As in the old joke about the restaurant with terrible food but such small portions, American media outlets simultaneously criticize Donald Trump and his staff of lying at press conferences and then complain that he doesn’t give enough of them.
Such Terrible News…and Such Small Portions
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Trump talks directly to us! I’m on all his social media accounts.
Why do I need to read or listen to the biased media? The media doesn’t even feign objectivity. Look at the coverage of these primaries and special elections, all geared to pushing Democrats.
(Oh, and Obama didn’t do many press conferences either.)
> Why do I need to read or listen to the biased media?
To cure your massive ignorance about the world around you.
… duh?
There is an even older (I piously believe) anecdote, Ted, about the politician who said that «I don’t care what you say about me, spell my name right !» (most likely he did not suffer from Mr Trumps dyslexia)….
As a reader of certain US journals and blogs, I can’t but wonder if all the news that’s fit to print now refers exclusively to that which deals with Mr Trump and his (past and present) entourage. Is there nothing else in that country of some nearly 330 millions that is worth reporting on – or cartooning about ?…
Henri
The disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts.
You know that woman is your Edith Clavell, the British nurse in German-occupied Belgium who was shot for “spying” by the Kaiser’s army (she arranged for 200 Allied POWs to escape), then was turned into a giant propaganda figure by Chatham House, the “secret” propaganda outfit that preceded the Ministry of Information.
Finding Mollie Tibbetts will not give the GOP a 50-IQ point boost, won’t make Trump a decent person or a competent leader, can’t save them from my recommendation that the Party be dissolved for the good of World Democracy, and that you – American Teacher – be exiled to the Moon.
@Strelnikov (why would you take the name of that bitter, hardened soldier, you poor thing)?
It is Cavell, not Clavell. Your comparison does neither Edith nor Mollie merit. Cavell, now a saint in the Anglican Church, saved both Germans and Allied soldiers, and faced her end bravely. Mollie is simply your all-American sweetheart.
I don’t know why the media finds Mollie worthy of more attention than others, but since the media tends towards the left, they must always be correct.
If the GOP had a 50 point IQ boost, we would all be in Mensa; Trump will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents; the GOP is going to be transformed into something that will make you pine for its return to its present state; and while I am not going to the moon, I am certainly to a Trump rally!
Here’s a big red wave!
«… and that you – American Teacher – be exiled to the Moon.» I was afraid, Strelnikov, that you were going to propose that this figure of fun be exiled to Mars – perhaps along with Mr Musk – which would constitute a grave affront to any microbes that may reside in the subglacial lake which ESA’s Mars Express seems to have discovered on the planet. Admittedly, the Moon would seem to be a place less likely to harbour life which would be disturbed by the sudden appearance of Walter Mitty 2.0 – baseball bat and all – in their midst, but I submit that as the US produced it, it must take the responsibility of disposing of it on – or under, as the case may be – its own soil…. 😉
Henri
Hey, Henri, buddy!
I like my feet on planet earth and in civilized parts of the world.
Lest anyone misconstrue that statement as racist, let me explain, no, I just don’t want to live in the Atacama Desert.
Here is a big red wave!
What press?
There are just large media corporations who have been colluding against Americans, constantly lying to us.
> There are just large media corporations who have been colluding against Americans, constantly lying to us.
Once again, we can agree. Isn’t that nice?
Nixon railed against the media because they accurately portrayed the Vietnam War and exposed his underhanded election tactics.
Reagan coined the phrase “liberal media” to explain why his version of reality was different than that which was reported in the papers.
Soon after Nixon’s downfall, big money bought up whatever was left of the ‘liberal media.’ Today’s media are no more liberal than the huge corporations which own them. Fox News? Clear Channel? Not exactly libs, eh?
The press reported Monica Lewinski and the Whitewater investigations as if they were real news. As a result, the righties were able to shut down the government. If the press had reported it in an unbiased manner (“Those silly righties are still wasting taxpayer dollars on witch hunts…”) we could have saved millions and gone about the business of running the country.
The press unflinchingly parroted Bush’s lies about the ME, helping lead us into unnecessary wars, massive loss of life, destabilization of the region and the waste of billions of dollars.
Now we’ve got ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news’ – showing that the problem has just gotten worse. Even on those rare occasions when the press does show us the whole truth, the Trump Chumps are already primed to believe their own version of reality. “My mind’s made up, don’t confuse me with facts.”
Trump’s biggest problem with the press is that he actively mocked and challenged them. Remember Gary Hart? Yeah, that.
If he had the brains god promised an avocado, he’d have cozied up to the press – they’d be reporting his yuge successes rather than fact checking his tweets.
One has to chuckle at the way CNN and ABC try to spin Troy Balderson’s win last night in Ohio into a loss because he won by a narrow margin.
Terrible coverage. Not worth the price of the meal.
The employment of mainstream media reporters is contingent on maintaining access to the powerful.
A certain class of reporters must be feeling the squeeze with the paucity of information coming from the White House.
Kenneth Arrow once defined information as precisely that which reduces uncertainty.
This definition reduces the information coming from Trump to a largely inconsequential and minuscule scrap to feed on.