You make a lot of convincing points, and throwing words like illegitimate around is probably too much in vogue. But the idea of term limits or expanding the court such that it has a justice for each appellate district are well within Congress's power. I'd expect term limits to come first if either does. And without a doubt, the abuse of the shadow docket needs to be addressed. They pick their own cases, then rule on them without argument or justification. It's obscene.
The "town hall" on CNN with Donald Trump reflected and illuminated rather than harmed the American political condition. It was responsibly journalistic in its primitive, sad spectacle.
American politics is in fact a primitive, sad spectacle. CNN merely put the reality on TV, which is what a cable television news network presumably ought to do.
Yet there are those blaming the mirror and the light rather than the condition. They are declaring that CNN should never have showcased this horrid man of subterranean character and decency who poses an actual threat to our democracy.
That's a tired refrain. It's a variation on the clichéd cry that the news media ought not to report bad news, but emphasize the positive. That presumably advocates reporting that Little Rock was spared a tornado yesterday and that there were no mass shootings in most schools again yesterday. Or that Trump doesn't exist.
There are those saying Trump is irrelevant because he can never win a general election. They're oblivious to the fact that, while he probably can never win the nationwide popular vote, the nationwide popular vote has nothing to do with electing an American president.
Vast open spaces organized into subdivisions called states elect American presidents. Conservatives joyfully immersed in a homogeneous nationalized Fox-driven politics cling to state autonomy when it provides their only means of winning the presidency anymore. A few people voting differently or not voting at all in a few precincts in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin--because they'd had it with Biden and Democrats--would re-infect the White House with a liar, demagogue, megalomaniac, sexual assaulter and Putin pal.
Let's not numb ourselves to what he is by pretending he doesn't exist.
There are those saying CNN should never have permitted the "town hall" audience to be dominated by New Hampshire deplorables who cheered Trump's anti-American cant--his unwillingness to say he preferred Ukrainian over Russian victory; his desire that the nation default on its debt and risk global economic calamity for the good of his election; his mad insistence that his rightful re-election was stolen in 2020 although it simply and absolutely was not.
But Trump's cult is a menace, and public menaces, like assault weapons and funnel clouds, are news.
Anyway, CNN has been trying to dial back its hyperpartisanship, which is really anti-Trumpism, in the interest of marketing on the basis that straight both-sides journalism is not otherwise available. By assembling an audience hostile to itself and its reporter, and worshipful of Trump, CNN tried the hard thing because it was hard. It captured a more revealing slice of Americana than an auditorium filled with sedate VIPs.
There are those complaining that CNN's interviewer of Trump, reporter Kaitlan Collins, let Trump avoid her questions and rail instead about personal grievances, and should have better challenged and corrected--debated, in other words--the liar and the lies.
But arguing with the guy was not her job. Her job was to draw and reveal the subject. And Trump was fully drawn and revealed.
That there were people loving what they saw and demonstrating mindless affection on live media ... that's not a scoop, but it's news bearing re-exposure. America must confront having to contend with a significant decline toward an "idiocracy," to borrow a word coined for a prescient movie about a future America where people don't know that applications of water would keep vegetation from dying.
Did this event matter in the current narrative of American presidential politics? Why, yes, it did, to understate woefully.
The event was its own new chapter. Afterward, Trump cultists sold T-shirts celebrating "TNN," in the logo style of CNN, meaning Trump had owned CNN.
Democrats rushed to call attention to the event. "Well, that happened," a Democratic blast email said to emphasize the choice between Biden, who wasn't behaving like that on television, and Trump, who was.
We'd just seen a poll showing Trump ahead of Biden because people were sick of Biden. So, in today's American politics, Democratic political operatives were anxious to redirect focus to the more sickening prospect, meaning the very spectacle that many liberals naïve to political reality were saying never should have been aired.
Trump's base will hold solid with or without such programming. Swing voters in swing states need reminding of who and what Trump is. Having a panel of talking heads tell them how horrible he is--or a newspaper columnist write it--is not nearly as effective as putting a camera and microphone on him for direct evidence.
If they like what they see, then America is too far gone already.
Of course I'm sick of Trump. But he's his own worst enemy. Goodness knows Democrats aren't.
It should be noted that only 1/2 of the audience cheered. The rest were notably neutral. If that holds, then Trump has a big problem with 1/2 of the Republicans. The size of his base has not increased one iota.
IF THEY DO THIS AGAIN THEY NEED MEDHI HASSAN/JONATHAN SWAN, A GONG, FACT CHECKERS, AND A DANCING BEAR. what the Flip was that ?? !! Seriously if the media is going to do this they need a better strategy. Then it will be informative
Trump is a given. What I am curious about is his crowd of supporters. They are not my neighbors or fellow church goers or really anyone I know. The only thing I can figure is they're like the people you only see once a year at the annual Fair and wonder where they came from. You won't see them again until next year (thankfully), but still you wonder!
CNN kept cutting away to an enthusiastic audience member clapping vigorously and smiling who, I swear, was the doppelgänger of the banjo playing kid from the movie “Deliverance”. Anyone else notice this?
Nothing new about Trump, though most of the reactionary commentary wallowed in the rehash. What was new was the crass disregard of journalism's integrity. Was CNN merely trying to salvage dizzied right-wing robots from Fox, or is this just example of another billionaire buying up a media medium and turning it into a fascist megaphone?
Well, based on reports coming out from people at the event, roughly half the crowd was NOT laughing at those comments. They sat silent. The CNN production team apparently told the crowd they could applaud (and cheer), but booing and any sign of disapproval was prohibited.
Chris Licht needs to go...and Zaslav/Malone are not exactly a good omen for the network.
I am a day late to comment but I’ll blame that on a poor internet connection while on vacation. I watched about 5 minutes of this “town hall” and switched the channel. In those 5 minutes I saw a young, attractive, talented female reporter - someone who is the literal walking, talking example of who he bragged about in the Access Hollywood tape - try to control an uncontrollable situation. I think CNN knew this would be the outcome. They put her in this impossible situation for ratings ratings and more ratings (no such thing as bad publicity amirite?). Dare I suggest that they deliberately chose a female because they knew Trump would salivate at the thought of putting her in her place? I think CNN didn’t want their own anchor to succeed so they stacked the deck - female host + live event + an audience full of Trump supporters = save our sinking ratings. Misogyny and greed - a given for Trump - but not a great look for CNN.
I watched the whole debacle. I needed to see this mess. My biggest take away is the audience. How can these people STILL support this destructive fool? What would it take to convince them that this 'person' is a treacherous, self-serving, lying idiot? Ultimately, I became convinced that the answer was nothing. Literally nothing will preclude them from believing every stinking malfeasance that spews from this horrific specimen of a human. I cannot emphasis how sickly sad to my stomach I felt.
You make a lot of convincing points, and throwing words like illegitimate around is probably too much in vogue. But the idea of term limits or expanding the court such that it has a justice for each appellate district are well within Congress's power. I'd expect term limits to come first if either does. And without a doubt, the abuse of the shadow docket needs to be addressed. They pick their own cases, then rule on them without argument or justification. It's obscene.
I like this take from John Brummett:
The "town hall" on CNN with Donald Trump reflected and illuminated rather than harmed the American political condition. It was responsibly journalistic in its primitive, sad spectacle.
American politics is in fact a primitive, sad spectacle. CNN merely put the reality on TV, which is what a cable television news network presumably ought to do.
Yet there are those blaming the mirror and the light rather than the condition. They are declaring that CNN should never have showcased this horrid man of subterranean character and decency who poses an actual threat to our democracy.
That's a tired refrain. It's a variation on the clichéd cry that the news media ought not to report bad news, but emphasize the positive. That presumably advocates reporting that Little Rock was spared a tornado yesterday and that there were no mass shootings in most schools again yesterday. Or that Trump doesn't exist.
There are those saying Trump is irrelevant because he can never win a general election. They're oblivious to the fact that, while he probably can never win the nationwide popular vote, the nationwide popular vote has nothing to do with electing an American president.
Vast open spaces organized into subdivisions called states elect American presidents. Conservatives joyfully immersed in a homogeneous nationalized Fox-driven politics cling to state autonomy when it provides their only means of winning the presidency anymore. A few people voting differently or not voting at all in a few precincts in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin--because they'd had it with Biden and Democrats--would re-infect the White House with a liar, demagogue, megalomaniac, sexual assaulter and Putin pal.
Let's not numb ourselves to what he is by pretending he doesn't exist.
There are those saying CNN should never have permitted the "town hall" audience to be dominated by New Hampshire deplorables who cheered Trump's anti-American cant--his unwillingness to say he preferred Ukrainian over Russian victory; his desire that the nation default on its debt and risk global economic calamity for the good of his election; his mad insistence that his rightful re-election was stolen in 2020 although it simply and absolutely was not.
But Trump's cult is a menace, and public menaces, like assault weapons and funnel clouds, are news.
Anyway, CNN has been trying to dial back its hyperpartisanship, which is really anti-Trumpism, in the interest of marketing on the basis that straight both-sides journalism is not otherwise available. By assembling an audience hostile to itself and its reporter, and worshipful of Trump, CNN tried the hard thing because it was hard. It captured a more revealing slice of Americana than an auditorium filled with sedate VIPs.
There are those complaining that CNN's interviewer of Trump, reporter Kaitlan Collins, let Trump avoid her questions and rail instead about personal grievances, and should have better challenged and corrected--debated, in other words--the liar and the lies.
But arguing with the guy was not her job. Her job was to draw and reveal the subject. And Trump was fully drawn and revealed.
That there were people loving what they saw and demonstrating mindless affection on live media ... that's not a scoop, but it's news bearing re-exposure. America must confront having to contend with a significant decline toward an "idiocracy," to borrow a word coined for a prescient movie about a future America where people don't know that applications of water would keep vegetation from dying.
Did this event matter in the current narrative of American presidential politics? Why, yes, it did, to understate woefully.
The event was its own new chapter. Afterward, Trump cultists sold T-shirts celebrating "TNN," in the logo style of CNN, meaning Trump had owned CNN.
Democrats rushed to call attention to the event. "Well, that happened," a Democratic blast email said to emphasize the choice between Biden, who wasn't behaving like that on television, and Trump, who was.
We'd just seen a poll showing Trump ahead of Biden because people were sick of Biden. So, in today's American politics, Democratic political operatives were anxious to redirect focus to the more sickening prospect, meaning the very spectacle that many liberals naïve to political reality were saying never should have been aired.
Trump's base will hold solid with or without such programming. Swing voters in swing states need reminding of who and what Trump is. Having a panel of talking heads tell them how horrible he is--or a newspaper columnist write it--is not nearly as effective as putting a camera and microphone on him for direct evidence.
If they like what they see, then America is too far gone already.
Of course I'm sick of Trump. But he's his own worst enemy. Goodness knows Democrats aren't.
So, show him--not frequently, but sufficiently.
Brilliant idea Charles about the crowd work!
Charlie … I hope you’ll comment abut these grifters in your backyard:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/14/us/politics/scam-robocalls-donations-policing-veterans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
It should be noted that only 1/2 of the audience cheered. The rest were notably neutral. If that holds, then Trump has a big problem with 1/2 of the Republicans. The size of his base has not increased one iota.
What new information was revealed here? None.
IF THEY DO THIS AGAIN THEY NEED MEDHI HASSAN/JONATHAN SWAN, A GONG, FACT CHECKERS, AND A DANCING BEAR. what the Flip was that ?? !! Seriously if the media is going to do this they need a better strategy. Then it will be informative
Trump is a given. What I am curious about is his crowd of supporters. They are not my neighbors or fellow church goers or really anyone I know. The only thing I can figure is they're like the people you only see once a year at the annual Fair and wonder where they came from. You won't see them again until next year (thankfully), but still you wonder!
I wonder what Jack Smith’s thinking now.
CNN kept cutting away to an enthusiastic audience member clapping vigorously and smiling who, I swear, was the doppelgänger of the banjo playing kid from the movie “Deliverance”. Anyone else notice this?
Your lack of integrity disappoints.
Funny, wo explantion, my posts are deleted.
Nothing new about Trump, though most of the reactionary commentary wallowed in the rehash. What was new was the crass disregard of journalism's integrity. Was CNN merely trying to salvage dizzied right-wing robots from Fox, or is this just example of another billionaire buying up a media medium and turning it into a fascist megaphone?
"And the crowd laughed."
Well, based on reports coming out from people at the event, roughly half the crowd was NOT laughing at those comments. They sat silent. The CNN production team apparently told the crowd they could applaud (and cheer), but booing and any sign of disapproval was prohibited.
Chris Licht needs to go...and Zaslav/Malone are not exactly a good omen for the network.
I am a day late to comment but I’ll blame that on a poor internet connection while on vacation. I watched about 5 minutes of this “town hall” and switched the channel. In those 5 minutes I saw a young, attractive, talented female reporter - someone who is the literal walking, talking example of who he bragged about in the Access Hollywood tape - try to control an uncontrollable situation. I think CNN knew this would be the outcome. They put her in this impossible situation for ratings ratings and more ratings (no such thing as bad publicity amirite?). Dare I suggest that they deliberately chose a female because they knew Trump would salivate at the thought of putting her in her place? I think CNN didn’t want their own anchor to succeed so they stacked the deck - female host + live event + an audience full of Trump supporters = save our sinking ratings. Misogyny and greed - a given for Trump - but not a great look for CNN.
I watched the whole debacle. I needed to see this mess. My biggest take away is the audience. How can these people STILL support this destructive fool? What would it take to convince them that this 'person' is a treacherous, self-serving, lying idiot? Ultimately, I became convinced that the answer was nothing. Literally nothing will preclude them from believing every stinking malfeasance that spews from this horrific specimen of a human. I cannot emphasis how sickly sad to my stomach I felt.