Krugman Dismantles the Dangerously Lopsided Coverage of Trump and Clinton

[Little Star]

Is the 2016 race a reboot of the Bush v. Gore election?

Krugman has a sick feeling of deja vu in the coverage of Clinton and Trump. True, some of Trump's dishonesty has been reported. But he is definitely being normalized and graded on a crazy curve. The minute he does not say anything deeply offensive for a whole day, he is hailed as pivoting and being presidential. Maybe he won't immediately round up 11 million undocumented immigrants. Good for him! Meanwhile, his latest apparent criminality, payoffs to state attorneys general to stop investigating his fraudulent University, is getting almost no attention.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/paul-krugman-dismantles-dangerously-lopsided-coverage-trump-and-clinton

Yep, another shoddy job by the media covering this race! I have just about lost all respect for any of them!

[UCmeNdc]

1. No one can explain why the news media is so easy on Trump

Why?

[rurallib]

2. I will give you my opinion

1) All the commercial media is corporate and as such favor republicans, no matter who they may be. It should be apparent that Republicans only care about who is wearing their uniform, not what they stand for.

2) They need a horserace to sell all that commercial time to the campaigns. Political season is a huge profit time for the cable newsers, newspapers, radio and network TV companies. If it looks like a blowout, there will be a lot of inventory (time) left on the shelf.

3) NPR and PBS are special cases where they have been so bullied over the past 25 years by the likes of Gingrich and Boehner that they feel compelled to be "balanced." Reality or evidence based reporting must be balanced with the other side, evidence or reality be damned.

Reporters may be liberal, but the guy signing the paycheck isn't.

[Auggie]

14. Agree about the horserace. I think money/ratings are the primary reason.

[world wide wally]

44. I absolutely disagree that they want a horse race,

They want Trump to win.

[CrispyQ]

18. Bumper sticker: "The media is only as liberal as the conservative corporations that own it."

Saw that once & honked & gave a

[tooeyeten]

28. It's all about the money

We saw it w/Romney & now MSM is doubling down to protect unearned 1%wealth garnered off backs of wage earners, real middle class, & poor.

[bettyellen]

40. Both NPR and PBS have sponsors now making sure they are not as liberal as they once were.....

the whole playing field has shifted, and assholes like Bush and Palin made cruelness and idiocy normal and according to some- good.

[rurallib]

43. that certainly is another factor, especially with Koch Industries among them.

[oberliner]

4. MSNBC is not easy on Trump

Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell tear him apart pretty much daily.

[Little Star]

6. Try day time MSNBC...

It's been as bad as FOX and wanna be FOX (CNN)

[oberliner]

8. That's a shame

But you have to admit that their night time heavy hitters have done a good job of exposing Trump's BS.

[rtracey]

10. yes but

Yes but, the democrats who watch MSNBC are not the ones that need to be convinced. Its the independents and the on-the -fence- republicans that may not watch either Fox or MSNBC. It is time the media on CNN, NBC, CBS, etc start telling the truth about Trump too. Yes he has committed fraud, payoffs, racketeering, etc, yet he is not renounced in the media.

[oberliner]

15. It's hard to imagine people on the fence between Hillary and Trump

But I guess they are out there.

[rtracey]

21. hmmmm

well you may be right, but i think there are always someone during an election that is somewhat on the fence.

[calimary]

16. Yep. Andrea Mitchell. And her little pal Kristen Welker. You need go no further. But I will!

Here's what I'm tweeting to everybody else:

Gotta say it. Trump fixation makes it look like YOU ALL are on his payroll. Negatives-only coverage of Hillary confirms it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512397598#post15

Here's my earlier post (here) about it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8143943

And I upped the ante this morning, with Paul Krugman's latest. I've been sending THIS around:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/opinion/hillary-clinton-gets-gored.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0 STOP the negative bias! STOP leading us to suspect YOU are on Trump's payroll. That's how it looks.

[Granny M]

20. Just getting into the Twitter thing.

How do I retweet what you have tweeted? Do the media outlets see those tweets? I have heard it helps to get a lot of retweets?
I could probably get the 6 year old grandson to help.

[calimary]

38. I believe it's a retweet when you click on the little two-arrow configuration below the tweet.

Underneath whatever it the tweet is that you want to retweet, there are three symbols.

-- Farthest to the left, there's a little left-pointing arrow, that, if you roll your cursor over it, says "reply".
-- Then there's the middle one: two arrows together, one pointing to the right and down, on top of another that points to the left and up. Roll your cursor over that one and it'll say "retweet." There will be numbers next to this one, I think, to denote how many times it's been retweeted. THIS IS THE ONE I THINK YOU WANT.
-- Then, last, farthest to the right, there is a small heart icon which, when you roll your cursor over it, denotes "like". There will also be numbers next to this one so you can see how many likes there are, and if you click on the little heart, it'll go from gray to red.

Beyond that, the farthest over to the right, are three dots. Roll your cursor over that, and it'll denote "more."

Pretty wordy but hey, I'm old and not 100% on these things. But I do have at least a minimal level of understanding. Then again, I'm really just getting started with the Twitter world. I recently realized that this is one way to communicate directly to these people I watch every day and who make me tear my hair sometimes.

ANYONE who'd like to join in? That'd be GREAT! And it would make all our efforts that much bigger, more noticeable, more impactful, and more effective.

[Granny M]

47. Thanks. I'll work on getting up to speed. nt

[Scarsdale]

25. tRump PAY?

Surely you jest. He does not pay people, they donate to him and he passes the $$$ on to his family.

[calimary]

50. Yeah, agreed! But I want the recipients to start thinking about how this makes them look.

Optics.

If you start thinking that your AUDIENCE is moving a certain way - in how they view YOU, that might leave a mark.

[turbinetree]

22. I thought MSNBC had the elections confessions thing

and since they have this "thing" you don't hear anything of what the masses are saying or is it my imagination, why have it, just another gimmick, that make you feel good thing to them or you (is a ratings gimmick), when your day staff are doing exactly what-------------really nothing-------amazing.
Like why don't they have a citizen go up to the candidate and ask them a question, since they aren't doing it

[CajunBlazer]

9. My opinion

In Presidential races the media tries to be "fair" and "impartial", attacking both candidates equally. The problem is that Trump is a very non-traditional candidates who lies, distorts the truth and exaggerates every time he opens his mouth. His surrogates do the same. If the media addressed each of these occurrences, they would the vast majority of their time debunking Trumps lies and distortions, and spend little time on Clinton. They would be seen by the majority of their audience as taking sides. Don't forget that the media is in business to make money and can't afford to tick off a sizable share of its audience.

This reminds me of basketball teams who are known for their overly aggressive defenses. The mantra of their coaches is if you are continually streaking the rules, the referees can't call every foul.

[AllyCat]

23. And that may be true, but their refusal to cover ANYTHING good about HRC

tells more. They are not doing their jobs.

[CajunBlazer]

32. Well, for what it''s worth....

....they aren't saying anything good about Donald Trump either. "Media fairness" in their eyes.

I think we have a tendency we all have a tendency to get upset when the media doesn't spend its time praising our candidate and/or cursing her opponent. Trump supporters probably feel the same way.

[WinstonSmith4740]

17. "Trump may be lousy for the country...

but he's great for ratings."
That was said during the primaries by one of the presidents of the Big 3, NBC if I'm not mistaken. That is what this is really all about. The media has to make a horse race out of this, otherwise people will lose interest and their ad revenue goes down. They're just whores.

Speaking of which...anyone know whatever happened to Media Whores on Line? We need them more than ever now.

[Native]

24. Definitely money and ratings. Did you see the video of Soledad the other day?

They all basically agreed, the three of them in the video, that Donald Trump is making them a hell of a lot of money.

[TimeToGo]

31. NY Times

Here are the two top campaign stories in the digital edition of today's NY Times.


Election 2016

"Young Blacks’ Doubts About Clinton Worry Democrats"

"Donald Trump, Changing His Mind" (video)

[tinrobot]

3. This one of my biggest fears.

It has happened before - both Gore and Kerry were the recipients of this behavior.

[TomCADem]

5. Voters Don't Care About Immigration, Wages, Healthcare, Climate Change, Etc.

We want to hear about Hillary's e-mails 24/7 and more spin about how voters love Trump because he tells it like it is!

Likewise, shouldn't we have a whole forum on DU talking about evil in this country of Americans sending work related e-mails on their gmail accounts? Given the media focus on e-mails, we should add a topic on E-Mail Retention, because nothing quickens the pulse of the average American than e-mail retention.

This must be why the media does not cover and compare Clinton's platform on immigration, wages, healthcare, climate change, education, etc. versus Donald Trump. It is not like these actually affect most Americans.

[Little Star]

7. Yep. But Trump has a platform?....

Coulda fooled me.

[uponit7771]

49. +1

[hay rick]

11. The media are serving their masters, not us.

The oligarchy can't afford a Democratic blowout, so Trump gets propped up and rumors and lies about Hillary get repeated endlessly.

[yurbud]

12. it's tough even for the Clinton campaign to hit the right note on him

Trump is not even qualified to be criticized on the same terms as other REPUBLICAN candidates.

He lacks the experience, background knowledge, temperament, or even coherent policies to be considered for president or any national office.

The only less realistic candidate would Charles Manson.

I'm not sure how you could adequately communicate all that without elevating him a bit treating him like a real candidate.

[PatSeg]

13. It has been really pathetic

I'd forgotten about the Gore-Bush race, but I really think this is far worse.

[Scarsdale]

27. Receiver?

Remember the suspicious oblong object on Dubya's back during those "debares"? Lucky he was not a democratic politician, or that would have been investigated. It was ignored since it was on his back.

[PatSeg]

41. I thought that was 2004

when he was debating Kerry. That was so bizarre and there was at least one time when it looked like he was talking to someone on the receiver. He absolutely hated the debates and for good reason, he sucked!

[kimbutgar]

19. The only thing different though is that social media is almost bigger than MsM

A lot of young voters get their news from the Internet not MSM media. And cable is becoming more expensive and cost prohibitive to many people.

[pansypoo53219]

29. hillary is being GOREd. the gerbism of teevee gnewz likes SQUIRRELS for ratings.

RUMP is a ratings JACKPOT. THEY ARE THE ENEMY NOW.

[red dog 1]

30. Krugman is right!

(From the Alternet article)
"Only one candidate in the (race) bilked students, stiffed workers, and from all appearances, failed to pay his share of taxes."

Also, only one candidate has had 3 different people claim that he either raped them or attempted to rape them.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016166395#top


K&R, thanks for posting.

[Cosmocat]

33. He is the republican nominee

the media has one dual set of marching orders:

1) as much as possible positively frame republicans
2) always marginalize and demean the democrat

Now, when the republican is really horrible, they have no choice but to in some way note it.

But, going back for YEARS there is always this frame to everything.

Something good happens for a D and it's "they better be careful to not over play their hand!" I mean, nearly everything is bad news for a D

Meanwhile, as they noted, this shit that Trump is doing is called "pivoting." Have you EVER fucking heard that term used for a D. Hell, they don't even have to actually do it and they get slammed for FLIP FLOPPING!

[William769]

34. Thanks for this Little Star.

This needs to be screamed from the rooftops!

[The Wizard]

35. Hillary is getting Gored

Remember what they did to Al Gore. Remember when they ran the Swiftboat ads as news. The Republican propaganda machine is shaping public opinion much in the same way Pravda, TAAS and Izvestia did in the Soviet Union.
The next time a Republican tells you how horrible Hillary Clinton is ask them where they get their information.

[ffr]

45. Excellent observation.

What I have found to be true for many many years. It's no longer news, it's entertainment, lead by the queen of entertainment news, Fox Entertainment.

[SunSeeker]

36. The MSM should be ashamed.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

37. Coward media scared of Trump lawsuits. He has sued them. Hillary doesn't sue.

See David Cay Johnstone ( http://billmoyers.com/story/making-donald-trump-told-journalistic-nemesis/ ):

Vindictiveness is a point of pride for Trump, Johnston said. “His personal motto is ‘get revenge,’” said the reporter, who devotes an entire chapter to Trump’s speechifying and writings on the subject. Describing how Trump fired a female employee who, citing ethical qualms, wouldn’t call a banker friend on his behalf, Johnston quotes Trump’s own account from his book, Think Big:

“She ended up losing her home. Her husband, who was only in it for the money, walked out on her and I was glad… I can’t stomach disloyalty…and now [font size = "+1"]I go out of my way to make her life miserable.”[/font]

[Little Star]

39. Good Point.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

42. I hate them (M$M) with a flaming white-hot fury.

I don't watch any of them because I'd end up jumping off tall buildings, running through plate glass windows, and doing other things I'd regret later.

[Upthevibe]

46. They need a horse race for ratings. I actually heard someone (can't remember her name or

which talking head show it was on) say that about the ratings (not that there was any doubt).