The Beatles--I'm Looking Through You (Remastered 2009)
I want you to look at this graph. I find it very telling.
(Courtesy of MMFA).
Every day, we fight back against the media's tendency to "both sides" every issue. But look at that graph, and look at the names on the guest list below and ask yourself how you can "both sides" an issue when only one side is overwhelmingly heard from.
It's the same on social media. I've watched conservatives so game the system that overtly Nazi sympathizing Twitter users with 600 followers can get verified and female reporters with 10K followers cannot. Roseanne Barr ended up losing her eponymous show for making racists tweets, so alt-right scumbucket Mike Cernovich decided to go after director James Gunn for his tweeted jokes involving pedophilia and rape, for which he had apologized before, getting him fired from the Guardian of the Galaxy franchise he's helmed from the beginning (and after said tweets were posted). Without defending Gunn or the tweets, it's a simply strange idea of an eye for an eye, where the punishment really isn't that impactful. Who does it hurt if Gunn is fired from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 in favor of, say, Taika Waititi, the director of Thor Ragnarok? Pretty much just Gunn. But it was incredibly important for these alt-righters to take a scalp from "the left" as impotent a gesture as it was. And shame on Disney for finding their sense of decency *now* only through the manipulations of a neo-Nazi to fire Gunn.
So the conservative, fringe right has the entire media cowered into overemphasizing their voices and that amplification has made them feel that theirs are the only voices that matters.
But "both sides" are the problem.
I don't know how we'll ever get back to a state of even semi-normalcy until the media cops to their inability to not get gamed by the right.
ABC's "This Week" — Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Tom Bossert, former Trump homeland security and counterterrorism adviser; and Susan Rice, former ambassador to the United Nations. Panel: Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter, ABC’s Matthew Dowd, Michelle Goldberg of The New York Times and Margaret Hoover, host of PBS “Firing Line” and CNN contributor.
NBC's "Meet the Press" — Pre-empted by British Open coverage.
CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; former Secretary of State John Kerry; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic congressional nominee in a New York House district. Panel: Susan Page of USA Today, Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review and Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
CNN's "State of the Union" — Rubio; Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., Panel: Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.; Karine Jean-Pierre, senior adviser for MoveOn.org and former Obama administration official; and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" — A panel with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker; Stephen Sestanovich of the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of diplomacy at Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor & publisher at The Nation. Other guests are David Sanger of The New York Times and author of “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age,” and Antony Blinken, former U.S. deputy secretary of State, former deputy National Security adviser to the president and former National Security adviser to the vice president (Barack Obama administration, 2009-2017).
CNN's "Reliable Sources" — Christopher Ruddy, CEO, Newsmax Media; Maggie Haberman of The New York Times; David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun; and Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine. Panel: Jill Dougherty, former CNN Moscow bureau chief; Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post; and Max Boot, senior fellow, Council of Foreign Relations.
"Fox News Sunday" — Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.; Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. Panel: Brit Hume, Juan Williams, former State Department spokesperson Marie Harf and Guy Benson of Townhall.com.
Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" — Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Bill Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management; Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.; Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor. Panel: GOP strategist Ed Rollins and James Freeman, assistant editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
So, what's catching your eye this morning?
