If a whistleblower filed a formal complaint with an Inspector General about women in prison camps getting forced hysterectomies but the victims were predominantly white women, there would be a lot more coverage.
Letters to IGs often generate news, but in this case there’s a formal whistleblower complaint. One study found: “news about murder is the product of journalistic assessments of newsworthiness firmly grounded in long-standing race and gender typifications.” jstor.org/stable/3648888
Judgments about newsworthiness are made mostly by white reporters and editors. Historically, they have judged news about white victims to be more “newsworthy” than news about black or brown victims. We appear to be watching an example of this play out on the ICE hysterectomies.
According to a complaint filed with an inspector general women are being forced to undergo hysterectomies on American soil. The women happen to be predominantly Hispanic. There's no mention on the front pages of NYT or WaPo. If the victims were white there would be more coverage.
In the face of historical patterns of major outlets downplaying harm to black and brown victims, it is hard to believe that the lack of widespread coverage is merely due to seeking confirmation. Major news outlets have covered much less than a formal complaint filed with an IG.
Horrifying thread. Thank you, @RepJayapal. If the victims were white there would be wall to wall coverage but so far, most major outlets have covered it sparsely if at all. This is consistent with historical patterns of media underplaying crimes against black & brown victims.
While it's true that you can't mint candidates who look like Fetterman, the reason his message resonated was that the campaign was so deeply in tune with PA, including knowing that the NJ attack would resonate in ways that many political reporters never really grasped.
A common reaction among super-savvy DC political types was that the NJ stuff was “too online.” Well either Mr. Beuth, a retired 72-year factory worker from Armstrong county, is super online, or many super-savvy DC political types were wrong.
A good takeaway might be that just because something plays well online doesn’t mean it’s “too online.”
I say this in the most constructive spirit I can: it’s worth revisiting what happened with the debate. Before asking a single voter how they felt about it, many reporters let fly on Twitter and elsewhere with their confident predictions that it was a “disaster” for John. 1/
The abundance of evidence says that debates almost never matter. Yet in the face of all evidence and in many cases without bothering to check, many reporters immediately bought into the idea that this debate was an exception - that it had not just mattered, but was decisive. 2/
The reality of how voters digested the debate was not un-knowable, it just required a little work. Reporters who actually took the time to talk to voters tended to come away with different impressions than those who unburdened themselves on Twitter. 3/ washingtonpost.com/elections/2022…
Incredibly important to remember this about PA. Just like in 2020, the results we'll see early on election night will skew heavily Republican. This situation is imposed by the GOP state legislature so anyone who uses this as a pretext to cry foul should take it up with them.
Exactly. In most states, election officials can start counting mail ballots earlier than in PA. The GOP legislature blocked efforts to speed up counting, which creates a situation where e-day ballots (generally more Republican) get counted faster.
To emphasize one point I made in this discussion with Josh and @SCClemons, one reason Democrats need to deal with the debt ceiling ahead of time is to save themselves (and America) from themselves. Here's what I think will happen if they don't deal with the debt ceiling soon...
If we get up against the actual deadline, it will be very clear that Republicans are willing to send us into default. I was there in 2011 and there were a lot of Republicans who were willing to do it then. Now, there will be many more of them and they'll have a lot more power. 2/
Assorted Masters of the Universe will be in Dems' ears, screaming that it's on them to save America from default. Republicans will be demanding massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, etc. Faced with the decision between default and massive cuts, Dems will choose cuts. 3/