Some of you may wonder why I

[PCIntern]

have with seems like a real grudge against Jonathan Lemire. I’m going to tell you why: it’s because he is absolutely emblematic of why no matter how well things are going for us as Democrats, as liberals, as progressives, as thinking people, we always seem to start from behind.

All I ever heard from him, first thing in the morning, and then others throughout the day on my so-called liberal network MSNBC, was how the Democrats were essentially destined to be annihilated in 2022. It was absolutely the clearest, most obvious bit of news-making propaganda I’ve seen in a very long time that wasn’t on FOX . It was almost like a game of: on your mark, get ready, get set, go to the greatest losses you’ve ever seen. It was going to be a disaster for us, and make no mistake about it, it was repeated over and over and over and over again every single morning of every single day.

Now we are seeing it again, but not in terms of how Democrats might do in the house and senate, but how poor the showing is of our President. Eight years ago or so one very rarely saw red chyrons at the bottom of the news networks. They were reserved for horrifying incidents, catastrophes, high profile deaths, significant economic news, and the like. Now we have continuous red banners concerning Donald Trump, and his seemingly hundreds of minions who attempted to overthrow the constitutional government of the United States, coming up on three years now.

If you all recall, one of the hallmarks of the Trump campaign in 2016 was the coverage, which was by any measure remarkable. If he showed up late for a speech, the TV cameras focused on the lectern with his stupid name on it along with the toady Pence for over an hour, while the commentators discussed the fact that he had virtually no chance of winning. All the while, they gave him literally billions of dollars in free advertising. That plus his name recognition gave him the election and nearly did it again in 2020. Presently, The coverage 24 hours a day is about the person who is not president, who arguably may have killed half 1 million Americans by not responding properly to a pandemic, Who stole everyone blind and lied so many times that it became the norm.

And it’s happening again: the coverage of news is incredibly biased towards the name of Trump, and, as we all well know, there is no such thing as bad publicity. He has in a Hitler-like fashion, managed to convince a great many people that he is the political second coming of Jesus Christ. This includes, but it’s not limited to, the media. These so-called reporters and their superiors cannot abide the fact that the guy who actually inhabits the White House is a high functioning, older, experienced individual who knows what he’s doing and how to do end runs around the opposition. But Trump is the headliner and a character out of some lengthy apocalyptic literature series.

So those Red Chyrons are money in the bank for news organizations and they are principally devoted to their shareholders make no mistake. Chris Licht was fired from CNN not because he was a RW paste-eater, but because the viewership was down to intolerable levels. I guarantee that no matter who’s running the show, Trump will be the number one commodity.

[pwb]

1. Lemire pushes for a close race and

seems to be against us. Joe was the only person who could beat trump and he stepped up for us. Forget all that, he is older now? Who else can beat trump again? Nobody, IMO.

[paleotn]

11. Gavin Newsome would crush Donnie the Dumb Ass.

I love Joe Biden, don't get me wrong, and will support him to the end. But don't forget, our bench is deep with actual brains. Not grifting dumb asses like the Repukes.

[boston bean]

2. I have always believed he is a conservative. Is he not? Need someone to prove it to me.

[calimary]

3. Have you ever written a complaint to him - or better yet, to his bosses?

There are annoyances that want you to subscribe to get such info, but if you send it to 30-Rock Plaza, it should find its way to him.

Address 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, New York 10112, US
Phone [phone]
Fax [phone]

They could ALL stand to stop accentuating the negative. Especially when they're doing it to the good guys FAR more often than to the bad guys (who DESERVE it!).

[jaxexpat]

4. I used to work with a guy who claimed to be a "conservative".

His world view had to have white hats and black hats in equal measure and in constant flux. He saw Fox News as equivalent to MSNBC. He saw them as teams of rivals, I guess. He would go on and on.

Stupid me, I asked him at lunch, "who on Fox did the cheer leading for the Democrats?" " What are you talking about?" he says "MSNBC is always anti-conservative, Fox is always anti-liberal." I brought about instances like what you've posted and it was an impossible thing for him to fathom because that meant the teams were not equal. That bit of reality was unthinkable for him. It was as if unfairness in the struggle against the two opposed philosophies was against the laws of nature. Stupid pudding headed people who call themselves "conservative" can really screw up a lunch.

[Joinfortmill]

5. He's not my favorite. He had one moment..

And has made a career out of it. I do admit it was a ballsy question

[happy feet]

6. I totally agree

When I hear his voice I change the channel. Nothing but negativity towards Biden, Dems and liberals.

[Marthe48]

7. Had to look up the name

I hear so much bad about the early opinion shows, I don't watch.

As far as the chyrons, they are like popups, and I don't pay attention. Oh well, I rarely actually watch television, just listen to MSNBC on Tune-In. And if the host starts running traitor videos, I shut it off.

imo, it is too easy to mistake opinion for news, and too easy for the networks to make every breath in, every breath out a breaking news story. I watch Nicloe Wallace, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell. I occasionally will listen to Ari Melber if there is a status change in one of the many indictments, but I can't stick with the show for any length of time.

I am like Joe Friday: "just the facts" and not all the padding.

[Warpy]

8. Now you're beginning to understand why I turned them all off in 2004

The razzle dazzle marketing of TFG would have made me want to line them all up in front of a firing squad and I'd only seen bits here and there on YouTube. A steady diet of cable news would have driven me completely around the bend.

I have to say life has been better once I got over withdrawal from the ritual of the evening news. Reruns of "The Simpsons" were more informative than those blow dried bozos had been. A walk around the yard and a list of what needed to be done (whether or not I ever did it) was far more useful. A walk around the block was invigorating. When it turned dark and cold in winter, I'd find some indoor pursuits to tide me over until the TV stopped talking shite and had some actual programming.

You know the "news" isn't going to change until and unless antitrust laws are finally invoked. Those blow dried talking bobbleheads are going to be programmed by their corporate masters and the only power we have against them is the power to turn them off. Try that for a month and see how you feel without having those stress hormones jumping into the stratosphere on a daily basis while your bran screams about how unfair it all is.

I can promise you that you won't miss much.

[mcar]

9. As the late, great Eric Boehlert said

MSM wake up every morning and ask themselves, "what are Republicans pissed off about today?" They set their coverage accordingly.

[usonian]

10. May I respectfully suggest

THROWING AWAY YOUR TV?



Seriously, toss the TV and use a news aggregator on the web.

I use DU and Hacker News (cuz I am a tech head) but you might consider DU and one or two others.

Some ideas are here. YMMV. This is not an endorsement. Other lists were pretty awful by comparison.

https://themeisle.com/blog/news-aggregator-websites-examples/

The MSM will continue to serve up garbage until people stop watching it. When they have laid off 80% of the staff, they just might aim for quality. Maybe. But I won't care because I pick and choose my sources of information from the internet.

Democratic leaders use Twitler because it's popular (this elevator is going down). And they keep it afloat because they drag along people who hate the platform, now transformed into a nonstop Leni Riefenstahl propaganda film.

The government has many sources of information available. Aggregating these into a timely site (as we do here on DU) but with comments turned off (because it doesn't have to sell frickin ads!) would be fine.

Wearing you down is part of their strategy.

Ignoring them is like the sound of silence in the morning. It sounds like victory.

[paleotn]

12. Fear and "Ooooo Shiny!" pay.

Thus, those like Lemire who profit from that. Actual good governance is boring. Personally, I like boring.

[MOMFUDSKI]

13. MSNBC is a corporation.

They call the shots. And we all know whose side they are on.

[moniss]

14. It is incredible to watch

these "experts" and anchors claim the Dems haven't "done anything" or have "failed" during their appearances on TV right after they have driven through construction zone after construction zone of projects brought about by the successes of the Dems and Joe Biden.

They all ran video 24/7 for weeks of ships backed up waiting to unload and keeping up a running stream of "experts" saying how Biden and his people weren't "doing anything". But now that port container volumes have fallen back after the surge from the ending of Covid shutdowns etc. we don't see them running video of that situation. We don't see them running video of the 3 new massive cranes that just arrived at Port of Houston helped out by Federal money. We don't see them talking about the Port of Baltimore and it's increased ability to handle larger and larger cargo ships because of dredging projects helped out by Federal money. The list goes on.

It is insufficient to call what the major media is doing "willful blindness". It is purposeful effort to exclude displaying or discussing positive results that come from efforts by Joe Biden and the Democrats in DC and in the states. They know that ignoring the positives helps drive up the negatives and the emotional response from people when the "experts" preach that "economic collapse" is right around the corner and "Biden isn't doing anything". When you tie all of that to their constant "too old" content they know that the stronger they can polarize a situation the more viewers they get and the higher their charges to the advertisers.

Remember the great movie "Network" and the brilliant writing of Paddy Chayefsky and the plan carried out by the network brass to have their "problem" anchor, Howard Beale, assassinated on live TV? Remember they used the terror group they had given a show to in order to get the problem gone while also boosting ratings for the show about the rebel group and its' activities. There is art imitating life on full display. These media companies do not care whether the country stands or falls or rips itself apart. It's only their ratings numbers they care about and they will do anything and do it to anybody to get them and maintain them. It's about their Manhattan apartments, Long Island summer homes, vacations, private schools for kids and dinners and cocktails with the movers and shakers. It's about how expensive the clothes are they can drape on their bodies while they think they look good. Meanwhile most of us can see how truly ugly they are because what is inside them died and rotted a long time ago and now the nice clothes are just a waste of good cloth and the cologne and perfume won't kill the stench.

[LiberaBlueDem]

15. 2016 newspapers

For every Clinton article there was 6 about don.

No wonder he was close enough to steal a few thousand votes and steal the office

The media is not our friend. Or at best frenemies. Heck even on DU we see twice as many articles about don as we do Biden.

If it bleeds it leads, well, don is bleeding,