So much going on in the last 24 hours, it’s hard to know where to start.
How about how Rupert Murdoch and company at the Wall Street Journal and Fox News are gang banging America. Jennifer Rubin at WaPo laments how the Wall Street Journal editorial page, always out on the edge, has now completely abandoned any notion of principled conservatism in service to Trump. It’s recent editorial in favor of firing Mueller was breathtaking in its capitulation to the mob. That should alarm us because it’s not the White working class that reads the WSJ.
While Fox News never had a credible domain like the WSJ’s news division had, the WSJ had retained its respectability before the Murdoch’s bought it. Says Rubin:
The Wall Street Journal editorial page is a different matter, however. The move from grudging defense of a Trump presidency to full-blown, Fox-like rationalization has been ongoing since Trump won the nomination. This week’s double-hitter was met on social media from liberals and conservatives alike with a mix of horror and sadness. “Just when you think you’ve lost your capacity for shock, you read this [op-ed from Rivkin and Casey] + WSJ unsigned editorial calling for Mueller’s resignation,” tweeted former Journal opinion writer and editor Bari Weiss.
The Journal editorial page was long thought to be the crown jewel of fiscal conservatism — a staunch defender of open markets, legal immigration and economic freedom. Internationally, it was anti-communist and supportive of U.S. leadership in the world.
Jay Rosen of New York University tells me via email, “From my perspective the Oct. 25 editorial was an important event because it combines so effectively with this development, in which the Journal reporters were told to stand out by their greater willingness to give Trump the benefit of the doubt — greater, that is, than the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Politico, Bloomberg and others in their peer group.” He continues, “The implicit appeal is not to impersonal and timeless standards of veracity but to an ideological position that, according to the newsroom editors, the others guys have taken while the Journal does not.” He argues, “This is an attempt to give intellectual respectability within the news tribe to ‘the enemy of the people’ attacks. The editors were saying to their reporters: Okay, maybe not enemies of the people, but they’re acting like enemies of Trump! We don’t do that.” He sees a cumulative effect at work. “The news staff and the editorial pages do operate more independently than people assume, but it’s the combined effect we should look at,” Rosen says. “The news side gives him the benefit of doubt, the editorial pages endorse an extreme position in which Mueller cannot fairly investigate. The signal to what used to be called establishment Republicans is: There are no institutionalists among us any longer; it’s tribalism all the way down.”
In this case, Tribalism starts at the top as well.
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Hillary Clinton was on the Daily Show last night and explains why we all need to be more vigilant about our news sources and why she’s not going away:
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Susan Simpson, one of the most thorough lawyers I’ve ever read, and Preet Bharara weigh in on Trump’s defense of the constitution with respect to the Uzbeki who ran people over on Tuesday in NYC:
Some things are worth spending money and time on. Our justice system has to remain one of our Crown Jewels to the rest of the world.
Extreme vetting, elimination of due process and a sped up execution will do nothing to deter the ideological extremists who are already in this country. They’re already prepared to die for their cause.
Everybody who is peeing their pants over terrorism on soft targets should calm their tits already. Deterrence depends on anti-terrorism programs already in place. If you want to have a better chance of not being killed in a terrorism attack, your time is better spent pressuring your congressperson to reject Trump’s defunding of anti-terrorism programs like the one he wants to eliminate in NYC.
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More mellow music from Zero 7:
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
Gotta get those tax cuts! The whole country can burn to the ground but the WSJ (owned by Murdoch) crowd gotta have those tax cuts. Cut, Cut, Cut.
What does Putin have on Murdoch? If some of these trumpanzees are about real nationalism, they should stop a foreign money grubber like Murdoch messing with their psyche for their own detriment.
interesting thought. I do believe Murdoch has spent time in Russia with Putin.
Saw bits of Morning Joe and he was mourning the loss of norms under trump that were held for 200+ years.
I have several bones to pick with the media people. They are not smart at all. They are more clueless now if we thought they were clueless during the campaign. Here is the thing. The stupid fuckers who voted for this buffoon don’t care about norms. They think norms are for politicians (because they don’t know American history) and gave him the benefit of the doubt for not being a politician (and therefore, not observing norms) long time ago.
These media people have to hit him hard where it hurts: two words, IGNORANCE and INCOMPETENCE (sprinkled with downright malfeasance).
Ignorance: not knowledgeable about anything, inability to learn, not curious, lack of motivation to succeed (the right way, not by hook or crook)
Incompetence: ACA, tax cut, appointments, disaster response, and the current response to NYC attack, how the world looks at us, on and on
BTW, calling him a racist does not ruffle his feathers one bit and he won’t change because of that and in fact, I think he sees it as a badge of honor, and a way to gain more popularity with his base.
The slogan should be “IT IS IGNORANCE AND INCOMPETENCE SPRINKLED WITH GREED and MALFEASANCE, STUPID!” And this is what will hurt him with his base.
It does not hurt media people to call out trump like this:
https://mobile.twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/926113642902417409