Every current and common explanation for the reelection of Donald Trump — whether inflation or immigration, culture wars or campaign tactics, blaming Harris or Biden or the party — elides its true and root cause: racism.  The United States is a deeply, fundamentally racist nation and unless and until we in white America admit and address that, our endless […] The post It’s the racism, stupid appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

It is as if the editorial department at The Washington Post woke up one morning asking, in headlines I will quote below, “What are we doing wrong?” I will start by trying to answer the question for them, The New York Times, CNN, and the rest of incumbent journalism: You have refused to recognize fascism […] The post How they have failed us appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

As often as I am disappointed in and critical of them lately, I will not cancel my subscriptions to The New York Times or The Washington Post. They should be so lucky, for I will stay on their cases. I also wish to support the good reporting that still comes from them. I’ve been thinking […] The post What’s become of The Times & Co.? appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

As Nicolle Wallace exclaimed on her show Friday, Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have all gathered together around a cause. That cause is democracy and its standard bearer is Kamala Harris. This is a momentous time in the United States, unprecedented at least in this century and likely since long […] The post The unprecedented grand coalition appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

I’ve long said that Rupert Murdoch is the single most malign influence in English-speaking democracy. He executes his strategy in small ways that add up. Here is an example: how a trope is born across Murdoch’s worldwide empire. Here is the editorial board of #MurdochJournal with its paternalistic, patronizing, sexist, diminishing take on the Harris/Walz […] The post How Murdoch makes a meme appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

A deal has just been struck in California by Assembly member Buffy Wicks that averts what could have been, in my opinion, disastrous legislation written by lobbyists to benefit primarily incumbent, investor- and hedge-fund-controlled news media in and out of the state.  I am gratified that the outline of the announcement approaches what I had […] The post California’s Deal for News appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

Since I’ve been constantly criticial of The Times and its coverage of the election, here is a thread from the socials in which I note a Sunday morning of positive coverage of Kamala Harris leading the paper online: Well knock me over with a bald eagle feather: The Times leads today with positive coverage of Kamala Harris. […] The post Could a new day dawn at The Times? appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

Margaret Sullivan — whom I greatly respect and with whom I almost always agree — wrote a Guardian column asserting that “Kamala Harris must speak to the press.” Go read it first.  I disagree. That resulted in a thread on the socials I duplicate (with mended typos) here: What “press”? The broken and vindictive Times? The newly Murdochian Post? […] The post What ‘Press’? appeared first on BuzzMachine ..read more

On MSNBC this morning, I watched Elise Jordan’s focus groups from Green Bay, Wisconsin — the first after the nomination of Kamala Harris. I was honestly shocked that, after the start of this unprecedented presidential campaign by a Black and Asian-American woman, the first voices we’d hear would be from Trump voters. The next group was “right-leaning swing voters.” I was all the more shocked that all the voters in both groups were white. I debated whether to sermonize on this offensive lapse of judgment but instead went light, posting screen grabs of both groups on the socials and ..read more

The New York Times et al wish Joe Biden would go gentle into that good night. I wish mass media would instead. Here is a post from a thread: In this defensive New Yorker reaction to Joe Biden (finally) criticizing the press that has been criticizing him, Jay Caspian Kang shares an important insight about the falling power of the press. But I come to a different conclusion. Kang says that media are weakened and that’s what makes it easy for Trump and now Biden alike to attack them. I say what it shows instead is that as media realize they have lost the ability to set the agenda, their response ..read more