Pundits can't quit their lazy, evidence-free talking points about Democrats and elections

[deminks]

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/10/22/pundits-can-t-quit-their-lazy-evidence-free-talking-points-about-democrats-and-elections/221771

Lazy conventional wisdom is running abound in horse race coverage of the upcoming midterm elections.

The October 22 broadcast of MSNBC’s Morning Joe devoted a lengthy segment to claims that the Democratic Party has no messaging or, if it does, the message is packaged incorrectly. This evaluation of Democratic Party election efforts is evidence-free -- Democrats have largely coalesced around the issue of health care -- and it is also a gift to the Republican Party, as it plays into the argument that Democrats have no principles or plan for governance.

(snip)

Brzezinski's claim that Democrats have no response to Trump’s midterm rhetoric probably says more about the beltway press -- which tends to cover Trump's every move, at the expense of other topics -- than about reality.

What is happening on the ground tells a different story. Although it is important to note that the idea that a party needs a singular national message to be successful in elections is itself largely empty conventional wisdom, Democrats have unified to a great extent around the issue of health care in their messaging. Wesleyan Media Project -- an initiative that tracks and analyzes all broadcast election ads -- found in a September analysis that “Pro-Democratic messaging in federal races is concentrated primarily on healthcare, with 44 percent of airings in U.S. House races and 50 percent of airings in U.S. Senate races featuring the topic.” An October 18 report from the project stated, “It’s official: the 2018 midterms are about health care.” The “typical” message, according to an analysis by Vox, is that “the Republicans voted to take away people’s health care and end Obamacare’s protections for people with preexisting conditions.”

(snip)

Scarborough said, “So, if the Republican issue that they’re going to lean on is immigration, the Democratic issue is health care. I haven’t heard a compelling argument about health care.” He then claimed, “All they would have to say is the same exact thing that [then-President] Bill Clinton said [in 1996] for the next two weeks and they’d win a landslide and it’s this: Republicans are coming for your Medicare to pay for their tax cuts for the rich. … All they have to say is Republicans are coming after your Social Security and your Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Boom. They can’t put a sentence together like that. They are incapable.”

But that is largely what Democrats are saying. According to the Wesleyan analysis, ads supporting Democrats running for House seats are mentioning health care 44 percent of the time, Medicare 18 percent of the time, Social Security 17 percent of the time, and taxes 14 percent of the time. So what Scarborough says Democrats are incapable of talking about are actually the four top issues that they are messaging on:

(end snip)

It's not just Morning Joke. Alex Twitt said Saturday that voting should be a privilege, not a right. NYT has been effing unbelievable. Turn 'em off. Unfollow. Unsubsribe. Maybe for good. DU has all the news I need.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. and water is wet. A major reason we stopped watching 10 years ago

my expectations of anything different are rock bottom - it is one of the major issues facing us - lazy or overmatched pundits and journalists and false equivalence.

[qazplm135]

2. we've been losing for awhile now

so we are losers.

Eventually (hopefully starting in two weeks) we will start winning again, then we will be winners.

That's how this works. The losers and winners get labeled until they find a way not to be losers or winners.

Basic and silly but there it is.

[brooklynite]

3. They also devoted a major opening segment to how dishonest Trump was...

...but anything to depress the Democratic vote, right?

[marylandblue]

4. I don't watch any cable news, it's all junk

Washington Post is the only MSM I read regularly. Other than that, I get news from DU, Google and alternative internet sources.

[gratuitous]

5. "I don't watch it"

Okay, fine. Don't watch. I know I sure don't. But be aware that there are a lot of people out there who do watch, and who believe what they hear. It’s quite useful to know what sort of misinformation is being peddled, so that you aren’t caught short when someone says something misinformed.

[LenaBaby61]

6. NYT has been effing unbelievable.

I quit them way back when Judith Miller was a cheer leader for the Iraq War.

Tell you what, when/if a Dem does win the presidency again, the corporate media-driven media will be all over him/her like stink on shit if he/she makes a mistake or misspeaks. No, they'll be branded a LIAR flat out. None of this "Oh, Pres. Trump's misspeaking again, giggle, giggle." 🙄 You won't find them laughing and saying "Oh, that's just how he/she is if a Dem is in the White House.

Like I said, the corporate media will be all over a Dem like stink on shit.