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“Fortunately the truth is exactly the opposite: it was the media professionals who follow politics for a living who noticed Biden’s decline last, while ordinary people perceived the truth.”

Or the media professionals were lying the whole time. The reaction to Robert Hur’s report was telling here.

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Possible but having lived in Washington and socialized with these types, it is hard to overstate how oblivious these people are

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Fair enough. I think anti-Trump bias plays a role in post 2016 coverage too. The media really bought into the idea that their reporting on “her E-mails” helped lead to Trump’s victory in 2016 and that in turn made them a “de facto instrument of Russian intelligence” as the NYT put it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html

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this. by all accounts joe scarborough and old man blue are besties. theres no way that friday morning after the debate was the first time scarborough realized the old man's flew over the cuckoo's nest. he just doesn't want to get caught in the lie. fast forward a few days, and he's backtracked completely. the richest (most heavily invested) members of the country will continue the lie for as long as they think they can get away with it. if they think the gig is up, they'll quickly attempt to save face, but that's all it is.

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“Two rich geriatrics bickering about their golf game” says it all.

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"Instead of a robust primary of the sort we saw in 2020,", seriously? Biden was 4th in Iowa and 5th in New Hampshire. Then a deal was made by the Democratic Party leadership before the SC primary and Biden was selected. The primary "election" continued and the democratic machine selected Biden. Sanders was likely the democratic people's choice in 2020. If the Republican Party had a machine like the democrats, Trump would never have been President. The political power holders in the US blather about democracy but are actually quite opposed to it. That is why populism has been made a pejorative.

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yeah but thats not to say the primary wasn't robust. the liberals just outmaneuvered the leftists in the party. i still partly blame warren for not endorsing Bernie. How can you run a campaign on the policies that Warren was touting and then endorse the most conservative candidate in the primary?

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Good stuff. Keep it going!

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glad you find it helpful!

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Jul 12
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here is pic

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pic won't post sorry but u can check my X account or linked in

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Democracy *is* on the ballot, which is why it's so important to be unsentimental about pushing Biden to stand down in favour of someone with a better chance (just about any of those whose names have been floated). The French left did this, withdrawing in favour of Macron's candidates to defeat Le Pen, who is not nearly as dangerous as Trump. The Macronists returned the favour, but only belatedly. And, again with a smaller threat, British Labour voters cast tactical votes for Lib Dems

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everyone is talking about france lately, but I just have to ask... why does anyone assume that macron is going to create a coalition government with NPF and not NR?

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Yes. All of this.

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I can't tell what's the better outcome. It has been painfully obvious to me since I found a copy of Trump's ghostwritten book (I think I was 14!) that Trump is an utter smacked ass.

But the destruction of the cretins that infected the Democratic Party, turning it into Republican Lite, is too delicious to pass up.

Especially because the Democrats attempts to build a Ministry of Truth to crush "malinformation", or as most people call it "evidence of criminal and/or unethical behavior on the part of the ruling class" scare me far more than bloviating idiot Trump's desperate need to be loved by somebody, anybody at all.

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Fantastic article as always

It will help Trump get elected and then we’ll have a lot more, if we don’t all end up rounded up and shot by the Trump militias

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Sorry, what will help him get elected?

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The constant rhetoric about Biden being too old and incapable, when in fact, he is perfectly capable.

All this is playing straight into Trump’s hands. The media has spent weeks on a few gaffes by Biden during the debate, instead of the limitless number of lies. Trump has made during it.

I understand that you and other journalists want to keep it real, and give us more information . But sometimes to do good you need to avoid playing into your enemy’s hands.

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What I tried to show in this article was that the media coverage hasn’t really shifted public opinion at all

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Fair. I completely agree that no one cares about debates except pundits, as several people have pointed out (that professor who has been right on every election so far, for example)

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"sometimes in order to do good you need to avoid..." ...doing your job? ken is a journalist. we don't come here for propaganda. if you feel different, that's your right. but it makes you no different from the "enemy" you think you're superior to. two parties. both propped up by people who can't accept inconvenient truths.

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