QOTD -- The Biggest Losers

 

 

"So what happened? Political journalists were suckered by a wave of Republican junk polls in the closing weeks of the campaign. They were also swayed by some reputable polling organizations that, burned by past failures to capture MAGA voters, overweighted their polls to account for that in ways that simply didn’t make sense. And reporters fell for Republican feints and misdirection, as Republican operatives successfully created an artificial sense of momentum by talking about how they were spending money in reliably blue areas.  [snip]

"The news media took the faulty assumption that Republicans would enjoy a red wave and plugged in explanations for the imagined outcome. Democrats blew it because they spoke too much about abortion and democracy, and too little about the economy and crime. (In fact, crime and the economy figured prominently in many Democratic campaigns.)" -- Dana Milbank, Washington Post, writing about how the  media largely fell for the Republican narrative of a "red wave," becoming the biggest loser of the election cycle.  Milbank offers much more evidence of the media's enchantment with the Republican narrative and their highly dubious polls.  We're old enough to remember that this is not a new phenomenon, which is why "Republican- wired media" is a phrase that has a history going back decades.  The most charitable explanation would be that political reporters are simply not good at their jobs;  another would be they dread showing any bias that could paint them as "liberal media."  Of course, both explanations could be true (and likely are) at the same time.  And don't worry, they'll be back -- in 2024.

BONUS:  See also here, here, here, and here.

BONUS II:  Perfect example.  The New York Effing Times stuck with the "red wave" narrative even into Wednesday morning (and despite its own polling!):

 

lol you do you, @nytimes pic.twitter.com/1g5aNjz35J

— Anil Kalhan • @kalhan@mastodon.social (@kalhan) November 9, 2022

(Cartoon: Al Goodwyn, gocomics.com)

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.

Media Desperate To Give Trump Credit For Vaccine Rollout

 

The "mainstream media" is back to its old tricks, having learned nothing from 4 years of dystopia ending in a botched coup attempt:

With the COVID-19 vaccines starting to bring the pandemic to an end, former President Trump has stepped in to take credit for the feat. 

What’s surprising is that he’s been aided in this by the Washington Post and New York Times, both of which have run articles this week arguing that the speed-up in the vaccine rollout under President Biden only builds off of a plan put into place by Trump. In short, they contend that Trump is right: he had a plan to distribute the vaccine that Biden was lucky enough to inherit.  

That’s flat wrong. A look at what actually happened in the Trump administration’s last months shows that the White House lacked a plan for the “last mile” of distribution, leaving that to the states while lobbying Congress not to pass much-needed funding that would spur state and local governments to get the vaccine into arms. 

On its own terms, the Trump administration did not have a plan to distribute the vaccine to Americans en masse beyond “let the states figure it out.”  (our emphasis)

Here's NBC's Peter Alexander whining that President Biden didn't give credit to the former guy, basically providing laudatory words to put in the President's mouth:

 

 

For his tone deaf, ahistorical kumbaya efforts, Alexander gets rightfully dunked:

 

In the long history of dumb media dynamics, “why won’t Biden give more credit to the bleach drinking insurrectionist for his management of the pandemic that killed 500k people” may be the dumbest to date https://t.co/4Tdh7rYQKf

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) March 12, 2021

 

Then, we have the media "factcheckers":

 

Which doesn't sound like much of a plan---> https://t.co/mwocfi63de

— Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) March 12, 2021

There's more that could be dug up, but we're tired and it would just be redundant.

We expect (and are seeing) this revisionist history from the likes of Fox "News" and the various frothing right- wing Trumpist outlets.  But when "mainstream media" seems to be taking its cues from them, it's deeply disheartening to say the least.  The vaccine rollout has been botched in many states, thanks to the Trump "plan" noted above -- "let the states figure it out."   It's causing delays and potentially unnecessary death. That's not cause for praise.

But at least it's a pause in their whining about Biden not holding a press conference yet.