nothing annoys me more than the notion of an "expectations game." there is no rule that says journalists must evaluate political events on the basis of expectations set by party apparatchiks. edition.cnn.com/2024/06/26/p...
For decades news outlets have manufactured content to increase viewing time/ratings share, notably by conjuring political expectations from spotty info and/or without significant change in underlying facts. This trend led to CNN's 24-hour FOMO model, which was notoriously short on content for years.
Apparatchniks evolved in symbiosis with the redirection from covering events to the FOMO model and delivering increasing content and entertainment value. Seems much more about what helps the org's bottom line than what is necessary or correct to the journalists that work in the system.
