feels like part of the longstanding trend of "complain about the media, but never do anything about it other than Hope They're Nice To Us" from democrats is that a lot of 'em find the shittiness of the media convenient when they want to knife somebody else in the party
see: the clinton camp constantly harrumphing about But Her Emails, when 8 years earlier the media being total dogshit who'll snap up anything that looks juicy enough sure seemed like a good avenue for shit like this to start circulating around
as always, the obama '08 campaign is the key thing i point to when people talk about how Unfair the media is.
it was extremely unfair how the GOP, the media, and hillary clinton herself were extremely racist to him.
if his media strategy was 'mope about shit being unfair', probably would've lost.
this isn't some random trans teenager the news is putting in the spotlight for bullshit. this is the president. the media being unfair is baked in. the party has insanely massive warchests, they've had power ranging from committee seats to the presidency, and they've had decades to do something.
if your only strategies to deal with an unfair media is "mope about it being unfair" or "get more racist to try and make them like you", and you've had tons of money and power and decades of time to do something about the problem, my sympathy turns quickly into "oh fucking well".
clinton was getting his ass kicked by limbaugh just on *talk radio* before fox news *existed*. the most powerful people in the dem party's response to media as an issue has been "vote to make it extremely easy for billionaires to buy up all the radio, tv, news, internet" and "mope about it".
"can you believe they're hardly spending any time or page space on the supreme court saying the president is immune?!" absolutely i can! the media is dogshit! what is the dem's plan to make news cycles about SCOTUS?
oops! it's "nothing" cuz everybody at the top agrees to be quiet wimps about 'em.
you can't fucking drive a news cycle about the courts when everybody from dick durbin to joe biden himself agrees that the only possible response they can make to SCOTUS is basically a form response with all the energy of an HR rep saying "we are taking these concerns very seriously."
you either get serious about tackling media as a problem as president and as a legislative body, going after monopolies and taking an IRS shaped hammer to white collar crime in this space, or you do some basic fucking driving of news cycles, or ideally, you do both.
but "mope about it"? jesus.
cannot overstate how tired i am of the whining. "It's not fair!" No shit. Do something about it. Get your hands dirty. Yeah, sure, your dinner parties are gonna be a little more awkward if you do. So fucking what
"ehhhnhnhnhnh but the media will attaaaaack usssssssss if we do somethinggggg" 1. they're attacking you right now 2. once again, do people think everybody was super nice to obama in '08. or that he just floated in there on a string of destiny or some shit
everybody else is told That's Just How It Is And They Have To Deal With It about media, from lefties running to office to social movements trying to do something about cops, but people with hundreds of millions of dollars and literal political power get to just whine about it? fuck off.
no hesitation at all about sentencing thousands of innocent children to death abroad, but taking any sort of action to counter media gives 'em the jitters. fuck offffffffffff
exactly, we have to hear all the goddamn time about how the world isn't fair when the president chooses to Get More Racist on the border or reaffirm his commitment to arming a genocidal ethnostate, but they immediately break out the water works and pout in a corner the second CNN gets a little mean
the thing is too, there are some *extremely easy fucking ways* for joe biden to put this issue to bed - *if he's capable of it!!!!!*
and that's the real fucking problem, ain't it! he is apparently not up to the task of saving his own goddamn campaign!
vividly remembering how 2020 was the 'basement campaign' and joe was actually *avoiding* public appearances and narrowly squeezed out a win and that these circumstances appear to have given him, and his circle, a firm belief that this will always work!
the reason it worked in 2020 was that THERE WAS A PANDEMIC AND NOBODY COULD GO TO CAMPAIGN EVENTS, AND ALSO HIS OPPONENT WAS THE PRESIDENT WHO MISMANAGED THE PANDEMIC
lol i also have not forgotten them being very "no no no we are DEFINITELY doing in-person voting and not advocating for mail in voting, in-person voting good" up until the MOMENT bernie dropped out, then they switched. putting an infection shaped gun at the head of voters as a threat!
