General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAbout last night's PBS newshour - Judy Woodruff's session with VA voters re dump's 1st yr
As many of you have read about me, we really haven't watched TV at all for nearly 10 years. I could say a lot about that, but that's not the reason for my OP.
We are having some downstairs painting done - between the fumes and inaccessibility of our Roku - connected TV (for watching Amazon Prime movies and Neflix DVDs), we escaped to our upstairs room and decided to watch PBS newshour - just for the hell of it.
Judy Woodruff sat down in a Virginia living room with a selection of voters.
The interview gave us some great hope, but also make us take pause and really wonder what is wrong with some people. It is all self explanatory - the link to the segment is below. If you watch this - or if any of you watched it last night - I'd love to hear of your impressions.
It is well worth the time to watch. Some really impressive moments. And, sadly, a few other moments.
http://www.pbs.org/video/one-year-in-1516743144/
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)Thank you
ginnyinWI
(17,276 posts)PBS is about all we watch around here. Newshour, BBC World News, and Masterpiece!
It was a very interesting segment. The tax preparer found herself pretty much all alone in her praise of Donnie. Seemed to feel that in ordinary life, she had to stifle her opinions about it, too--like if anyone knew, she'd get some funny looks. She made some comment about that.
The Independent man--totally fed up. The substitute teacher spoke for me! And the entrepreneur who sat to his left. She articulated everything I would have said, only better. I hope they do more of these.
Is there a link to the first time they interviewed these six? They referred to it.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,038 posts)more altruistic, but clearly angry about the offenses being perpetrated on us by trump and his minions.
The young fellow who focused just on "his" money and advances - that to me is so typical of what I perceive to be trumpers.
The tax preparer made my wife and I gag - she should be ashamed at the garbage that she spewed - yet it is instructive and illustrative for we here to know what the country is up against.
I just don't understand where people like that come from.
Most impressed with the front row right black woman who showed amazing clarity, intellect, class - yet strong views - the fellow to her left who expressed empathy and kindness, and the host - upper left - who clearly voiced his embarrassment at what is happening. I do wish they gave more time to the woman top center - I would have loved to hear more from her.
I thought Judy W did a fair, balanced job and it was quite a watch.
I don't know where to find the original interview.
Stuart G
(38,458 posts)elleng
(131,416 posts)and I usually hear it on the radio, here: https://weta.org/listen-live
I thought it was quite interesting, and heartened that MOST of the interviewees agree (with me) that trump is not doing well. Further interesting that there were some 'incorrigibles' (my polite word) in the group.
ginnyinWI
(17,276 posts)When we had cable, I'd watch Tweety, Olbermann, CNN, etc. In contrast, Jim Lehrer's Newshour seemed unbearably tame and boring!
Then we cut the cable and I'd watch network news like NBC and CBS and also PBS sometimes. ABC is the most shrill--everything said with an exclamation point! PBS still seemed plodding and slow.
Then started watching NBC's evening news and right after, PBS. NBC would have a brief introduction to the story but very little content. If you happened to want to know more than a sentence or two--well that's too bad. Got to make time for the endless commercials for drugs and financial houses. Oh and the "feel-good" human interest story at the end! Sigh.
PBS has a much more content rich broadcast because they have a whole hour commercial free. We Tivo the show so can zip past the ten-minute interviews that we aren't interested in. But the ones we watch leave us informed!
At the close of the show, their "feel-good" segment will usually be something about the arts: music, drama, art, an author. Which also informs.
BBC is also a rich experience. In a half hour you can see interesting stories from around the world that are NOT centered on our current political mess. Refreshing. So often the U.S. news outlets give international news the back seat. I like to watch Mike Embley late night, live, which is I think live in the a.m. in the U.K.
So now that I'm used to the slower pace it's great. And if I want to see Lawrence O'Donnell or someone, I can find them on YouTube. We have been cable free for almost eight years. Multiply that by $55+ per month and see the savings. I have no idea what they are charging now, but that's what we were paying in early 2010.
elleng
(131,416 posts)and since tavis smiley's out, 'my' PBS stations show BBC more often, which is ALWAYS informative.
underpants
(183,043 posts)Will watch it later
erronis
(15,470 posts)We don't have a T.V. anymore. I don't want to be fed a line of "news" linearly with no ability to skip or dig deeper as desired.
I think radio and T.V. are dead except as background noise. Advertising and shrill voices are anathema to me.
I use Reuters, BBC, Guardian, New Scientist, a lot of foreign outlets for a varied set of stories. RSS feeds are great. I clip URLs and pages/audio/video into Evernote (altho there are others).
I have paid subscriptions to several magazines/ezines so I do support the media and fact-finding. My local NPR station is OK but again linear.
OK, 'nuff - back to the program.
oasis
(49,490 posts)Lonestarblue
(10,170 posts)I was particularly struck by the tax preparer and the guy who mentioned his 529 and 401k accounts. These are a large part of the Trump supporters. They are doing well financially and do not care that Trumps policies hurt people who do not have their financial resources. I remember one report after the election showing that Trump supporters had an average income higher than Clinton supporters, which belied the notion that Trumps minions were all poorly educated white evangelicals. The tax preparers defense of Trump as a person who just tells it like it is was interesting. She seemed to be saying that Trump just says what everyone else is thinking. The guy behind her quickly disagreed, but I think many Trump supporters believe as she does that its okay to be open about racist beliefs. As a white person, she may never have experienced any form of discrimination and has no empathy for people who have.
llmart
(15,569 posts)is too young to have experienced the many upswings and downswings in the economy. He thinks Trump and the GOP are responsible for the good stock market. I wonder if anyone would ask him what in particular they've done to make the stock market boom if he could come up with a viable answer?
As I said in another post, I give him a pass because he's young. Once another recession causes him to lose a job or whatever gains he's made in his investments, he might have a wake up call.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,038 posts)llmart
(15,569 posts)I just finished watching it and that female Trump supporter on the left raised my blood pressure just listening to her spew her FAUX news talking points. I thought the other five people were articulate and thoughtful in their answers, but her? However, she is the typical Trump voter.
The young guy who was pro-Trump - I'll give him a pass because he wasn't all in-your-face with his answers AND he was young.
Va Lefty
(6,252 posts)We "cut the cord" on cable last July so I didn't see it. 2 takeaways: The man who said, paraphrasing here, that there is divisiveness every time Democrats lose an election--Really? I can't even imagine the shit storm faux news would be stirring if Traitor don won the popular vote by almost 3,000,000 and lost the Electoral College. Not even getting into all the rw talking points about President Obama and Clinton. The 2nd point when the tax preparer said she could not go to any social gathering without some Democrat making a snarky remark, I find it's just the opposite. I live in RED Virginia (thank God for Northern Virginia) and people assume that because I'm a White, straight male I'm a republican. It's hard to believe some of the horrid, racist things they say when they think their talking to "one of their own." I've been cussed out, told I'm going to burn in Hell, and told "my day is coming" when I inform them I'm a Democrat. Very informative, again thanks for sharing.
peggysue2
(10,853 posts)So glad the gentleman in the blue shirt pushed back on the woman's comment about racism, how Trump's comments are simply picking up what everybody thinks/feels deep inside. That was a hideous comment and belies her later statement on tribalism, how too many people identify with their 'subgroups'--African Americans, Hispanic Americans, the examples she used.
Overall, my reaction was . . . hopeful. The two Trump supporters were more involved with their own, personal economic advantages--increased job opportunities, stellar stock market evaluations. But as the other woman said, that doesn't apply across the board. As.a small entrepreneur, for instance. Or those not invested in the stock market. Plus, there's the irritating fact that President Obama's efforts brought us the economy we have now, after struggling with the mess created by the Bush Administration, The Great Recession. I'm not sure how people who give Trump credit for bragging and shooting his mouth off can forget that important detail. Whatever.
Interesting discussion. Thanks for the link!