CNN is roasting Trump at the moment.

[calimary]

34. NOW they are. Haven't always been, though.

Last edited Fri Sep 16, 2016, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Welcome to DU, NoGoodNamesLeft.

That more even-handed treatment of Hillary versus Trump - is fairly recent. I've watched them closely, too. Them and MSNBC. It's been FAR too easy and WAY to prevalent just to run with the anti-Hillary talking points. I think it may be because there's been a surprisingly large pushback in the Op/Eds, and online, Twitter etc, of people complaining that Hillary gets a bad rap, they'll chew on her legs all day long for something they do a brief fly-by with Trump or other republi-CONS.

For example - how much in-depth follow-up coverage has there been for that Newsweek bombshell about Trump's funky business dealings that can easily leave our national security totally compromised if he becomes POTUS? Answer? NONE. I suspect if that story had Hillary's name attached, they'd still be crawling all over it months from now. The lopsided coverage of every last question or rumor or lie about Hillary, Bill, the Clinton Foundation, the emails, the works - after it's been repeatedly proven there's nothing there - that's all there's been. Up til just lately.

As recently as only a few days ago, Wolf Blitzer SAT THERE, MUTE, while Trump surrogate Jack "the mouth breather" Kingston (former Georgia CONgressman) re-asserted the lies about the Clinton Foundation - that were born of that AP hatchet job, lies and distortions and misrepresentations that have been thoroughly debunked elsewhere in the press. He just let that one go. Didn't challenge Kingston. Didn't fact-check him. Didn't interrupt him to stop him from continuing to spew lies. Just SAT there. Didn't do jack shit about this til after the next commercial break. Kingston was long gone from the set by then, and most viewers had already forgotten. Only THEN did Blitzer come back on and sort of hem and haw about how that assertion wasn't true. The time to do that was RIGHT THEN AND THERE, when the lies were spewing out of the lying mouths. I must tell you, NoGoodNamesLeft, that I used to work at the AP, and used to be thrilled about that for the reputation and cachet that the very name Associated Press had. This latest episode was a horrible jolt, extremely painful for me. It hurt, personally. It hurt BADLY. That's not the AP I knew.

I am also almost shocked outta my skin that they're actually using the "L-word" (lies, lying, lied, a lie) to refer to this Trump development this morning. I'm shocked! They're actually coming right out and saying that - saying it THAT WAY. Stunning! But this is still a relatively new evolution. I can think back to such wussy weasel-y comments as "Prevaricating President?" during the bush/cheney era, regarding the lies about the war. NOBODY DARED use the word "lie" in this case. Nobody wanted to go there.

I am shocked to watch, for example, Hallie Jackson on MSNBC actually stop a Trump apologist and correcting his false assertion (his LIE) that the Hillary campaign started the birther controversy. Which they DID NOT. I am STUNNED to see more news people actually start fact-checking. They did NO SUCH THING for way too long. They just sat there. It's only since Joy Reid started being an aggressive fact-checker on bullshit-spewing GOP or Trump surrogates that I've seen other on-camera folks start doing that. It NEVER happened before, until very recently. This is brand new stuff.

Don't forget how too many of our lame lazy "journalists" have insisted for far too long that it's not their job to fact-check their guests. That it's enough if you let Guest A go blah-blah-blah and then Guest B offer an opposing blah-blah-blah and then you come back on and say "well, we're gonna have to leave it there..." with NO fact-checking or correction of flat-out lies and bullshit being peddled as "truth." The misleading shit, the lies, the distortions, all of it has been allowed to stand, unchecked, unquestioned, unchallenged. Chuck Todd and more recently Chris Wallace have actually asserted that, flat-out. And MAN are they wrong! But as a retired broadcast journalist myself, this has stuck in my craw almost like being gored by a bull - to see this shit perpetuated year after year after year. I have watched this shit and fumed about it - literally FOR YEARS. The free pass ronald reagan got. The free pass bush/cheney got. The persecution of Bill Clinton as just about ANYTHING the GOP or Pox Noise or hate radio insinuated was picked up and run with. The persecution Hillary Clinton has endured for a quarter century at least - NONE of it based on any truth. This more evenhanded coverage is NEW. WAY new. Like, merely a few days old. I'm waiting for the bad old lazy habits to resume any ol' time now. I'm actually expecting it.

I am STUNNED today - to see even Andrea Mitchell jumping on the lies that are still being attempted by Trump apologists like Bruce Levell and others trying to push the blame for birtherism onto Hillary. That is a lie. And they're actually calling it that. I can't believe Andrea Mitchell is on this, too. Her coverage has revealed her to be extremely biased against Hillary, up til now. But this stinks too bad even for her to ignore or excuse or gloss over. Even Andrea Mitchell is calling out this lie. Color me flabbergasted.