Unbeknownst to me, last week was apparently declared "National Both Sides Do It Week" during a secret conclave of the lords of the Beltway media, because that shit was everywhere.
Of course Chuck Todd was all over it:
From the Today Show:
And Michael Steele -- whose role in the Republican Party was explained eloquently by Malcolm X here -- loves some false equivalence for breakfast, lunch and supper more than Paula Deen loves butter
But nowhere was the Big Beltway Both Sides Lie more in evidence than on the once-respectable Christopher L. Hayes teevee show where the con-artist formerly known as the Southern Avenger took the floor to explain that the best way to deal with the white supremacists who have taken over the Party of Lincoln was to ignore them, and that (per the video above, h/t Crooks & Liars) all this reckless ginning up of racist rhetoric was the fault of...
...wait for it...
...the Left and the Right!
So if you've ever wondered how in the world every single fucking bigot and gutless "independent" in Christendom all learned to reflexively bark out the identical alibi -- "But Both Sides..." -- every single time another Republican atrocity is laid at their feet, now you know.
They learned by watching teevee. By reading the newspaper. By listening to the radio. By hearing the same, despicable like repeated by respectable men and women everywhere.
Because without the Big Beltway Both Sides Lie, the Beltway media would be unable to function. Which is why they have to work extra hard to manufacture ever more bullshit rationalizations every time reality threatens to derail their morally-bankrupt gravy train. Which these days is every god damn day.
4 comments:
Assuming for purposes of argument that there is, in fact, "a race to the bottom", Trump clearly won it going away. And some time ago too.
Clinton's technique of using facts, quotes and video clips is clearly too weak here.
Trump knows you gotta just make stuff up, pull it out of your ass and throw it up on the wall.
Also Clinton uses way too many nouns as part of her mistaken "facts" approach.
Trump understands, as he did in the GOP primaries, the power of those free-floating unattached killer adjectives and adverbs - his "best words" - and lots of them.
The corporate suits, mostly of an Ivy League background, are all about making money and pleasing the analysts. I assume the doctrine of "both sides" is worked in so as to not offend the predominately white, older, audience that watches Cable and Broadcast news and reads the major newspapers. These guys, including Chris Hayes, are responding to their bosses.
I think the Both Sides crapola also has to do with ginning up the horse race notion of this (or any) POTUS campaign, because money & ratings. Who gives shit about what's good for our nation, much less about being truly objective and reporting factually.
It's no good if it looks like rout bc then the pundits can't rile up the rubes with the usual memes that I saw on tv today in the gym: "It's going to be a dog fight all the way down to the wire!!!111!!!!"
Also on the gym tv today was twaddle about how Clinton is running the most sane, well organized, well researched, thoughtful campaign that has done real reach out to minorities, while Trump is all over the map and has avoided courting minorities. That the D Convention was very well organized and well run, while the R Convention was a hot mess. BUT: Trump's closing IN on Clinton!!11!! Only a very few points behind!!11!!"
Truly annoying. It wasn't on Fox. Unsure which station it was, but they're all the same anymore as far as I can tell.
It's all Rush Limbaugh-speak all the time with these idiots. To suggest that Clinton is the "Real Racist" is traditional Limbaugh-directed Dittohead-speak, as we've all witnessed out here on the Innerwebs.
So the introduction of disgusting Bannon has resulted in even more dumbing down of the "discussion" to about 1st grade level now.
Color me utterly unsurprised.
This is why Chuck Todd is where he is and not on the sports desk: "The ball's at the 10 yard line. There's turf on #bothsides !
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