Awesome post and a great way to kick off the week. That said, I feel this is going to be the most volatile week of the Harris campaign so far. Mainstream media (I watch ABC, CBC, MSNBC, CNN, and subscribe to NYT and WaPo) is overtly BEGGING for something dramatic to happen. As we've discussed, Trump is a fire hydrant of clickbait, and newsrooms are not going to enable a trouncing to happen. Stock Market Crash! Nope, didn't happen. Inflation! Easing. War escalation in the Middle East! Tense, but restrained. So now all they got is... Kamala won't sit down for an interview! Kamala's honeymoon is over! Kamala is vague on policy details! This one goads me the most, as their coverage implies that Trump is VERY articulate on policy. But here's the heartbreaker -- watch last Thursday's Daily Show and last Friday's Bill Maher. Both aging, past prime comedians decided to take Harris down a notch. Stewart was overtly agist about Biden, essentially willing a Trump presidency into place. And so now he attacks Harris for being boring and "just good enough", and that could encourage an ill-informed youth audience to sit out voting. Maher was even worse. He's anti-vaxx and likely was going to vote RFKJr. He screamed at his guests that he believed Trump when Trump claimed ignorance of Project 25 and accused Carville of lying when Carville said Trump's fingerprints were all over it. Maher also refused to believe many facts in DNC speeches last week, providing false equivalency to the RNC speeches -- once again, riding the "they're all bad" narrative that sank Hillary in the Electoral. Maher is getting really close to the Matt Taibbi edge of delusional radicalization. Worst of all, he let Dan Crenshaw spew all sorts of lies like post-birth execution and blatant transphobia, without rebuttal, because Maher is always thinking about his next zinger and lets far right guests just spew their venom.
Great discussion. Maher has been a major league asshole for some time now, and I am so very sick of Jon Stewart's schtick. Both men's agenda smacks of narcissism and desperation for relevance. Time for new blood in the media as well as politics, IMHO.
Maher never recovered from the vitriol of COVID derailing his standup career, he's followed formerly solid journalists like Matt Taibbi and Lara Logan down the rabbit hole. Plus he's just so blatantly transphobic and misogynistic -- he fanboys when the likes of Elon Musk are on relishes in placing provocateurs like Ann Coulter on just to let them trash the furniture and rile his core audience (to get the spelling of her name right, I googled "shrill blonde conservative" and it was the top ranked answer). The Daily Show is much better off without Stewart -- he is the epitome of why Biden was better off retiring -- it was a step back to bring him back on. While the rest of the anchor team is solid, they are also getting a bit tired in their bits. With SNL approaching, I fear that another retread on "hip hop" Kamala from Maya Rudolph (basically her Beyonce impression in a power suit) will position Harris as a shoo-in, causing some voters to sit out the election (like the way Kate played Hillary). I adore James Austin Johnson's Trump, but as funny as his rambling pop culture non sequiturs are, he also portrays Trump as adorable and harmless which is deadly.
More excellent discussion. Yeah, I'm afraid SNL has lost some of its edge as it's become a staple. And yes, I agree with you about The Daily Show. To be clear, I think Biden did an amazing job during his term, getting public health back on track, rescuing the economy, forgiving student loans, passing landmark legislation with very slim margins, etc. HIs long experience was an asset, IMO. But when it became clear that he was a drag on the ticket, he did the honorable thing - and his timing was outstanding, for a number of reasons. Campaigning is exhausting - even more so when you're also doing one of the most demanding jobs on the planet, even more so when you're of advanced age. I am really grateful for all that he did for regular Americans. But he had the good sense and cooperative spirit to step aside. Harris/Walz campaign has been turbo-charged and it is an exciting thing to watch.
Stewart and Maher could take a page from Biden's playbook. Personally, and maybe I'm naive, I never thought Biden's efforts came from a place of ego. But I can't say the same for Steward and Maher. Given that we've been subjected endlessly to Trump's ego on steroids the past eight years, I'm having a hard time stomaching it from anyone.
Bill Maher's whole rant about "Brat" was as embarrassing as CNN's. You can't google it and read an explanation -- it's just an attitude, a self-own, sense of adventure and confidence that's best left unspoken. But I see where Maher is coming from. At peak popularity, weasely guys like him (Pauli Shore, David Spade, Drew Carey) were gods on the comedy tour circuit, perennial late night talk show guests, and girl magnets at the Playboy Grotto. Now he's old, his body mass is dwindling, and he's likely spending more time at home alone and paying for companionship. For more than a year, his biggest political grievance (aired weekly on a national TV platform) was being unable to get a solar panel permitted. Stewart too cleans up nice with a suit, but is really a stubble faced weirdo in a hoodie, with a fledgling acting career long in the dust, and little prowess in standup. His Apple TV show failed and he came crawling back to basic cable. That Paramount didn't have confidence in Desi Lydec or anyone on the bench probably says more about their general unease to take risks while the merger is being negotiated. As for NBC, between the Apprentice (whose opening credits alone transformed a has-been celebrity and financial failure into a bankable TV star), the Tonight Show where Fallon normalized Trump with the hair tussle, allowing Trump to HOST SNL in an election year, and softball coverage of his crimes makes that network as liable for his rise and staying power as FOX.
Great insights, and agreed. I've often thought that Stewart's original success on The Daily Show was more about his writers than him. Yeah, all of the major networks have just lost it. An obsessive fixation on trying to make as much profit as possible will poison everything. Plus, the execs don't want to pay taxes or be subjected to regulation, so they're going all in for fascism. Never mind that if they got what they think they want, they would not last long under such a regime.
The mainstream media is so focused on the profits that come with a "horse race" election, that they are oblivious a Trump Victory will put them out of business, and have many high profile media figures jailed if not killed. Even the best case under a Trump 2.0 presidency is for all media to fall in line and become propaganda outlets (with profits likely sweeping to oligarchs). But the media can't even fathom such complex thought, they have blinders on and can only focus on short-term business goals. It reminds me of my days in corporate. I'd have people on my team who were loyal, skilled, and essential to our success. But after years of annual raises at the annual HR cap, their salaries were no longer competitive with offers they were receiving from headhunters. When I asked higher bosses for permissions to give my team competitive salaries, they stared at me blankly and said, "but that would be an 18% raise and the annual cap is 5%." And so, the team members would leave, the team would suffer, and we'd either lose client business, or the team member would be quickly recruited back -- when you factor in the recruiter fee, the signing bonus, and the new salary, it would be like a 40% raise (well over the cap). And senior brass thought nothing of this, not seeing the logic disconnect at all.
I completely agree with your reaction about the young voters, but as the father of two young voters myself (21 and 19), the comments were eerily reminiscent. My sons believed what they saw and heard from Biden far more than the reasoning of their father. Plus, for my sons, they were too young to internalize the train wreck that was 2016-2020. It’s a generational thing, I’ve concluded, and one of the main reasons I’m happy that Pelosi et al prevailed upon Biden to stand aside.
I remember watching the inauguration ceremony for Biden-Harris and wondering where this Kamala was during her short lived presidential campaign. The press coverage portrayed a completely different picture from her campaign’s presentation, very similar in a lot of ways to the official representation of Hilary Clinton. Both women have lively personalities and charm, given the opportunity to relax and be themselves. The saying that, “Women have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good,” has never been more true than when used in reference to these amazing people.
Great post ,Ben . Peace to you
Thank you Mitch!
Awesome post and a great way to kick off the week. That said, I feel this is going to be the most volatile week of the Harris campaign so far. Mainstream media (I watch ABC, CBC, MSNBC, CNN, and subscribe to NYT and WaPo) is overtly BEGGING for something dramatic to happen. As we've discussed, Trump is a fire hydrant of clickbait, and newsrooms are not going to enable a trouncing to happen. Stock Market Crash! Nope, didn't happen. Inflation! Easing. War escalation in the Middle East! Tense, but restrained. So now all they got is... Kamala won't sit down for an interview! Kamala's honeymoon is over! Kamala is vague on policy details! This one goads me the most, as their coverage implies that Trump is VERY articulate on policy. But here's the heartbreaker -- watch last Thursday's Daily Show and last Friday's Bill Maher. Both aging, past prime comedians decided to take Harris down a notch. Stewart was overtly agist about Biden, essentially willing a Trump presidency into place. And so now he attacks Harris for being boring and "just good enough", and that could encourage an ill-informed youth audience to sit out voting. Maher was even worse. He's anti-vaxx and likely was going to vote RFKJr. He screamed at his guests that he believed Trump when Trump claimed ignorance of Project 25 and accused Carville of lying when Carville said Trump's fingerprints were all over it. Maher also refused to believe many facts in DNC speeches last week, providing false equivalency to the RNC speeches -- once again, riding the "they're all bad" narrative that sank Hillary in the Electoral. Maher is getting really close to the Matt Taibbi edge of delusional radicalization. Worst of all, he let Dan Crenshaw spew all sorts of lies like post-birth execution and blatant transphobia, without rebuttal, because Maher is always thinking about his next zinger and lets far right guests just spew their venom.
Great discussion. Maher has been a major league asshole for some time now, and I am so very sick of Jon Stewart's schtick. Both men's agenda smacks of narcissism and desperation for relevance. Time for new blood in the media as well as politics, IMHO.
Maher never recovered from the vitriol of COVID derailing his standup career, he's followed formerly solid journalists like Matt Taibbi and Lara Logan down the rabbit hole. Plus he's just so blatantly transphobic and misogynistic -- he fanboys when the likes of Elon Musk are on relishes in placing provocateurs like Ann Coulter on just to let them trash the furniture and rile his core audience (to get the spelling of her name right, I googled "shrill blonde conservative" and it was the top ranked answer). The Daily Show is much better off without Stewart -- he is the epitome of why Biden was better off retiring -- it was a step back to bring him back on. While the rest of the anchor team is solid, they are also getting a bit tired in their bits. With SNL approaching, I fear that another retread on "hip hop" Kamala from Maya Rudolph (basically her Beyonce impression in a power suit) will position Harris as a shoo-in, causing some voters to sit out the election (like the way Kate played Hillary). I adore James Austin Johnson's Trump, but as funny as his rambling pop culture non sequiturs are, he also portrays Trump as adorable and harmless which is deadly.
More excellent discussion. Yeah, I'm afraid SNL has lost some of its edge as it's become a staple. And yes, I agree with you about The Daily Show. To be clear, I think Biden did an amazing job during his term, getting public health back on track, rescuing the economy, forgiving student loans, passing landmark legislation with very slim margins, etc. HIs long experience was an asset, IMO. But when it became clear that he was a drag on the ticket, he did the honorable thing - and his timing was outstanding, for a number of reasons. Campaigning is exhausting - even more so when you're also doing one of the most demanding jobs on the planet, even more so when you're of advanced age. I am really grateful for all that he did for regular Americans. But he had the good sense and cooperative spirit to step aside. Harris/Walz campaign has been turbo-charged and it is an exciting thing to watch.
Stewart and Maher could take a page from Biden's playbook. Personally, and maybe I'm naive, I never thought Biden's efforts came from a place of ego. But I can't say the same for Steward and Maher. Given that we've been subjected endlessly to Trump's ego on steroids the past eight years, I'm having a hard time stomaching it from anyone.
Bill Maher's whole rant about "Brat" was as embarrassing as CNN's. You can't google it and read an explanation -- it's just an attitude, a self-own, sense of adventure and confidence that's best left unspoken. But I see where Maher is coming from. At peak popularity, weasely guys like him (Pauli Shore, David Spade, Drew Carey) were gods on the comedy tour circuit, perennial late night talk show guests, and girl magnets at the Playboy Grotto. Now he's old, his body mass is dwindling, and he's likely spending more time at home alone and paying for companionship. For more than a year, his biggest political grievance (aired weekly on a national TV platform) was being unable to get a solar panel permitted. Stewart too cleans up nice with a suit, but is really a stubble faced weirdo in a hoodie, with a fledgling acting career long in the dust, and little prowess in standup. His Apple TV show failed and he came crawling back to basic cable. That Paramount didn't have confidence in Desi Lydec or anyone on the bench probably says more about their general unease to take risks while the merger is being negotiated. As for NBC, between the Apprentice (whose opening credits alone transformed a has-been celebrity and financial failure into a bankable TV star), the Tonight Show where Fallon normalized Trump with the hair tussle, allowing Trump to HOST SNL in an election year, and softball coverage of his crimes makes that network as liable for his rise and staying power as FOX.
Great insights, and agreed. I've often thought that Stewart's original success on The Daily Show was more about his writers than him. Yeah, all of the major networks have just lost it. An obsessive fixation on trying to make as much profit as possible will poison everything. Plus, the execs don't want to pay taxes or be subjected to regulation, so they're going all in for fascism. Never mind that if they got what they think they want, they would not last long under such a regime.
The mainstream media is so focused on the profits that come with a "horse race" election, that they are oblivious a Trump Victory will put them out of business, and have many high profile media figures jailed if not killed. Even the best case under a Trump 2.0 presidency is for all media to fall in line and become propaganda outlets (with profits likely sweeping to oligarchs). But the media can't even fathom such complex thought, they have blinders on and can only focus on short-term business goals. It reminds me of my days in corporate. I'd have people on my team who were loyal, skilled, and essential to our success. But after years of annual raises at the annual HR cap, their salaries were no longer competitive with offers they were receiving from headhunters. When I asked higher bosses for permissions to give my team competitive salaries, they stared at me blankly and said, "but that would be an 18% raise and the annual cap is 5%." And so, the team members would leave, the team would suffer, and we'd either lose client business, or the team member would be quickly recruited back -- when you factor in the recruiter fee, the signing bonus, and the new salary, it would be like a 40% raise (well over the cap). And senior brass thought nothing of this, not seeing the logic disconnect at all.
Excellent post, thank you.
Speaking of polls, there’s a lot of blue here: https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls/senate
🤔😉😊
I completely agree with your reaction about the young voters, but as the father of two young voters myself (21 and 19), the comments were eerily reminiscent. My sons believed what they saw and heard from Biden far more than the reasoning of their father. Plus, for my sons, they were too young to internalize the train wreck that was 2016-2020. It’s a generational thing, I’ve concluded, and one of the main reasons I’m happy that Pelosi et al prevailed upon Biden to stand aside.
The GOP is shooting spitballs at that ginormous crack in the presidential glass ceiling to try to stop it from spreading. Too late.
I remember watching the inauguration ceremony for Biden-Harris and wondering where this Kamala was during her short lived presidential campaign. The press coverage portrayed a completely different picture from her campaign’s presentation, very similar in a lot of ways to the official representation of Hilary Clinton. Both women have lively personalities and charm, given the opportunity to relax and be themselves. The saying that, “Women have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good,” has never been more true than when used in reference to these amazing people.