News That’s Fit to Print, Plus This
More tales of the MSM as a New York Times article discusses Republican messaging on Gitmo at great length while doing basically nothing to assess the merits of the underlying claims.
Outside a tiny circle of people who work in politics or political messaging full-time, the ins-and-outs of GOP messaging tactics has no impact whatsoever on the American people. By contrast, people would be really interested to know if it’s actually true that the President of the United States is proposing to create a dangerous situation in which terrorists are likely to escape from prison and murder people. I think people would also be really genuinely interested in whether or not their elected representatives in the US House and Senate are lying to them. Yet the Times article gives us no real insight into those issues. Instead, it treats the debate like it’s maybe a hockey game.
Not unusual, of course, but I think it’s always worth pointing out.
22 Responses to “News That’s Fit to Print, Plus This”
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May 25th, 2009 at 9:05 am
This is further to the “Brazilification” of America, an ever widening split between the connected elites and the disconnected millions of laborers. This growing chasm in American society is such that major media journalists talk with decreasing frequency to those who don’t have Master’s degrees and work in some major industry. They are so busy talking with other technocrats that honestly believe the real story is in the message tactics used to bully the electorate. As Yglesias points out, they seem to be ignoring the actual narrative – can we still use the rule of law while protecting ourselves? The petty intellectual squabbles of the technocracy are meaningless to our actual democracy, insofar as it still exists.
I say, every journalist should be required six times a year to keep driving toward Missouri until they encounter a majority of people who don’t know what “MSM” stands for. Then, they should get out, eat at the diner, and talk to folks about their lives. Maybe we’ll start getting stories about our democracy, not about the mandarins running the joint.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:09 am
“a dangerous situation in which terrorists are likely to escape from prison and murder people.”
So what if they do escape? They are unarmed. They don’t speak English. They have no money, no phone, no food, no shelter. They don’t know where they are and have no means to travel. They have no friends or relatives nearby, nor any means to contact them. They look and sound different, so they call attention to themselves.
Are we, as a society, really reduced to such pathetic, cringing wimps, that we fear these hapless people, most of whom have committed no crimes at all? Even the worst among them could do no damage before they were caught.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:12 am
It’s easier to think of this sort of journalism as gossip, but with a lot less sex.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:23 am
This isn’t an original insight by any means, but, for people in the business this is inside baseball. Making understandable and compelling narratives out of “reported facts” (which might or might not be true) is what they do for a living. They care about it, they’re interested in it, they like to analyze it done well or poorly. So there’s always going to be a disproportional level of interest in PR and media strategy versus real-world issues.
You know, like this post itself.
That doesn’t make it good for us, but I do think it means there isn’t any easy fix.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Reality has a liberal bias, so the only way to appear “balanced” is to ignore reality and to abandon any pretense that the primary function of journalism is to get at the truth. Therefore, if the Democrats say 2 + 2 = 4 and the Republicans say 2 + 2 = 5, the only thing you can do is say, “Some Democrats claim the answer is 4, while Republicans claim it is 5.”
This isn’t satire. Many in the media actually believe that this is the way journalism should work.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Even on vacation Matty takes his Daily Liar pill.
Nobody is saying “…the President of the United States is proposing to create a dangerous situation in which terrorists are likely to escape from prison and murder people…”.
Cite a direct quote or wipe the snot off your nose and retract your lie Matty.
Do the Rethugs threaten the mere possibility?
Well yes as do the balls deficient DemoFrauds.
But for the NYTimes to go into that they will also have to point out that not even your ObaFuhrer has, can, or will guarantee absolute public safety if the Guantanamo inmates are brought to our shores. ObaFuhrer must make the case that the very small risks entailed are more than outweighed by other less tangible concerns.
Do you really want an honest in-depth expose headlined
“OBAMA CAN’T GUARANTEE PUBLIC SAFETY IF GUANTANAMO INMATES MOVED”?
Of course not.
But then Matty’s idea of an honest discussion is as much bullshit as Newt’s: simply farting the daily party line.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I think the Spooky Scenario involves terrorists compadres from outside the prison breaking into the prison with a helicopter gunship.
Like in the movies.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:41 am
shorter JT: “I’ve got nothing of substance to add, but I can repeat cliches I’ve copped from the internet.”
May 25th, 2009 at 9:41 am
And people wonder why newspapers have such a hard time making money. I want some critical thinking in my reporters. Much of what passes for journalism has become stenography. Just repeat what the politicians are saying; don’t bother checking if it makes sense or has any relationship to reality.
This is why I like blogs. Keep up the good work, Yglesias.
I should note that the NY Times opinion pieces still apply some critical analysis. However, these small number of people should not be the only ones using critical thinking skills.
Finally, almost anything is better than the 11 o’clock news, where they tell you about all the traffic accidents and murders that took place that day. At least you get to hear about what politicians are actually saying and doing in the NY Times.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Um, who do you think is reading the NYT? It ain’t the “the disconnected millions of laborers”.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Anybody who actually links to and reads the NYT piece will realize Matt’s synopsis of the piece is total bullshit. The focus of the piece is not “the ins-and-outs of GOP messaging tactics” but a look at the political difficulties of closing Gitmo, which are bipartisan in nature.
And Matt needs to be reminded (again) that voters didn’t give Democrats control over Congress and the White House so they could sit around with their thumbs up their asses and blame their own inability to act on the idiot GOPers.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:10 am
The problem isn’t that the media is only talking to the elites. The problem is that they have no qualifications whatsoever to discuss substantive issues and have only minimal qualifications to take inside baseball stuff, but they do that because it’s the only thing they’ve got. It’s also why they’re going to die a painful death.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Isn’t that part of the problem?
May 25th, 2009 at 10:45 am
kafka,
The “political difficulties of closing Gitmo” have everything to do with “the ins-and-outs of GOP messaging tactics”. They are fundamentally connected. The problem is why doesn’t the article go ahead and point out that the underlying idea behind the message is just plain stupid, which is Matt’s point.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Well if a GITMO prisoner escapes, he will be in Cuba. I want to know why Republicans trust the Cuban government to catch the fugitive better than the professional American police officers in their own districts.
May 25th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Father Geraldo made me lay down one day and close my eyes. I felt a warm sensation all over my face and my clothes were wet. It was yellow and smelled like asparagus. Father Geraldo told me I needed to be baptized again. Then he squeezed my testicles really hard. He made me put my tongue in his anus while he sinned with his hand. Then he defecated in my mouth while he ejaculated.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Think I’ve had about enough of the Hector spoof.
May 25th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@5 Jim: “Reality has a liberal bias, so the only way to appear “balanced” is to ignore reality”
Yes indeed. Our main stream media has gone insane and should be tossed into a padded cell.
May 25th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
“Well if a GITMO prisoner escapes, he will be in Cuba.”
If a Florence SuperMax prisoner escapes, he’ll be in Florence, CO, where most of the people will be off-duty prison guards with guns and itchy trigger fingers. Those people aren’t the kind of people who are likely to help an escaped prisoner. He’d be better off running back to the prison if he wants to live. The solution is obvious: build another SuperMax facility next to the current one and send the Gitmo detainees there. The people of Florence will be happy to have the additional federal money.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
The problem is not terrorists escaping, but their comrades targeting areas surrounding the prisons. I don’t want to be bothered being extra vigilant looking out for strange packages or people dressed in overcoats in the middle of the summer. I want to get back to flipping houses.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:11 am
It seems more and more likely that most newspapers will die of self-inflicted wounds.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
This is actually a pretty funny title for a blog post. I’ll have to remember it for future criticisms of the NYT.