In a season of unprecedented, shameless and utter failure by an uncritical, stenographic “press”, we all have our favorite instances of unprofessional, shorts-around-their-ankles ‘press-squats’. Here are just three.
Given his usual wall-to-wall “coverage” (‘cause everyone loves to ogle a train-wreck), Donnie-boy Trump rushed his flabby butt to Louisiana to score a pathetic photo-op (something specifically discouraged by Gov. Bel Edwards), “helping” the flood victims in his natty blazer and taking the opportunity to blast President Obama for not interrupting his vacation to match his ‘noble’ gesture.
As affirmed in Rachel Maddow’s extended interview with Bel Edwards, the Governor requested that Obama, while welcome, postpone his visit for two or three weeks in order to not divert Federal, state and local responders still engaged in rescue and recovery.
… and he went on to laud Obama, FEMA and DHS for their virtually immediate response.
With the apparent sole exception of MSNBC, our press warriors have dropped that small detail, dutifully parroting Trump’s finger-wagging put-down — echoed by the entire Republican conga-line — and failing to confront either with Bel Edwards’ publicly-stated preferences. Result: Obama’s ‘Katrina’... golfs while Louisiana drowns (“many say”).
Then, we have the matter of the purported “ransom” paid to Iran for the release of American prisoners, ‘cause “If it walks like a duck...”
This one was mounted like a hobby-horse by Republican playpen-warriors — including the gargle-screaming Trump — who couldn’t successfully negotiate their preferred flavor of latte with a teenaged counter girl. Once again, most of the “press” has slavishly seasoned its ‘coverage’ of the issue with a generous dollop of this one-dimensional, right-wing blather… citing “appearances”.
Suitably indifferent to the historical background of this legitimate debt owed the odious Iranians — about to be enforced by an international court at The Hague and successfully negotiated down by our diplomats to a fraction of the amount actually due — the razor-sharp “press” has again gotten its bloomers hung up in the barbed wire of “appearances”, reducing a series of complex interactions with a hostile government to the child’s play in which they specialize. This Fortune article goes a long way toward explaining just how complex. Score another face-plant for the “press”, again stepping up as passive handmaiden for Trump and the GOP (‘cause, Heaven knows, they need every bit of help they can get ).
I’m sure the Republican conga-line would have much preferred the “appearance” of one of those exciting decapitation videos...
Finally, we have another “appearances” extravaganza, as gargle-screamed by Trump, parroted by his hirelings and “surrogates” and adopted by our press warriors as a text-saving meme: “Pay to play.”
To the mouthbreathing dullards (and their “press” caddies) who’ve found a home for their addled brains in the pretentious, cowardly, prophylactic rant of “appearance of impropriety”, this is your assignment:
Identify ONE such “appearance” and take it to its ultimate, documented conclusion of ACTUAL impropriety!
… and do your best to pretend that, in the entire history of this nation, there has not been a continuing pursuit of “access”, whether through the State Department or the White House directly, by foreign and corporate interests seeking to influence policy.
Want some documentable, provable “impropriety”? Take a glance at the jersey barrier masquerading as the GOP “caucus” which has occupied its time — on our dime! — “symbolically” voting (unsuccessfully) more than FIFTY TIMES to rescind the ACA, refusing to fulfill its Constitutional obligation to vote, up or down, on a Supreme Court nominee and conducting repeated frat-house “star chamber” extravaganzas that regulary blow up in their faces.
Any comments from the “press” gallery?