'Welcome to the era of bullsh*t': Russian journalist pens letter to 'my doomed colleagues' in US...

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory


‘Welcome to the era of bullsh*t’: Russian journalist pens letter to ‘my doomed colleagues’ in US media

DAVID FERGUSON
12 JAN 2017 AT 18:43 ET

Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev wrote a letter to his “doomed colleagues in the American media” about how they are now facing what Russian reporters have been facing for years.

“Congratulations, US media!” Kovalev wrote at Medium.com. “You’ve just covered your first press conference of an authoritarian leader with a massive ego and a deep disdain for your trade and everything you hold dear.”

“We in Russia have been doing it for 12 years now  — with a short hiatus when our leader wasn’t technically our leader  — so quite a few things during Donald Trump’s press conference rang my bells. Not just mine, in fact  — read this excellent round-up in The Moscow Times,” he went on.

Putin’s press conferences, Kovalev said, are annual media spectacles at which “Putin always comes off as an omniscient and benevolent leader tending to a flock of unruly but adoring children.”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/welcome-to-the-era-of-bullsht-russian-journalist-pens-letter-to-my-doomed-colleagues-in-us-media/

[JHan]

1. K&R

[Warpy]

2. I hate to tell him this, but we've been there for decades

ever since six megacorporations bought up nearly all the media.

Anybody who watches broadcasting to be informed is kidding himself. It's all baffalegab, designed to deflect your attention away from what might actually be important to you.

[Trust Buster]

4. I don't think you understand the degree to which things will change.

[Warpy]

6. Oh, yes, I do.

I know what totalitarianism is and how it operates.

I also know what it will take to overthrow it.

[briv1016]

13. There is no "overthrowing" it.

There the ones that count the votes and make rules. We're just screwed.

[blue cat]

5. I'd say

We are in new scary territory.

[Warpy]

7. Yes, it's gone way beyond where it was in the late 70s and early 80s

when ABC would never do a story on anti smoking measures or lawsuits against tobacco companies because the parent company owned one of the big tobacco giants (Phillip Morris, I think, probably wrong on that one) when the other two networks led with the story. The other networks had their own corporate biases. That's how it started.

Ask yourself how long it's been since you've seen a positive story on labor organizing to fight a bad boss. Or a positive story about labor, at all.

And yes, it's going to get worse.

[pnwmom]

11. In Russia it's much worse. What you're doing is very dangerous because

you're positing a false equivalency between DT's administration and previous ones.

We haven't been in this situation for decades. In his handling of the media and in everything else DT is breaking the mold, and we all need to see that.

[killbotfactory]

18. It's much worse in Russia, for now.

DT knows how to play the media, and the republicans won't dare go against him no matter what he does, because they only care about access to power.

Mainstream media is bought and paid for by major corporations, and a lot of them see Trump as a threat, so they'll act as a check on him.

But if he can spin this latest "peepeegate" scandal as a smear campaign to delegitimize them? Or to delegitimize our intelligence services? Who knows what the republicans will do.

This is scary.

Until there is verified video or audio we should consider it bullshit. It's reminding me way too much of the Bush AWOL fiasco.

[Eyeball_Kid]

23. The AWOL fiasco was manufactured by Rove.

Rove set up a false document that compared favorably to the actual facts of the case, then fed the document to the media that was taken up by Dan Rather. Then the GOP jumped all over Rather and got him fired for using false information as a news story. Yes, Bush went AWOL, but the document touted as truthful had embedded fallacies for the purpose of a later "discovery" that the whole affair was as hoax.

The same thing can happen with Trumpy's escapades. Someone will leak a false video or audio that can be proven false, then others will become "enraged" that the evidence was phony, therefore the entire addendum to the intel report will be panned as false. It's a well-worn tactic that the media outlets must guard against because the GOP is SO good at it.

[Delphinus]

28. You are right!

The Dems have never learned this - which I guess is good - but it's so difficult to know truth from lies anymore. I guess this is gaslighting?

[Lulu KC]

22. Decades? I'm not remembering every being in this situation.

That's what's so difficult about it to me--it's a twisted version of what our parents feared so much during the Cold War, twisted in being done voluntarily by our own "leader."

[procon]

26. You're right, we really have not "been there for decades".

US presidents have occasionally used access denial to temporarily cut out a particular journalist or media organization, and all politicians lambast the press corps for failing to serve as unpaid stenographers and write glowing press releases, butr we've ever had a president engage in this sort of petulant, open warfare against the Constitutional duties of free press.

This is not the norm, and as you point out, Trump's behavior is becoming increasingly bizarre. No one knows what he might do next.

[Mr. Evil]

14. Blabbering bloviations of buffoonish bullshit! n/t

[ProudProgressiveNow]

3. K&R nt

[Amaryllis]

8. I'm really surprised this reporter felt safe publicly saying all those things about Putin.

[zentrum]

9. It's the media's own

.....damn fault for being lap dogs to power for the last 30 years. I think it began in earnest with Reagan.

They've taken dictation from Bush, called climate change "controversial", stopped spending money on investigation, not exposed the influence of Koch money or ALEC, left truth telling to people like Jon Stewart.

Look at Moonves. He crowed over Trump's ratings.

So now the power they colluded with is devouring them.

Thank God for the alternate press.

[DK504]

10. Oh man

Sadly all this is all in Reagan's lap. The downfall of Western civilization began with the grade B actor.

This makes nixon look like a visionary and a liberal.

[3catwoman3]

16. More like...

...grade F, IMO.

[Eyeball_Kid]

24. The power they colluded with is "profiting" from them.

Mass media is still the winner. They'll have viewers glued to their seats watching the high drama of Trumpy's craziness. CBS will continue to make mountains of profits from Trumpy for as long as the nukes remain in their silos. But it's high stakes poker. Trumpy could just say "BOOM", and we're all toast. I'd guess that, by that time, CBS would have to revise their business plan.

[zentrum]

25. Yup. It's all utterly cynical. nt

[Leghorn21]

12. When DU was down, I discovered Masha Gessen via

Rachel Maddow...this was probably posted back then, eh? - but Masha has been my touchstone through the madness of our nation's current...condition -

Anyway, from November 10, 2016

Autocracy: Rules for Survival
Masha Gessen

snip

The national press is likely to be among the first institutional victims of Trumpism. There is no law that requires the presidential administration to hold daily briefings, none that guarantees media access to the White House. Many journalists may soon face a dilemma long familiar to those of us who have worked under autocracies: fall in line or forfeit access. There is no good solution (even if there is a right answer), for journalism is difficult and sometimes impossible without access to information.

snip

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/

[DemoTex]

15. 10-4

We are screwn.

[3catwoman3]

17. Is that...

...the past perfect or future imperfect tense? (Trying deperately for a little humor in dark times.)

Whatever tense it is, we are well and truly screwn.

[Mister Midnight]

19. You'll be Missed, Alexei

Any preference of flowers?

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

20. And this is what the American people have chosen.

A minority of the citizenship, but that's all it took.

[wishstar]

21. and to think our media criticized Hillary for secrecy and not providing enough press access

The MSM continually criticized her for lack of press conferences during the summer. Then beginning in September when she not only had several press conferences but allowed press on her campaign plane, we didn't hear a peep about their lack of access to Trump since he knew how to placate them by calling in, having private meetings such as with Joe and Mika (and untold others), answering limited softball questions and issuing tweets.

[LiberalLovinLug]

27. K & R