74 Comments

Great analogy. Instead of trying to report on ALL of Trump’s reprehensible behavior, how about if the media selected a handful of the most despicable ones, and consistently reported on them - over and over until it sank into the consciousness of every American. After one threat or comment has been fully absorbed, it can be replaced by another - there are literally tens of thousands to choose from.

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As we have recently seen, journalism no longer exists in the US - it’s been replaced by marketing or propaganda (choose your preferred noun) in pursuit of profit.

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People love to blame the media. To be sure, they often are lacking or worse: eg, WaPo’s cowardice. But the real problem is not that the disqualifying info about Trump isn’t reported. We all know all the facts that should cause any decent person to reject Trump. The problems are 1) most people don’t read or consume serious news ; 2) many of these people live in a world of alternative facts; and 3) many people want exactly what Trump is selling. The ignorance , bigotry , and cruelty are features, not bugs.

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I would ask you to compare the cowardice of today’s WaPo with that of the Watergate era. Where are the Woodward and Bernstein of 2024? Where is the hard hitting coverage - day in and day out - of the danger that Trump and his Nazis pose to our country and way of life? Do you think that they will ever make a movie like “All the President’s Men” about the WaPo’s coverage of Trump?

There are excellent reasons why everyone loves to blame the media, starting with their failure to live up to the primary purpose of journalism: to hold power to account.

Journalists and corporate media are complicit in normalizing Trump and his Nazi followers, and richly deserve our contempt.

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As I said, plenty of room to criticize the media. What I pushback on are efforts to use that criticism as a way to excuse our fellow citizens

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Oh believe me, I believe that our fellow citizens fully deserve our contempt and disgust for supporting the Nazis. I don’t disagree with you at all!!! But the media has helped to normalize Trumps antics and beliefs by their indulgent and half hearted coverage.

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WaPo lost 200,000 digital subscribers as of noon today! That’s more than 8% of their subscriber base!!

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You just described the propaganda technique of "Repetition."

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Otherwise known as Marketing 101

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Neither Marketing nor Propaganda is the journalism.

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No, but most of journalism IS propaganda and marketing, especially when politics is involved!

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Sanewashing isn't "the media isn't covering Trump enough", it's when Trump says "I'm going to fix the economy by deporting all the animal migrants" and the headline says "Trump outlines his economic plan." It's not that the speech wasn't covered, it's that it was made to sound like it wasn't bananapants.

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Yes! When he was interviewed by the editor of Bloomberg, with them contradicting trump’s concept of tariffs, trump said neither Bloomberg nor the WSJ knew anything about economics. The headlines - an animated discussion about economics.

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Bananapants is a great word. I think I will definitely start using it. But my phone tried to correct it to two words. Thoughts from the group? One word or two? I like one - if it’s two words, people might think I’m describing actual pants as bananas.

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One word for sure!

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good god!!! yes!!!!! i commented about this earlier. I absolutely agree with you. I am going to go out and say some dumb ass stuff and you make me sound genius...right!? This is exactly what the media is doing FOR Trump. My god, if any major candidate had said any of this stuff they'd be toast. NO! toast is good, they'd be shit, complete and total shit.

thank you for making this so clear and succinct

A

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Can we please clarify that it is conservative media & pundits on all fronts that are allowing Trump to be sanewashed.

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Exactly!

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How did Black people led by Dr. Martin Luther King battle the fire hoses of Bull Connor and Jim Crow? They stuck together, nonviolently, and constantly spoke out strongly against it. How does the media battle the fire hose of trump‘s mouth? The same way.

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I have heard people blame “the media” for making him look bad when they report what he says. Or he didn’t say that, others around him said those things.

I return to, he has told you who he is, believe him.

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How about all reporters over the air decide to call him what he is: "Republican candidate, convicted felon, stealer of national secrets and sexual assaulter, Donald Trump"

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Don’t forget twice impeached

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And "liar." Let's stop pretending that he doesn't know that he's not telling the truth. Call it for what it is.

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Trump does seem to be somewhat teflon. I think if he's seen as an insult comic, it's pretty hard to get worked up when he's insulting. Now, you can think that an insult comic isn't the best choice for president (and I'd agree) but about 50% of the population feel otherwise.

But the main thing is that people have 4 years of Trump and the sky didn't fell like the left was predicting. In fact, things didn't go badly at all until Covid came along. I'll use this example; The Jerusalem Embassy Act was passed in 1995 but every six months, like clockwork, whoever was president would punt it 6 months. They never had any intention of moving it, sure that everything would explode if they did. Along comes Trump and he says, yes, I said I would move the embassy and I will! Everyone screamed at him that that there would be huge riots and he did it anyway. And...nothing. It was accepted and, in fact, he went on to sign the Abraham Accords. It was him moving the embassy that turned me from a Never Trumper into someone prepared to support him.

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I am always seeking to better understand Trump supporters. Not sure if you still support him, but either way, I thank you for your clear and insightful explanation of how came to support him.

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Yes, good thinking, and I do understand why your political allegiance would have changed as a result. Actually, the Jerusalem thing is a lot like what happened with the Dobbs decision, which -- as we all can see -- was simply "accepted" as well. Note: Much, although not quite all, of the preceding is sarcasm.

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Look, I don't care about Dobbs. I'm a dude who sleeps with dudes and my only child is a boy. I don't have strong feelings about abortion one way or the other, though I understand why some people do and why that motivates them to vote. And more power to them! But for me, Israel is one of my top issues - seeing President Trump move the embassy to Jerusalem meant a lot to me. And remember the "four no's" of Kerry? How he swore that the Gulf Arabs would never make peace with Israel until they gave the Palestinians a state? Turns out that he was wrong and Trump's people were right.

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The big fear that many of us have right now over another 4 years of Trump is that this time he won't have all of those sane voices around him. Many people helped keep his more questionable impulses (like nuking a hurricane or injecting bleach) in check. And a lot of the folks he's been keeping company with while out of office are kinda batty at best (Laura Loomer) and closet neo-Nazis at worst (Stephen Miller).

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A magician uses misdirection. An algorithm gives you what worked earlier thus plunking the human into an echo chamber. This person, indicted for criminal acts, obfuscates his way through a process that should be to inform and add clarity to the choice we need to make quite soon.

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This is a defined strategy, thank you, Steve Bannon. “Flood the zone with sh*t” - there will be so much stuff, a lot of it will slip through the cracks. It works.

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Finally, you do a great disservice to your readers by falsely stating that Trump attempted to "force" Denmark into selling the US Greenland. Since 2009, Greenland can declare its independence at any time. We know there is a knife fight between Russia, China, the EU and the USA for the artic. Greenland is a very real vulnerability. Furthermore, in the modern era, purchased the USVI from Denmark...there is a precedent. There is no factual basis to say Trump "forced" Denmark. One could fault Trump for publicizing this ambition outside diplomatic channels, but the security of the artic circle is a vulnerability.

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If you say so. Then again, Ukraine would appear to be immeasurably more of a "very real vulnerability" than Greenland -- and Trump doesn't seem particularly concerned about THAT.

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Crimea was already annexed by Putin under Obama. Remember, Obama mocked Romney for saying Russia was our #1 threat.

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Yes. I know nothing about the actual process that would be involved but, at the time, I thought it was an interesting idea.

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The analogy I use is drinking out of a fire hydrant! It is just too much, way to overwhelming to take in. So WE are the ones getting stuck!

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We must help get more Democratic voters to the polls in swing states! Let’s support those tireless folks who are door-knocking, phone banking, & text banking till - and including - Election day! But how are those likely Blue voters located?

Field Team 6 is the only organization that identifies likely Democrats, gets them to register, then nudges them to vote. Their approach gains new Democratic votes for only $2.24 for 1 new vote - a fraction of other organizations’ cost-per-vote. But they need names, addresses, and phone numbers of who to approach.

Democrat Janet Protasiewicz was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August 2023 - as a direct result of Field Team 6’s outreach.

Even now, there are a dozen states where you can still register to vote - some even on election day. And in any swing state, volunteers can still go door knocking, phone banking, & text banking. As little as 10 or 20 votes per precinct can enable Democrats to win.

Join me in donating at https://www.fieldteam6.org/ Their research identifies the people who doorknockers and phone bankers need to approach.

To check out Field Team 6’s impact, see https://www.fieldteam6.org/_files/ugd/c03fe4_ca47cde71737499492a602eb46bf0aba.pdf- They have a very impressive track record of getting more people to vote Democratic.

Who will help? Can I see a show of hands? (I’m too tired to go door-knocking - I’ve sent out 500 postcards in the past several weeks.)

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Yes, yes, and YES!!! so what do sane people do!? Honest to god, I cannot understand many of my fellow americans. some people are bigots, some see their lives as stymied by all the "other" things that Trump says are causing them to not have achieved whatever version of the American dream they think they deserve to achieve. Then, there are the masses that think he's funny and won't really do these things. I want to pull my hair out when the mainstream media has a fit over Biden and then calmly covers Trump, not mentioning the wacko stuff he does/says. For ex, the late night hosts covered Trumps fugue state dancing with Noem... how many other sites really covered that? oh, sure ... a few, but Biden's performance on the debate stage was wall to wall coverage. Kamala has to be the Ohtani of the political world and Trump has to be my nephew playing T ball. C'mon, man!

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What difference does anything make..... if someone believes trump, are they going to seriously consider or even see/hear any legitimate fact check of him..... what difference does anything make. [I'm feeling pretty discouraged. ]

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SO, the VP candidate, self described knucklehead, who can’t load a shotgun ( even though he carried weapons of war ) NOW misfires on a football analogy ( former football coach says AOC runs a “mean pick 6” on Madden ). What a YUGE mistake this guy is! Passed over Gov Shapiro for this guy? Really??

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The real question is how a guy who has said and done more absurd, ridiculous, and moronic things than all three Stooges combined could get elected as president of the United States. Maybe twice. Are we stupid, or what?

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I am so tired of people blaming the press for Trump's support.

A lot of his support comes from people like me, lifelong Democrats who despise the modern Democrat policies of open borders, blatant racism, blatant misogyny (letting men enter women's spaces, sports, etc, at will), blatant and extremely dangerous pseudoscience (mutilating and sterlizing children on the basis of pure medical quackery). And furthermore imposing these policies at the level of the federal bureaucracy with no approval from Congress, much less the general voting public. So much for "Our Democracy" that I'm supposed to be so fearful of Trump taking away. IMO, it's long gone no matter who wins this particular election. We're down to two clashing authoritarian totalitarian ideologies, and I'm backing the one that isn't trying to take my kids away from me.

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Who's trying to take your kids away from you?

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The Democrats. In my state, California, and in multiple other blue states, the Democrats have unanimously passed laws that allow the State to take custody of kids whose parents do not approve of their child's mutilation and sterilization ("gender affirming care"). In California the main such law is SB 107, the "trans state sanctuary law" (as it was commonly known). There are others that futher erode parental rights, but I will focus on that one for now. Democratic VP candidate Walz was an enthusiastic supporter of Minnesota's version of this law and signed it as Governor.

From the SB 107 Bill Summary: "The bill would authorize a court to take temporary jurisdiction because a child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care."

https://pluralpolicy.com/app/legislative-tracking/bill/details/state-ca-20212022-sb107/1035849

Family Code, Section 3424, as amended by SB 107:

(a) A court of this state has temporary emergency jurisdiction if the child is present in this state and the child has been abandoned or it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child, or a sibling or parent of the child, is subjected to, or threatened with, mistreatment or abuse, or because the child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care, as defined by Section 16010.2 of the Welfare and Institutions Code [definition quoted below].

(b) If there is no previous child custody determination that is entitled to be enforced under this part and a child custody proceeding has not been commenced in a court of a state having jurisdiction under Sections 3421 to 3423, inclusive, a child custody determination made under this section remains in effect until an order is obtained from a court of a state having jurisdiction under Sections 3421 to 3423, inclusive. If a child custody proceeding has not been or is not commenced in a court of a state having jurisdiction under Sections 3421 to 3423, inclusive, a child custody determination made under this section becomes a final determination, if it so provides and this state becomes the home state of the child.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM&sectionNum=3424.

Welfare and Institutions Code, Section 16010.2:

(b)(3)(A) “Gender affirming health care” means medically necessary health care that respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient, and may include, but is not limited to, the following:

(i) Interventions to suppress the development of endogenous secondary sex characteristics.

(ii) Interventions to align the patient's appearance or physical body with the patient's gender identity.

(iii) Interventions to alleviate symptoms of clinically significant distress resulting from gender dysphoria, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition.

(B) “Gender affirming mental health care” means mental health care or behavioral health care that respects the gender identity of the patient, as experienced and defined by the patient, and may include, but is not limited to, developmentally appropriate exploration and integration of identity, reduction of distress, adaptive coping, and strategies to increase family acceptance.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=16010.2&lawCode=WIC

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Are your kids trans and someone is trying to take them out of your custody or something? I agree law looks like it could potentially be overkill. I'm more concerned with the mass amount of children separated from their families by Trump last time and the massive amount of violence, separation and death that would come from mass deportation. It is interesting how such a small subset of people (trans) are the focus point of many Republican policies.

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Kids are groomed at public schools (and on the internet of course) to think they are "born in the wrong body". Kids who are same-sex attracted and/or on the autism spectrum are especially vulnerable to this grooming. There is a multi-billion dollar "gender affirming care" industry that gaslights parents into believing they must approve the sterilization and mutilation of their child or the child will commit suicide: "Do you want a live son or dead daughter?" (or vice versa) is the mantra. There is NO evidence for elevated suicide risk that is alleviated by "gender affirming care", this is one of the many lies told by the gaslighters that have now been debunked (see for example the Cass review from the UK, which has now banned these procedures outside controlled clinical trials, as have several other European countries). But the Democrats fully back this ongoing crime agaisnt humanity, and are passing these laws so that groomed kids can get the drugs and surgeries against the will of their parents (if the parents have resisted the gaslighting). In the US, around a thousand girls each year have their otherwise healthy breasts sliced off in a futile attempt to become boys. There is NO science behind this, it is pure quackery. But the Democrats are all in. Any Democrat who dissents is primaried and removed, as happened to Texas House representative Shawn Nicole Thierry this year after she voted for Texas's law copying the UK ban (which she did after thoroughly studying the issue). Also the Biden-Harris DOJ is suing Texas and other red states to overturn their democratically passed bans on the quackery. This is pure evil on the part of the Democrats. It will ultimately end very badly as the true facts are finally coming out. The Alabama AG in particular has done very thorough discovery work on this. It will be the greatest medical scandal in history, and the Democrats are 100% on the wrong side.

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Oh dear. You seem to have been indoctrinated a little bit yourself there my friend. Even if all that was true which it is not, far more people will suffer under Trump's plan. Be careful he doesn't turn the military on you, as we know he'll do it to American citizens. He'll also further accelerate climate change in this world which will impact everyone. Just ask Florida getting hit by more and more hurricanes each year. Btw, I have multiple friends and family in public schools. No one is indoctrinating kids about trans ideology.

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As a fellow homie of LeBron's (I'm originally from a small town near Akron), I'm here to tell you that knowing the truth is not "indoctrination".

As for "no one is indoctrinating kids about trans ideology", this is sadly not at all true. Here is just one example, this is happening all across the country:

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2023 – A group of parents filed a federal lawsuit last night against the Montgomery County Board of Education for mandating storybooks that push extreme ideology regarding gender identity and sexuality. Maryland law and the School Board’s own policies require parental notice and opportunity to opt out of any instruction concerning “family life and human sexuality.” But after mandating new books that advocate pride parades, gender transitioning, and pronoun preferences for kids, the Board announced it would no longer follow the law: parental notice will not be provided, and opt-outs will not be tolerated. ... The new “inclusivity” books were announced last fall for students in pre-K through eighth grade. But rather than focusing on basic principles of civility and kindness, the books promote controversial ideology around transgenderism and focus excessively on children’s romantic feelings. For example, one book tasks three- and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes “intersex flag,” “drag queen,” “underwear,” “leather,” and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to “make sense”; teachers are instructed to add that doctors only “guess” when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway. The learning guide to another book about a playground same-sex romance invites school kids to share with classmates how they feel when they “don’t just ‘like’ but ‘like like’” someone.

https://www.becketlaw.org/media/maryland-parents-sue-for-right-to-opt-kids-out-of-pride-storybooks/

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