Quote of the Day: Media Hysteria

One journalist has a few words of advice for his colleagues:

For your own sake, and that of the republic for which you allegedly work, wipe off your chins and regain your composure. I didn’t vote for him either, but Trump won. Pull yourselves together and deal with it, if you ever want to be taken seriously again.

What kind of president will Trump be? It’s a tad too early to say, isn’t it? The media are supposed to tell us what happened, not speculate on the future. But its incessant scaremongering, the utter lack of proportionality and the shameless use of double standards are an embarrassment, one that is demeaning the value of the institution. The press’ frantic need to keep the outrage meter dialed up to 11 at all times creates the risk that a desensitized populace will simply shrug off any genuine White House scandals that may lie in the future (or may not).

Hysteria is causing leading media organizations to mix up their news reporting with their editorializing like never before, but instead of mingling like chocolate and peanut butter the two are creating a taste that’s like brushing your teeth after drinking orange juice.

It's certainly good advice, but it will also almost certainly be ignored. At least Kyle Smith can say he tried. 

The news media has done incalculable harm to itself throughout this election cycle (and well before it too), but it seems quite fixated on further clueless self-immolation.

The Day After

Well, I gotta admit, I was not expecting that! Trump carried Pennsylvania? Michigan?

The wailing, gnashing of teeth, and the wearing of sackcloth and ashes by distraught Hillary fans proceeds apace around me, but let's get real here: she was a deeply - and, in the end, fatally - flawed candidate. As the incomparable Iowahawk said:

Hillary Clinton got her dream opponent, a barely literate reality show orangutan, AND SHE LOST TO HIM.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) November 9, 2016

Also, it turns out that smugly, contemptuously belittling, insulting, demeaning, stereotyping, alienating, mocking, and occasionally outright demonizing an entire segment of the American public and then expecting those "deplorables" to vote for you ... doesn't actually work. (Shoot, even a leftist paper like the Guardian figured it out. See this too.)

As for me, I'm just glad that the absolute worst presidential election in living memory is finally over and that I can sort of stand to look myself in the mirror.

One more thing: Drink in the hysterical, disconsolate, Schadenfreudelicious tears of the media as it flings itself into a total meltdown.  It behaved horribly with naked bias throughout this entire business, and any good Greek tragedian would nod sagely to see that in so doing it chose the form of its destructor when it thought it was about to crown its anointed and sail into a paradise of influence peddling and cozying up to the halls of power. You made your bed. Now lie in it.

Still, let's end with a joke, shall we?  

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog vs. the 2016 Election

Once you get past Triumph's usual naughty schtick, you just might decide that the puppet's made the best political satire of this entire insane election cycle.  (Caveat: this isn't for kids, heh. Triumph never is or has been, after all!)

There's also an entire segment with Triumph taking on some college students over trigger warnings and whatnot, and I laughed out loud.

And That's All She Wrote

This pretty much sums up what I think about the entire Donald Trump circus (about which I've purposefully posted almost nothing). 

Arguably one of the few things worse than Trump in all this is the media.  GOOD LORD.

The Fall of Piers Morgan

You can read the entire analysis, or you can cut to the chase: "To put it more succinctly, Piers Morgan is a supercilious tosser."  (The inimitable Jeremy Clarkson would agree, I think.)

The Real News Is In Ukraine and Venezuela

Honestly, the media frenzy over Sochi is beginning to look pretty misguided next to horrific reports coming out of Ukraine and Venezuela.

UPDATE: See the story of the Ukrainian skier who left the Games to join protesters at home.

Paglia, Althouse, and Ace on Free Speech and Media Companies

The media companies are getting coal in their stockings this Christmas.

The Summation Of Everything

Foreign policy snafus, domestic policy circuses, political nonsense, government shutdown, Obamacare, idiotic media, plus my "real life" (read: it's midterm exam time in Nerdworld and all hell's broken loose!) ... We're all short of time, money, energy, and patience.  I feel completely exhausted.  The whole kit and kaboodle can basically be summed up by this animated image from a favorite show:

Quote of the Day: Seymour Hersh on Modern Journalism

The old Pulitzer Prize winner is none too pleased with the current state of things.  Here's a piece of it:

"... the New York Times still has investigative journalists but they do much more of carrying water for the president than I ever thought they would … it's like you don't dare be an outsider any more."

Quote of the Day: Eric Holder's "Off the Record" Meeting

Here's an understatement:

"There is an uncomfortable irony in the fact that an attorney general investigating his policy for spying on the media is asking the media to keep his words secret."

Y'THINK?  Besides, when you find that media outlets from the New York Times to Fox News are refusing to go to your meeting, you're doing it wrong.  As for the few outlets who are going to the Holder meeting, they should probably leak everything immediately.  

Thank Goodness It's a New Week

Last week was almost unremittingly horrific: the Boston Marathon bombing, the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, the earthquake in China.  The admirable behavior of decent common folks who rushed to help in bad circumstances was almost (but NOT) outshouted by the incredibly awful behavior of some news media and partisan pundits looking to score cheap points.   Let's not give any more time to people behaving badly; instead let me encourage you to donate to one of the many charities who are working in the aftermath of these disasters.

The highlight of the entire week of dread is that the bombing suspects did not escape.  Add the funeral of Maggie Thatcher, not that it happened, but that it was a reminder of that great lady, the first woman to be head of a major Western nation.  We're all emotionally exhausted.  Here's looking forward to a new week, as I wish you all the very best.  I'm not feeling too well, so there might not be too much posting.

The Boston Globe's Live Blog of the Marathon Bombing

I'm away for an afternoon and then come home to this when I check my news feeds.  Here's the Boston Globe for the news as it comes in.  A useful reminder from the Insta-Prof.  What kind of sick bastard would target the delightful Boston Marathon?  Horrible, horrible.

Cultural Illiteracy at "the Newspaper of Record"

This is why I don't take "serious" newspapers seriously.  Besides, here is a quotable observation: "It’s difficult to take the Times' copious critiques of Catholicism and religion in general seriously when it is as illiterate as this on the most fundamental of Christian doctrines."  Well, DUH.  

Headline of the Day: "It's a Crime for 12-Year-Olds to Read The New York Times Online"

Seriously.  Oh, there's a crime here all right. It's called felony stupidity.

"Why the Spectator Won't Sign the Royal Charter"

From the mess about oversight, regulation, and press freedom in the UK comes a moment of clarity from The Spectator:

It is just as the advocates of press freedom feared: politicians cannot stop themselves. Give them control over print and they’ll come back for digital. Next they will want to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ journalists, to reward their friends and punish their enemies. Just a whiff of this sort of power has intoxicated Alex Salmond, who commissioned a review which recommended that Scotland make licensing of the press compulsory. His devolved government would license bloggers, a handy tool in the run-up to the 2014 referendum. He was forced to drop the plans after they caused an uproar, but his intention was clear. 

Perhaps the general public think state regulation is a good thing; that hacks should be restrained by people who aren’t themselves in the media. But what may not be appreciated is the insidious influence politicians already try to exert over the press: the quiet words over dinner, the phone calls made to editors, myself included. I have been asked to chastise ‘irresponsible’ reporters and remove articles that politicians find insulting from the website. On minister called to ask if I was aware that a Spectator journalist had been rude about him without first seeking the advice of his spin doctor. It’s as if MPs have lost sight of what a free press is for. 

When the public think of a ‘bad journalist’, they imagine a hack who plagiarises, lies, or in some other way breaks the law. When a politician thinks of a bad journalist, more often than not he imagines someone who has criticised him, unfairly in his opinion. So of course there’s political lip-smacking about an era in which politicians have the power to define what is acceptable journalism. Or, as Labour’s Jim Sheridan put it on Tuesday, expel the ‘parasitical elements’ within the press. But this is an attack on freedom.

Rant: Press Freedom in the UK

Take a good look.  Here's a more humorous commentary on the topic by the famously eccentric Mayor of London.

Taiwanese News Animators vs. Sequester Fearmongering

Gentle reader, in this nightmarish post-sequester hellhole wrought by 2.3% budget cuts, I have taken a minute from cannibalizing my neighbors, burning books to keep from freezing to death, dodging airplanes plummeting from the sky, and fighting off zombies in order to bring you this hilarious video:

Vultures: Soapboxing on the Oscar Pistorius Case

In the aftermath of the horrible news, there has been some repugnant, opportunistic "commentary" by various people with axes to grind.

The Onion Vs. Media Priorities

The Golden Globe movie awards just took place amid the usual media frenzy about the actresses' glamorous designer outfits.  The Onion takes deadly aim.  Do take a look.

Schadenfreude, Straight Up

Yes indeedy.  Kudos to Ben Shapiro.  Piers Morgan and his ilk get the "dirtbag du jour" tag.  I make it a matter of standard practice not to give Morgan and his bullying, intellectually dishonest, attention-whoring, gutter-media kind any time on my blog, but Shapiro's performance is too gorgeous to let pass in silence.