Russia Won't Go Away

First, I’d be interested in the source of these ‘statistical facts.’ Second, even if we assume such a statistical claim is true, it cannot be interpreted as prima fascie evidence of bias. For example, What was the ‘denominator’ in such studies? Further, what were the mores of the press during the span over which such statistics were collected? (Example: JFK was an undisputed womanizer, but press standards at the time considered this topic ‘out of bounds.’ If he were POTUS today, his peccadilloes would dominate the headlines.) Finally, we have to consider whether such statistics might simply reflect the fact that Republicans may commit acts worthy of negative coverage at a higher rate than do Dems.

tl;dr Whenever someone claims ‘it’s a fact the mainstream media is left leaning,’ I am immediately skeptical of both the claim and their motivations.

Indeed. But the problem is Trump’s behavior, not the coverage.

I’m not of that mind, so can’t/won’t address it.

You are conflating “fair” with “down the middle” (which I infer to mean roughly 50/50 coverage in terms of positive and negative stories). An extreme example: Coverage of Hitler here in the US was overwhelmingly negative. Does it follow from this fact that it was unfair? (And no, I am not comparing Trump to Hitler in any way, shape or form.)

Absent supporting data concerning this empirical claim, your opinion is not a matter of overwhelming interest (neither is mine).

We covered the fealty of Trump’s core supporters already.

This is an odd question. ‘Other than his obnoxious, undignified, dissembling-if-not-outright-lying public comments, what has Trump actually done that would cause a Trump supporter to no longer support him?’ You might want to reflect on that one.

QED.

The Daily Show? Colbert Report?

Further, as I have reminded you before, it is poor form to copy-and-paste without providing a link.

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Ok, so if people are self-selecting media they consume based on their political biases, who are you worried about the liberal media unduly influencing with “fake news”? Not conservatives, as they don’t listen to the liberal media. Not liberals, while they consume liberal media, they have already made up their minds and the “fake” news isn’t impacting them.

So who are you worried about being the victim of all this “fake news” from unnamed sources?

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I just find it amusing that the alt-right, who echo your sentiments, are suddenly concerned about journalistic integrity and proper vetting of anonymous sources.

Yes, those same people peddled (and still do) unfounded conspiracy theories and screamed on right wing media about America hating Obama and crooked Hillary (remember her alleged Parkinsons disease, just to name one example…). Where was this concern last year?

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This is very good and I wanted to single it out. “Fairness” is not making sure that for every bad story reported, there is a good one, or that for every bad story about a candidate, there has to be a bad one about the opponent.

That’s not fairness. In fact, it’s the opposite - it’s requiring political management of the news instead of just going with the ebb and flow of actual news as news happens.

And Zeb’s point (and he isn’t the only one) about “fairness” is not only wrong if you believe in freedom of the press, it is undermined by being hypocritical - right-wingers complain constantly about the lack of balance in print and on television, but don’t wring their hands at the lack of balance in radio, which is just as much a form of newsgathering information as, say, the Daily Report.

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Only partially true. As I stated previously Obama had his scandals but they never amounted to much because the news media let it go…every one of them all the time.

You don’t have to be of that mind it’s a fact. Harvard is not exactly a right wing mouth piece and even they have reported that the press has been tougher on Trump…much tougher.

Just read the polls ED. Trumps numbers are bad but why haven’t they fallen into the 30% area? The data is there if you care to look. The liberal media also bashed him during the election. He received 20-1 more negative news stories than Hillary and yet he won the election. The majority no longer trusts the mainstream media because they are well aware of its left wing agenda. If you have a different explanation I’d love to hear it.

Nonsense they are no more obliged to support Trump than any previous Presidents supporters. They have largely stuck with him because they are aware of the media’s agenda. It’s a simple fact proven out by studies such as the Harvard study and others I’ve posted.

You are forgetting that Trump was always obnoxious and undignified. But he was elected anyway. As for outright lying…no one can top “you can keep your own insurance carrier” that Obama told (among other whoppers). Did he lose support among his faithful? Nope. So again…while you are not a Trump fan and no one on the left is. What did Trump actually do that would cause his support to quickly dwindle? There’s one you might want to reflect on.

I absolutely agree with this part of your post. I do believe a crisis of credibility has been simmering for a long time now. This is a huge problem, and one that makes the problem of the burgeoning number of clickbait sites worse bith directly and indirectly.

It’s also what now allows people to claim major outlets are “fake news” when they are not–they are merely slanted.

I personally put this down to the development of the 24/7 cycle of cable news networks, since there is only so much real news you can cover in a day and after that point you have to find some way to cover the rest of the night with programming. Then there are ratings wars on top of that.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-poll-idUSKCN18F2AH

Among Republicans, 23 percent expressed disapproval of Trump in the latest poll, up from 16 percent in the same poll last week. The decline in support from Republicans appears to be a primary reason why Trump’s overall approval rating is now at the lowest level since he took office.

This is spot on. I am not one to claim “fake news” as others have. Were there fake news stories during the election? You bet there were, but they were on both sides of the political spectrum. Currently, as you say, it is a matter of the mainstream media slanting the news which by itself causes people to distrust the totality of what is being reported. And this will cause many viewers to scream “fake news”.

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I think you should pick another president for your argument here. If it were any other president I would be more inclined to say you are correct, but Trump has deserved the vast majority of what has been reported, because he has done it to himself repeatedly with his behavior, lack of vetting, and any other number of actions.

Respectfully, you cannot equate “audience leaning” with news outlet slant. They may correlate but they are not equivalent.

I do agree that a significant portion of the major outlets lean left though. But that doesn’t make them fake.

And there is absolutely no justification for the Colbert Report or Daily Show being on that scale as they are comedy editorials. Sadly of course they are where many people get their “news”, but they are NOT news outlets.

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There were some yes, but I think it would be more accurate to say most of these so called fake news stories were sensationalized and dramatized rather than outright fake. This does however engender skepticism and dislike so it definitely plays into the problem. (I am assuming you are talking about the major outlets here, I don’t believe anyone would argue that the rest of the riff raff was rife with fake clickbait…[hurrah alliteration])

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This is personal unfounded opinion

Trump signs a defense deal with the Saudis

On his trip to Israel he is going to visit the Holocaust museum. this will be 4th time in his presidency that he’s doing this sort of thing.

@loppar…what are your thoughts on this Defense Deal with the Saudis?

Will the Iranians “double-down” on their Conventional and Nuclear ambitions?

Then read it and weep. To be clear, there are article after article which present this fact.
I even posted a poll from 1960 before the election showing 90(?) % of Washington journalists being Dem. Shocking to me, to see the trend from 6 decades back.

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True it was difficult to believe much of anything especially on the Internet. There were crazy stories promulgated by people like Alex Jones and the Young Turks. I am very staunch politically I make no secret of that. But I reject these purveyors of fake news. Just as I rejected the lie pushed by some on the far right that Obama was not born in the US. I used to think for Heaven sakes Obama has done enough wrong as President in my opinion report on that…why make up fake news?

Nothing, he could burn the American flag in the Oval Office, whip out a prayer rug, turn towards Mecca and start praying and his followers would still worship him.

Why? Because, like every other populist Trump managed to vilify his opponents to such an extent that he and the (alt) rightwing media (I’m intentionally not saying conservative) have brainwashed the faithful to believe literally anything.

It’s either Trump or World War 3

It’s either Trump or the physical destruction of the USA by the media/liberals/lizard people/

A non-choice, if you look at it from this perspective.

And like I said before, there are many mini-Trumps around the world, it’s just that they don’t preside over the world’s largest superpower.

And it’s always the same - I may be a corrupt idiot, but if I’m removed from office, they are taking over and it means the apocalypse.

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Iranians are sick of extremism, the election results in their theocratic democracy clearly shows that. Despite the semi-rigged results, the most liberal candidate that was allowed to run - the incumbent president - comfortably won and Ayatollah Khamenei’s favorite lost by a huge margin, despite the gerrymandering.

The entire country, not only the political elite, are watching the news from Riyadh with mounting dread - the Saudis are very good at flattering and now they have ample time to woo an inexperienced narcissist. And it’s not just me:

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/334323-saudi-arabia-courts-trump

Obama, for all his foreign policy failings, occasionally tried to thwart the powerful Saudi lobby. The current POTUS is completely won over it seems.

From what I know about the Saudis, and I believe I know a lot, this 100 billion defense deal is just a big fat bribe in exchange for the following:

  • Cessation of the informal Iran/US anti-ISIS alliance in Iraq

  • Military action against Iran at some future date

  • Declaration of premature “victory” against ISIS which would enable the Saudis to preserve rank-and-file jihadists and regroup them under a new name. Remember, it’s Iran who asked to completely seal off the of Mosul to kill off all ISIS footsoldiers.

I’m not sure how Iranian’s will react, I believe Rouhani will hunker down, desperately trying to keep a low profile and preserve territorial gains in Syria/Iraq.

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Oh I don’t know about that loppar. As everyone knows I voted for Trump and did so for two main reasons: I wanted a conservative on the Supreme Court and I wanted lower taxes. So for me he is currently one for two with a great deal of time to deliver the second promise. I think there are many people out there like me who wanted those things and perhaps a few others. And also like me I doubt that they would support Trump if there was legitimate proof that he had some sort of nefarious Russian ties.

Of course I was not an original Trump supporter I wanted Marco Rubio…or any of the other 16 candidates over Trump. But I believe that even those who actually voted for him in the primary would abandon him in the face of real proof that he is guilty of Russian collusion.

Yes but you voted for him despite misgivings to defeat the antichrist Hillary, while the SC conservative nominee was another version of the same story - “I alone can nominate a SC candidate that will legally thwart the ongoing slide into liberal fascism.”

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First of all we both know that Hillary Clinton would not appoint a conservative to the SC. As a conservative was I supposed to write in Ted Cruz? The republican electorate left me very little choice. And it was not about “liberal fascism” it was simply about the issues that I mentioned in a previous post.

If you wanted Trump defeated the left should have put up a better candidate. I think you can even admit that.

Edit: Is there any doubt that Trump would have lost to Joe Biden, or a number of other democrats? I don’t mean the far left loony bin types…