This NY Times homepage illustrates my continued frustration with the US media and campaign coverage and the lack of lessons learned from 2016. I count 11 headlines today mentioning Trump/Pence. 1 mentions Harris. 0 mention Biden:
What's so awesome about this: As with every other time the Trump administration bungled something, they stubbornly refused to admit they made a mistake and just plowed ahead with some absurdity while pretending it was the plan all along.
The
@nytimes
has a dangerous obsession with Le Pen. A quick review of headlines from the past month:
Marine Le Pen Is as Dangerous as Ever
Macron May Keep the Presidency, but Le Pen Has Already Won
@JamesFallows
@ewong
You mean like the left has been saying for 4 decades? Huh. Imagine that. Here's another scoop: Reagan sold arms to Iran to fund the Contras.
I understand Trump is facing a health crisis. But 11 headlines? Surely Biden said something noteworthy while campaigning yesterday in Arizona? But instead, the media lets Trump suck up all the oxygen as he has for years.
Even if the tone toward her is negative, she has absolutely dominated the way the Times covers and thinks about this election. In much the same way Trump used to drive media narratives. Lessons not learned, I guess.
@AOC
We're headed to a Democratic president which means it's time for the GOP to start pretending they care about the budget after blowing a massive hole in the deficit following a reckless tax cut. Again.
"We will not be intimidated...We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide. We are going to prove it. And we are going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom."—Sidney Powell
The point is: To paint Macron as somehow unusually unpopular is just not the case. He is one of the 3 or 4 most popular politicians in the country at this point, not bad in a country where hating the president is practically the national pastime.
@RonFilipkowski
I will give her this: She has muscled her way into an astonishing level of power and influence for someone who has only served one term.
The coverage is veering into New York Times Pitchbot (
@DougJBalloon
) territory. It reeks of the Trump-obsessive coverage in the US. The determination to understand the monster's appeal and working doubly hard to avoid the appearance of liberal bias and thus overcompensating.
The default seems to be: Anyone voting for Macron is just choosing the person they hate less. But that's not true. Polls show his approval rating is above 40%, among the highest for anyone seeking re-election in the last 20 years. He was the first choice of 28% in round 1.
This week is also a good reminder that while Trump was a catastrophe, much of the stuff happening now is the fruit of decades of basic Republican ideology and strategy.
The party was not overrun by extremists. It is extreme at its core.
This show must have pretty broad appeal because even my mother in Kansas is watching it. 👀 If you can convince the heartland to watch something with subtitles, that is pretty impressive!
@MollyJongFast
@yashar
Who the fuck would get on a panel with her in the first place? And The Paley Center should know better than to let that kind of horsehit be said on its stage.
Bottom line: This coverage is lunacy. Fortunately, the Times doesn't have the sway with French voters that it does (or used to?) in the US. But for much of the world, it paints a dangerously inaccurate picture of the country.
@karaswisher
However, I do love that Elmo conned his fanbase into paying $8 for the blue check that they resented others for having, and then he turned around and gave it for free to those same notable people.
@sama
It's a shame he decided to flush down the toilet whatever goodwill he had built up just to purchase this platform so he could elevate hard-right voices, conspiracy theories, and disinformation. He red pilled himself and now he looks like a clown.
@waltshaub
This is why the GOP and their perpetually aggrieved followers have been emphasizing that the US is a republic. They are entering permanent minority status, and so the electoral college, Senate, and stuffing the courts are their main strategies (along with voter surpression).
@RexChapman
@bubbaprog
Joe Biden: "To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies."
BBQ Beer Freedom guy: Hold my beer...and mask!
I have my own critiques of Macron. And it's fair to say that there's unusual disdain for him relative to the actual state of the country. Whatever his successes, he is a clumsy politician. Still, where are the stories seeking to understand the Macron voter?
Without direct evidence, branding the President a white supremacy adherent becomes a cheap piece of political propaganda. And I would say the same thing about any politician maligned that way if flimsy evidence were used in the smear.
@waltshaub
@JasonSCampbell
How do people watch this? In addition to the racism and misogynism...the weird editing style and the constant twitching make it impossible to view for more than 10 seconds.
Missed the impeachment hearings over the last 2 weeks? Well, I watched almost every word (doing commentary for
@NBCNews
&
@MSNBC
) so you didn't have to. My quick takeaways in one thread. 1.
@TerryFinnAgain
Odd choice to post this video. From this angle, it looks like the gate is sticking out on the street. (At least, it looks like the street rather than the sidewalk.) In which case, the guy who posted the video would be liable should the kid's family sue.
PS: While Jean-Luc Mélenchon came close to besting Le Pen, he was the subject of 1 feature in the Times. If he had advanced, I think collective heads at the Times would have exploded.
Late Surge Has Fiery French Leftist Eyeing Presidential Runoff
I can't even begin to appreciate how mindbending this must have been for a parent, probably born in the 1930s, of teenagers listening to this. The electric guitar. The crazy sounds of the music. Kids dancing like they are having seizures. And on a box broadcasting images!
But if you're going to slobber all over Le Pen's reinvention and the drift to the right over and over, it would seem that it be reasonable to explore some of Macron's achievements, and why many other voters are big fans.
Hey hey just re-upping this story from Nov. 3, 2016 about all these GOP senators vowing not to fill the Scalia opening for 4 years if Clinton had won the election.
Tesla is building a hardcore litigation department where we directly initiate & execute lawsuits. The team will report directly to me.
Please send 3 to 5 bullet points describing evidence of exceptional ability.
justice
@tesla
.com
Take France's booming tech sector. That would seem to be a good thing, no? Well, no. Because according to the Times, it has not solved all of France's economic issues (an impossibly high bar).
‘La French Tech’ Arrives Under Macron, but Proves No Panacea
The “Omelette Du Fromage” mystery man has been revealed. The man who rocketed to French internet celebrity thanks to a random TV cameo is 30-year-old Meka Anyanetu of Washington, D.C. Via
@forbes
Today is a notable day in French history : The 20th anniversary of the 'attack' on a McDonald's in rural France. Like so many things that happen here, this story managed to be turned into a caricature of the French as it gained international attention. So what hapened that day?
@girlsreallyrule
@AlanGedeEdwards
If the Dems do nothing, he will consider himself all powerful. And those who turned out in the 2018 Blue Wave will be disheartened by do nothing Dems and possibly be less inclined to vote in 2020.
.
In the raging debate over free speech and Parler and AWS, it's worth reading Amazon's response to the lawsuit. Amazon had been telling Parler for almost 2 months that the increasingly violent content violated AWS TOS. In response, Parler did...nothing.
@RexChapman
Per your earlier tweet: Seriously, what were the writers' rooms like on these shows. He's a dog, who is a janitor, but is secretly a martial arts superhero who bounces off the ironing board and then lands in a garbage dumpster where his supercar is hidden!
Readers might be interested to know about a €30bn reindustrialization plan announced last year to catalyze production across numerous sectors, especially green ones. (Wait, isn't Macron purely neoliberal?) France is attracting record foreign investment.
The impact
@AOC
has had in one term is amazing. The Green New Deal is a great example. The idea is growing (even if it won't pass this year due to GOP). Example: The Occitanie region in France announced a "Green New Deal"...even using the name in Engish.
And Hollande...FFS, the man had an approval rating of 4% at one point. So inept he didn't even run for re-election. This is what unpopularity looks like.
A NY Times columnist quits in disgust at what an organ of enforced orthodoxy the paper’s editorial pages have become. Read every word. The ring of truth is unmistakable.
@maggieNYT
I can't imagine anyone thought she was a "secret weapon." I think the question was whether she worthy of pity/sympathy because was trapped in the White House with her deranged husband. Answer: LOL NOPE!
Why does this matter? I highly recommend this episode of
@PodSaveAmerica
, where they polled in-depth undecided voters (starting about 46 mins). Amazingly, a large number have no opinion on Biden, despite 47 years in public service.
@ScottAdamsSays
"major side effects" is too vague for a poll. It's like "middle class". 90% of the population thinks they are middle class, even people who are quite rich or poor. What I consider "major" (severe chills, sore, exhaustion) may not be medically "major" (requiring hospitalization).