-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Media is Incapable of Handling Issues that Have No Nuance. AP "Fact" Check: Democrats Also Responsible for Shut Down Because They Won't Fund The Wall
- Thread starter excelsiorlef
- Start date
I think yes, but on this specific entry, we could have:
So we don't really know how to tackle each one to even GET to nuance, much less to get the public to quit rending garments over/slobbering the nob of celebritied-up elected servant leader X long enough to get an adult-level grip on a serious issue to them.
- producers and editors that want this gravy train rolling/embarrassed they dropped the ball in 2016
- overcompensating for personal bias
- Access Journalism leading to fears of being cut off from the ability to do their jobs as if ICIJ ain't a thing
- people very very much so above their paygrade/playing by old rules when politicians weren't mobbed-up malignant narcissists owned by Putin
- and finally, this is a very serious world-shattering cataclysm to call this what it is, even if we have a ton of prelude to it. they don't wanna take that next step from fear of panic (despite repeating his impotent saber-rattling and pawing at the levers of power)
So we don't really know how to tackle each one to even GET to nuance, much less to get the public to quit rending garments over/slobbering the nob of celebritied-up elected servant leader X long enough to get an adult-level grip on a serious issue to them.
The worst part of this shit is Trump literally said he's to blame for shutting the government down. He said he would do it. "I will take the mantle of shutting it down. I will shut it down for border security." Like how the fuck do you get a "Democrats put the blame on Trump... but" from that. Democrats blame Trump. Trump blames Trump. Media puts tail between legs and shoves head up own ass.
AOC had a twitter thread about all the double standards being employed in the recent fact-checks:
Why has SHS only been fact checked four times?
Because it's common knowledge that everything out of her mouth is a pants on fire statement. There are other liars fact check than spending your entire day on a single liar.
No one's asking anyone to spend their whole day to fact check one person. But she has been on the job almost two years. She should have definitely been corrected more than a measly four times.
This is a clear double standard and I'm glad some Democrats are calling it out for what it is.
How hard is it to state the facts? It is Trump's fault the government is shut down. It is the Democrats' fault the border wall is not being funded. These two things are only related due to Trump. Also, the timeline of events is quite simple:
1. The Senate (majority Republican) passed a bill 100-0 in favor of funding the government - a veto-proof unanimous vote.
2. Trump said he wouldn't sign it, which shouldn't matter as it's veto-proof.
3. Paul Ryan wouldn't put it to a vote in the House, because even though it was his last week, he still wouldn't oppose Trump.
4. The government shut down.
5. The new Congress arrived.
6. The House (now majority Democrat) passed an identical bill.
7. Mitch McConnell refused to put it to a vote in the Senate, despite virtually the same bill having passed unanimously 2 weeks earlier.
There is no part of that sequence where Democrats voted against funding the government. Every Democrat that has been allowed to vote, has voted yes. So has every Republican in the Senate, though they now refuse to do so again. Only Trump has said he wants a shutdown.
The biggest problem here, not mentioned by any media outlet I'm aware of, is Congressional Republicans appearing to think (as Devin Nunes once said) that they work for the president. When, in fact, Congress is supposed to be responsible for keeping the president in check. It's one thing if they agree on issues, which wouldn't be surprising, being that they're the same party. But they clearly do not, since every single Senate Republican voted to fund the government. They're allowing Trump to tell them how to vote. What is Congress' role if it is just an extension of the president's will?
1. The Senate (majority Republican) passed a bill 100-0 in favor of funding the government - a veto-proof unanimous vote.
2. Trump said he wouldn't sign it, which shouldn't matter as it's veto-proof.
3. Paul Ryan wouldn't put it to a vote in the House, because even though it was his last week, he still wouldn't oppose Trump.
4. The government shut down.
5. The new Congress arrived.
6. The House (now majority Democrat) passed an identical bill.
7. Mitch McConnell refused to put it to a vote in the Senate, despite virtually the same bill having passed unanimously 2 weeks earlier.
There is no part of that sequence where Democrats voted against funding the government. Every Democrat that has been allowed to vote, has voted yes. So has every Republican in the Senate, though they now refuse to do so again. Only Trump has said he wants a shutdown.
The biggest problem here, not mentioned by any media outlet I'm aware of, is Congressional Republicans appearing to think (as Devin Nunes once said) that they work for the president. When, in fact, Congress is supposed to be responsible for keeping the president in check. It's one thing if they agree on issues, which wouldn't be surprising, being that they're the same party. But they clearly do not, since every single Senate Republican voted to fund the government. They're allowing Trump to tell them how to vote. What is Congress' role if it is just an extension of the president's will?
American media's need to create balance between two very imbalanced things never ceases to amaze me.
This doesnt make sense whatsoever. GOP doesnt have the votes within their own fucking party. So the Dems won't pick up the slack for their own party not cooperating? So? Insanity.
Journalism as a whole is deeply compromised by default at the moment. They seem to lack the perspective to realize that their hamfisted attempts at appearing impartial inevitably default to whatever take preserves some kind of negative peace.
They're not doing journalism, so much as figuring out how to dull their reporting into stepping on the fewest toes possible while happily laundering information from various larger powers that be.
The issue with this reporting isn't whether the wall is right or wrong (it's wrong), it's the responsibility for the shutdown. Trump doesn't have the votes -- including from his own party to an extent -- so he goes for an undemocratic nuclear option. He could stick to the process as we all understand it when we vote, which is to figure out how to get enough votes or move on, or he could... do this.
Democrats have agency in this only so much as they are willing to signal that their votes can be overridden by a shutdown until they take back the executive branch. It's a deeply unequal situation that is only happening in bad faith from one side. "it takes two to tango" is insanely reductive and misleading, and certainly not the take you'd see from any reporting, liberal or conservative, if a Democratic president pulled this move.
And before anyone goes there, no, I don't think they'd blast a Democratic president for causing this either, but the takes would be much more on the level of "Dem President X Risks It All" or something, rather than "welp, it's everybody's fault, 'cause washington just be like that! lol!"
They're not doing journalism, so much as figuring out how to dull their reporting into stepping on the fewest toes possible while happily laundering information from various larger powers that be.
The issue with this reporting isn't whether the wall is right or wrong (it's wrong), it's the responsibility for the shutdown. Trump doesn't have the votes -- including from his own party to an extent -- so he goes for an undemocratic nuclear option. He could stick to the process as we all understand it when we vote, which is to figure out how to get enough votes or move on, or he could... do this.
Democrats have agency in this only so much as they are willing to signal that their votes can be overridden by a shutdown until they take back the executive branch. It's a deeply unequal situation that is only happening in bad faith from one side. "it takes two to tango" is insanely reductive and misleading, and certainly not the take you'd see from any reporting, liberal or conservative, if a Democratic president pulled this move.
And before anyone goes there, no, I don't think they'd blast a Democratic president for causing this either, but the takes would be much more on the level of "Dem President X Risks It All" or something, rather than "welp, it's everybody's fault, 'cause washington just be like that! lol!"
Last edited:
It's not just the AP. MSNBC, CNN, PBS, they're all that way.
It's sad that of all the major news networks, it's Fox News that's most true to their principles because they are shameless in distorting reality and acting as state propaganda - they know it and they're proud of it.
The only principle that the other outlets seem to care about is maximizing profit.
That's the thing. They had the votes. Veto proof too. But the GOP House refused to take up the bill. Then after the switch, the GOP Senate is refusing to take it up.
The wall is completely unnecessary, probably won't be effective and would be a big, ugly monument to racism.
It should not even be considered and funding they're trying to allocate for that could be better used on social programs.
It should not even be considered and funding they're trying to allocate for that could be better used on social programs.
Thanks for posting this. Gonna give them a piece of my mind.
It's odd to feel like you have no stakes when America was upgraded to one of the most dangerous countries for journalists before the mail bombings.
Furthermore, it makes everyone else hate/distrust them. And they're not the only guilty party. Not by a longshot.
Funny enough that's pretty much the GOP response to that. They are blaming Democrats for allowing Trump to walk out I guess or for not just sitting in an empty room indefinitely. It's wild.
lmfao, that's clearly not what I was talking about. You could say it would be a tough job being a journalist most anywhere when you couch it like that. And I feel for those in actual war-torn nations/battlefields, America? Not nearly as much, though I do have sympathy for those having to deal with the MAGA hoards. Anyway,I clearly meant in terms of things like a govt shutdown where the national cable media apparatus really don't feel the brunt of having to personally miss out on a paycheck or the various crisis' that regular folk do go through. They're very much in their DC bubble, which is my point.
he wont even be running. He will be awaiting trial. Muellers report comes out this year.
Npr said yesterday that the presidents statements on the border are opinions, not facts. So yeah. That's where we're at.
lol AP, pulling a "both sides" isn't a fucking fact check. It's a lazy attempt at trying to appear unbiased while instead skewing reality and truth surrounding the situation. In a democracy you need congress to agree and compromise to pass major spending like a border wall. You can't just hold the budget hostage until you get your way, that ain't how it works. One side is clearly at fault and trying to strong arm the system with threats and it's NOT the democrats. Fuck off, AP.
"Its takes two to tango" is one of the many reason why everyone hates the media. That's just a dumb take full stop. This could also be over if Trump stopped holding negotiations hostage by demanding his dumb wall be built. He could just , you know, stop demanding it so that we don't have a government shutdown but I guess that is too hard for the ap to understand