Do I really need to open this post with an acknowledgment that in my opinion, Donald Trump is a despicable, dishonest, incompetent and narcissistic person for whom I did not vote? That said, can we agree that pundits should evaluate a person's behavior based on the behavior itself rather than basing it on their personal feelings for the person engaging in the conduct?
Michael Tracy shows us one of the many ways that American "news" is contrived and controlled. This episode from the NATO summit challenges deeply embedded narratives, such as: A) War against Russia Good, Negotiated Settlement Bad, and B) Biden Good, Erdogan Bad. The world is nuanced, yet the "news" is not interested in chasing down nuance when preordained narratives are at stake.
More on the Biden WH controlling the free flow of information:
I think of "the news" as what they are willing to let us know rather than what they could have shared with us based on unbridled curiosity. This is a massive lowering of the bar, of course, but this lowered expectation tamps down my daily sense of disappointment.
From Matt Taibbi:
Now the script is flipped. The press mainstream has borrowed from the old Fox model and not only (as Shapiro notes) excludes dissent via the “laundering of expertise” but leads interminable crusades against an exploding list of deviationists within their own ranks. You may have thought you were solidly a progressive, but you can catch a permanent green-room ban for going against narrative on any issue, whether it’s Syria or Ukraine or Russiagate or trans issues or any of a hundred other things. This is the same losing strategy that hurt the old GOP, which logically should lead to the same losing outcome, except this is a political atmosphere where no one seems to be winning.
Here are some examples that I have collected over the past two years. Bottom line: You should now expect that Left leaning news media will preach to you, not inform you with wide-ranging perspectives, on politically contentious stories of the day. Left leaning legacy "news" outlets like to think they are much better than Fox News, but they are often engaged in the same tactics.
An eye-opening peek behind the curtain featuring those reporting the "national news" at the Washington Post. No investigation was necessary here--these "reporters" and editors are vigorously self-airing their insider commentary of this oppression-olympics for all to see. All of this commotion was launched as the result of the most recent lies by "reporter" Taylor Lorenz and then follow-up lies and subterfuge by WP editors in their attempts to paper over Lorenz' lies.
