Category Archives: Media Watch

In ironic twist, Republicans lose Big Business over COVID

Norwegian Cruise Line, fighting Republican COVID inaction

Last week, we reported that, by standing in the way of COVID vaccinations and precautions even as the delta variant ravages the U.S. population, Republicans are increasingly “out of touch with the current reality, and way behind the curve of events.” At the time, there was a small but growing number of big corporations and organizations (e.g. Walmart, Target, Tyson Foods, McDonald’s) that were ignoring Republican anti-safety ideology to some degree and taking precautions of their own, such as vaccination and masking requirements. Now, the list of such companies is growing rapidly, and includes, for example, Google, Facebook, United Airlines, and Frontier Airlines. Other companies, such as Delta Airlines, require the Coronavirus vaccine for new employees, and formally encourage vaccination for existing workers. At this point, therefore, an increasing percentage of U.S. workers is under some kind of COVID mandate from their employers, again in contrast to the unhealthy rhetoric from the GOP. It is also reasonable to think that many small businesses look to these larger companies for guidance, and will soon, if they do not already, require similar protections for their employees.

Giuliani raided, internet howls with laughter

Apparently, mockery of Rudolph Giuliani is not new

Federal agents raided former Donald Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani‘s home and office on Wednesday, executing a search warrant and seizing electronic devices. The raid was reportedly in connection with a criminal investigation into Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine (trying to generate false disparaging information on Joe Biden‘s son Hunter) on behalf of Trump’s presidential campaigns. But just as noteworthy as the news itself regarding the Giuliani raid was the explosion of mockery that has taken place on social media as a result. Apparently, the pent-up demand to express schadenfreude and karma regarding Giuliani is massive. Many of these social media reactions recall Giuliani “highlights,” including his melting face, his disastrous blunder renting the parking lot of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping Company instead of the Four Seasons Hotel for a press conference (or worse, possibly picking such an irrelevant and pathetic-looking backdrop, located between a sex shop and a crematorium, on purpose), his being caught on film with his pants down in a hotel room with a young woman in the most recent Borat movie, and more. Follow us after the jump for some of the best Twitter reactions, including a couple of our own:

In Matt Gaetz sex scandal, Twitter leads the way

Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) on Fox News, protesting a bit too much.

Unless you have been in a cave with no media whatsoever, you are no doubt aware that U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida is in a heap of potential trouble. The U.S. Justice Department, beginning with the Trump administration last year, reportedly has been investigating Gaetz over allegations that he engaged in a sexual relationship with one or more 17 year-old girls (which, for Gaetz, would be a felony in Florida) and that he engaged in illegal interstate sex trafficking of these girls. Much of this news has been received this week via Twitter, for example, from sources such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Yesterday, a video of Gaetz quickly spread on Twitter in which he talks about casting the sole “No” vote in the entire U.S. Congress on the 2017 Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act:

Twitter is also the place where readers have been reminded that Gaetz has a boy, “Nestor,” living with him, whom Gaetz claims is his “son,” although there is no legal status that declares Nestor to be Gaetz’s son.

https://twitter.com/richardhine/status/1377070860473864195

Perhaps not coincidentally, it has also been reported this week, and widely distributed on Twitter, that Gaetz is thinking of resigning from Congress, or at least not running for reelection, to go work for right wing media outlet Newsmax.

https://twitter.com/darinself/status/1377016224987676677

While these charges against Rep. Gaetz are very serious and sad, many Twitter users have also been able to create some of the most brutal and often hilarious mockery against him. Check out some of the best examples after the jump:

The speech that set off the MAGA terrorists — in 1992

Right wing terrorists erect gallows and noose at U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021

If you do not recognize the name Patrick Buchanan, he is the right wing Republican extremist who years ago helped motivate the MAGA types whose successors are harming America and threatening U.S. government officials today. Buchanan’s long background in Republican politics encompasses work for GOP presidents from  Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan. This work included writing speeches filled with red meat for the Republican base, and coining the term “Silent Majority” for Nixon, a white power dog whistle. In between these White House stints, Buchanan was the co-host of CNN‘s Crossfire (note: the author worked on the Crossfire program), pioneering the “food fight” format that is so prevalent on cable TV news today, where Buchanan bullied many liberal guests. When Buchanan went to work for President Ronald Reagan, he caused controversy by criticizing Israel “and its amen corner in the United States,” and continued a long-running apology campaign for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The Buchanan Nazi apology tour reached its nadir when Buchanan encouraged Reagan to visit a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany where members of the Waffen-SS were buried, and to say that these Nazi soldiers “were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.”

Republicans run distraction playbook on Trump Georgia phone call

Donald Trump busted acting like a Mob boss on the phone

One of the go-to tactics in the Republican playbook is distraction. In particular, when Republicans are caught doing something wrong, they try to distract the media and the public by focusing not on the substance of their wrongdoing, but on who leaked the story of the wrongdoing. We saw that, for example, in 1997, when Republican U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was caught on an intercepted cell phone call coordinating his response to ethics charges with Republican House leaders Richard Armey, John Boehner and others, in violation of Gingrich’s ethics case settlement. The Republican distraction by focusing on the interception of the call rather than improper call itself, was a success in that instance.

On Sunday, something similar happened with Donald Trump. The Washington Post released the recording of a recent telephone call from Trump to Georgia‘s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, on which Trump begs, cajoles and even threatens Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to change the certified result of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Time for the media to withdraw from covering Trump tantrums

The time for Donald Trump to hurt the world is quickly coming to an end

Donald Trump has been a media figure since the 1970s. Those who grew up in the New York metropolitan area during that time, or the 1980s, may remember widespread tabloid coverage of Trump and his marriages and business deals, for example, in the New York Post and the Daily News. Trump is a master media manipulator and seems to thrive on such attention.

Unfortunately, however, the mainstream media’s fascination with covering Donald Trump in a superficial, tabloid fashion have continued through all four years of Trump in the White House. Even worse, now that Trump has decisively lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, the media insist on continuing to cover Trump’s every utterance, tweet, golf round and tantrum. It’s enough already. Trump is a lame duck with just 51 days left in office, his power is waning every minute, and it’s time for the media to do what most Americans are already doing: move on from Donald Trump.

Four life hacks to help Joe Biden into the White House

Democratic voters celebrating victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Right now, America is suffering a kind of dual political reality. One the one hand, Joe Biden has won the 2020 presidential election and is now considered the President-elect. On the other hand, Donald Trump and many leading Republicans are denying Biden’s victory, instead supporting Trump’s frivolous court challenges to the results in a number of states. In the meantime, Trump has instructed his Executive Branch officials not to cooperate with President-elect Biden’s transition team, which is dangerous for U.S. national security and our health, given the worsening COVID pandemic. Therefore, we have a strong interest in resolving this latest Trump-created Constitutional crisis quickly, and letting Biden get his team in place to receive briefing and other crucial information. Here are four ways, from a messaging perspective, that we can help President-elect Biden become President Biden smoothly, thoroughly and on time:

Today’s Snark: Republican Waahmbulance edition

Republican waahmbulance on its way to rescue Donald Trump

This week, Donald Trump did poorly in his ABC News town hall, so he was “ambushed” according to Fox “News.” Then Joe Biden did well in his CNN town hall, so he must have been given the questions and answers in advance, according to former Fox “News” host Bill O’Reilly. That sound you hear is the GOP waahmbulance on its way to rescue poor helpless Donald Trump.

Photo by Ashley Buttle, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/K5M9K0

The Great Republican Distraction is underway

Americans continue to die of COVID while Republicans distract

Anyone who tunes into the news or follows political discussions in the media today might think that the overarching issue in America is something to do with protests, riots, “thugs” and “law and order.” If so, then give credit to Donald Trump and leading Republicans for trying to create one of the greatest distractions in U.S. history, in order to avoid a historic election defeat just two months from now. If Trump has one skill, it is media manipulation and distraction. He knows that, rather than the mainstream American news media doing their jobs and investigating and reporting on the biggest stories which, in their professional editorial judgment, affect most people’s lives, Republicans can get the media to chase distracting Culture War shiny objects that then become the focus of most discussions, to the Republicans’ advantage.

The coming Trump-Biden election horse race

How the media would like to portray the election

If the 2020 presidential election were held today, based on current polls, Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump in a landslide. In particular, Biden is ahead of Trump in crucial “battleground” states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, and is even with (and in some polls ahead of) Trump in states like Arizona, Georgia and the big prize, Texas, all of which Trump won in 2016.

But our mainstream media will not let Joe Biden run away with the election if they can help it. The media want a “horse race,” and you can bet that, with barely over 90 days to go until the election, you will soon be hearing about how “the race is tightening.” Here are some ways that can happen: