and especially to the Females in these Groups:
At nearly 73, I have been around for a long time. I watched the Watergate hearings as a twenty something. In college, I protest against Vietnam (and still supported those serving, which included family members). I protested the horrid Reagan administration which your class, the PUNDIT class, has spun into canonization. If I have to hear one more, “Reagan would never do this….” Give me a break? Are all of you just ignorant. Yea, I know a lot of you are young, but did you NOT have to go to college, take history courses? Do you not do research?
DJT did not get elected in a vacuum. One has to go back to Nixon, then Reagan to see the seeds of this perverted, right wing governance we are now seeing. With Nixon it was Louis Powell, and Buckley vs Valeo. And of course we KNOW people like Roger Stone was a Nixon operative alongside pervert Roger Ailes. We also know Stone graduated and joined the likes of Cheney, Lee Atwater, Don Regan pushing the “greed is good, trickle down” agenda of Reagan. Reagan gave rise to Murdoch, fast tracked his citizenship, along with ignoring the Sherman anti trust act. And so media, the conglomerates YOU work for/with, became entities for profit, NOT FOR THE PEOPLE. Is that why you chose journalism? To become a rich talking head? Please explain because few of you are even doing journalism.
I am especially discouraged by the females in journalism. Sure there are many of you, mostly young, mostly white and mostly looking a certain way. The early ones had to do a lot of kissing up to get anything. Sad but true. So for a long time I was willing to give the likes of Barbara Walters and Andrea Mitchell a pass on some of their ridiculous over-the -top effort to NOT SHOW ANY FEMINIST BIAS. They went after Hillary Clinton just like the men. Even worse they have been friends with, have defended DJT up until recently. Seriously, the minute that jerk came on the public scene, any and every woman with smarts, KNEW who and what he was. Yes, I get that even dems played getting his support and like many, I wrote them, complained to them about it. And NO ONE gets a pass for excusing him after what he said PUBLICLY to Rosie O’Donnell; after his bragging on Stern’s show. But I get it. a lot of people did not hear about the Stern show, a lot probably did not even hear about the Rosie stuff because back then cable did not dominate 24/7.
But still going back to te 90s, when I think about it, I remember how upsetting it was to hear/see the media misogyny. NOTHING Hillary said or did was good enough for them. And any and all choices, seen as mistakes, in HER life, were amplified and exaggerated.
“Egads!” She was a Goldwater Girl as a teen.
“OMG!” She insulted women with her keep her own last name as the Governor of AR, daring to work them.
“YIKES!” She insulted “making cookies”. THESE are the things the press pushed over and over and over.
But her words at the UN conference, barely mentioned these days, unlike screeching “EMAILS”.
"If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women's rights.
And women's right are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely. And the right to be heard."
On to Michelle Obama, you remember her, the “Angry Black Woman”! Remember the scandalous “bare arms”. And OMG she was pushing vegetables and was anti- soft drinks.
You, the media, pushed the narrative of Angry Black Woman vs Bigoted old White Woman in 2008. Intelligent women never bought it. But still….
And so here we are now. Laura Bush spoke and the media goes wild. Oh how wonderful it is. We remember Laura Bush but not too many details. Media NEVER dared speak much about her past, or her husband’s for that matter. I guess Dan Rather’s firing worked for the corporate owners.
Don’t get me wrong. I am glad Mrs Bush spoke. Glad Hillary, Michelle and Rosalyn spoke but as usual with the media when a republican does, it is GLORIOUS.
So where am I going with this? HERE IT IS.
APPARENTLY BULLYING WORKS. The right has been bullying the press with their “liberal bias” screams for decades. The oligarchs have made journalism about profits and made “talking heads” rich enough to choose SILENCE to keep their salaries. Both siderism is the norm EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO WOMEN IN THE NEWS. Then, republican women from Melania to Laura to Nancy to the Bush women to Nikki Haley and Susan Collins get revered if they even say one sentence that shows compassion to the poor, the refugees, to children being separated from their parents. Suddenly THEIR words are so MAGNANIMOUS. THEY ARE SO OMG.
But the words of Kamala Harris, Tammy Duckworth, Mazie Hirono, Maxine Waters, Hillary Clinton, Rosalyn Carter, Michelle Obama altogether to not get the attention one statement from Laura Bush got. Honestly I do not get that.
While we are at this, I would like to ask: Why does Melania get a pass on her reaction to her husband’s record of infidelity? When Bill cheated, every mic possible was in her face. She was trashed for being mean about the women who cheated with her husband. She was trashed for staying with Bill. She STILL is trashed for staying with Bill. But Melania, Potus’ wife #3, one who was his mistress, is never questioned about being with, staying with, cheating with DJT. So why???
I am horrified by what we, the USA, are doing to children. But we did not get here in one presidency. This leaning to the callous right wing, xenophobic, racist tea party with its horrid, anti human rights, anti civil rights policies has been building for decades. Maybe it was the backlash to FDR, and his policies which gave rise to the largest, most prosperous middle class in history. Maybe it is backlash to the First Black President. Maybe it is backlash to a woman DARING to be smart, assertive and running for president. Maybe it is all of them. But YOU, modern press, are a big part of it. YOU, talking heads, MSM are failing us.
**Why, when Sarah H. Sanders mocks and belittles one of your members, something she does often, do you not walk out en masse?
** Why are the likes of Haberman and Dowd so intense in their need to take down HRC, so silent in how Melania does/says so little about anything? Is this how women in the press want it? ONLY they get a voice but outspoken legislators like HRC, like Maxine Waters, like Mazie Hiron, like Kimala Harris are either ignored or are trashed?
**Why are so many in the press more afraid of being seen is “liberals (which seemingly most of you are not)” than you are of being seen as honest, brave and speaking truth to power?
***Without the press, how do WE THE PEOPLE, get our power. If you are AFRAID to RISE, RESIST with us, then what the h*ll are you doing? The FOURTH ESTATE is supposed to protect the notion OF, BY, FOR the people. You have lost your way. And our republic is dying. And still……
Years ago when I was teaching, I bought this book that inspired me to be better, listen better, spend more time being the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage”:
The Geranium on the Windowsill Just Died, but Teacher You Went Right On...
This book might now be retitled:
Our Democratic Republic is Dying, but Journalists you went right on …OOO
Elections have been stolen. Propaganda is openly used as a tool. Children are being put into cages and separated from parents. And entire party is aligned with our adversaries, countries being run by dictators. Our legislative branch headed by this president’s sycophants and toadies are NOT working for the people. Our judicial branch has been stacked in favor of corporate entities. “Gated” communities are becoming the norm for the rich and (mostly) white. Black citizens are being executed in our streets by a militarized police force. WHEN WILL YOU SIDE WITH THE PEOPLE?