I’m still on the road in New York preparing to move. I still have business to wind up in Missouri and will be flying back next week, but I hope to be living in my new place by the end of this month.
I take it the two big bits of political news this week have been the ending of Title 42 at the border and the fallout from Trump’s Lie-a-palooza on CNN. I’m having a hard time working myself into a xenophobic meltdown over the border. And CNN deserves all the ridicule it has received over the “town hall.” Philip Bump has a good analysis of the “town hall” and whether CNN was justified in hosting it (no). No paywall. And I need a nap.
I was on the road from Saturday night to Wednesday – getting my daughter from college for the summer. Tampa to Mount Holyoake MA and back, 3200 miles. New York is not directly along the way but it's a black hole that sucks you in if you get within a 250-mile radius. I tried to skirt the barrier and wound up having a nervous breakdown (almost) as I tried to follow the directions out of NY to a highway in a northerly direction. No offense, Maha, but I hate driving in NYC.
I followed the news as best I could but didn't have time to comment.
Re CNN: I don't think any harm was done. There are two entrenched groups, the MAGAs who love Trump and informed humans who find Trump a poor excuse for a human being. Among both groups, nothing changed. The election hinges on the low-information voter. In 2016, the low-info voter decided it couldn't hurt to put a successful business tycoon with no ties to the establishment in the WH. They now see Trump was a disaster.
The MAGAs thought it was great fun for Trump to call the moderator a "nasty person" for bringing up the truth. (About Trump ignoring the subpoena to turn over docs.) I'm not sure how well that insult flew with moderate voters. It got a bunch of air time afterward which means Trump's defiance of an order to turn in property that did not belong to him was reinforced. The conviction for sexual assault was brought up and Trump doubled down, possibly creating a new case for defamation. Fox refused to cover the Carrol suit and trial. CNN brought it out in the public eye.
Should the mainstream media do a blackout of Trump? That gives Trump a lane to create his own narrative, Some of what Trump said on CNN may show up in submissions by the prosecution in future trials. Trump is an idiot with no message discipline. The old addage, "Give him enough rope, he'll hang himself." applies. Also, on the CNN interview, Trump took full credit for striking down Roe. This won't get Trump any new votes – had Trump pivoted to say he never intended the consequences that striking down Roe has produced, he might have escaped the results of what he did. But he's going the other way and Biden can hang him for it.
Heather Digby Parton suggested in her article about the CNN lie-fest that it should not have been live. The network could have fact-checked and nailed Trump for the more egregious flights of fancy.
https://digbysblog.net/ "Trumpers celebrate dear leader's lies"
I think she's nailed a nuanced approach that the mainstream media could employ with events that feature ANY of the presidential candidates – a delayed broadcast, perhaps unedited – BUT with editorial commentary inserted especially when a statement is factually wrong. Note; "factually wrong" does not mean a statement I disagree with – it's a statement in conflict with established facts and events, often backed up by the results of court action.
CNN is doing damage control and not listening. Too bad because Heather made a solid suggestion that all the MSM could employ,
I won't be in NYC but in a nice residential area near the Metro North commuter trains, roughly a 45 minute train ride to Grand Central. The apartment is nice; I was pleasantly surprised.
Doug,
I agree with Digby (no surprise there) that the C!own Hall should not have been shown live.
But that was what CNN agreed to because tRUMP requested – or more likely – demanded it.
tRUMP knows that live, there's no chance for any moderator to keep up with his "Gish galloping" word salad.
Based on what they agreed to, I'd love to negotiate a deal – any deal – with CNN.
They bent over backwards, when there really was no reason for them to do that.
And CNN should have demanded that there be a true cross-section of NH voters, and not a meeting of The New England Chapter of tRUMP Sycohants/And He-man Woman/Liberal Haters Club!
Since the change in its ownership, CNN is desperate to.pick-up FOX and conservative viewers.
It showed the other night.
You gave tRUMP a free prime time TV ad.
Bad job, CNN.
Really, really bad job.
And before I forget:
Good luck, maha!!!
I wish you the smoothest of moves! 🙂
Oh yeah:
CNN should have required that there be at least TWO individuals who weren't White!
NH's pretty White, but there MUST be at least a few non-White residents!!!
There was a forgettable sci fi movie, from 1971, called "Earth 2". It was set in a space station floating above the earth, with about 2000 inhabitants. They were idealistic and had even formed their own country, which I think was part of the UN. Violence wasn't allowed and kids weren't allowed to have guns for toys.
Given this potentally interesting setup, the plot (and special effects) were unfortunately ho-hum. The one thing that was memorable about the film, apart from the lovely Marietta Hartley, was their group decision process. Everyone was involved, and as someone spoke, a computer analyzed their argument, displaying its conclusions, in real-time, on a TV screen chyron, things like "NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THIS CLAIM" or "EMOTIONAL APPEAL". It was the one thing about this film I never forgot.
I was thinking how far things have come since then. Having studied speech recognition decades ago, I'm astonished by how well "Siri" works, for example. It seems that AI has progressed to the point where near real-time spoken argument analysis is just about doable.
Moreover, Trump can shout down a moderator, but would look pretty silly screaming at chyrons evaluating him in real-time on a TV screen. Normal people would be amazed by how sharp and quick witted the AI evaluator could rebut the torrent of nonsense, which overpowers most human beings.
And then I found, after much digging, an awful review of this movie, by someone who ridiculed the utopian nature of the society floating in space. They could not accept the "neutral" conclusions made by the speech processing computer, any more than today's right wingers can accept data outside their biases. This dumped cold water on my attempt to try to create something like this, at least for now.
Upon further reflection I would say one positive outcome of CNN's Interview With A Rapist is the awarding of a "Nasty" to interviewer Kaitlan Collins, which I think should be viewed as a coveted mark of distinction seeing as how it is mostly bestowed upon prominent noteworthy women such as Hillary Clinton, Megan Markle, a Danish prime minister whose name I am not attempting to type, and Ms. Lindsay Graham, to name just a few. Apparently Ms. Collins is not quite up to the level of the rare "blood coming out of her whatever", perhaps he reserves that for blondes.