular example of egregious media malpractice (at the very least) except to say that this isn't the first incident where NBC News helped launch a right- wing smear.  You may recall NBC News/ Fox "News" aspirant Dasha Burns' effort to paint Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman in an unflattering light, an effort that was rewarded by the usual suspects:

The whole mess started with an NBC News segment on Fetterman in which reporter Dasha Burns discussed her pre-interview interaction with Fetterman, which didn’t involve closed captioning.

“Without captioning, it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation,” Burns said. The interview itself used closed captioning, and throughout it Fetterman had no visible problems processing or “understanding” her questions.

The problem is her use of the word “understanding,” which could be construed to suggest cognitive impairment, potentially misleading voters. Health experts note a sharp distinction between that and the post-stroke challenges in auditory processing Fetterman is experiencing, which can be mitigated with closed captioning but don’t impact cognitive functions such as intelligence or decision-making.

Burns did make this distinction clearer in an MSNBC appearance, explaining that closed captioning was needed to mitigate processing issues. But she again suggested Fetterman had trouble “understanding” her without it.

And presto: That language is exactly what [Fox's fascist fanboy Tucker] Carlson latched on to in his Wednesday night segment. He aired that Burns quote and then cynically transformed it into something even worse.

Burns' smear may have had a lasting effect on the race, which has been tightening as Republicans and their handmaidens in the media have continued to cast doubt on Fetterman's health.  Having lazy "reporters" and editors on your roster who act as willing or unwilling dupes at a time when our country's democracy is at stake is unforgivable.  Once in a cycle is bad enough.  Twice?  Time to switch channels.

It's The Media's Default

 

Well, once again, when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans act like they always do, and the media is happy to enable them.

The issue today, as Press Watch's Dan Froomkin writes, is Republican stonewalling on increasing the debt limit and the media both- siding the crisis:

Republican congressional leaders are flagrantly ginning up a major political and financial crisis — safe in the knowledge that the Washington press corps will blame both sides.

At issue is a formality: raising the debt ceiling so that the U.S. government can continue paying the bills as previously appropriated by Congress.

But Republicans are refusing to go along, threatening a catastrophic government default and shutdown that could send the U.S. economy into an immediate recession and destabilize global markets.

They’re saying that keeping the government solvent is a Democratic problem now.

It’s an abandonment of the responsibility of governing. It is aberrational behavior by a political party that is willing to take extreme and potentially damaging action to score political points. It’s a hostage crisis.

And by not calling it out for what it is, the political press is enabling it.

Froomkin goes on to name names and provide examples of the media's lazy enabling of Republican maliciousness. But, of course, this is a continuing practice for the media, so much so that you could say it's their default position:

In 2013, when Senator Ted Cruz and his fellow Republicans shut down the government for 16 days in an attempt to defund Obamacare, the Washington Post blamed it on a “bitterly divided” Congress that “failed to reach agreement,” while the New York Times called it “a bitter budget standoff” left unresolved by “rapid-fire back and forth legislative maneuvers.”

As I wrote at the time, how can democracy self-correct if the public does not understand where the problem lies? And where will the pressure for change come from if journalists do not hold the responsible parties accountable?

It's easy to say we get the media we deserve, but after the last 4 years in particular, why are so many of them still so eager to enable the party that's out to destroy our democracy?  Why is there no reporting on the nihilism and hypocrisy that's in plain view that's killing us, slowly but surely.  If these ugly times don't call for accountability and the plain truth, when will they?  "Democracy dies in darkness," my ass.