They drone on incessantly about President Biden’s age, and gleefully examine at length every one of his occasional verbal gaffes as “proof” that he is senile.
But they pay scant notice to Former Guy’s age, which is only 3 years younger. And they pretend they don’t hear when he tells a crowd that he is leading Obama in the polls (not the only time he’s been confused about who’s currently in the White House), and that if we reelect the latter, he’s going to get the U.S. into World War II. Or when he keeps insisting that the election was “stollen” — a spelling he’s used repeatedly. (In one Media Matters study, cable “news” covered Biden’s age and/ or health nearly FOUR TIMES as much as the other guy’s.)
They compliantly echo the false claim that Biden sent 6 billion dollars to Iran, and helped fund Hamas. And gloss over the former administration’s loathsome history of stirring up the hornet’s nest in the Middle East and then smugly walking away from it.
When the news broke that the head crook at Mar-A-Lago had shared classified information with a foreign visitor who then passed it on to dozens of other people, what was the top story at CNN? That Biden’s previous dog, like his current one that they’d already been profiling at great length, has a tendency to bite. Nor was CNN the only network to provide this dog-bites-man story wall-to-wall coverage. Predictably, Fox lapped it up with canine rabidity.
It seems that in recent times, TFG has been accelerating his rate of abominable statements and actions at a dizzying pace. He’s suggested that Gen. Mark Milley should be executed for not being subservient enough. He’s repeatedly threatened judges, attorneys and witnesses in the criminal cases against him, and tried to incite violence against them. He’s openly admitted that should he get back into the White House, he’ll undertake a massive purge of civil servants and replace them with lackeys — indeed, not only has he admitted it, he’s actually boasted of having a detailed plan.
And what are the media most obsessed with? Hunter Biden’s laptop. Any day, they’re sure to find something on it. Any day. Surely.
And it isn’t just Former Guy who’s striving to dismantle the known universe and rebuild it in his own image. In dozens of red states, and even some that are not so red, Republicans are drastically rewriting the book so they can pull every dirty trick in it. They’re indulging in racial gerrymandering like a Sharpie president, and stacking election boards with deranged election deniers poised to toss out the results of any election that doesn’t go their way. When the media cover this alarming and pervasive trend at all, they couch it merely as something that concerns Democrats or “voting rights advocates”. (Shouldn’t that be everyone?)
The media compliantly report on the “culture wars” without ever noting that only one side is waging war. When they discuss “wokeness”, they never, ever describe what the word woke actually is supposed to mean; rather, they bow down before the straw man definition that right-wingers have erected in the public forum. And when they report on how school boards all over the country are being bullied, threatened, and even taken over by foamy-mouthed fascists like Moms For Liberty, they tend to shove it under the right-wing spin umbrella that the Biden administration, in trying to address the potential for violence, was “targeting concerned parents” and “calling them terrorists”. And they’re all too willing to carry the right-wing trope that the Biden administration’s benign efforts to counter disinformation are actually authoritarian and dystopian.
Mind you, it isn’t just the conservative media committing these sins. Over at NBC, Kristen Welker sat down for a long, long loooooong “interview” with Former Guy, giving him an opportunity to open the throttle on the bullshit spreader, with scarcely a fact check on the horizon. (NBC provided a postmortem fact check, but the damage was done in real time. And why would anyone possibly see any need whatsoever to interview him at all?)
It has become a shopworn truism that “nobody trusts the media anymore”, and there’s a great deal of truth to this across the ideological spectrum. But there is as always a huge difference between left and right. The left distrusts the media because media kisses the boots of the right in order to appear unbiased. The right distrusts the media because its movers and shakers deliberately engineer that distrust, flooding the zone with misinformation — including misinformation about the media.
The 2016 election should have been the only wake-up call anyone could ever need. The media treated Former Guy like a serious candidate so they would have a horse race that would be much better for ratings than the slam dunk the election should have been. They literally created the nightmare “presidency” of the ensuing four years. And yet they still didn’t learn their lesson. And obviously still haven’t learned it even now.
No, actually they have. They’ve learned the lesson that cheap theatrics and silly soundbites get more views and clicks than truth and substance. And they’re still eager to pursue that model no matter the cost to society or the world.
The Propaganda Professor 
You need to consider the religious beliefs of who owns the media for they certainly call the tune!This is why the 76 year pogrom and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians is always referred to as ‘Plucky little Israel’ exercising its right to defend itself.
What if Israel agreed to a cease fire? would Hamas be certain to negotiate, or just kill their hostages anyway?
Yes the media calls the tune but on this one I think you’ve got it wrong. Did you hear Netenyatu ask us, (would America decide to arragne for an immediate ceasfire on Dec. 7th) insteads of gearing up our milirary forces for an swift attack in return?
I’m not totally happy with Israels leaders, but it’s always easier to be a monday morning quarterback, than to truly view a conflict throuogh the eyes of the people who were attacked first. I have no love lost for Hamas, and the other Nazi like terrorist groups who infest the middle east!! And suppose after the Twin Towers were changed into toxic breezes the US decided to immiately negotiate instead trying to find Bin Laden, (not with the concoctions of the Bush Administration), but with real survelance pointing at Afghanistan and Pakistan, before waseting Hundreds of thousands of deaths and Trillions of dollars , Hoping to reshape Iraq into and oil rich democracy to benefit guess who?
Howdy Prof!
I’m convinced that’s the reason Musk bought Twiter, to dismantle it as an effective tool for liberal organization and information dissemination. Whether that is the real reason or not, it is the effect.
It also fits the maxim, as long as it hurts our enemies first and worst, it is worth the collateral damage, which is an adaptation of the racist mantra.
Huzzah!
Jack
You’re probably right on target.
11/01/2023
“The media compliantly report on the “culture wars” without ever noting that only one side is waging war.”
How true! They condemned CRT as something grade school teachers force on their children in order to make them feel guilty. Yet if you ask any Trumpers, to define CRT, They will not even make the attempt. Instead, they Stereotype Dems, as God Haters, America haters, baby killers, and commies–as they engage in the bizarro world arguments rich in “divide, and conquer ploys”–designed to cause many reasonable men to react to the another guy’s crookedness with anger, and when they do, that anger flows back and forth between facts and lies, effectively polarizing those of us who prefer to accept objective facts, (rather than hurling accusations back and forth). But all the anger and friction truly result from spreading Trumper’s concocted lies–and wickedly stirs up the other guy’s bias into a hornet’s nest of hate, even though none of Trump’s lies have ever been proved, even as they continue to spread enmity between our fellow men with bizarre and often meritless talking points?
They took on the role of their children’s protectors, even though all moms and dads already have the power to protect children by telling their teachers that they object to some of the books they think their children might be forced to read, even though their children have never been required to read any books that their parents don’t like, “evil” books like Romeo and Juliet, and 1984. that they think don’t belong in public schools?
From the beginning, our social media quagmire has distorted real facts that might teach children the value of critical thinking! Then, when the crap hits the fan, the rest of us will be asked to clean it up–after a one-sided war that is so absurd and offensive in many ways, even though the polarization had no real cause–Just made up facts and inflammatory rhetoric that’s never truly been part of objective reality–so instead they became a devious war cry meant to incite anger, frustration and violence, when there is actually no real way to validate any of Trump’s lies!
Each time I comment on “X,” I find that I must hit the ground running, even though I was hoping to actually discuss real issues, like inflation, taxes, infrastructure, Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, global warming etc–using real facts and rational arguments that both Democrats and Trumpers should be able to accept. Instead, as you said, I must waste time googling about Biden’s dogs, his son’s latest social faux pas, and a myriad of other overblown issues. Trumpers only seem willing to play a “(my candidate is better than your candidate game)” because Biden’s dog actually bit someone, because his gait looked feeble, or because of some other minor gaffe that then becomes the only thing right wingers focus on–none of the real issues stuff–Instead they regurgitate endless Na Na Na, Na Nas, along with ridiculous claims that Trump is more virtuous than the President–no matter what Webster’s Dictionary, Encyclopedia Britannica, or any of the numerous fact checkers who affirm the truth, despite what any of Trump’s lies might say. Instead, Liberals are made to feel kind of like violent felons, just for stealing a loaf of bread in order to feed a starving child–Like the hero in Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables” did, and then was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor for his “illegal “crime of compassion.”
If Trumpers create fables and deceptive lies, their claims will need to be proven before a majority of us believes them–and we all know what happened to that ancient democratic concept under Trump’s vain, Authoritarian, and Transactional power plays!
In response to Calico Jack:
What if Israel agreed to a cease fire? would Hamas be certain to negotiate, or just kill their hostages anyway?
Yes the media calls the tune, but on this one I think you’ve got it wrong. Did you hear Netanyahu ask us, (would America decide to arrange for an immediate ceasefire on Dec. 7th) instead of gearing up our military forces for an swift attack in return?
I’m not totally happy with Israel’s leaders, but it’s always easier to be a monday morning quarterback, than to truly view a conflict through the eyes of the people who were attacked first. I have no love lost for Hamas, and the other Nazi like terrorist groups who infest the middle east!! And suppose after the Twin Towers were changed into toxic breezes the US decided to immediately negotiate instead trying to find Bin Laden, (not with the concoctions of the Bush Administration), but with real surveillance pointing at Afghanistan and Pakistan, before wasting Hundreds of thousands of lies and Trillions of dollars , hoping to reshape Iraq into and oil rich democracy to benefit guess who?
Now on 9-28-2-2025
I think the correct answer concerning who is to blame, would be (Netanyahu). I’m unsure that Israel’s citizens would really want to see children be bombed to death or to die of hunger in GAZA or anywhere else, so we should not be blaming the citizens of the Israel instead blaming the horrific conditions in GAZA on Netanyahu, their autocratic leader. whose hatred had made him extremely stubborn and willing to accept the genocidal effects of his policies in hopes of finally eliminating HAMAs and to remove Iran as a nuclear threat.
It’s tragically unfortunate that Netanyahu turns a deaf ear to the daily horrors of the genocide he helped create. He is a hard assed Autocrat who has witnessed decades of hostilities from surrounding areas and has seen many busloads of innocent tourists blown to bits, as they were beginning a guided tour of Jerusalem. But the really sad thing is that he is not the only world leader who’s that cruel, i.e. Russia headed by Putin who ordered an attack on Ukraine–telling his soldiers to commit Nazi-like atrocities against Ukraine’s innocent civilians.
For sure, we all live in a world full of crazy people who all want to control the political show for their own selfish purposes. But the suggestion that Biden deliberately refused to even try and influence Netanyahu to provide many more truckloads of food and medical supplies to help innocent citizens who were not soldiers nor working for Hamas while some other countries experience long virtually unending strife from their hostile neighbors. the anger boils over and causes everyone involved to be so full of hate that they start living only for revenge. But we Americans should not assume that Biden did not do everything he possible could to convince Netanyahu to provide much more food and medicines which would’ve helped eliminate most of the suffering endured by innocent children in in GAZA. Biden has not got the power to tell Netanyahu what to do, and refusing to give him more missiles and weapons to help Israel would only have lead to a more complete and horrific tragedy for Israel too.
American President’s simply do not have the power to tell sovereign countries what to do, (although Trump is certainty trying hard to). Then there is also the fact that the US has many treaties with Israel promising to help Israel defend itself, lest hatred threatens to turn Mankind’s very existence into a world where violence and killing become daily norms everywhere, and make it more possible to incinerate all of our world with nuclear weapons–just because our hatred of others is so damn intense and motivating that sometimes hostile enemies don’t even care if their actions allow any of them to go on living!