found online by Raymond
From Frances Langum:
We’re being played by Donald Trump, folks.
At least CNN and MSNBC aren’t habitually interrupting their day for live coverage every time the so-called president holds a rally. But we still cover everything he says to the detriment of really important stories, says Ezra Klein:
If I worked in a White House where, on Friday, a corruption-plagued EPA chief resigned and a Fox News-exec ousted for covering up sexual assault was named deputy chief of staff, I'd be pretty thrilled if the media spent Monday mocking Stephen Miller for throwing away sushi.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 9, 2018
Played? These are choices made by adults who know better and would do better if they cared more about journalistic responsibility than ratings and profits. There is absolutely no good reason for coverage of such irrelevant spectacle to be prioritized over in-depth analysis of the many misdeeds of this administration and the complicit GOP — not even if it’s “what the people want,” as the case may often be. Indeed, giving the public what it wants has brought us the steady decline of good journalism and taught people to expect nothing more.
Normally, I am understanding of the clickbait phenomenon, just as I am understanding of politicians doing what they must to be re-elected. Sometimes surviving to do good work requires a compromise of values. But there’s no defending this.