The professional culture is so congealed we now have an incumbent relentlessly messaging that he'll reject anything but election-night victory as illegitimate, while encouraging violence against protesters, and it has had almost no impact on how journalists cover the horserace.
In their defense, other organs of the state, including those under Democratic control, aren’t reacting with commensurate alarm, and if they did, journalists might follow suit. But Biden *has* sounded the alarm, with only passing effect.
I *do* think these habits can be forced to change, but it’ll require organized action from within newsrooms.
If Caputo’s rant is alarming (and it is) it’s more alarming that Trump says basically the same stuff–and that there’s no legitimate scenario in which he loses. Reporting on him as a “law and order” candidate in a normal horse race is such a huge failure. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
I remain convinced that the only way to stop this kind of thing from happening should Trump do what he’s threatened to do is concerted *proactive* action from within the newsroom from the same brave staffers who responded to the Cotton op-ed.
New: I don’t know how things will shake out early next year, but I think it was a mistake for Dems to agree to decouple certain domestic appropriations from defense (sorry, the “ladder approach”) as ransom to the GOP to avoid a Thanksgiving shutdown. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
This all happened very fast, and because the Freedom Caucus is mad and Republicans are cosplaying Street Fighter, most of the coverage has taken it as a given that Mike Johnson caved. I’m not so sure. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
Democrats have conceded “take it or leave it” leverage that comes with omnibus bills and clean CRs, allowing Republicans in principle to demagogue their way to full defense appropriations while shutting down or gutting other departments. offmessage.net/p/shoots-and-l…
SOME PROFESSIONAL NEWS: Thursday was my last day at Crooked Media, today I launch a new, independent venture. It’s called Off Message and I hope you’ll join me by subscribing. offmessage.net/p/welcome-to-o…
If you’ve followed my work in recent years, you know I’ve been consistently concerned that the liberal and Democratic Party tendency to hyper-caution is a bad fit for a zero-sum fight against authoritarianism. offmessage.net
At the same time, I’ve been heartened by the many exceptions. Most recently, the 1/6 Committee, the Fetterman campaign, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, the clear signal from 2022 voters that they will prioritize democracy and basic rights over any policy issue or picayune grievance.
Our media in response to a basically good jobs report, my god…
Ok, I went and looked. In March, 2019, BLS reported that the economy added 196,000 jobs. Here’s how the same media interpreted that finding for news consumers.
In August of the same year, the economy added 164,000, before revisions. Here’s the story the public heard about it.
I think another way to look at the dynamic Greg describes here is that McCarthy, other GOP leaders, Fox, et al have trapped themselves. They could get together, smoke-filled room style, and solve their collective-action problem, but refuse to. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The Times, similarly, sees a story about Trump’s strength, but I see a mirror image story of GOP weakness.
The Times could’ve inverted the emphasis: DeSantis CRUSHES Trump among GOP voters who say Trump committed serious crimes. My takeaway isn’t really about how well or poorly DeSantis is doing vs Trump, it’s that there are so few GOP voters who know or admit Trump committed crimes.
Newsletter! (Yesterday’s.) I looked at the bafflement among It’s The Economy, Stupid liberals over why Joe Biden remains unpopular, despite a very strong economy. https://t.co/rCFqy2WxeKmailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi…
One possible explanation is, I think, pretty obvious… https://t.co/9XgiG6qbFWeepurl.com/gQH7lz
The best alternate explanation, consistent with the theory that a good economy helps incumbents like clockwork, is that there’s a lag between the economy becoming good and the public catching up. I hope it’s correct, but it’s a gamble and there are reasons to imagine it’s wrong.