Patterico's Pontifications

12/6/2019

Democracy Dies In Broad Daylight: Media Should Work Harder To Persuade Americans To Support Impeachment

Filed under: General — Dana @ 1:21 pm



[guest post by Dana]

I say let it die in broad daylight for everyone to see. Margaret Sullivan, former public editor of the New York Times and now a columnist for the Washington Post makes it clear that she supports impeachment (which is her prerogative), and is now calling on members of the media to collectively find a way to *persuade* resistant Americans to get on board the impeachment train. As if persuasion and advocacy is the job of journalists and reporters:

The diplomats have been inspiring, the legal scholars knowledgeable, the politicians predictable.

After endless on-air analysis and written reporting, pundit panels and emergency podcasts, not much has changed.

If anything, weeks into the House of Representatives’ public impeachment hearings, Americans’ positions seem to have hardened on whether President Trump should be impeached and removed from office.

So, is the media coverage pointless? Are journalists merely shouting into the void?

Clearly, to Sullivan’s mind, the media should be doing something more than just reporting the news and letting Americans make up their own damn minds. They should be collectively advocating for a specific political position and pushing that onto the masses via media outlets:

[T]hat’s what the nightly newscasts on the three major broadcast networks attempt to do: boil the complex down to a few minutes.

But that audience, although still substantial — more than 20 million people on average per night — certainly doesn’t include everyone. And far too often, those broadcasts fall prey to false equivalency: This side said this, and this side said that, and we don’t want to make anyone mad, so we’ve got to cut to a commercial now.

[H]ere’s the thing: There are facts. There is truth. We do live in a country that abides by laws and a Constitution, and nobody ought to be above them.

Despite the hardened positions, some members of the public are still uncertain. Some are persuadable, and yes, it matters.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s the job of American journalism in this moment to get serious about trying to reach these citizens.

Sullivan has tweeted three responses to her post. If these are representative of America at large, then, boy-howdy, we are in trouble:

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(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

13 Responses to “Democracy Dies In Broad Daylight: Media Should Work Harder To Persuade Americans To Support Impeachment”

  1. What a hack.

    Dana (643cd6)

  2. Par for the course Dana.

    It’s probably easier to just assume the media is coming from specific bias than to find the unicorn media/reporter who accurately calls balls and strikes.

    Sullivan exemplifies why the #FakeNews narrative has legs and why the media industries are treated with disdain.

    whembly (fd57f6)

  3. Maybe people should make that extra effort and purchase whatever they need at the actual store this weekend. Get baldy’s attention to start collecting heads down there.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  4. Breaking-
    White House Signals Trump Won’t Mount House Impeachment Defense

    The White House signaled on Friday that it did not intend to mount a defense of President Trump or otherwise participate in the House impeachment proceedings, in a sharply worded letter to Democrats calling the process “completely baseless” and urging lawmakers to get it over with quickly.

    “You should end this inquiry now and not waste even more time with additional hearings,” the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, wrote in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York.

    “Adopting articles of impeachment would be a reckless abuse of power by House Democrats and would constitute the most unjust, highly partisan and unconstitutional attempt at impeachment in our nation’s history,” he added.
    …..

    Rip Murdock (dd79dd)

  5. Frankly, I don’t blame the Whitehouse hear.

    House Democrats are not conducting this in good faith, so why entertain in participating in such process when participating would give the process some legitimacy…

    They’re accepting that the House would pass impeachment and conduct their defense in the Senate where the rules and conduct would be more favorable.

    whembly (fd57f6)

  6. *here

    whembly (fd57f6)

  7. @5
    If Trump gets the Clintons, Obama, Biden (either one), the whistleblower, Comey, George Conway, or Brennan to testify, I will be very surprised. The impeachment trial won’t last more than a couple of weeks.

    Rip Murdock (dd79dd)

  8. Yep. Good to see they’re just being honest, and stopping the scam.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  9. Memo to Margaret: Nixon made EZ to listen to tapes: Dems cooked up multi-hundred page reports thicker than pancake batter. ‘Death-pallored’ Nadler ain’t no Peter Rodino, dear.

    What goes around comes around: thank conservative Newtie and his bloviated fishes for weaponizing impeachment; for cheapening it from a thermonuclear device into a Saturday Night Special.

    Name a candidate; name the ex-president- and you’ll eventually dig up a flaw to stain w/t the permanent political ink of “impeachment.”

    He’s gonna beat the rap[s.] And remember, this fella holds grudges.

    “Ain’t nuttin’ gonna happen.” – ‘Quincy Maddox’ SNL

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  10. They are what we thought they were.

    Pravda is alive and well and not just in Russia.

    NJRob (7dfd61)

  11. 4. I find it very odd that the White House is calling impeachment “unconstitutional.” SMDH

    Gryph (08c844)

  12. 7. Rip Murdock (dd79dd) — 12/6/2019 @ 2:55 pm

    If Trump gets the Clintons, Obama, Biden (either one), the whistleblower, Comey, George Conway, or Brennan to testify, I will be very surprised. The impeachment trial won’t last more than a couple of weeks.

    I heard on the news interview shows that the Democrats can subpoena people but also that it would require 51 Senators to sustain a subpoena. But maybe the president can call witnesses in his own defense.

    I’m pretty sure that Giuliani will testify, and he’ll testify about what it is that other people say. He’ll try to make the case that Trump’s accusations in the July 25, 2019 telephone call were correct – or at least legitimate, although I don’t think Giuliani has reached the point of saying they were legitimate but wrong headed.

    He’s in Ukraine now. Originally he was scheduled to travel to Budapest, Hungary, to interview the last formed Prosecutor General, Andriy Lutsenko, but then he got an invitation to interview his predecessor Viktor Shokin (the one whom Joe Biden claimed to have a major role in getting fired, who never by the way has never claimed there was an active investigation into Burisma going on in the latter part of 2015 and early part of 2016)

    He’s going to write a report and wants to give it to DOJ and to Congress. Trump says Giuliani wants to testify.

    Sammy Finkelman (592d97)

  13. 4. 11. You could say in violation of the spirit of the constitution, and even that the charges – which we don’t have yet actually – don’t fit the definition of high crimes and misdemeanors – but that doesn’t make the process unconstitutional any more than in a regular criminal case, a indictment for something that doesn’t amount to a crime, is illegal.

    Two things that can happen, but probably won’t:

    1) The House could vote for impeachment, but then delay bringing the case to the Senate for several months.

    2) The Senate can pass a resolution, midway through the trial, sponsored by Senator Zrand Paul, to dismiss the case. Rand Paul may very well make such a motion, but it would on;y take afew Republican nay votes to defeat that

    Sammy Finkelman (592d97)


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