From the “you can’t make this stuff up” and “things the Washington DC political press corps ignore” departments:
On 04 April, presidential candidate Donald Trump —- in an incoherent statement —- accused President Joe Biden of being “high as a kite” on “white stuff” while delivering the State of the “Nation/Union” address.
Because the political press corps cherry pick quotable phrases, they are normalizing Trump’s presidential candidacy, according to Dan Pfeiffer.
[T]he traditional political media decided to ignore this outlandish accusation [about cocaine] from a clearly deranged and dishonest man (and the next potential President of the United States)… The reporters who cover Trump listened to the interview and many wrote stories about his comments on Israel and Gaza, but they made an editorial decision to bury Trump’s insane accusations.
He has dubbed this reporting an “inadvertent pro-Trump bias.”
I think Pfeiffer is too forgiving. This behavior is conscious, and it’s at least eight years old.
Voters who aren’t MAGA cult members need to come face-to-words. That’s only happening in independent reporting.
Another example: Israel
In the interview, Trump advised Israel prime minister Netanyahu to “get it over with” (the attacks on Gaza) and stop releasing “tapes of buildings falling down” because “Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.”
Trump also accused Biden (this guy) of cheating at golf:
Hewitt, of course, ignored most of the nonsense.
I’ve said for years, like a broken record stuck on repeat, that no Hollywood studio would green light a screenplay that featured Trump’s transcripts. It wouldn’t pass the “suspension of disbelief” requirement.
“Not the odds, but the stakes.” That’s how Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor and media critic, thinks news organizations should be covering the 2024 presidential election.
“The stakes, of course, mean the stakes for American democracy,” Rosen told Oliver Darcy, CNN, last year. “The stakes are what might happen as a result of the election.” Rosen continued: “The horse race [odds] should not be the model… It should not be the organizing principle of your campaign coverage.”
In that spirit, I am writing periodic reports focused on the stakes facing voters in this presidential election.
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com