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Sep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

On the one hand, we have democracy. On the other hand, we have those who continue to indicate they intend to overturn democracy. I was stunned to hear that calling this out is being partisan.

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Charles, and isn't it interesting that it is Republicans/conservatives calling it partisan. Everything that does not agree with their lies nowadays, maybe always, is partisan and partisan sounds like a curse.

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ABC ran "Press Your Luck" a game show. CBS ran "Young Sheldon." NBC ran "Law and Order" reruns. WAPO: As Biden warned about democracy’s collapse, TV networks aired reruns. While broadcasters typically air a prime-time address by the president, they determined that this speech was more ‘political’ than newsworthy for live coverage.

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Sep 3, 2022Liked by Robert Reich

It is truly shocking and frightening that only CNN and MSNBC carried the speech. Even FOX "News" didn't and they're "fair and balanced" - oh wait, they changed that slogan to "fascist and propaganda"

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Sep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022

I watched it on the PBS News Hour: youtube.com/user/pbsnewshour for anyone who would like to catch it. Note: There is about 8 or 9 minutes of dead air time at the beginning of the clip. You can slide up past it.

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What is so shocking about CNN and MSNBC both democratic news stations carrying the speech by Joe Biden. You must be living in a cave.

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You didn't read Howard's statement. He wasn't pointing out CNN and MSNBC, he was pointing out all the stations that didn't broadcast the President's speech.

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Unfortunately CNN has decided to be more "Balanced" (S/ i.e. allowing the R's more coverage/input and getting rid of some of their long term reporters)

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Thought I had missed the speech somewhere! No mention of the 'primetime' during any news cast I watched Thursday and I purposely watch Lester Holt at 6:30pm. I read the next day reviews BUT. I purposely watch the NPR rescreening on FB yesterday. I did not hear what trumpets heard!!!! Loved it and proud Biden spoke as he did. Proud Democrat for life and voting blue for Florida😁

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I missed it when airing the President's speeches became an elective, rather than airing on all networks. 😑

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And they aired every malignant word dripping from the trumpster's fat lips.

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The Republican Party is the party of I do what ever I want at your expense. The article was spot on. But with access to pertinent information being denied by networks deciding it is their job to censor the President of the United States from it’s own citizens is fascism. Pure and simple. I just can’t shake my fury over this outrageous move against our democracy.

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Infuriating.

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I was so disappointed they did not cover the speech.

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It's all about profits! It's sad and dangerous that the Third Rail is nolonger helping us maintain our flagging democracy. Somebody here said they don't watch speeches anymore but would get a gist of speeches by reading the NYTimes .......

but I recently read that this (now unworthy, to my mind) newspaper gave equal time to McCarthy - who spoke and received headlines prior to President Biden's important speech!

I don't have TV and depend on NPR to receive fair and balanced reporting and Norman Solomon's FAIR including Roots Action

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Sep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022

Fortunately I was able to see it in it's entirety on MSNBC, who on more than one occasion announced they were carrying the speech-therefore I recorded it since I had advance knowledge about it.)

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ABC is going to the dark side. CNN is already there. Refuse FOX and Newsweek. Haven’t bothered with the rest😥

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Daniel. The American people are smart and have wised up to President speeches. We know we are watching "political theater" just like the January 6th hearings. It is almost laughable if it was not so serious. The federal government plus politicians are out of touch with their constituents.

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This was not theater. Trump was all theater and they covered him. This was a plea for maintaining democracy. The president is supposed to lead the country. Ask not what your country can do for you was not political theater. Apparently Republicans have convinced you that there is no real government just politics, which is where they have left us now

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Exactly. It is disturbing that Trumpers get so much media attention and this speech which is no more political than the Gettysburg address was sidelined by corporate media. It is interesting that Biden had done enough to help ordinary Americans to already have earned the ire of corporate America even the corporate types that backed him in the interests of more stability before. Biden is successful because he is helping Americans and hoped they will see it

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Exposure to original source material is so old-timey! Better to listen to the summary, no? Why think for yourself if someone’s doing it for you? Gee, what a great line for Helmholtz Watson…oh, nevermind.

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Apparently corporate media identifies as Fascist.

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I barely pay attn to the ABC-NBC-CBS type tv stations any more. Did they all cover the Ukrainian situation? If so, pretty fascinating they'd be sophisticated enough to understand the implications of that but ignore our own current situation. (I don't subscribe to the NYT but it seems to been on the wrong side of responsible journalism for some time now. Troubling.)

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I subscribe to NYT and WAPO. I do not like some of their columnists but their reporting is the closest thing to accurate in media. All conventional media are covering the war.

In journalistic circles, can't get any better than that.

The problem is that it is no longer a profession. Money is more important than speech, and the free exchange of ideas.

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It's really not mysterious and shouldn't even be upsetting: People don't watch speeches. Broadcasting companies are businesses; they go where the money is; they aren't public servants working pro bono. They're in it for the Benjamins, not the Bidens. (patent applied for)

Granted, it would be wonderful if Joe Sixpack were actively involved in community and national affairs. We need all the help we can get; unfortunately, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink from "boring" political troughs.

In fact, I didn't listen to Joe speak live, and I'm a political junkie. I knew I'd catch the main points, succinctly summarized, in the NYTimes and WaPo, my daily addictions. (I didn't see those other shows either: I don't have a TV, nor do I want one. The advertisements annoy me to no end; life is too short to see the same ads over and over and over.)

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OK, so a lot of good observations in this thread, but here’s a little history lesson for y’all, ‘cause it gives me perspective. You probably recall some of this, but given the idea that broadcasting is a “business” and “they go where the money is,” maybe it’s good bit of perspective to consider…

We aren’t seeing all our TeeVee over the “airwaves” any more - but we are stil getting it through frequencies and bandwidth that are, to some extent, still not infinite in number. I’d still prefer that broadcasters using public frequencies, or coming in over public wiring, would have an obligation to show some public benefit in return for allowing them to license a bit of the bandwidth. But such ideas seem to have gone the way of the dinosaurs …

When television first came in, stations had to provide a public service for a period of each day to be eligible to licence a frequency upon which to broadcast [sometimes acquiring these licenses was even competitive, and they had to qualify or not get one]. They typically ran a few minutes of news once or twice a day, and daytime programming featured a lot of “educational” or otherwise-focused children’s shows.

Over time, the news department went from being perceived by Moguls as a required public service to a segment of programming that needed to earn advertising dollars, and that’s when it began to morph into “just” a business.

AND, give this a thought — journalism was once an enterprise that knew it was a necessary part of our social and political sustainability, so “going where the business is” was kept apart from “choosing the elements of the days news that people need to know to function in a healthy social/political world.”

The editorial aspect of journalism was kept separate from the advertising part. Ads were sold based on the number of eyes on the page [or screen], and the economic demographic of those eyes, not on advertisers being able to determine the content of journalism. [Entertainment TV was another thing — I’m talking journalism.]

The decision not to air Biden wasn’t “going where the money” is in terms of eyes on the screen. If they’re talking about big-money advertisers who somehow don’t want the millions of people tuning into Biden’s speech to also see their ads, that’s weird, but maybe multi-billionaires don’t have to be concerned with those eyes. They have the money and power to structure the messages, and this might be a message they’d rather suppress than exploit.

And TV networks that pander to them may be “going where the business is,” but I’d characterize it a lot more as “pandering to the Oligarchs,”

But that’s just me.

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Yes, I think you’re right. Years ago I worked as a magazine writer. Then, when I switched to the advertising department, I heard the term “empty space” for the first time. When the ad guys met, they characterized the journalistic portion of the magazine as, essentially, a vacuum. Attending my first meeting was shocko-amusing: it was reinforced unto me that real journalism is only part of the hybrid product called “publishing.”

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That's me, too!

And did you know that in order for a business to be recognized by the government as a corporation, it originally (a couple of centuries ago) had to show that it provided some concrete benefit to the public? If only corporations had to do something even remotely like that today!

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I find that advertising reflects the general state of things in the USA. For example, ads featuring 20-somethings who have dogs and cats rather than children suggest that kids are too expensive to feed and clothe and reflects the income inequality that is a main topic of this forum.

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A very insightful observation.

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I agree w/ you, James, about the aggravations of TV and the ease of reading the bullet points on presidential speeches. I often skip those and the debates for the same reasons. But sometimes one does want to catch the nuances of the actual delivery, esp. with critical speeches like the one that Biden just did. I was multi-tasking, but kept an eye on it and an ear to it. How the Prez presents will undoubtedly be biased later according to the reports we read, so a first person experience is sometimes the best.

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I agree. Yet the computer will provide sound bytes of the dramatic sections of the speech. It's a judgment call, and I opt out of hearing speeches. I'm a very visual person, practically tone deaf.

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Sep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022

Stoking fear is where the money's at. Broadcasting companies are profit-maximizing businesses. There are mega-$$$ from being the "breaking news' resource in times of chaos, fear and uncertainty, whereas the media faces losses and bankruptcy in times of calm.

...and stations know most people prefer getting highlights from their favorite sources.

Broadcasting companies do cover political debates that are watched by undecided voters. So, it remains to be seen how candidates will carry the message, though there often may be interference by biased moderators

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"Where the money's at."

Actually advertising revenue. They want candidates to spend. Political ad spending in the 2022 midterms has already broken a record for off-year congressional elections and is set to plow through the all-time high of $9 billion spent on the 2020 presidential contest.

Money spent on broadcast, cable, streaming and digital platforms to sway voters ahead of November elections is on track to more than double this year to $9.7 billion from what was spent on the 2018 midterms, according to a projection by AdImpact, a firm that tracks political advertising spending. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-10/political-ad-spending-for-midterms-set-to-hit-record-9-billion

Shareholders/ management makes more if the value of their holdings increase. Management can get a deal if they have stock options and other incentives based on share value or net sales.

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It seems to be that way. Yet ironically when the President makes a speech warning accurately about a phenomenon that should strike fear into every loyal American, they won't show it. In fact, the substance of that speech is 1 of the most consequential of any presidential speech in recent history, yet the major networks made the choice to ignore it. That really exposes the sorry state of mainstream journalism of today.

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You missed the quite stirring emotional impact.

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Yes, when Joe gets up a head of steam -- he can go from zero to 60 in nothing flat -- he can burn and blast his opponents. I remember when he told President Trump on TV to "Shut up, man!" Priceless. (I wish more people had said similar things to Trump.)

I have just so many hours in the day, and I never could sit through a speech without my mind wandering. Speeches are just too tedious for me. I'm the poster child for short-attention spans. What were we talking about?

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James. "Joe 6 pack" was probably working two jobs due to inflation and high gas prices under this administration. Most of the people in my community are good hard working folks that give back. Those in my community with big pensions from their government jobs and living in the million dollar homes are reading the NYTimes and not helping out in their local community. I see it all over the USA.

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Inflation and high gas prices are worldwide phenomenon right now; in fact, America has it much better than most countries, unless they're a petro-state.

I see many Republicans and Democrats as good citizens. Not the rioters or insurrectionists, though; but they are a minority, I think, hope, and believe, but still very worrisome. We'll always have troublemakers.

The G.I. Bill helped me get a college degree, and Medicare is keeping me alive now, so I can't fairly criticize the federal government; my Florida government, however, is another story altogether. Our governor is a little dictator whose mission in life seems to be to further divide Americans. He can turn any neutral situation into a fistfight. The word pugnacious comes to mind; but that's his personality.

No, we're not a nation of Good Samaritans, but one can't expect such. We've got, I suspect, the normal bell-shaped curve when it comes to political participation or charity work: Some are totally uninvolved; some are too involved; most of us are in the middle, trying to live quiet lives and enjoy what we can while here. I suppose we need all types; at any rate, it's dastardly difficult to change human nature. I can't even get off caffeine, much less start and maintain an exercise regime, or develop a household budget. Unlike Professor Reich, I'm not a role model.

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Do you also observe people like me, with a small pension from my government job, in which I served the public all my working days, and was forced to move away from the place I'd lived most of my life because of being priced out by the Big Tech Bros? I read the NYTimes and plenty of other news outlets and it is a sign of solidarity with the public and the planet that I learn constantly. I recommend this course of action. It is unrealistic to assume that government retirees have big pensions. Right now, people are unable to go back to work because 1. they can't afford child care and 2. because they can't afford housing anywhere near where the jobs are. And the Federal Reserve Board under that Solon of Wisdom Jerome Powell, has acknowledged that "some of these factors could hold down the so-called labor force participation rate — that is, the share of people working or looking for work — for some time yet." Axios today.

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Yes, people like me and my kids are struggling under the current wave of inflation and high gas prices WORLDWIDE, a whole lot of it actually caused by petroleum giants gouging people, and not federal policies. BUT, to the extent that federal policies affect gas consumption, we need to lower it, not facilitate it, or we won’t have to worry about where our next dollar is coming from, we will have to worry about our next breath.

The Climates They Are A-Changing!

[As for helping out my community — it’s been a lifelong enterprise for me — also reading lots more than just NYT, and writing a lot, too.

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Did you get the news that gas prices have just fallen below where they were just before Russia invaded Ukraine? Quite an accomplishment by this administration! Also keeping inflation significantly below most of our peer nations. And all that time bringing the fastest, sharpest recovery ever from a major recession, with new modern record lows in unemployment. The wonders this administration has done with our economy! Yet you'd hardly know that with the right-wing, corporatist bias we keep getting from mainstream & right-wing media that provide the vast majority of consumed information.

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Jeepers. Yawanna Big Cheese to regulate the economy? Vote Republican then.

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Marian. We don't watch speeches any more by Presidents because it is all political theatre. The people have wised up over the years. They can NOW get their news from other sources.

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FAR RIGHT sources

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One useful thing came of Biden's speech. The lay of the journalistic land is now exposed for what it is.

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Not really. CNN is just pretending as they are preened for digestion by Murdoch. MSNBC is only a holdout as long as they can make $$ off the left.

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RemovedSep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022
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I reported you.

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So did I.

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Sounds like trump already bit you!

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RemovedSep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022
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That sure didn't clear up anything. She's a very confused person so no wonder you think other people are confused.

But you do sound like a trumpette.

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Free speech for everyone but Biden? Apparently you identify as Fascist.

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deletedSep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022
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The Republican Party has for the most part turned fascist – it is now the most dangerous threat in the world. By taking control of elections and voter suppression, banning women's reproductive rights, banning the study of history in our educational system as "indoctrination", as well as banning the rights of transgender and LGBTQ people, Republicans are destroying American democracy.

Fascism includes hatred of “them”–people considered different by race or religion, or outside the mainstream, or who were born abroad. I means control over what people learn and what books they are allowed to read, control over what had been independent local government units (school boards, medical boards, universities and so on), control over women and the most intimate and difficult decisions they’ll ever make, and it demands that the private sector support the regime.

The fact that NO ONE in the Republican Party has called out any of this is telling. Those who are silent about this threat to democracy are not innocent, they are part of the problem.

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Congratulations! You win MAGA bingo by using the most possible MAGA buzzwords in one short sentence!

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Which side is banning books. Shove your cancel culture claim. It on you.

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RemovedSep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022
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Ah yes ... yet another troglodite emergises from its rabbit hole to try to give voice to ignorence.

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Rebekah, how respectful of you to suggest it was his “rabbit hole”!

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Once again, “Woke” is not some liberal version of reactive right wing intolerance.

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Charles, what would right wingers do w/o demonizing labels handed to them by Fox & "Friends"? Creative language is not your forte. "Woke" is so-o-o over . . .

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Umm, I don’t think “Woke” means what you think it does.

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Imo what's stunning is that "partisan" is being spun as a bad thing.

What were the Founding Fathers if not so partisan they were willing to die to for their beliefs?

That's typical RW rhetoric.

What to expect from "journalism?" Nothing. Zip, zero, zilch. It's what the "profession" has provided for years -- it's just become more pervasive lately. The USA is known worldwide as "the best entertained and worst informed" nation on earth. It's been going on for decades (more than 50 years to my personal knowledge, and it can't have been brand new then).

What we need to do is NOT expect anything from mainstream journalism and treat it accordingly. Use alternate sources (Substack, MoJo, etc.). If you use cable news as a main resource, boycott it. All they care about is ratings and ad revenue/bottom line profit.

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I piece I just came across today (9/5/22) worth keeping in mind: https://youtu.be/SAmOn63QjoE

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Charles. It depends what democracy "IS" for each side. Remember Bill Clinton said, "It depends what is "Is". Think about it.

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I may be wrong but I have thought that we have always been a Republic or, more formally, a Constitutional Democratic Republic. Alas, it appears that the words democracy and republic have become synonymous.

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Republics and democracies both provide a political system in which citizens are represented by elected officials who are sworn to protect their interests. Even now, these categorizations are not synonymous, they are inter-related.

In a pure democracy, laws are made directly by the voting majority leaving the rights of the minority somewhat unprotected.

In a republic, laws are made by representatives chosen by the people and must comply with a constitution that specifically protects the rights of the minority from the will of the majority.

The US, while basically a republic, is best described as a “representative democracy.”

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Well said, mth. Thank you.

smh

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Again I write. Boycott CNN. They have sold themselves.

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I’d stopped watching CNN in an attempt to listen to a variety of views, believing that, although I am a progressive liberal, I needed to hear others’ views, and CNN was notorious for being left leaning. By this I mean I turned to the BBC or PBS, not Fox, but still watched MSNBC. As the Republicans veered more and more toward overturning democracy, I recently went back to see what CNN and others were saying. I had heard complaints about Chuck Todd, Margaret Brennan, and Andrea Mitchell in particular. The old big 3 networks were saying little to nothing, shocking me when they didn’t even show the speech this week. And CNN? I couldn’t believe how much it had gone the other way. I am far from being a conspiracy theorist, but I believe our news sources are slowly and insidiously being infiltrated. Frankly I find all of this quite terrifying.

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Not infiltrated. Bought and paid for!

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The Cable Noise Network

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It seems to me CNN has “drunk the Kool Aid” just in the past month.

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...I always refer to it as the "Fool Aid".

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Agreed. Though I haven't bothered to purchase cable in years, I did remove CNN from my online "news" bookmarks.

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Hey JoAnn, good for you. CNN has taken a turn that is totally unexpected in my experience. They were touted as the anchor holding down the middle. Oh well, the anchor is gone and the journalism ship is moving Right and into the realm of irrelevance since we have a whopper with more experience and eyes, on the Right than they have.

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Laurence, perhaps boycotting is a good tool to use, but the boycotters need to pronounce loud and clear what they are doing or CNN won't even know it is going on, or care. We need to make them care. A boycott of Fox Not Really News would be worth a look too. Get a campaign going that anyone who watches Fox is not "cool" or "hip" or whatever the negative term the generation of viewers hates.

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FOX etc depends on the practice of cable bundling. If that practice were ended they would lose a lot. Write your Senators. Call your Representative.

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So far, the new emphasis on being Foxy has cost shareholders a bundle in value.https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/WBD

Astute Warner Discovery shareholders should watch the short market.

IMHO the aim should be to grow a company, not to "harvest" the component parts. The long term future of the company depends on market share, not on short term profits.

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What can we do?

Shove a smartphone in Trump's face and ask him what happened to the missing files from those empty file folders.

Why hasn't the FBI done it?????????

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They lost me at the start of the first Gulf War, but i am aware of the enormous influence they wield. It's about to get a lot worse.

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And The New York Times!

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Our problem is that we are in a class war.

We think our enemy is Trump and his army of millitant racists, neo-fascists, and extremist fundamentalists. But just as in international affairs where a proxy does the fighting and dying, with weapons and funding from greater powers who are not seen on the battle field, while we are in our fight engaged directly with their proxies, the proxies we are facing are aimed and funded by a conspiracy of our ultra wealthy and corporate special interests who have their own libertarian exceptionalist goals. primarily to neuter our democracy and drastically diminish the power of the people to use government to defend our common interests.

Our ultra wealthy billionaire class has now concentrated virtually unlimited funds, and they have the ability, conveyed by the hand picked jurists they've installed in our courts, to use their oceans of money to drown out our voices in the market place of Idea.s. Our elections have been transformed, by the Supreme Courts citizens united decision, into an auction where big money swings crucial elections toward the high bidder's chosen candidate.

Listen to the media reporting on who is ahead in each race. They say how much money the candidate has and make no mention of which candidate is preferred by the constituency the candidate would represent. They in fact have no idea which candidate the constituents prefer. Because the media guys know that elections are decided by the money. They don't bother most of the time to verify or report on what the constituents want.

Money is speech, and the people? We just don't have as much of that. Which was the whole idea behind creating corporate personhood and the decision to assert that money=speech, in the first place.. To transfer power from the voter which equalizes us all, to the weatlthy in proportion to their wealth. They won.

East Germany freed itself from Russian Tyranny, by peacefully standing in the streets and praying for freedom for hours and hours in larger numbers every day for a very long time until the groups in the streets were a half million strong. Peacefully until the wall came down. We will always have that .

But here in the US. in 2022, we have another tool. You can still vote.

Despite new Republican restrictions on voting in 49 of the 50 states, and even new laws that permit your votes to be reversed in some states where Republicans have seated a majority in the legislature, despite not having a majority in the population; you can still vote. If you are determined and relentless and resourceful, you can vote.

So be determined, relentless, and resourceful, VOTE the MAGA Republicans out of office. Vote for representatives and Senators who will defend your rights under our Constitution, to democracy and government of by and for the people, not just the billionaires. Reverse Citizens United, and End Corporate Personhood because without that there can be no equality nor free speech, and assure the right of every American to their individual and independent control over their own body, because without that there can be no freedom. Make America yours again.

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George, I couldn't have put it better myself. The self-serving rich and powerful have glady traded their souls for mammon. Their insatiable need for ever more $$$$$ and power is destroying Democracy as we speak. We the sane, decent people must get out and vote, en masse, otherwise we will wake up to find ourselves living under a dictatorship where a deranged tv host is running the show and his greedy clan and enablers are freely pillaging the nation, once they've finally silenced the working people, by jailing them, or even eliminating them, if need be !! The writing is on the wall. BOYCOTT ALL THOSE IRRESPONSIBLE NEWS OUTLETS THAT DO NOT WANT THE PEOPLE TO KNOW THAT FASCISM IS TAKING HOLD OF THE NATION.

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OMG George, you hit the target with this one. His followers forget that Trump is not like them in any way except, perhaps, profound ignorance. He is rich (or pretends to be), and his loyalties, such as they are, are to the very rich white corporate owners and operators. How do we get that message out when the media are all also owned by rich white corporate men who do not care who wins as long as they get a story that will keep advertisers enthralled and the money coming in?

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George Robertson, thank you for your brilliantly stated logic, observations and comments. In America, money donation has interfered/replaced citizen voting. The Public Broadcasting System and Bloomberg offer honest news; I watch Fareed Zacharia on CNN and Lester Holt on NBC for believable content and listen to NPR daily. Voting in November does seem to be the best remedy to remove this emerging plague of lies in our politics. Republican concentration on voter suppression, control of school curriculum, limiting gay rights, banning abortion, opposing fair taxes for all and support of the Big Lie make my voting choices easier. Democrats need a stronger leadership image. Biden is not perfect, but, look at his opponents. Democracy is the worst possible form of government until you compare it with the others.

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Totally agree !!

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One Tweet, has pointed out that there are four factions against democracy. Media is the only one running unchecked right now. Thank goodness for Biden, the DoJ, the Pope, and the other groups that are actively taking steps to help protect our democracy. The voters need to step-up in November.

https://twitter.com/BaddCompani/status/1566125347594457088?s=20&t=h-aVqzCdH_yAfHYWdP8pfg

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And they just handed Leonard Leo 1.6 billion dollars to influence the elections.

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George you are fairly accurate in your assessment: "Author Michael Rectenwald described the economic goal of the Great Reset as “‘capitalism with Chinese characteristics’—a two-tiered economy, with profitable monopolies and the state on top and socialism for the majority below.”

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Rectenwald says a lot. I agree with some of it. In his book Google Archipelago, he says he argued that leftist authoritarianism is the political ideology and modus operandi of what I call Big Digital, which is on the leading edge of a nascent world system. Big Digital is the communications, ideological, and technological arm of an emerging corporate-socialist totalitarianism. The Great Reset is the name that has since been given to the project of establishing this world system.

I'm not sure who is in that leftist authoritarianism because our billionaire class is certainly not leftist.

He goes on to say, the goals of the Great Reset depend on the obliteration not only of free markets, but of individual liberty and free will, it is, perhaps ironically, unsustainable. Like earlier attempts at totalitarianism, the Great Reset is doomed to ultimate failure. That doesn’t mean, however, that it won’t, again like those earlier attempts, leave a lot of destruction in its wake­—which is all the more reason to oppose it now and with all our might.

We don't have free markets and danger to liberty and free will is coming from the right, not the left. More and more attempts to stop monopolies is met with violence because the billionaires control much of the right wing propaganda.

There is a lot more to this but I don't have the time to address all of it.

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George , I read your post with great interest. Thankyou for providing more clarity to a dificult realization. You are truely a patriot.

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"liars, enablers, and accessories to crimes against the Constitution" pretty much sums it up. What happened to the United States in which all of the leaders were trying to "build a better America"?? It seems that people have become incredibly self-centered, focused only on themselves and caring not at all about our country as a whole; these people are accomplishing what the entire Soviet Union was unable to do during the 20th Century. We seem to have become a country where more and more of our citizens are "in it for themselves" and care little, if anything about our country as a whole. How ironic that world wars and Soviet Unions could not do to the United States as much damage as Trump and his followers have done in the past few years; are these people really patriots?

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AB, there are a lot of people right now who are for themselves, but I doubt it is as many as the media would have us believe. So many people had the "American Dream" fed to them whole when they were growing up so the assumption was that they would get everything the dream promised whether they worked for it, trained for it, or even thought much about it. For white men, in particular, it was supposed to be a done deal. When it wasn't, some became bitter and angry. Since they were entitled to it, and didn't get it, someone must have done it to them. Of course, they blamed the wrong people and since most journalists were white men, they followed the story of white men as though it were the total story of America. Now we are in a situation where we do need each other to get through the challenges of our time, and the bitterness and anger remain. The angry white folks elected a man who had no clue how to help anyone because he had only ever helped people who could help him. The people who do know how to work together for a greater goal have been ignored or dismissed as irrelevant: women, men of color, young people. If journalists really wanted to make an effort to help fix things in our country, they would focus on those groups and stop covering the sour wealthy white men for a while, giving them only glancing coverage now and then. We could see, then, the people who hold things together in their neighborhoods and communities and learn how to do that, even to expand that to our nation. I think President Biden could help do that since he has been working as a uniter for a long time. The media, though will have to seriously cover him and this administration as more than a balance for the outlaw Republicans for any uniting to happen.

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They are publishing things that help Big money achieve their goal of making as much wealth for themselves as possible without the inconvenience and cost of allowing Democracy. Most media is owned by the very wealthy, they don't even have to be bought.

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Laurie, You are certainly right about this one. The mostly rich white owners of the media want a lot of boats rocked to bring in more money to feed their addiction to it. I suspect there are some "owners" who actually care about the news and the fate of our country, but I also suspect there are some who clearly don't and will print/get their reporters to say anything that keeps people paying attention. I wish it would get better, but I don't think that will happen until enough people demand it.

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Yep, billionaires like Murdoch, Koch, Mercer, Adelson, Bezos, Musk & Zuckerberg control so much of the information transmitters in various forms: newspaper, TV, radio, social media, bookstores, think tanks.... it's all oriented towards corporatism & fascism & against socialism & environmentalism. Under such circumstances, autocracy has a huge advantage over democracy.

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Except for one thing ; Oppression sucks as well as unfairness. Like bad water, it threatens our very lives. They are too focused on their billions to see that they, too , are human beings and can be harmed eventually if they continue on the path they follow now. The Common Good is what will support and save us and our home/planet (if we can in time). In the 60's, we had songs with lyrics that said "the air, the air is everywhere Breathe deep, while you sleep ; Breathe deep, Deep ; Deep de deep!" Same with our water ; what comes around, goes around. Do they think they can escape? Idiocy! and they would call our caring president an idiot!! Hey MAGGOTS ; Look in the mirror!

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Indeed! It is all short-sighted thinking. They never consider the long-term consequences of what they do. Yes, for a while, they may prosper compared to the rest of Americans, but when their consumers are too poor to buy things from them, they eventually suffer, too. All levels of income prosper when government support is focused on the lower & middle incomes. It has always been this way, yet we keep on choosing the path that takes us into the abyss.

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It’s called killing the golden goose.

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Jaime Ramirez ; You are right ; "Everyone does better when everyone does better", I think Jim Hightower said that the first time I heard it. The Common Good is a good thing to support.

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Heart. I love “Hair!”

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Speaking of Soviets, Russia has quite an operation sending trolls to social media, mostly right-wing but also some left-wing, & spreading their propaganda to influence users, pretending to be patriotic Americans, & boy have they hit the jackpot, especially with gullible right-wingers! This is why suddenly around 10 years ago, George Soros became the bogeyman for the right. Why? He organized pro-democratic organizations in Eastern Europe to resist Soviet/Russian dominance. Why should that concern Republicans? It doesn't. But Russian trolls got them into believing that every nefarious action (in the opinion of right-wingers) was/is organized & financed by Soros, & that he has more control over the Democratic Party than Koch, Murdoch, Mercer, Thiel & other billionaires actually have over the Republican Party.

As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian trolls & bots swarmed social media, especially right-wing, but also left-wing sites, with their talking points that Ukraine is dominated by fascists, including Zelenskyy, & that the US & NATO "forced" Russia to attack Ukraine. Initially there was strong resistance by the vast majority of users of both types of sites, but by now, the overwhelming majority of comments by right-wing users are pro-Russian & anti-Ukrainian, whereas, if anything, left-wing commenters are even more anti-Russian & pro-Ukrainian than before & you hardly hear a peep from Russian trolls on leftist sites anymore.

This shows how gullible & easily manipulated MAGAts are as opposed to people on the left & center.

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Well, Russia did help “elect” him so they accomplished their goal obliquely.

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I appreciate your sharp sarcasm.

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AB ; I have heard people who consider themselves 'Conservative' pushing back at 'The nanny state' for helping people in need say things like "I've got mine"....Hateful and dismissive of those who are disadvantaged. But when I point out that their perspective would very rapidly change if They were experiencing a disaster event and desperate for help ; It would be a different story. They don't like it when I do that, because it shows their sense of entitlement and unfairness toward others. Sometimes it's risky to push back. I can't help myself and I'm damned tired of 'biting my lip'!!!

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"Pushing back" feels good for people like us, but it often makes the people who are "pushed" angry, which makes them even more full of hatred! I find it better to get to know them and try to make them understand, through friendly chats, that everybody needs help at some points in their life, and when you help those people, you make the whole world a better place!

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AB ; actually, I was being as careful and friendly as anyone having a civil discussion can be when the topic gets serious and it is something they need to hear. Some things just have to be said.

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I agree, Laurie; some things must be said!! I have learned, however, that to have a good outcome, it is VERY important to say it the right way…

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@CCMack troll thingy. This is just solid crap and mis-information. Nobody on here is persuaded. Why are you wasting our time scrolling past your twisted versions?

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Ah yes ... yet again the troglodite emergises from its rabbit hole to try to give voice to ignorence.

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Did you get that from Liars Central, trump's new network.

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You know very well, because the evidence pours down every single day, that the Siberian Candidate, Benedict Donald, is the most destructive traitor in the history of the US, & that anybody that still supports Traitor Trump & the subversive terrorist organization called the Republican Party, is obviously no American patriot.

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Dear Ivan: Hillary got, what, 4 million more votes than the Orange Menace in 2016. The Republicans spent $85M of tax payer's money to try to pin something on Hillary, with not even a "misplaced gum wrapper conviction" to show for it. And the Clinton Foundation has the top rating from independent rating agencies for lowest overhead, while the Trump Foundation was shut down for fraud. The Russian collusion has in fact been proven, and I could go on...

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If you would type in all caps, maybe someone would pay attention to your vitally important message...

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Sep 3, 2022·edited Sep 3, 2022

Actually I usually do that on here. Sometimes it works I guess 😄. Unlike a certain troll thingy, my comments usually retain some current awareness 😄

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@ Michael. ;-D Right!?!?

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What's worse is that the broadcast networks did not carry Biden's speech--supposedly on the grounds that it was a "political" speech rather than one of national importance.

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That is telling that when our president is making a very important speech about threats to our country, it is not considered by them to be important. These are very scary times.

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Yes, Laurie, these are scary times, but because so much is going on just as usual, people are not taking seriously the threat the Trumpers and Trumpettes are. Even the media cover them as though anything they say makes any sense or has any truth to it. What is wrong with them? What is wrong with us that we can't get the message across to get people to vote those insurgents, and just plain ignorant-by-choice Republicans out of office?

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It shows where the true loyalties of the corporatist mainstream media lie, & it's not with democracy nor the American people.

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Definitely true, Jaime! Your comment nailed it!

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Well, the president, any president, is the political head of his (so far only hims) party, and to use that as an excuse is just false. As an old social studies editor, I can tell you that's one of the three hats he wears, the other two being chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces. You'd never find a broadcast outlet claiming that to discuss going to war was out of his ballpark; they love that stuff. But they are looking at the potential loss of eyeballs on their increasingly commercial-filled content, and it goes to the point that profits outweigh any other consideration. (I remember driving a Volkswagon in the seventies and being told by people that they'd never buy a German car because those manufacturers never opposed the Third Reich. Maybe they had a point I was too young to remember.)

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progwoman ; I agree that a president wears three hats ; but the president serves all Americans (ideally). Our national security is presently threatened by our twice impeached (and now twice investigated) former president who has committed the Crime of not respecting the rule of law by refusing to cooperate by accepting his loss in his bid to stay in the White House. His theft of classified documents that hold classified information along with his careless handling of same is a threat to all of us. Voters should be aware of this former president's and his MAGA sycophants dangerous behavior. Many of his adherents are still in power, and it is likely that they are trying to deny voters their right to have their votes counted. By breaking norms and laws, they seek to do an end run around the laws that govern our country to seize power, and punish those who have committed no crimes ; they were doing their jobs ; like the judge who signed the papers to have Mar a Lago searched for the stolen top secret classified documents. or election workers who refused to do their bidding and mess with the election process so they can deprive voters of their voices. I imagine any German who openly opposed Hitler and his minions would have been similarly punished. A would be Hitler (or Putin) should be stopped, Don't you think?

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Perhaps I didn't make it clear that I was addressing the point that networks failed to carry the speech because it was "political." Of course it was political, and that did not diminish their responsibility, IMO, to carry the speech of our elected president.

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For years my father wouldn’t buy a German car. I’m not sure what finally changed his mind but he did eventually. Still, I grew up internalizing that message. I’m sure there were plenty of people who did the same.

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Progwoman ; What is an "old social studies editor"? I don't agree with your edits.

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One thing bothers me. How does a network decide to NOT cover a presidential address BEFORE it is made? Do they have an advance copy to guide their decision or just an advanced adversarial position against THIS president?

The former guy's addresses were very often covered because the MAGA-heads loved it and it also served as clickbait for the NeverTrumpers. The networks' win-win becomes the nation's lose-lose.

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This shocked me. It was so blatant.

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Terre ; one would think that voters should have access to a presidential speech about a significant threat to our government and Democracy itself. If they call themselves 'Fox News' it should be a mandate that voters in a Democracy should be able to see/ hear the President's speech. And they say that they are not a threat to America or Democracy!! They are plainly showing their true colors ; the Russian flag!

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It's not just Fox who didn't carry it; it was the major broadcast networks.

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Yes, Maureen, and that would never have happened back in the days of just network news. I am insulted that they didn't cover something so important. I guess they just couldn't hear anyone say anything negative about their Baby Donnie, criminal extraordinaire. It is really disheartening! None of their shows in that time slot were more important than the president's speech.

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At least one was a rerun.

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Janet R ; well said!

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I agree.

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To paraphrase Aristotle from the Nichomachean Ethics: " It is an injustice to judge unequal causes equally." Lies, misinformation, disinformation, etc. do not deserve and should not get equal time!

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Tony, I really like that Aristotle paraphrase about judging unequal causes as though they are equal. The challenge for us is how to make the media understand that and start acting like they do, no matter what their advertisers say. Maybe it will require getting some independent media going that are owned by communities, oh wait, we used to have that, the local newspaper but most of them are gone either truly gone or bought up by monopolistic conglomerates. We are in trouble.

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Maybe Harwood, Stelter & Brian Williams will all pop up somewhere together on a new channel. We’re going to need one now that CNN is losing its mojo. It was such a staple in my home, a background to my day. I’m hating watching what’s happening. Getting to know MSNBC a little better though..

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I wonder if I am alone in thinking that post-Trump, many of his followers have wised up to his amoral narcissism and see the divisiveness he thrives on as not good for the country. I was not eager to vote for the candidate DNC shoved in my face. I thought Sanders and Warren would have been better.

After a year in office, I found it hard to grasp how people could not see his disregard for the laws, the racism, sexism, and his fascism. In 2018, I asked Prof Bob Paxton, author of "The Anatomy of Fascism" and other works on fascism if he agreed with me that Trump was a full out fascist. To my surprise, he said he did not think so. By 2021, he published an OpEd In Newsweek calling Trump a fascist. If it took him almost 2 years to see Trump for what he is - maybe things are finally starting to turn for others who vote Red. November really might be correction point.

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They might have noticed that Jan 6 insurrectionists are getting federal housing, with catering

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The Federal B&B! LOL!

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tomonthebeach, I hope you are right that some folks are starting to see Trump for who he is. I suspect not too many of his cult members, though because they have created for themselves an entire person who is nothing like Trump himself. Their Trump is wise, a genius, cares about them and wants them to succeed which they would if it were not for those Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants, and others who are taking everything from them. There is nothing real in their image, but that is the way Trump wants it, the way he has always tried to portray himself. How such an unattractive man in every way could have led people to create such a false, but positive image of him is astounding. There is no way to break that for the cult of Trump. Others on the fringes might be persuaded, so let's go after them with some honesty, maybe even tough love, exposing Trump regularly for all the things he has done to ordinary people like them over the decades, giving them a bite at a time. It's worth a try.

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CNN's jumping on a ship that's going down. Let 'em. We can make their ratings go down if we want to. I totally agree with this article stating that mainstream journalism and news sources are doing us a huge disservice by leaving out key information in their stories, thereby being enablers to authoritarian extremists. History will add them to the problems we're facing today. More articles like this will go a long way towards correcting that for future generations. Keep the faith and vote BLUE!!!!

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News platforms are often boastful about their objective journalism, saying they are "telling both sides of the story," when actually their alleged journalistic bravery is little more than a calculated attempt to maintain the status quo. They've got to keep their advertisers and backers happy while maintaining access to sources of information on both sides of the aisle. It's not a matter of balance between Blue and Red, it's all about the Green.

Journalism cannot be free and independent so long as it is answerable to anyone with skin (or money) in the game.

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Sidge, shouldn't we then start calling journalists to account for their reporting which is "supposed" to be objective? Maybe we can start getting them to admit that it is all for the bucks. Nah! That will never happen! If they get courage, they get fired as Stelter and others have at CNN and other media outlets. You are right that money rules. Too bad for all of us.

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What is laughingly called the liberal media is owned by republicans.

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Who cares? The people own the airwaves!

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But they do not own the 'private' internet platforms ; so they get away with lying by calling themselves 'entertainment' I'm trying to imagine them getting away with this crap a few decades ago , like after we fought off Hitler.

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And why show multiple images of Trump throughout reports about him? Each day the tally of those images matters and not in any good way.

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A few years ago, the head of CBS said, "Trump may be bad for America, but he sure has been good for our bottom line."

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Good observation.

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Linda, you are right about the media playing images and the "speech" tidbits every day on nearly every broadcast, even NPR does it. It's disgusting! We need to find a way to call them out on it. ?Any ideas how to do that?

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Beyond writing to media corporations (I got no reply from MSNBC), maybe circulate yet one more petition. Would like R. Reich to address what can be done.

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Biden won in 2020. Trump is no longer president. Why still make everything about him?

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Because as little king Donnie is concerned, the entire universe revolves around him.

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Yeah Susan, how is it that Trump either leads or is in second place in nearly every news cycle. The media seem to feel they need to play every stupid thing the former president says which then incites his cult to a frenzy that will one day overflow just as it did January 6th. The courts have indicted a bunch of the little guys who showed up for trouble in DC, but none of the guys who planned it and set the little guys up have even been on the serious list of people to prosecute, if there is even such a list. Until Trump's crew and Trump himself are called to account, the media will keep on doing its best or worst to undermine our democracy in the name of "balance."

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Perhaps it is something corrupt in the whole system ie that most media outlets (not just in America but worldwide) are ultimately controlled by persons at the top, cut from the same cloth as Trump, untrustworthy, greedy for control and power and basically unprincipled.

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Dead on.

When did the Dumpites capture CNN?

This is no time to stop fighting against the Big Lie. "I've got a little list/ Of people who won't be missed." I do hope we have a good supply of orange suits. Maybe we can find little cells for Big Liars.

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So very true, all you say! It's obvious who's side the media is really on. rupert Murdoch

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Thanks again ,Ronald Reagan, for welcoming Rupert Murdoch.

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And to Mark Burnett for giving the dangerous and demented orange tv clown a national platform.

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Erin Caitlin ; Good one!

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Can we deport Murdoch to Australia?

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I was hoping off planet, but Australia might help

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The Aussies don't want him back--ask any one of them.

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