I’m glad Jon Stewart is around to point out the absurdity of our news media.
Yes. Following Donald Trump’s car on his commute to the court is not news. Reporting breathlessly on the courtroom artist’s rendering of the scene is not news. Endlessly describing what Trump, a man who hasn’t changed his wardrobe in decades, looks like is not news. Reporting on the ongoing minutiae of court procedure is not news. It’s all boring stuff that could be summarized in 5 minutes at the end of the day…and on days when nothing dramatic happens (that is, most of them), it’s overkill.
I did not care for the short segment near the end when Jessica Williams complains that Stewart is being a killjoy. Just let the press have “fun,” she says, it’s entertainment. The consequences of this trial may be important. It’s a serious matter. And our bored journalists are stretching out the thin daily story into a tedious, superficial gloss on the substance of the trial. Who needs to consider corruption when can instead talk about whether Trump is “glowering” or “pouting” while he’s sitting there?
I haven’t seen this episode yet. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. I’ve seen most of the new Jon Stewart episodes. I missed him. I liked his critical stance toward both Trump and Biden that pissed off a bunch of DNC and centrist kool-aid drinkers. Good for him!
There were decades of TV and journalism.
What killed journalism is first cable news that needed to fill 24-hour schedules and had no time for analysis, then the internet that took all the money away from ad-supported media and centralized it into a small number of ad-tech companies.
Perhaps not as clearly as possible (but clearly enough for me), Ms Williams’ “response” is a multilayered reflexive entry into a really hard inquiry: What legal, ethical, and moral distinctions apply to “news” that are different from “entertainment,” especially when a particular bit of speech has elements of both? Even bringing in dubious speaker motivation, as comment 2 above implies, just makes the inquiry harder.
Media empires run by billionaires aren’t actually interested in this thing called journalism. Infotainment is much cheaper than employing editors and journalists.
Gary Hart was pilloried by the press over a single staged photograph, but a historic event like prosecuting a former POTUS for unprecedented fraud and election interference is being covered like it’s an episode of reality TV.
Mr. Owl, how many clickbaits does it take to get to the centrist-roll center of a centrist voter?
A good question. Let’s find out. Ah-one, ahtuhhoo-oo! Th’rreee. clrkkckt Three.
That bit is satire to reinforce what Jon just said and it is a platform to launch a series of puns. I suspect you know all this, but maybe you are not a punny guy? Or perhaps your distaste of Trump (that I share) has overflowed into a minor case of nausea with all things Donald? Fear not! The Trumptanic Farce has hit the legal iceberg field and is taking on water.
I saw the segment with Jessica Williams, but not Jon’s earlier monologue. Definitely satire, and definitely having a pun filled episode around the star first witness: David Pecker. That’s all just silliness which just goes to show how this is both silly and serious.
I think what is news is what David Pecker is saying: whether Trump knew or not, Pecker was willingly skewing the news the National Enquirer audience would receive to protect Trump’s interests. That’s probably not a crime unless he wrote off his taxes the money he spent (you can not write off political donations), but while propaganda and lying is not a crime, it is an abuse of the news media. Hopefully the folks that were sold Pecker’s lies for Trump are taking note, but I doubt it.
I also think it’s news that Trump fell asleep two or three times, as are the pictures of him in the courtroom looking haggard and tired, and the pictures of him marching out of court scowling with clinched fist. I also thought it was hilarious that the judge had to tell him to sit down because the hearing had not be recessed.
David Pecker has testified that this plan was the result of a 2015 meeting with Trump and Cohen in trump towers, so it’s safe to say Trump knew about the plan.
Pecker’s testimony to the jury today was of him confessing that he entered into a criminal conspiracy with Trump and Michael Cohen to help the 2016 Trump campaign by buying negative “women stories” against Trump in order to suppress them.
Those silly women’s stories are exactly the type of news featured on tabloid newspapers, except for the fact that their stories happen to be true.
That they were purchased and then buried is part of the evidence that this was election interference to benefit tfg.
Those NDAs which Trump purchased, were lifted one month after the 2016 election as well, which buries the lie that it wasn’t election interference.
Jon Stewart is exactly right. The media will create the same circus that led to the election of Donald Trump. There will be wall to wall 24/7 non-stop coverage of the scumbag and his orange face will be glowing from every screen in USA. Fuck them all. If you must check CNN and other scummy and shitty “news agencies”, install your adblocks.
Our cable provider in Sweden is mercifully free of Merican ‘news’ channels.
I recall the Dubya days when we could still get Fox. After Iraq war 2, they dropped it for some reason.