Three Things: No, No, and Hell to the NO, NYT

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[NB: Check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

They can’t stop the bullshit. It’s in The New York Times’ DNA. Why should we trust their newsroom when the editorial page is full of crap created from distorted news?

I hope the better op-ed writers have backup plans because at some point they have to ask themselves why they want to be associated with idiots for neighbors…

~ ~ ~

Two words probably tell you most of the problem without elaboration: Maureen Dowd.


Look, when a white person uses the word “woke” as a pejorative adjective you should walk away because they are fucking racist.

It’s that simple.

Which means you should walk away from BOTH MoDo and the person she allowed to vent their racist spleen, James Carville. The latter who once was a respected Democratic political consultant when Clintonian third-way ideology and its emergent neoliberalism walked the earth, needs to retire his big fat trap because the 1990s have been over for more than two decades. He clearly has no grasp of racism’s toll on Black Americans including the constant erasure of their oppression, even though Black women in particular are the most reliable Democratic voters. (Not to mention the average Millennial and Gen Z Democrat would have a difficult time recognizing the old coot.)

Read this article by Aja Romano at Vox on the history and use of “woke.” This exhortative word of caution and awareness has belonged to the Black community, and bled into progressive activists’ use because of the overlap between Black activists and progressives.

Like the word “liberal” and the framework of critical race theory (CRT), the right-wing has now seized “woke” to poison it and make it toxic, to discourage its wider exhortative use to beware racism’s threats and racists.

When it’s used by whites who are neither Black and/or progressive, who are not activists advocating for their intersectional human rights, it’s amplification of the same poisonous effect and the same underlying racism.

Oh look, it’s that tool Bret Stephens doing his duty once again for the right-wing, this time bolstering the promulgation of racism by the rest of NYT’s editorial page combined with bashing intersectional anti-racist progressivism.

Just walk away from these asses.

~ ~ ~

Contrast and compare: here’s the opinion editorials at the Los Angeles Times on November 10 and today.

And the Washington Post from today.

While there are the spot annoying bad actors like Marc Thiessen at WaPo helping push the toxification of CRT, there’s a better mix of opinions not intent on poisoning left of center ideology compared to NYT which has persistently offered a home to crap like Maureen Dowd’s closeted racism and Bret Stephen’s more overt racism.

[Disclosure: I have subscriptions to WaPo and LAT — guess why.]

~ ~ ~

And then the news page…perhaps it didn’t make it into an NYT article, but this tweet by Maggie Haberman which has now been deleted displays a weakness for amplification of right-wing crap without validating it first. Thank goodness this garbage didn’t make it into a news piece (that we know of so far).

I wish I’d taken a screen shot of the original tweet when I first saw it, before it was deleted. It’s only available now in the Internet Archive and without the link to the original crappy story she had retweeted with comment — an article at New York Daily News which made a false claim about Black Lives Matter activists without checking first to see if the sources they relied upon were in anyway associated with BLM.

Haberman made a claim in this reweet-with-quote without first verifying who Hawk Newsome is, assuming NYDN did their work.

Uh, no; it’s as if Haberman never heard the old journalists’ aphorism, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

Worse, it’s as if Haberman would accept Trump’s word and stick with it long after he was disproven. Newsome is NOT affiliated with BLM and cannot speak for them; BLM had to issue a statement about this a year ago June when Trump used Newsome as a mouthpiece.

If you are white and a journalist, unless you have been very close to BLM and covering it regularly as part of your beat, DO NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS about the movement’s members; validate your sources’ relationship and authority for authenticity and accuracy.

Jesus Christ, it’s a well-known Russian active measure to use racism in this country as a wedge to increase political tension, with BLM in particular a target of their efforts.

Unless, of course, you enjoy being used by foreign influence ops as a useful idiot and don’t mind further trashing your credibility.

~ ~ ~

Institutionalized systemic racism doesn’t always look as obvious and egregious as it does in the Rittenhouse trial. Sometimes it just looks like laziness by journalists and contributors who are privileged by their circumstances. And sometimes it looks like readers who can’t be arsed to recognize and call out that racism based in easy material which satisfies a majority white audience.

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151 replies
        • Rayne says:

          Which to some extent explains the why behind Haberman quote-retweet of a New York Daily News article — NYDN is a competitor of Murchdoch/News Corp’s New York Post. NYDN typically leans left and NYP to the right. But if you’re an NYT journalist there’s no excuse for not checking before retweeting. This is not a political climate in which journalists for the biggest papers in the country can tweet stuff without validating content, ESPECIALLY when the subject matter is know to be used in Russian active measures.

  2. Ginevra diBenci says:

    Rayne, thank you for your anger and your supreme ability to express it. Some of us media-watchers just feel exhausted now, and your injection of energy is welcome. The Times has long adopted a defensive posture vis a vis their perception of authority and power, which seems always to exist on the moneyed right. They pride themselves on dogging Democrats either in or seeking office; when Republicans reign Times editors must be prodded to maintain the appearance of watchdoggery (as with the Tom Cotton imbroglio).

    They remain the sole independent outlet with sufficient funds to keep superb reporters like Suzanne Craig and Katie Benner on staff and allow them to pursue difficult, complex stories. No organization has benefited more from the long, slow eradication of local news, a debacle whose effects on our civil life seem only recently to be hitting consciousness. When you can no longer get news about Kansas City from the KC Star, you will be forced to find it in the NYT, unless you want the rot overtaking the internet thanks to FB. So I keep my Times subscription, fully aware of the truth you speak, along with WaPo and the dozen or so local publications I try to support. I wish I could afford the LAT too, but the Texas Tribune needs me more.

    • Rayne says:

      We need a nonprofit entity which will provide an umbrella mechanism across news organizations so that we can buy just the news we consume without having to commit to a full subscription. I’d like to pay $20 month for a buffet of news from across the US – maybe a couple pieces from Chicago, a few from Seattle, perhaps a piece each from Texas, Florida, Georgia…why can’t I get 20-100 news articles for that flat rate from any participating news outlet in the country? They’d make more from me than I’m paying now.

      • DrFunguy says:

        Great idea. I would likely sign up.
        In the meantime, Associated Press, BBC, CBC and the Guardian are not paywalled and have very good US coverage. I miss the Washington Post, having read it daily in my youth, but can’t justify the expense.

        • P J Evans says:

          SFGate is the “open” version of SF Chronicle. Updates are a bit slower, but there’s no paywall and it doesn’t usually complain about adblockers.

        • Rayne says:

          AP is at risk. BBC is ToryTV. CBC trends conservative. Guardian is also at risk, no idea what their true business model is that they remain in business.

          WaPo is one of the few bright spots in the Bezos universe — I’m paying $1.25 a week through my Amazon account. Wish LAT was closer to that in price so it would have national reach but its recent rate of $98/year I will live with.

          Find someone you trust and split subscriptions with them.

          • rip says:

            I do like and subscribe to TheGuardian. Just with that more of their reporting wasn’t so “social” (sports, celebrities) oriented.
            Reuters can be another somewhat independent source.

            I start my day with google news but am extremely suspicious of their “personalization” and totally worried about all of their tracking.

            DemocraticUnderground.com, digsbyblog.net, emptywheel.net.

            And RSS feeds from things I care about – bellingcat, medscape, theregister, science posts.

          • Theodora30 says:

            The Guardian is funded by the not-for-profit Scott Trust which gives The Guardian $30 million each year. It gets the majority of its money from reader donations and subscriptions.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        Rayne, putting a network of local outlets under a subscription umbrella is a genius idea. I would subscribe in a heartbeat.

        • Rayne says:

          Bugs the bejabbers out of me this hasn’t been done. I hate that I can see it, have been able to envision this for years, and yet we’ve gotten bupkis except more dead local newspapers when they haven’t been snapped up by vulture capitalists and milked for all the cash on their books.

          Amazon could do this, has the infrastructure for subscriptions. Feedly could do it since it’s already a news aggregator. Google could resuscitate Reader. So many ways to slice this and yet nada.

        • Rayne says:

          Blendle is foreign-owned and operated, a Dutch company which began its business with EU news and then tried US news. It’s already had to change its business model once and is struggling with profitability.

          I’d rather a US-based entity attempted something similar. The news market is different and I’d rather not have to worry about some overseas outfit monitoring my media consumption.

        • Geoguy says:

          This from the Wikipedia entry for Blendle: “Blendle was backed by a Dutch government fund during its trial phase in April 2014.[3][7] Half a year later, The New York Times Company and Axel Springer SE invested €3 million.[8] And this from the Wikipedia entry for Axel Springer SE: “As of 2021, the Axel Springer SE names “solidarity with the libertarian values of the United States of America” as one of its core principles on its own website.[37] Many scholars and independent observers allege a “subservience to American geopolitical interests” of the publishing house and its subsidiaries to this day.[35][38][39][40][41] Axel Springer recently acquired Politico which might explain it’s recent right slide in my opinion.
          Axel Springer is majority owned by the private equity firm KKR which is another subject unto itself.

      • earthworm says:

        i am very ignorant of press history, but isn’t this kind of structure what AP and UPI were originally intended as?

        • Rayne says:

          No. They’re news agencies and wire services intended to provide content to newspapers and broadcasters to fill the coverage for which local papers/broadcasters don’t have their own reporters.

          You don’t subscribe to either of these; you consume their products through subscriptions to papers, or watching TV/listening to radio which is subsidized by advertising sales.

          I suggest you check Wikipedia for these two news agencies; they aren’t the only ones, by the way. Consider as you look at their history and business models how they can be co-opted by malign entities while you’re at it.

    • Leoghann says:

      I mentioned in a comment here several weeks ago that I had read a statement from NYT, saying that they were making some changes to widen their appeal. I knew exactly what that meant–they’ve long taken the audience on the left for granted, and used to serve us well. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been a subscriber since the early Eighties. But, among my other irritations with them, now they seem to charge on a sliding scale, based on I know not what. Through July, I paid $8.91 monthly, every month in NYT-verse being exactly 4 weeks. In August, I paid $12.90. In September it was $15.95, and in October, $18.04. At this rate, by New Years I’ll be paying $37.50/month. So screw that. Today I cancelled my subscription.

      Like you, I subscribe to numerous “papers” across the nation, including the one from my home town. I find good reporting from The Guardian, the Economist, and AlJazeera, which may be the best source. I subscribe to the Washington Post, and have for a long time, but after reading what Rayne pays for her subscription, I obviously need to have a serious talk with them–mine costs three times that, and I’ve been a Prime guy for years.

      As a native Texan, Ginevra DB, I thank you for your subscription to the Texas Tribune. You’re helping keep truth alive in post-Abbott Texas.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        Leoghann, the Texas Tribune has featured some great reporting by superior writers; I have relied on it and them as a cornerstone of my research. Turns out a lot of true crime happens in Texas, and much of it would never have seen the “light” of TV if not for the aforementioned reporting. I’m especially glad to contribute under the circumstances.

  3. obsessed says:

    Agree 100%. I’ve hated NYT with a passion since the Judy Miller days and that “FBI finds no clear …” election eve headline was just evil. I do love a few of their employees – Benner, Goldberg, etc. I wish the handful of good ones would go elsewhere so I can grumble without caveat. As for Maggie, Mo and Mike – now we’re getting into Merrick Garland territory. This has been the most frustrating year since (and including) 2009.

  4. Silly but True says:

    The media’s love affair with the politically star-crossed Carville-Matalin Romeo & Juliet romance wore thin about a quarter century ago.

    Carville is a member of Sigma Nu fraternity, from his time at LSU, which is saying something since membership prohibited blacks and Asians.

    • bmaz says:

      To be clear though, nothing as to Bannon is going to happen quickly. Like not even prior to the 2022 midterms.

      • joel fisher says:

        Fun fact to remember: if/when the Committee finally welcomes Bannon, he left his 5th amendment privileges behind. Or was he only pardoned for stealing money from morons?

        • Hika says:

          I’m very much a non-expert in this area, but I’m certain that the loss of 5A only ever applies to crimes for which one is pardoned, so if Bannon has exposure for stuff he did in support of Trump’s mob attack on the Capitol, he will not be giving meaningful answers to questions about it until he gets a get-out-of-jail card for the new offences.

          • P J Evans says:

            Apparently the pardon was dated Jan 19, so after all that, and it’s general enough that it probably does cover the 1/6 stuff.

            • Rayne says:

              And if the pardon was granted to obstruct both Congressional and DOJ investigations? Like 18 USC 1505 – Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees?

        • bmaz says:

          Yeah, think that is a harder question than most people think. He can always assert it and play it out, through a Schmerber hearing and appeal thereof.

          • joel fisher says:

            Unpleasant as this thought is, there is such a thing as immunity.
            The only thing that would prevent his testimony then would be his specious claim of executive privilege. Six or eight months of litigation and he might be sitting down under oath. And the immunity wouldn’t apply to perjury which–let’s face it–would start when he opened his mouth.

          • Rugger9 says:

            Any thoughts on the judge assigned to Bannon’s case? Apparently this is a Trump appointee, but others have ruled against DJT in other cases (but not all), so who knows?

            To Joel’s point, that timeline would have Bannon litigating and testifying during the summer when the GOP really doesn’t want voters reminded of their role in the sedition.

          • Silly but True says:

            What happens to the case if Republicans take House in mid-terms and quash the underlying subpoena for the contempt charges?

            You can’t unrob the bank; if you bring the money back, the crime was still already committed.

            But I suspect DoJ or court dismisses?

            • bmaz says:

              Oh, if they get the House back, this investigation is deader than a doornail. My guess is the new leadership would do it in their first ten minutes. The criminal case might still survive as to Bannon and any others criminally charged, but who knows.

              • RWood says:

                358 days until Nov 6th.

                It took the judge three weeks and 39 pages to call Bannon’s claim BS.

                I guess he didn’t see it coming.

    • harpie says:

      One thing, as Marcy notes on Twitter:

      https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1459272424793559044
      4:30 PM · Nov 12, 2021

      Note: I don’t know how Carl Nichols will deal with this. But it’s worth noting — and I imagine DOJ will — that Bannon’s pardon for PAST criminal conduct came only AFTER his involvement in January 6, like just a handful of Trump’s pardons.

      PARDONS GRANTED BY PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP (2017-2021)
      https://www.justice.gov/pardon/pardons-granted-president-donald-j-trump-2017-2021
      After 1/6 pardons >>> 1/13/21, 1/19/21 [including Bannon], and 1/20/21

    • Rayne says:

      I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. LOL There are so many posts today pushing back at liberals demanding Bannon’s indictment, which is more likely a realistic response to my post.

      I note as well it’s Friday afternoon– Bannon was buried in news dump zone.

      • bmaz says:

        Somebody on the TeeVee pointed out it will likely not be Burck/Quinn Emanuel. And that is probably right, but he will have a very good lawyer. And this is going nowhere fast.

        • Troutwaxer says:

          It’s going nowhere fast through the legal system. I suspect (hope) that in the next few months the committee will have enough evidence for a more pointed negotiation.

    • skua says:

      I admit to a soft spot for the Beeb news. And thought you were being overly harsh.

      Then I listen to BBC Weekend today. And hear a historian saying that, paraphrasing “sure the old and frail will benefit from vaccination but now we have have figures and Boris Johnson and [some other low-life] pollie have both said that the vaccinations don’t prevent transmission and forcing them on everyone else makes no sense.”

      I waited for the guilotining by an expert or the host of this farcical garbage reasoning.
      But no, it was allowed to stand unchallenged, uncorrected. And on goes the next segment.

      Looks like the Beeb is megaphoning for the deluded and poisonous.
      ‘Struth, maggots and putridity, now to get somewhere sustainable from here.

  7. RWood says:

    Let’s go Bannon!

    Seriously though, what did we gain? As Bmaz points out it’ll be months before anything happens and then he’ll just take the fifth and provide nothing. Meadows the same when it’s his turn.

    • RWood says:

      Before you pile on I understand he can’t “take the fifth” but I have no doubt he’ll refuse to answer anything he doesn’t want to.

    • Benton says:

      Yes, I’ll second (third?) that. It’s a positive sign for our Justice Department though. I’ll take it.

      I would feel even better if a special counsel were appointed to investigate the obvious crimes around 1/6, which also reached into the Justice Department. This would reassure the public that a law enforcement investigation is actually occurring and that the investigation would outlast any political changes.

    • Leoghann says:

      What we have gained is a step in the right direction. There are many more steps to go, but I feel better knowing that this one has been taken.

  9. mospeck says:

    vg drill job back on bought and paid for Maureen D.
    Have love/hate relationship with NYT. Rekall I used to like their art section.. Seems like we got us a real plus/minus time going on right now — with the good news that ship 20 just did a static with 6 raptors. And the 3 center ones can gimbal and steer you right straight up out of Earth grav. And then the Rvacs can fly you between the stars.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7jsMTYgtgA
    The bad– King of the Assholes vladman and his trusty sidekick lukashenko — they’re like Batman and Robin in reverse
    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/11/russia-jails-former-navalny-regional-head-on-extremist-charges-a75525
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59266209
    All the while our GOP fiddle fucks ‘crowd up to Lenin with their noses worn off’
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oC6pxjjGHw

  10. earlofhuntingdon says:

    James Carville is proof that the Walking Dead is not fiction.

    The MSM continues to book this creature, imitating the poor choices made by every teen in a zombie film – and for the same reason: it advances their narrative. In real life, adults have other choices.

    • Mojo Risin' says:

      This is an important point; Carville and “southern centrism” as a concept still exist because of two facts; guys like Biden and Manchin, last of the Dixiecrats, are still around, two, you can’t win the dem primary if the south just hates you (as it hated Bernie, with burning passion everywhere east of Dallas and South of Lexington).

      • Rayne says:

        You can’t win the south so long as states are heavily gerrymandered and other impediments exist to prevent black candidates from running and winning a seat, and voters are prevented from voting. Manchin wouldn’t be an issue if the south wasn’t as wholly fucked up with racism.

        Don’t bring that apologia for white supremacy masked as centrism here. I’m not having it.

        • Mojo Risin' says:

          Most would call me so far left that only Barbara Lee passes my purity test, because that is true, so, that’s a funny accusation!

          I’d def agree that WV and AZ gave DC a product which isn’t far from their average voter, like it or not, in the personages of Sinema and Manchin.

        • joel fisher says:

          MS (Trump 60%), AL (Trump 63%), TN (Trump 60%), AR (Trump 58%, AR (Trump 67%), WV (Trump 68%).. these states are not red because of voter suppression or gerrymandering. They’re wall to wall rednecks and
          it’s a pipedream that these people are going wake up one day and notice their racism. They ain’t going anywhere. It’s a fucking miracle that Manchin is still on the team. Congressional and state legislative elections are gerrymandered and Democratic candidates pay the price, but obviously–unless a Presidential election goes to the US House–gerrymandering doesn’t impact statewide elections.

          • P J Evans says:

            One of those ARs is, I think, AZ.
            But all of them use voter suppression of some kind to keep non-Rs and non-whites out of the voting booths.

            • joel fisher says:

              Yup, right, sorta: LA (Trump 58%). Biden won AZ. My point was, given the #s, no amount of increased access to the polls is going to make those states blue.

          • Rayne says:

            Oh no sweetie. I’ll take MS as an example of the problem – the state is only 57% white.

            Here’s the breakdown of how the vote went in 2020 in MS by county:

            Here’s a map of the majority minority counties according to the 2020 Census:

            Do you see what I see? Mississippi is NOT a monolithic red state, just dominated by white supremacy.

            Mississippi has pulled a lot of bullshit for a very long time to ensure that Black people find it difficult to vote, the most obvious being its restrictions on voting:
            – Mississippi does not permit online voter registration.
            – Mississippi does not permit early voting or no-excuse absentee voting.
            – Mississippi voters are required to provide photo identification in order to receive a ballot.

            Not to mention the crap the state pulled with voter registration deadlines in 2018 which were successfully contested.

            Or the MS-GOP’s bullshit 2011 campaign to implement voter ID which wasn’t needed and has done nothing to stop the extremely rare voter fraud which is primarily by GOP voters. Thanks to the SCOTUS, Shelby County v. Holder ensured the MS-GOP got its voter ID law implemented.

            Last November voters overturned a Jim Crow law which made it difficult for a Black candidate to win (as in there has NEVER been a successful Black candidate in MS in spite of its more than 40% Black population).

            From ABC News report on the Jim Crow law before the 2020 election:

            Dortch cited an analysis filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi last year found that a Democratic candidate — or Black-preferred candidate — “would need more than 55% of the statewide vote in order to secure a majority of electoral [House] votes. Candidates preferred by whites, by contrast, would be able to win the electoral vote without winning a majority of the popular vote.”

            “There are so many barriers to getting elected statewide as a minority candidate, and this is the final one. Even if you somehow cross all of the other challenges and come in around at 55% of the vote, you could be thrown out by the House of Representatives voting on a party-line basis,” Dortch added. “All of it together can discourage, especially Black officials, from looking to run statewide.”

            If you don’t think that law didn’t suppress turnout you really need to check your privilege.

            MS is fortunately middle of the pack in the nation with voter registrations at 67%; I wouldn’t be surprised to see that percentage increase with mid-terms.

            • Mojo Risin' says:

              Here’s a point to remember in the deep south – the average anglo-scotch is not as automatically right nor the average african-american automatically left when compared to coastal types. An MS black dem voter is very likely to be churchgoing, not entirely onboard with queer theory, etc.

              SB8 is a crucible, so far, the south is failing, and declining rapidly.

              • Rayne says:

                CHECK. THE. FUCKING. MAPS. Jesus Christ, you’re a magpie who just chatters to hear themselves make noises.

                That map with all the pretty blue and red squares also correlates to the counties with highest (blue and dark blue) and lowest (red and dark red) Black populations in Mississippi.

                Go find something else to do. You’re seriously taxing my last fucking nerve.

              • Tracy Lynn says:

                Sooo, scotch isn’t a thing if you’re talking about ethnicity. Scotch is a drink. Those of us of Scottish descent prefer our scotch in a glass. Just sayin’

            • joel fisher says:

              Excellent points: voter suppression often results in a “Why even try?” attitude and, of course, it works. Still, it’s hard to imagine ending voter suppression could close the 16% gap in MS and other red states. While not of color, Doug Jones proved that it’s technically possible for a Democrat to win statewide in AL, although the GOP horndog judge probably suppressed the GOP vote. At the end of the day, though, the Democratic party needs messages that resonate everywhere but that are particularly effective with a few 100,000 suburban women in 4-5 states.

              • Rayne says:

                You’ve been reading here long enough to know it’s not just “the Democratic party needs messages that resonate everywhere but that are particularly effective with a few 100,000 suburban women in 4-5 states.”

                That demographic is easily manipulated by social media; they’re the same anti-vaxx mom crowd preyed on by that moron Robert F. Kennedy III with his toxic anti-vaxx message. It’s not merely that Dems need better messaging; it’s that we need to deprogram this segment of weak-minded voters who can’t think their way out of a wet paper bag while pushing back at microtargeted disinformation pushed non-stop through their Facebook feeds. Note how goddamned little Facebook has done to change this since the Facebook papers were leaked and whistleblower Haugen testified.

                And Doug Jones was an example of a white man who had earned the respect of Black voters and a swing number of white votes; there may still have been some Black voters who weren’t able to vote. I doubt it had to do with messaging that he didn’t win re-election.

                • joel fisher says:

                  Sad but true. All true. However, I don’t think the “deprogramming” to which you refer is likely to occur before 2024. I’m a big admirer of GOP messaging: a demonstrably evil gang of scum got those women, at least in VA and, to an extent, in NJ, to buy in to GOP BS. For the Dems in the short term: messaging; long term: preventing voter suppression; demographics; deprogramming; and messaging, always messaging.

                  • rip says:

                    Not to stereotype (that’s already raised a red flag), but “moms” like to buy into trending fashions. Not unlike tupperware parties or avon multi-level-marketing.

                    Actually, perhaps there is a MLM aspect to this. The more recruits you can bring in the more you get paid, with a portion to your handler.

                    • P J Evans says:

                      I don’t recall Avon being aggressive about getting new reps to push their stuff – they were doing pretty well with them taking catalogs to work. MLM to me is getting friends (or even strangers) together to push your products and get them to sign up to push it to *their* friends and acquaintances.

    • ernesto1581 says:

      Hey, football fans, check it out this weekend:

      Cashin’ In with Carville
      “…a weekly segment during the football season where James picks college and pro lines for the upcoming weekend slate of games.”
      bet.nola.com
      You betcha.

      Despicable creature.

  11. earlofhuntingdon says:

    If the “woke left” controlled all of America’s cultural institutions, neither Dowd nor Carville would have jobs. The claim is as imaginary as Ronald Reagan’s vision of UC Berkeley. Today’s Berkeley, like its midwestern peer, U of W, Madison, is as dominated by big capital as the GOP.

  12. Dopey-o says:

    Every time I hear “woke” used as a perjorative, I think of George Carlin’s “American Dream” monologue: You have to be asleep to believe it.
    Anyone who opens their eyes can see the inequalities around us. Sleepwalking thru life is a conscious choice to ignore evil. Cui bono, Maureen?

    • Rayne says:

      Carlin looks more and more prescient every day. I have thought of his remarks about punching up not down so many times this last month during discussions about Dave Chapelle’s transphobic humor.

      Dowd and Carville both don’t get either what it means to be awake to oppression or that they’re punching down and not up.

      • rip says:

        I think Dowd and Carville totally know what they are doing. The term may be pandering or something even worse.

        And agree re George Carlin. If he had immortality and the run of the universe, this would be a fun and whacky place. And much more sane than the septic vortex that we are descending into.

  13. Bruce Olsen says:

    And of course, the right’s long-standing characterization of the NYT as “liberal” returns dividends in more than one way.

    “Look, dear, even the liberal fake news NYT says [insert latest fear-inducing outrage here] is leading our nation to doom! Whatever that thing is must REALLY suck if those libs don’t like it!”

  14. subtropolis says:

    I am not at all surprised that a lot of the Press is already — less than a year in — moaning about Biden’s presidency failing, but I am infuriated to see ostensibly legitimate outlets publishing noxious comparisons of his administration with the toxic shitpile that came before. It’s not just republicans in Congress who are keen to downplay that crime wave by normalizing it as so much quotidian Beltway goings on. A pox on every one of the assholes pushing that garbage.

  16. Ed Walker says:

    Twitter has had great fun with that idiotic column by Thiessen in the WaPo in which he demonstrates an astonishing ignorance of the work of Immanuel Kant. Just search Twitter for Thiessen Kant for some delicious put-downs.

    • Leoghann says:

      I’m sorry I missed that. But the day you catch me reading anything by Thiessen, please kill my body snatcher.

    • BobCon says:

      The dunking on Thiessen is funny, but the ultimate ire needs to focus on people like Fred Hiatt to ask why idiots are in the Post in the first place.

      I’ve read efforts to contextualize Thiessen as a response to the challenge of running a traditional op ed pags when even people like George Will and Jennifer Rubin go anti-Trump and pull away from the GOP. Editors like Hiatt don’t want too much sameness, so they keep a few stooges like Thiessen or Gary Abernathy.

      But I have no sympathy. When there is no defense for Trump and the modern GOP, accept it. And putting obvious idiots on your pages does nothing good.

      Hiatt and other op ed editors should embrace the death of the partisan model they have been running on auto pilot for 50+ years. Dump the affirmative action plan that promotes transparently dumb people like Thiessen, Abernathy, Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss, and find smart new voices.

  17. Tom says:

    I haven’t read anything more of the Maureen Dowd piece than the brief quote included above, but I don’t think you can accurately compare and assess Trump’s and Biden’s time in office without looking at their individual motivations. Joe Biden views the Presidency as a means to strengthen America and improve the lot of his fellow citizens. Donald Trump, on the other hand, sees the Presidency as a way to enrich himself and stay out of jail. It’s like comparing apples and origins. Dowd’s position is absolutely ludicrous.

  18. BobCon says:

    What enrages me about the media’s overwhelming focus on nebulous claims of “woke” politics is that they are ignoring the growing, often violent attacks on the press by the right.

    January 6 involved attacks on journalists by right wing criminals instigated by the same leaders who instigated the hunting down of Pence. The same right wing extremists targeted the press at 2020 protests, and they are behind the extremist threats to school boards, and part of the movement to ban and even burn school books.

    The growing trend of absurdist defamation suits is not a nuisance — it is a part of the playbook which bankrupted Gawker. Just as Gawker went down when higher courts sat on their hands after a ridiculous ruling, the idea that the current Supreme Court will ultimately stand up against, say, a $10 billion judgment in some Florida court against the NY Times or NBC for defaming Devin Nunes is nuts.

    The press needs to look at places like Modi’s India and ask themselves how safe they will feel under a GOP regime — what kind of press liberties they think will exist if the GOP alliance to people like Orban grows. The press is being driven into a panic out of fears that their kids might not get a legacy admittance into Columbia, when they ought to be worried more about the Proud Boy style death threats that will be coming through their front windows when they publish more info on Trump’s taxes, or the billion dollar personal liability they will be facing when they write about one of Devin Nunes’ cows.

    The GOP wants to end press freedom in America, and the press thinks about the time Brett Kavanaugh said hello to them at a Washington Nationals game and decides it’s just not a story.

    • Bruce Olsen says:

      All of these GOP-supported RW initiatives are nothing more than the means to intimidate election workers, teachers, school librarians, and the rest of the too-numerous-to-mention targets of their various assaults by inciting their base to carry out terrorist kinetic attacks on those targets.

      When will Dems and/or the press start recognizing that the GOP is sponsoring terrorism, and nothing less? Trump is being used to create what will effectively become the GOP’s brownshirts, yet everyone focuses on each specific action, not the underlying project.

      If the GOP succeeds, the ultimate irony will be the eventual dissolution of this modern-day SA using those very tactics against them (just as Hitler had to shut them down). But when they come for them…

      • BobCon says:

        The insanity is highlighted by the way the DC press corps has thrown fits over disrespect by members of the non-press shown to Trump’s communications staff, and has treated them to receptions and parties behind the scenes, even as those same people have literally put their lives in danger.

        In pre-vax days Trump’s press operation was deliberately herding the press into tight indoor spaces and refusing to enforce mask protocols, and yet the DC press bent over backwards to treat the First Amendment threat as coming from the left.

        It simply doesn’t even make sense through a lens of profit seeking. It’s a toxic mix of denial all the way to cheerleading by the press of the looming threat to their own existence.

        And the only way I can rationalize it is people like Maureen Dowd and Jeremy Peters have escape plans for fleeing the country they haven’t told us about yet. They have no intention of being Edward R. Murrow broadcasting from the roof during the Blitz.

  19. Bay State Librul says:

    The Republic is in grave danger.
    No more high octane days left.
    There is no more “perfect union”
    Time to re-etch and re-sketch to pursue “our happiness”
    The time has come.
    “Separation of Powers” is dead.
    Civility is dead.
    Let’s take a page out of GE’s and Johnson and Johnson’s playbook.
    Decentralize the United States into two government entities based on geography.
    For the sake of argument, call it United States North LLC and United States South LLC.
    Issue an IPO and move on.

  20. Zinsky says:

    Your essential message here is dead on! John Fugelsang, the brilliant liberal comic/commentator recently said that the word “woke” has become like the phrases “bleeding heart liberal” and “social justice radical” were used by the hard right-wing in America in the past – just another way to demonize people trying to do good in the world.

    • bmaz says:

      Fugelsang is right. Cancel culture is another idiotic term. Socialism as well. Just stop. None have any real meaning anymore other than just slurring people from the other party.

  21. KAL says:

    Thank you, Rayne, for including the link to the Vox article by Aja Romano on the history and use of the term “woke.” I found it very informative.

  22. earlofhuntingdon says:

    A note for Ed: started reading Graeber and Wengrow’s, The Dawn of Everything. Can’t wait for your review.

  23. Robert Martin says:

    It’s not Times DNA. It’s the Sulzberger DNA. They’re closet Republicans at best, but live in a Democratic city

  24. mospeck says:

    imo good old Dean Baquet is big part of the trouble, sry for my previous post was way too much with the profanity and too much about escaping to the off world colonies
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nDwhH-tEpw
    “..people bounced between the borders and sleeping in the forest for weeks..”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/13/belarus-migrants-europe-lukashenko-poland/
    They’re just going for it, but then what are you going to do?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAh4gYZdDUg

  25. Hug h says:

    A couple of weeks ago I had a particularly frustrating day pondering current events and 3+ hrs of wasted time on hold with an ISP and an Alarm Monitoring company. Afterward in frustration I blurted something to my 23 yr old recent College Grad (aspiring Social Justice Lawyer) daughter- “We are witnessing late stage Democratic Capitalism and are royally screwed. I’m sorry to say this but if I were your age, I’d be arranging my affairs to depart the US and plan to live my life somewhere else.” I uttered those words in frustration and felt despair having spoken them to my bright, deeply socially conscious idealistic young daughter. Reading this piece by Rayne and the wise commentary compounds that despair.

    I’m a bit of a Karl Jung fan who, among other talents, was one of the greatest Cultural Historians in history. I’ve been pondering a couple of his quotes that feel sadly relevant to our current situation-

    “No, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans, the demons will seek a new victim. And that won’t be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey…. We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.”
    -Carl Jung “The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans” (1945)

    And…

    “There are times in the world’s history—and our own time may be one of them—when good must stand aside, so that anything destined to be better first appears in evil form.”
    -Carl Jung
    (Is there a wise, inclusive, progressive and successful “Populist” leader somewhere in America’s distant future?)

    I’ve always prided myself on being an optimist yet it’s not lost on me that if my 20 something idealist self were told that in 3+ Decades time (after another unnecessary War!) a transparently obvious pathological conman (I was born and raised 5 miles from the Orange gas giant) would win the Oval Office on the backs of 70 million Deluded Dupes I would never in a million years believed that possible. And yet here we are- his Base mostly dug in even deeper and the formerly grand old party leadership cowering in the face of the deluded masses who elected him and them.

    I read this today and thought it worth sharing-

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/ta-nehisi-coates-tony-judt-ill-fares-the-land/620628/

    The article reminded me of another great quote (and a shimmer of hope)-
    “All the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up. It isn’t that the evil thing wins — it never will — but that it doesn’t die.”
    John Steinbeck

    Thanks to everyone here who puts hard work, brilliant minds and heart and soul into keeping “The Wheel” rolling…

    • Rayne says:

      I want you to tell your daughter this (she’s only months younger than my son):

      There’s no place of safety if Putin has sown this Duginist nationalist poison globally with the help of anarchic billionaire oligarchs who want no laws to restrain them anywhere.

      I have an acquaintance who is of Hungarian descent who is actively seeking a Hungarian passport through dual citizenship. Stupid, stupid move – they’ve paid no attention at all to what Orban has done to Hungary. Nearby Poland had a massive protest last week because a woman died from septic shock after the fetus she carried died and abortion even in this case was outlawed; the country has been devolving into fascism. Ditto Belarus, another victim of the spreading disease.

      Nearly every EU nation has been under pressure to move right because of the onslaught of asymmetric warfare conducted through social media (thanks so much, Facebook). India’s Modi is a fascist as is Bolsanaro, and both have proven willing to commit passive genocide. Don’t even get me started on that incompetent hack Johnson in the UK who has likewise committed passive genocide. Canada doesn’t appear to grasp the threat as it clings to its own northern white supremacy. About the only sane place left is New Zealand and at some point it too, will feel pressure to shut the doors. China will not welcome you, and other ASEAN/PacRim nations will likewise look askance.

      All of which is to say unless the U.S. left gets a grip and manages to beat back its own fascists, the globe may descend into another world war. Go ahead and move outside the U.S., but will you be able to stand your ground and fight back where you land? Will you be viewed as an outsider, an American, with suspicion?

      Pick the place you can best defend your future.

        • bmaz says:

          I will give you one last warning. STOP relentlessly spamming our threads with your run on obtuse nonsense, or you will be gone. I hope you understand that we do not have the capacity or time to waste to continuously police your spam, and we will not. And I only approved this nonsense comment so I could address you, but I am done wasting my time with you. STOP.

  26. Rugger9 says:

    OT but important: there is video of Mike Flynn calling for a ‘one religion for one nation under God’ (paraphrasing) which is pretty much a refutation of the First Amendment among other things including his oath at commissioning. This is the true end game for the Dominionists, and make no mistake, an Episcopalian like me will not be ‘Christian enough’, nor my Roman Catholic wife. Time for the Army to find a reason to dismiss him (i.e. Article 134).

    • P J Evans says:

      They’d end up fighting over which particular fundie/Pentecostal sect is the One True Qristian Church. Unfortunately, the rest of us will be dead or in prison for Not Converting.

  27. Rugger9 says:

    OT but important: there is video of Mike Flynn calling for a ‘one religion for one nation under God’ (paraphrasing) which is pretty much a refutation of the First Amendment among other things including his oath at commissioning. This is the true end game for the Dominionists, and make no mistake, an Episcopalian like me will not be ‘Christian enough’, nor my Catholic wife. Time for the Army to find a reason to dismiss him (i.e. Article 134).

    • Rugger9 says:

      Moderator, I do not know why this double-posted since I didn’t even get the warning this time. Bombs away.

  30. OldTulsaDude says:

    Livin’ On New York Times

    Cancelled my subscription, tried the internet instead
    I hope you fellas don’t mind
    People said you were too liberal
    newspapers undeliverable
    But I think they’re point was too fine

    I read the old Gray Lady
    Just what is kind of hazy
    But I just had to prove it one time
    Cause I know you’re great reporters
    you track illegals crossing borders
    You’ve been to the White House to dine

    Livin’ on New York Times
    Livin’ on New York Times
    Well, you know that I can quote it
    When it was paper I would tote it
    Livin’ on New York Times

  31. harpie says:

    RAYNE,
    I have a list of links to the #J6TL comment threads about the DOJ call logs.
    I’ve been posting the compiled call TL and integrating other events within that.

    Is this a helpful way of looking at it? If so should I continue here? [Other posts are closed]
    If not, would just a call log compilation without the other events integrated be useful?

    • Rayne says:

      I think it’s time to post the call log to a page (not to be confused with a post) like the EW Timelines. What do you think? Are we ready for that? Might not put a link on the front page yet but we can have a central repository available to view in one swoop.

  32. harpie says:

    https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1460778421068386306
    8:14 PM · Nov 16, 2021

    Holy shit this is the best thing the FTC has done in years [screenshot]
    NYT hardest hit [THREAD]

    Screenshot is of this article:
    The end of “click to subscribe, call to cancel”? One of the news industry’s favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says Most U.S. news organizations won’t let readers cancel online. The Federal Trade Commission wants that to change.
    https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/11/the-end-of-click-to-subscribe-call-to-cancel-one-of-the-news-industrys-favorite-retention-tactics-is-illegal-ftc-says/
    SARAH SCIRE @SarahScire Nov. 15, 2021, 10:52 a.m.

  33. harpie says:

    Also from NYT, a review of Karl’s Betrayal:

    https://twitter.com/jenszalai/status/1460697783334227978
    2:54 PM · Nov 16, 2021

    Wrote about “Betrayal” and why — when it comes to a Trump book in 2021 — scoops are not enough. [link]

    In Another Trump Book, a Journalist’s Belated Awareness Steals the Show
    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/books/review-betrayal-final-act-trump-show-jonathan-karl.html Jennifer Szalai Nov. 16, 2021

    By the looks of his formidable résumé, the veteran Beltway journalist Jonathan Karl shouldn’t startle all that easily. […]
    Yet in his new book, “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,” Karl comes across as almost poignantly ingenuous and polite to a fault, repeatedly flummoxed by what he saw in the last year of the Trump administration. […]

    • harpie says:

      Rayne,
      I haven’t been really keeping up with the “Betrayal” promotion/reporting, but this review of it makes me think that we may have a new first entry in PHASE I of our overall #J6TL.

      Right now the first two entries I have are:

      2/11/20 BARR [ew:] DOJ dismissed the import of a threat against a judge by suggesting that if it didn’t prejudice prosecutors at trial, it doesn’t much matter.
      2/20/20 STONE sentenced

      We should probably add 2/10/20

      […] staffers in the White House seemed more immediately threatened by Johnny McEntee […] becoming the director of the Presidential Personnel Office — “responsible for the hiring and firing of more than 4,000 political appointees across the federal government.”

      McEntee saw it as his duty to purge from the executive branch anyone deemed insufficiently loyal to the president. […]

      • harpie says:

        The first time McEntee shows up in my notes is when Marcy tweeted:
        https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1262341116030005249
        7:15 AM · May 18, 2020

        Russell Vought, who obstructed on impeachment,
        counsel Pat Cipollone, who treated Trump as private client,
        and John McEntee, Trump’s loyalty oath administrator.
        But nothing to worry about. [link]

        …links to:
        Trump administration spins up a presidential transition The government is required to put in place plans for a potential handoff six months ahead of the November election.
        https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/13/trump-administration-transition-257503 05/13/2020

      • harpie says:

        More recently, Marcy about McEntee:

        https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1454429675397292035
        8:47 AM · Oct 30, 2021

        Trump wants to claim his visitor logs (which with normal Presidents are publicly available) are privileged.

        Given the scope of Trump’s attempted cover-up given the privilege claims, I find the reporting in days after the insurrection of interest — including reported plans to pardon Meadows, Scavino, Stephen Miller, and (!!) Johnny McEntee.
        & also Guilfoyle.
        Where the hell is McEntee in recent discussions? And will @January6thCmte subpoena McEntee?

    • harpie says:

      And, back to the topic of this post…the last paragraph of the book review:

      The Trump era blew a hole through all kinds of institutional norms and presuppositions, revealing vulnerabilities and blind spots. It probably speaks to Karl’s decency as a person that he didn’t want to contemplate anything so terrible, but for all the high-minded talk in his books about the journalistic pursuit of accuracy, he gives little indication that he had the imagination to handle the truth.

      • Rayne says:

        I think it was not only a failure of imagination from which Karl and other journalists suffered. It was that combined with several different factors:

        • cognitive dissonance — the inability to understand what they were seeing due to lock-in of their stale worldview;
        • a co-opted practice of both-sidesing everything to force a false dichotomy;
        • respect for the office of the executive which is only as worthy of respect as the efforts of the office’s occupier.

        For starters. I’m being nice not examining the possibility they saw the truth and simply did have the spine necessary to report the news when we needed it, instead choosing to profit personally from aggregating what they learned but didn’t report into books published too late to prevent January 6.

        • harpie says:

          Yeah. Someone tweeted about Carl Bernstein in that vein, saying they hoped he didn’t get hemorrhoids from holding in all that information for so long.

          • Rayne says:

            Why Bernstein?? I hope they were kidding. It was Costa and Woodward with Peril which was problematic; Costa had more access to VP’s office and Woodward has had White House and intelligence access for most of my lifetime.

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