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Atrios and Charlie Pierce remind us how the media works - or doesn't [1]
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Date: 2023-10-31
Browsing though Eschaton, ran across this observation by Atrios:
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2023 Why Start Now
When Trump was president, if you watched Trump, The Live Show, you had the full uncut Trump. If you just read the NYT reports or watched later clips, his act was always cleaned up. Any gibberish quotes were paraphrased, with, quite often, the journalist telling you what they thought he meant, not what he plainly said, without making the interpretation role clear. "Gaffes" are normally VERY EXCITING except when they aren't.
Atrios is linking to a Media Matters report detailing the huge imbalance in the way the media covers questions about Biden’s mental and physical fitness versus Trump.
Which reminded me of this from Charles P. Pierce a few days ago:
It is now beyond hopeless to expect the elite political press to cover what is plainly happening before its eyes as regards Fulton County (Ga.) Inmate No. P01135809, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president of the United States. On Monday, he went up to New Hampshire to put in his papers for that state's primary. In connection with this, he gave a speech in Derry. During this speech, he provided more convincing evidence that he is out of his freaking mind. To wit:
Pierce has a number of excerpts from the speech. The included link to a PBS write-up of the event only mentions a few, like this one referring to Trump’s legal issues and his ‘martyrdom’:
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it for a reason,” Trump told am amped-up crowd of supporters at a sports complex in Derry, New Hampshire. ”We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.”
If you read through the transcript of the speech, you get the full Monty — and it’s why Pierce concludes with this:
Jesus H. Christ in a spit-bucket, get the hook. So the leading Republican candidate for president got up in public with his frontal lobes apparently leaking out of his ears, and you will not find a single account of this speech that states this obvious fact clearly and without equivocation. This, of course, is happening in a campaign in which the president's age is considered to be a live and important issue in the upcoming election. But the former president's obvious Olympic downhill of a cognitive decline is treated as an ugly side of his eccentric political persona. Each fable or fabrication is debunked—or "fact-checked"—as an individual aberrant moment, and not as cumulative evidence that his chandelier is winking out, one bulb at a time.
emphasis added
As the press covers Trump, so the press covers the GOP. Mike Johnson is “nice” — so his extremist views are more acceptable? Considering he’s holding aid to Israel hostage in exchange for gutting the ability of the I.R.S. to go after rich tax cheats, we’ll see how long that lasts.
Which is not to say The NY Times won’t make mention of Trump’s increasing incoherence — as long as Republicans are raising the issue. (Media Matters also points to this article.)
One of Donald J. Trump’s new comedic bits at his rallies features him impersonating the current commander in chief with an over-the-top caricature mocking President Biden’s age. With droopy eyelids and mouth agape, Mr. Trump stammers and mumbles. He squints. His arms flap. He shuffles his feet and wanders laggardly across the stage. A burst of laughter and applause erupts from the crowd as he feigns confusion by turning and pointing to invisible supporters, as if he does not realize his back is to them. But his recent campaign events have also featured less deliberate stumbles. Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance.
emphasis added
Recent polls seem to show voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s — but given the way press coverage has concentrated on Biden over Trump on that issue, is that really a surprise?
Is the press going to change that going forward? We’ll see. It’s very difficult for the press to change a narrative once it become established, but if Trump continues to melt down — especially if it happens while he’s sitting in a court room on camera — we’ll see.
Not that there haven’t always been questions about what the press considers ‘news”…
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