The 4th Estate Thread Has Surrendered

[stessier]

It seems that you like OpEds that you agree with and think they are a scourge when you don't.

[msteelers]

An editorial team has (should have, anyway) nothing to do with the news team. They are different writers. They have different guidelines. They have different goals. They are different.

Again you are arguing something I never said.

The News and OpEd sides sometimes need to work in tandem.

So you're a big fan of Fox News then? Because that's exactly what they do. They blend the news and editorial departments in order to put their thumb on the scale.

What's with the strawman here? Fox is an extreme version of this. I literally said 'sometimes'. Not all the time. It can be useful for controversial topics. And further Fox News isn't a good example because the news side is mostly factual and the OpEd side is completely off the rails.

Having the editorial and journalism departments "work in tandem" to "put their thumb on the scale" is exactly what Fox News does. If you don't like it when they do it, why is it ok if someone else does it?

More to the point, people need to stop conflating the editorial and journalism departments. I've seen studies that indicate people are more likely to not trust the news based on what they see on the op-ed page. I'm not saying to not read them. Just stop calling them news, and stop considering them as having anything to do with journalism.

[malchior]

An editorial team has (should have, anyway) nothing to do with the news team. They are different writers. They have different guidelines. They have different goals. They are different.

Again you are arguing something I never said.

The News and OpEd sides sometimes need to work in tandem.

So you're a big fan of Fox News then? Because that's exactly what they do. They blend the news and editorial departments in order to put their thumb on the scale.

What's with the strawman here? Fox is an extreme version of this. I literally said 'sometimes'. Not all the time. It can be useful for controversial topics. And further Fox News isn't a good example because the news side is mostly factual and the OpEd side is completely off the rails.

Having the editorial and journalism departments "work in tandem" to "put their thumb on the scale" is exactly what Fox News does. If you don't like it when they do it, why is it ok if someone else does it?

A question of scale. I said sometimes for a reason. Fox does it all times. WaPo or the NY Times might do it once a year. It is a completely different beast. In other words, like all things it requires discretion. Fox doesn't use discretion at all. Most others do and they maintain a reputation of neutrality. However, sometimes the people on the OpEd side will feel the need to comment on an article that is published the same day. The facts will inform the opinion - not the other way around but it still requires some coordination aka in tandem - as in one in front of the other.

[malchior]

If CNN deserves to fail - it certainly isn't due to being "fake news". It is for completely shit judgement. Why is this guy on the TV, CNN? Stop giving POS like him a platform. He is a trash human and putting him on the air degrades us all.

[LordMortis]

I'm pretty well done with CNN so they don't raise an eyebrow. Their Internet Ad hijacking turned me off them a long time ago and their actual "news" pretty much ended some years back. I don't know if they've always been this Don Henley song or I just got 'woke' in the last few years.

Giving Lewandowski a platform pretty much is just evidence of why they get no ad revenue from me and one more reason why I need to "cut the cord" to keep subscription dollars out the pockets I can't flush a la carte.

On a side note, it to much to hope he get pulled down and burns in re-entry for being in Trump's orbit?

[msteelers]

CNN, MSNBC, Fox News... all of the 24 hours network news channels are awful. They are awful for different reasons, but still awful.

[El Guapo]

CNN's probably in the top 10 for why we have Trump in the first place. Greedy amoral assholes.

[malchior]

Maggie Haberman apparently is seeking attention for some reason. Michael Cohen's lawyer? Really!?! Bonus - it is a very weird interpretation of the source. He said he hopes she does not run and

added that he does not know whether Hillary Clinton is actually considering another run

[Pyperkub]

NY Daily News to lay off 50% of the Newsroom:

The New York Daily News, a storied big-city tabloid known for its ruthless and splashy front pages, laid off half its newsroom staff on Monday, marking the latest round of cuts at the beleaguered Tronc company’s media holdings.

“We are fundamentally restructuring the Daily News,” an email from Tronc to the staff reads. “We are reducing today the size of the editorial team by approximately 50 percent and re-focusing much of our talent on breaking news — especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility.” The paper had about 85 newsroom employees prior to the cuts, according to the New York Post.

Of course, there was plenty of money for this:

This past spring, Michael Ferro resigned as chairman of publicly traded media-looting hell-company Tronc, Inc., just ahead of the publication of sexual harassment allegations against him. As a parting gift, Tronc paid him $15 million, voluntarily bundling up the total value of a three-year consulting contract into one lump payment expensed against the company’s earnings and putting itself $14.8 million in the red for the first quarter. Today, Tronc gutted the New York Daily News, laying off at least half of its editorial staff to cut costs. In a society not crippled and driven completely insane by capitalism, motherfuckers would go to prison for this.

[LawBeefaroni]

Ipsos poll.

First off, the good news. The large majority of Americans, 85%, agree that the “Freedom of the press is essential for American democracy.” Additionally, two-thirds (68%) say that “reporters should be protected from pressure from government or big business interests.” Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agree with these two statements signaling deep support for the concept of freedom of the press.

That's the good news? That 15% of Americans don't believe that freedom of the press is essential?

Some of the limits of public support for freedom of the press are made stark with a quarter of Americans (26%) saying they agree “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior,” including a plurality of Republicans (43%). Likewise, most Americans (72%) think “it should be easier to sue reporters who knowingly publish false information.”

[Carpet_pissr]

Ipsos poll.

First off, the good news. The large majority of Americans, 85%, agree that the “Freedom of the press is essential for American democracy.” Additionally, two-thirds (68%) say that “reporters should be protected from pressure from government or big business interests.” Majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agree with these two statements signaling deep support for the concept of freedom of the press.

That's the good news? That 15% of Americans don't believe that freedom of the press is essential?

Some of the limits of public support for freedom of the press are made stark with a quarter of Americans (26%) saying they agree “the president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior,” including a plurality of Republicans (43%). Likewise, most Americans (72%) think “it should be easier to sue reporters who knowingly publish false information.”

Want to watch those poll results get wrecked by using a specific name instead of just "the President"? Insert Trump/Obama and watch how transparently "team-oriented" we are these days (not like we need yet another example).

[AWS260]

I'm kind of amazed that Sarah Jeong's appointment to the NY Times editorial board didn't get any play here. (Basically, this led some alt-right types to dig up old Twitter posts by her trolling racists, which they framed as anti-white.)

Anyway, I'm posting because Jeong is back on Twitter after a brief absence, and her return is freaking brilliant. Pre-dust-up, her Twitter feed was timely, incisive, informative and funny. Now it's, well, this.

[GreenGoo]

Not following. Tweets about patent applications and making ice cream? If there is some subtlety here that you expect me not to skim past then...you expect too much.

[Max Peck]

Not following. Tweets about patent applications and making ice cream? If there is some subtlety here that you expect me not to skim past then...you expect too much.

One assumes that would be the point. She's gone from being a spirited shitdisturber to being very... conventional. You can see the inflection point if you look at how her tweets change from late July to early August.

[GreenGoo]

Ok, but Aws260 called her return brilliant.

I'm comfortable in lack of understanding.

Please explain.

She's been brought to heel by her new job? Is that it?

There are a billion people out there that I don't know with twitter accounts. I have no twitter account so I *don't* have to care or even listen to what a billion strangers think (many of whom are drumpf voters). I'm simply not following why AWS260 brought this particular one to our (my?) attention.

edit: Believe it or not I'm not being critical, I'm trying to figure out what the deal is.

[Max Peck]

I don't know exactly what he meant by "brilliant" and therefore will not endeavour to speak for him on that count, but if she's enraging Trump and the alt-right just by existing then more power to her.

[AWS260]

Well, a joke's never as good when you explain it, but I get how her response isn't exactly obvious if you haven't been following her for a while.

Essentially, she's using her Twitter feed to say, "This is what social media looks like when no one if allowed to have opinions that anyone might find vaguely offensive." So the woman who used to write this



and this



is now posting the equivalent of your Aunt Martha's Facebook page. Tweeting utterly anodyne articles with even-more-anodyne comments. "Makes you think." "Good read." "Huh."

As someone who's been enjoying her for a while, I find this hilarious. Although her most recent tweet was a little over-the-top for my tastes.

[Paingod]

That's the good news? That 15% of Americans don't believe that freedom of the press is essential?

When you consider that 35% of the population seems to just want to watch the world burn so they can feel smug about it, it does seem like good news to think 60% of those people think freedom of the press is essential. Maybe just so they can watch Fox & Friends, but still.

[malchior]

[Freyland]

Can't tell her what?
That clip wasn't as exciting as the Twitter poster made it out to be.

[Max Peck]

Can't tell her what?
That clip wasn't as exciting as the Twitter poster made it out to be.

She implies that his defense of Trump is disingenuous because the NDA prevents him from being critical of Trump. He doesn't deny it. Then they get back to him spinning his fairy tale about what Trump really meant and how Manafort probably really is a good guy that just made a simple mistake (because who doesn't make mistakes from time to time).

[hepcat]

Can't tell her what?
That clip wasn't as exciting as the Twitter poster made it out to be.

I have to agree. The pregnant pause wasn’t nearly as pregnant as they seemed to be making it out to to be.

[Isgrimnur]

It was barely late.

[hepcat]

[Kraken]

Trump thinks Google search results are biased against him, and his economic advisor says the administration is "taking a look" at whether and how Google should be regulated.

I don't think I even need to comment on that sentence.

In the past, federal courts have found that search engine results are protected speech because they resemble the editorial content produced by more traditional sources of information, such as newspapers and books.

“There’s no question about this. The courts have uniformly ruled that search results are protected speech,” said Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.

Sen. Brian Schatz, the top Democrat on one of the Senate’s tech-focused subcommittees, lambasted Trump’s tweet and threat to regulate as a “crazy, authoritarian idea,” saying it is “unconstitutional, unworkable and antithetical to everything our country stands for.”

I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.

[The Meal]

Everyone loves China's state-sponsored approach to internet search censorship.

[Holman]

"Sloppy @carlbernstein, a man who lives in the past and thinks like a degenerate fool, making up story after story, is being laughed at all over the country!" is worthy of PRAVDA circa 1938.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Are we sure Trump's tweets aren't actually Google-translated into English from Russian? They certainly do read that way sometimes.

[GreenGoo]

I'm just waiting for when it becomes acceptably PC enough to just start wishing for him to die. Until then, someone get the KFC, stat!

[Carpet_pissr]

I'm just waiting for when it becomes acceptably PC enough to just start wishing for him to die. Until then, someone get the KFC, stat!

Not fast enough. Put him on an all bacon diet and add soda and ice cream at every meal.

[LawBeefaroni]

I'm just waiting for when it becomes acceptably PC enough to just start wishing for him to die. Until then, someone get the KFC, stat!

Not fast enough. Put him on an all bacon diet and add soda and ice cream at every meal.

The New Zealand Double Down Bacon Lovers might be an option. Or Zinger Supercharged.


Or the Korean Double Down Burger.



The regular ones at the White House KFC just don't have enough oomph.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size 248g
Amount Per Serving
Calories 610
Calories From Fat 330


Total Fat 37g 57%
Saturated Fat 11.0g 55%
Trans Fat 1.0g
Cholesterol 150mg 50%
Sodium 1880mg 78%

Gonna take 6 or 7 of those a day to make a dent.

[Kraken]

What major lie did Sloppy Carl promulgate?

[Holman]

What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks - with @NBCNews being the worst. The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!

Wait. Wait. Is Trump now implying that the Lester Holt interview was "fudged"? Is he claiming he didn't say what he said?

I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesn’t matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People!

This just gets creepier and creepier.

Hopefully some major story is about to break, and he's merely panicking.

[LordMortis]

I get the urge to say he's the master of projection, only he's really really bad at it. But he is the master at duping the tiny minded.

Trump supporter =




It does make me wonder if it's OK to say out loud that you legitimately hope he dies of natural causes. Of course... Pence...

[Daveman]

What major lie did Sloppy Carl promulgate?

I had to google that myself... seems it's in reference to a report CNN did a month or so ago where they claim Michael Cohen is preparing to testify that Trump knew about the Russian/Trump Tower meeting.

[em2nought]

CNN's probably in the top 10 for why we have Trump in the first place. Greedy amoral assholes.

They'll probably be in the top 10 of why you get Trump in 2020 too!

#WalkAway

[hepcat]

I don't know. There may be a Kardashian running in 2020. They've been on TV and that's obviously enough to get conservatives to vote for them. Although it is possible that you lot will vote for someone you saw on a cereal box.

[ImLawBoy]

Like you wouldn't?

[LordMortis]

A certain bot forgot to be updated. It's supposed to be gatoing stopthebias. Walkaway never got traction.

[LordMortis]

Like you wouldn't?

I hear he always wins if he's a voting option.