The State of the Presidential Race

 Over the past two months the Democrats have risen from their severely depressed state of being in mourning over Joe Biden to an exalted manic state hailing Vice President Kamala Harris as their new savior. Last week’s very successful convention cemented Harris’ leadership in the party, and she is now a small favorite to win the election in November.  However, I would caution that the current manic phase can quickly turn once again to a depressive state.

 

The most important thing that happened at the convention was what did not happen. As many feared, including myself, the convention did not turn out to be a rerun of 1968. It went off flawlessly and Harris came out of the convention as a forward-looking optimist as opposed to Donald Trump’s backward-looking pessimism. Indeed, somehow the sitting vice president became the candidate of change and Donald Trump became the de facto incumbent. As I wrote in July, this will be the year of the anti-incumbent and if Harris can maintain her image as challenger she will win. ( See: Shulmaven: Incumbents Beware )

 

Further buttressing her position is that the propaganda organs  of the state (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Facebook, and TikTok)  gushed over her acceptance speech. (See: Shulmaven: America's Party Line )  So craven have the mass media been is that their unqualified support for Harris has yet to pass the test of a single interview. In fact, Time magazine did a hagiographic cover story on her without an interview, truly unprecedented.

 

Meantime Harris’ economic proposals have drawn criticism from even normally left-of-center quarters. Her proposals for price caps on groceries, rent control and a $25,000 tax credit for new home buyers make little sense. Of course, Trump’s proposals calling for mass deportations, tariffs on all imports and executive branch control over the Federal Reserve are zanier than what Harris has proposed.

 

The critical tests for Harris will come when she actually has to do real interviews and the September 10^th debate with Trump where she is the presumptive favorite. If Harris is to maintain the mantle of change, she will have to successfully answer the following question: On, what policies do you differ with President Biden? My guess is that she will be hard pressed to answer that question which will leave a big opening for Trump.

My Amazon Review of Judith Bishop's "Changing Channels:From Just the Facts to Outrageous Opinions"

Newsmakers and Noisemakers

 

Long time television news producer Judith Bishop has offered up a serious critique of the news business in the age of Trump. Her book is more like a long magazine article, but it is worthy just the same. Although the issues she cites long predates Trump, it has been especially hard on serious journalists who have to report the consistent stream of lies put out by the Trump Administration. We are truly living in Orwellian times.

 

Bishop’s focus is largely on television news where she recounts the well-known story of the three network oligopoly being decimated by the rise of cable and later the internet. We can’t go home anymore back to the days of Walter Cronkite. Her well researched book highlights her interviews with such luminaries as veterans Ted Koppel of ABC and Frank Sesno of CNN to newbie Katy Tur of NBC.

 

She discusses the rise of Fox News as a rightwing alternative to the more liberal networks along with CNN and MSNBC. She understates the genius of Roger Ailes in finding a market for his views. She also is very acute at highlighting the cost pressures facing media as viewers found other alternatives. Those pressures engendered the rise of opinion journalism as it is far less expensive to have four talking heads around a table in a studio than having real correspondents in the field in say Berlin, Beijing or Bagdad. As a result outrageous opinion dominates the delivery of facts. And outrage generates ratings. That is why CNN and MSNBC covered Trump like a glove in 2016.

 

I largely agree with Bishop’s thesis but I think she leaves out an important issue and that is what is not covered is sometimes far more important than what is covered. To me part of the reason why the mainstream media lost its way is that it does not cover a host of issues. For example a center-right viewer like myself would like to see coverage on the Marxism and antisemitism of Black Lives Matter, the risks of COVID spread arising from the demonstrations around the horrific death of George Floyd, and the huge hit to small businesses in Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis arising from the demonstrations. If the mainstream media is to be rehabilitated it has to look itself in mirror.

 

Lastly I would highlight the rise of the “woke” culture in the news business. If Trump’s lies are Orwellian so too are the “woke” censors policing journalists and the language they use. It’s a real mess but I remain hopeful that television journalism finds a way out of this morass. Judith Bishop points us in the facts-based direction.

For the full Amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3VQE1C6KL8C02/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

My Amazon Review of Katy Tur's "Unbelievable: My Front -Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History"

In the Eye of a Political Hurricane

In the spring of 2015 Katy Tur was living large as an NBC correspondent in London. She had a French boyfriend with whom she was going on a Mediterranean vacation in July.  However on a home trip to New York, of a sudden, the powers that be at NBC/MSNBC drafted her to cover the nascent Trump campaign. All the parties involved thought it would be a short term assignment. Little did they know it would last for 17 months and lead to a Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism for Tur.

In a very personal, candid and breezy style Katy Tur tells us of her getting caught up in a Category 5 political hurricane that was the Trump campaign. From the beginning she is attacked by Trump and as the campaign goes on she legitimately fears for her safety. So much so that NBC hires a security detail for her. Through her eyes we see Trump’s love/hate relationship with the press. He hates them personally but he is validated by them.

She gets very personal about her life on the campaign trail. She changes clothes in a car and falls in the snow while racing to catch a plane out of LaGuardia Airport. She lives on a diet of junk food and alcohol that makes it difficult for her to zip up her pants and look in the mirror. By reading her book I got to appreciate the hard work that journalist do to bring the news to me.

Although she does not like Trump, she is very respectful of his voters. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, she feels their pain. She recounts a vignette about a middle-aged woman who happens to be a hair dresser helping her with a curling iron in a restroom. Later that woman would be cheering Trump on with his personal attacks on the press. Tur gives a real sense of how decent people can get caught up in the madness of crowds.  Further, she practically alone at NBC sees Trump winning.

I have previously written what great team of female reporters NBC has put together. I call them Oppenheim’s girls, after Noah Oppenheim, NBC’s current news director. (See https://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2017/09/from-murrows-boys-to-oppenheims-girls.html)                                                                                                                       Along with Katy Tur, there is Kasie Hunt, Hallie Jackson and Kristen Welker. I honor them by calling them “girls” because they are the modern day equivalent of Murrow’s Boys. They truly represent an all-star team in any journalism league.

I have one last and very personal point. While she was growing up she had a family dog named Daisy. My three children who are roughly Katy’s age also grew up with a dog named Daisy. She was the best dog.

I highly recommend “Unbelievable” for anyone interested in the 2016 election and the role of journalist in the hothouse of a presidential campaign.

For the full amazon URL see: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3D3WG5U2JR36I/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

From Murrow's Boys to Oppenheim's Girls

At the start of World War II in Europe Edward R. Murrow, the legendary CBS news chief operating out of London, put together a team of radio broadcasters that would bring the realities of the war in Europe into millions of American homes. His team included such luminaries who would build CBS news into a television powerhouse in the postwar era included William L. Shirer, Eric Severeid, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith and Richard C. Hottelet.

The modern day analogue to Murrow's Boys appears to be what I would characterize as Oppenheims's Girls. Oppenheim being Noah Oppenheim, NBC's current news chief. His "girls" are anchor/correspondent Katy Tur, chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson, and political correspondents Kasie Hunt and Kristen Welker. These four women acting as a team are covering Washington and the Trump Administration as if it were a foreign country and just as Murrow's boys did 77 years ago they are bringing insightful reporting into the homes of millions of Americans.  

Nevertheless there is one problem that this all-star team has to deal with; they are associated with highly partisan Left that appear nightly on MSNBC at night thereby hurting their credibility. So my advice to Noah Oppenheim is not to let the partisans get in the way of straight news.

Fox News and Republicans Put on a Great Debate

We learned quite a bit last night from the first Republican debate of the election season. The debate confirmed that Donald Trump is both a bully and a jerk. Aside from Trump, the Republican field is strong with exceptional performances coming from Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Ben Carson and yes, Mike Huckabee. Both Bush and Walker disappointed because we expect more from front runners. In the pre-debate Carly Fiorina shined and in what will be showed over and over on YouTube she took down MSNBC reporter Chris Matthews in her post debate interview.

Over the longer term Fox News was the real winner. The very tight questioning by Bret Baeir, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace established the network's preeminence in covering the 2016 campaign. They set a high bar and we will see if other network interviewers will be as tough on the Democrats as Fox was on the Republicans.

The Comcast Whores of MSNBC

MSNBC likes to portray itself as being in the vanguard of liberal thought in America. Its slogan "lean forward" really means "lean left." However on one very important issue such "tribunes of the people" as Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and Ed Schultz are notably silent. That issue is, of course, Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable that would create a media behemoth with 30 million cable and broadband subscribers. From my personal point of view the proposed merger is fine and as I have blogged twice before (2/13/14 and 11/5/12) two of my family members are very happy shareholders of Comcast.

In a recent editorial (March 15, 2014) the far from left wing Economist magazine called on regulators to block the merger because  "Comcast will have extraordinary power over what content is delivered to consumers, and at what speed." The editorial further argued that the merger "would reduce competition, provide no benefit to consumers and sap the incentive to innovate."

If there ever were a "progressive cause" this is it. But the MSNBC commentators secure in their cushy jobs would rather discuss traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge. Simply put Comcast owns them in fee simple. Moreover Comcast has on its payroll Margaret Atwell Baker, a former commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission and its chief lobbyist is an influential Obama fundraiser. Indeed Comcast has contributed to to practically every Senator overseeing the proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable. It was thus no coincidence that The Economist cover story was entitled, "The New Age of Crony Capitalism"

So next time when you tune into MSNBC remember that they are only pretending to be "leaning forward."

Comcast, Time Warner and MSNBC

On November 12, 2012 I posted a very critical letter to Comcast CEO Brian Robert on how MSNBC was destroying the credibility of NBC News brand.  (See: http://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2012/11/my-letter-to-comcast-ceo-brian-roberts.html) Little did I realize that Brian Roberts was playing a long game. Comcast's ownership of MSNBC will effectively neuter their left-wing blowhards and their guests from criticizing the proposed mega-merger with Time Warner which will create a cable behemoth.

Had Disney been the buyer you would be hearing primal screams about undue concentration in media ownership. But now there will be silence. Instead of dealing with pressing national issues MSNBC will continue to fulminate about traffic in Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Brian Roberts will be happy and I will be happy as my wife and daughter will continue to reap the gains associated with their share ownership in Comcast.

My Letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on MSNBC

I wrote this letter a month ago and have yet to receive a reply. As a long shot, maybe making it public will get a response.

Mr. Brian L. Roberts

Chairman and CEO
Comcast Corporation
One Comcast Center
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2838

 October 1, 2012

Dear Mr. Roberts:

I am writing you as a fiduciary for my wife and daughter who collectively own XXX(original has exact number of shares) shares of Comcast “A” stock. There is a cancer growing on our NBC News franchise and that cancer is MSNBC. By becoming the house organ of the American Left and the mouthpiece for President Obama’s reelection campaign MSNBC is destroying the credibility of NBC News. To be sure if MSNBC were completely separate from NBC News, it would be possible to maintain the hard earned credibility of NBC News. Unfortunately that is not the case.

 Although “Morning Joe” remains a credible outlet for NBC News personalities, it cannot be said for the rest of MSNBC’s programming. I weep when I see the formerly credible Andrea Mitchel get sucked into the partisanship of MSNBC. The same can be said about Tom Brokaw, a newscaster I have watched since he was doing local news in Los Angeles. Moreover our news super-stars, Brian Williams and David Gregory, lose all credibility when they do election coverage with the likes of Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and the formerly reasonable Chris Matthews.

 While I agree there is a real cable audience for a Left perspective on the news, I do not believe there is a mass audience for it. Remember NBC News is in the mass audience business and herein lies my worry. The more NBC News mingles with MSNBC it loses credibility with less partisan viewers and those viewers, in my opinion, will find their news elsewhere. Thus whatever is gained with cost-synergies between NBC and MSNBC, more will be lost on the revenue side as ratings drop.

Mr. Roberts, I don’t think I am a right wing crank. The issues I am raising speak to the credibility of the news business. Maybe it was lost a long time ago, but it will make running our democracy far more difficult. Furthermore if NBC and MSNBC continue on their current paths, the profitability of Comcast will be eroded. Speaking for my family, NBC/MSNBC’s share has declined over the past year.

 Yours truly,

David Shulman