Summer continues this late-afternoon Thursday here in California’s Central Valley. — hot but soothed by a gentle breeze, making it not really all that unpleasant in the shade.
As we await the start of the Jan. 6 hearing this evening, I doomscrolled the InterWebs and amidst the shit-stories from all over, I did encounter some news bits — just to occupy until the time.
Maybe Twitter/billboard of the moment:
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 21, 2022
Continuing on, a good look at Biden and the media, especially journalism:
the White House press briefing ends with a reporter asking if there's a plan in place to transfer power to VP Harris if Biden's symptoms get worse pic.twitter.com/G1yYBI2qMk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 21, 2022
An emphasis on the media and how Biden is handled in the news press comes from now 92-year-old Marven Kalb, the journalist and a “Murrow boy,” in a detailed piece today at Brookings — both sides don’t do it:
The American press corps struggles every day to prove to readers and viewers that it is “fair and balanced,” the slogan cleverly adopted by Fox News. If it strongly criticized Donald Trump during his presidency (and since), then it follows that it must also strongly criticize Joe Biden, which is exactly what it’s done.
Fair, isn’t it? Balanced, too, right?
Wrong.
Not only does criticism not come in equal shapes and sizes, appropriate for all presidents and both political parties (a journalistic curse called “bothsideism”), but, when unfairly applied, as it has been in covering Biden, it runs the serious risk of further damaging our still free press and weakening our already shaky democracy.
The press image of Biden, president of the United States of America, has been whittled down to that of a doddering old man, wobbly on his feet and barely able to articulate a single thought without slurring.
Is that a fair and balanced image of Biden? Hardly. But can the press do better?
According to columnist Perry Bacon Jr.’s analysis of the media’s cutting criticism of Biden, journalists seemed “poised” from Day One of his administration to “balance” their justifiably negative coverage of Trump with a run of unjustifiably negative stories about Biden. Granted, the press is ordinarily skeptical of any incoming president, but Biden was never given much of a honeymoon.
If you have the chance, go read the whole piece, though, a little soft on the shitty world of MSM nowadays. Kalb worked in a different time zone.
And now time for the hearing to start — this adds to the flavor:
"But with an air of defiance, the former Navy commander has said she is unconcerned about any potential political consequences that her role in unspooling the former president’s inaction on Jan. 6 could have in her own political future…"https://t.co/n5TnQRcn83
— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) July 21, 2022
A good story, Elaine Luria seems a real neat go-to person and wish there were more like her in Congress. She’ll be leading the hearing tonight, and will probably piss off the T-Rump, his ass glued to the TV (The Washington Post)::
But with an air of defiance, the former Navy commander has said she is unconcerned about any potential political consequences that her role in unspooling the former president’s inaction on Jan. 6 could have in her own political future — a message that, rather than whispered to confidants, she has put front and center in her campaign.
“Getting this right, getting the facts out there and making some change in the future so that this doesn’t happen again, it’s so much bigger than whether you’re reelected or not,” Luria said in an interview. “I don’t want to make my bid for reelection seem petty, but that’s inconsequential. Does that make sense? And if I win, it will be a very strong statement about the work of the committee.”
I hope these hearings do make a difference. Although it’s great the T-Rump is shown to be a coup-ass bitch, who loved violence on anyone.
Summer heat and insurrection talk, here we are once again…
(Image out front by illustrator and portrait painter, Tim O’Brien, and can be found here).