Journalists holding politicians to account

Annasopra

I think this question is the wrong way round

You seem to be asking is it the role of politicians to hold journalists to account?

IAMAMORON

Idbatterim wrote: »

RTE and the politicians here are a cosy duo. People take their news from RTE without questions. Literally it is the state propaganda piece! In other countries, you will have different views, opinions expressed? here, its absolutely incredible! Leo Varadkar is a boy scout!

RTE is obliged to give political airtime to each political party based on their share of votes in the previous general elections. This is the law and there is no deviation, it is structured as such.

Most RTE journalists are well educated, well paid and live nice lives, I cannot seem them supporting or slapping any lefty cranks on the back, maybe the Duffmeister, but it is his job to wind up citizens all over the country, that is what he does best. " Hello caller". Best wind up merchant on the radio, globally I reckon.

All senior politicians have SPAD's who are basically PR attaché's whose job it is to prep them for any media involvement they can expect based on their portfolio's and various agenda for the week. It is the SPAD's job to create answers based on liaison with the party whips. The politicians job is to look good, be popular and get votes, that is the formula.

They should be well versed in any questions coming their way, otherwise their SPAD is out of a job.

kowloon

If a leader successful silences the opposition, should journalists just stay quiet about it and be mouthpieces for the government? The opposition can't always be relied on to be the opposition. We need journalists to thwart aspiring dictators before they take the throne.

IAMAMORON

kowloon wrote: »

If a leader successful silences the opposition, should journalists just stay quiet about it and be mouthpieces for the government? The opposition can't always be relied on to be the opposition. We need journalists to thwart aspiring dictators before they take the throne.

It does not work that way.

The politicians are prepped to answer all potential q's coming their way. Any journalist that gets crafty is essentially stone-walled and ostracised and won't get to ask a question again. That is where the real freedom of speech and freedom of the press is compromised.

Anytime Trump gets sensational with a journalist it is highly staged, the journo may not even know it. Trump's entire political formula has been triumphing in the face of adverse journalism and attacking the US political establishment. It was a high risk but very effectual strategy. The more outlandish and the more moronic statements he makes the more votes he get. His PR team are worth every penny.

All aspiring political journalists have to play a very crafty game to get to the top of the queue. If they get a rep for asking shítty q's on the way up their careers will not get there. You cannot have a career unless the politicians are dealing with you, it is a balancing act.

kowloon

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Anytime Trump gets sensational with a journalist it is highly staged, the journo may not even know it. Trump's entire political formula has been triumphing in the face of adverse journalism and attacking the US political establishment. It was a high risk but very effectual strategy. The more outlandish and the more moronic statements he makes the more votes he get. His PR team are worth every penny.

I get that the sparring with the press is his strategy to make them the 'enemies of the people', but what about some of his displays of sheer ignorance/stupidity? What does he gain from, for example, showing people he doesn't know what a virus actually is?

IAMAMORON

kowloon wrote: »

I get that the sparring with the press is his strategy to make them the 'enemies of the people', but what about some of his displays of sheer ignorance/stupidity? What does he gain from, for example, showing people he doesn't know what a virus actually is?

Trust me, he is not that stupid.

Scrutinise anything and you will find issues and problems. His PR team have 1 objective, make him more popular. How? Polarise everything.

US politics is very simple, you get 2 options on everything. You either like Donald Trump or you don't. If you read the Washington Post you hate him and think he is an imbecile. If you read the Republican you love him and he is doing a great job.

Everything he says polarises opinion. As long as he is doing this he is doing what his PR team are telling him to do.

The democrats are basing their entire election campaign now on his "mishandling" of the Covid crisis. Watch that space, it plays perfectly into the hands of his PR team, they now know where the fight is taking place and what they are fighting about. That is a head start in media.

The mistake Trump haters and bashers make is that they assume voters and other liberals hate him also, but they don't, they love him. He generates all his support from the have nots in America, this makes all the climbers and liberals seethe, but it wins him votes.

Trump's campaign team don't care who votes for him, they only care about how many votes he gets.

sameoldname

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Trust me, he is not that stupid.

Scrutinise anything and you will find issues and problems. His PR team have 1 objective, make him more popular. How? Polarise everything.

US politics is very simple, you get 2 options on everything. You either like Donald Trump or you don't. If you read the Washington Post you hate him and think he is an imbecile. If you read the Republican you love him and he is doing a great job.

Everything he says polarises opinion. As long as he is doing this he is doing what his PR team are telling him to do.

The democrats are basing their entire election campaign now on his "mishandling" of the Covid crisis. Watch that space, it plays perfectly into the hands of his PR team, they now know where the fight is taking place and what they are fighting about. That is a head start in media.

The mistake Trump haters and bashers make is that they assume voters and other liberals hate him also, but they don't, they love him. He generates all his support from the have nots in America, this makes all the climbers and liberals seethe, but it wins him votes.

Trump's campaign team don't care who votes for him, they only care about how many votes he gets.

I take your point and yes, he's a publicity machine. But then so were Jedward. I think the amount of people that actually love him while sizable, isn't enough to win an election. He relies on an equally sizable number of voters who will vote for anyone who isn't a democrat. Remember, he was the most negatively-favoured presidential candidate in history and was lucky to go up against number 2 in that same list.

As for his intelligence. He'd be one of the few world leaders that I'd be confident enough to be able to beat in a pub quiz, put it that way.

IAMAMORON

sameoldname wrote: »

I take your point and yes, he's a publicity machine. But then so were Jedward. I think the amount of people that actually love him while sizable, isn't enough to win an election. He relies on an equally sizable number of voters who will vote for anyone who isn't a democrat. Remember, he was the most negatively-favoured presidential candidate in history and was lucky to go up against number 2 in that same list.

As for his intelligence. He'd be one of the few world leaders that I'd be confident enough to be able to beat in a pub quiz, put it that way.

Stop reading the Washington Post, he will still be saying stupid shít the day before he is re-elected. That is before his inauguration speech, expect more PR waffle there.:)

If he is so stupid how come his PR team keeps getting him elected?

Does an American president have the power to suspend an election during a national crisis such as war or a global pandemic?

Tell me how

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Stop reading the Washington Post, he will still be saying stupid shít the day before he is re-elected. That is before his inauguration speech, expect more PR waffle there.:)

If he is so stupid how come his PR team keeps getting him elected?

Does an American president have the power to suspend an election during a national crisis such as war or a global pandemic?

He's been elected once.
Time will tell whether that was down more to his appeal, or because of the dislike of the alternative.

On your last question. No, not indefinitely, think there is some wiggle room in terms of the day it is held but saw recently that it cannot be suspended entirely.

sameoldname

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Stop reading the Washington Post, he will still be saying stupid shít the day before he is re-elected. That is before his inauguration speech, expect more PR waffle there.:)

I don't read the Washington Post or watch CNN, I'm not American. Unfortunately his nonsense gets reported over here too.

IAMAMORON wrote: »

If he is so stupid how come his PR team keeps getting him elected?

Did you not read the post you just quoted?

IAMAMORON wrote: »

Does an American president have the power to suspend an election during a national crisis such as war or a global pandemic?

No.

Tony EH

IAMAMORON wrote: »

If he is so stupid how come his PR team keeps getting him elected?

He got elected once and by a slim margin too.

And that was largely because the Dem's decided to go with Clinton, which kept a lot of their usual voters at home.

There's no great victory here.

2u2me

kowloon wrote: »

I get that the sparring with the press is his strategy to make them the 'enemies of the people', but what about some of his displays of sheer ignorance/stupidity?

I'd say a lot more people would be coming down hard on Trump for how he treats the press if they hadn't stepped outside their bounds first. People see how Trump acts but they also see how the media are acting.

2u2me

Apparently Chris Cuomo(CNN Anchor) had a bit of a meltdown and revealed more than he should have on Monday:

"I don't like what I do professionally," Cuomo said Monday. "I don't think it's worth my time."

"I'm basically being perceived as successful in a system that I don't value," he added. "I'm seen as being good at being on TV and advocating for different positions … but I don't know if I value those things, certainly not as much as I value being able to live my life on my own terms."-Cuomo

Cuomo implied that his job as a CNN anchor required he engage in "hyper-partisanship" between both Democrats and Republicans, which he said he did not "value." Cuomo added he was no longer interested in "trafficking in things that I think are ridiculous."- Business Insider.

Here he is clarifying his comments Today,

"It is frustrating to do this job in an environment where people aren't interested and open, it's hard to do this job when people are intent to believe what they want to believe for political advantage."

Source

His honesty is refreshing.

landofthetree

The job of journalists is to sell newspapers+get clicks.

Nothing else.

IAMAMORON

IAMAMORON wrote: »

If he is so stupid how come his PR team keeps getting him elected?

They don't and his pr team being good does not make him intelligent.

Richard Hillman

Tony EH wrote: »

He got elected once and by a slim margin too.

And that was largely because the Dem's decided to go with Clinton, which kept a lot of their usual voters at home.

There's no great victory here.

She got about 60k less voters than Obama in the previous election. That's out of 65 million

AllForIt

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

I think this question is the wrong way round

You seem to be asking is it the role of politicians to hold journalists to account?

I think I was quite clear what I meant but to reiterate what I did mean more fully:

If say in a televised interview a reporter asks a question of a politician but the viewer doesn't know the journalist, but does know the politician, it would be beneficial to the viewer for the sake of transparency, that the viewer is made aware of what biases the journalist has.

I'm arguing that it's not right to say well it doesn't matter where the journalist is coming from, just answer the question, as if one were answering questions is a court of law. I'm saying it is beneficial for the sake of full transparency that viewers know exactly who's who from journalist to politician.

And it's not like I'm saying this should only happen when a right wing gov is in place, it should always be the case, even when there is a left wing gov being interviewed by a hard right wing journalist. Surely you'd like that?

I don't know if you ever watch BBC's Question Time but often when the show ends you hear ppl complain that 'that audience were really right wing', even planted, thus painting a distorted picture of the public's majority political views. The exact same thing happen's in Journalism, and that's hardly good is it?

I think was I'm saying is fair minded, but I get the feeling some left wingers don't like the idea, I wonder why.


Btw, I do agree Trump goes way OTT with the media. And I'm not saying from here on in his personal style is how I would like things to be, BUT I still do like that he makes a point of calling out the political leanings of say CNN. A future left wing president could do exactly the same thing with Fox News. What would be wrong with that.

sameoldname

AllForIt wrote: »

https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/04/coronavirus-moment-change-our-way-life

Another example of the type of nonsense I'm hearing. The author is the same man I was talking about on the Everyday Racism thread, who try's to convince everyone they are subconsciously racist. :rolleyes:

But that's an opinion piece? Surely you understand the difference between an opinion piece and a news report?

AllForIt

sameoldname wrote: »

But that's an opinion piece? Surely you understand the difference between an opinion piece and a news report?

I posted in the wrong thread, soz!

keano_afc

Irish journalism is as bad as I can remember it. Cosy, brown-nosers all desperate for government jobs when they eventually run of of clickbaiting nonsense to write. There are very few worth their salt sadly. For every Mark Tighe, there's an Ellen Coyne.

Brendan Bendar

AllForIt wrote: »

Is this really the role of journalists.

Looking at the unique way Trump conducts his briefings, and I am in no way suggesting I'm defending Trump, but rather commenting on his style rather than substance, I have to say I rather like his combative attitude with journalists.

And the reason I like it is because, let's face it, journalist are as biased as anyone else. We all know that to be the case with media outlets especially newspapers openly admitting what side of the political spectrum they are on, not least to satisfy their readership. Is there such a think as a politically unbiased newspaper btw?

I am not suggesting journalist should not ask difficult questions, yes, that is their job. But the point of asking them is not to hold the politician to account, that is the job of the opposition. Their job is to report the news and the opinions of the politicians, by asking questions to reveal what those opinions are in detail.

The general point being, I rather like the general idea of politicians being more combative with journalist's line of questioning, and yes, even referring to the journalist's political leanings, which is something you rarely see here.

Because I think such would be beneficial i.e. educational to the average viewer that gives a clearer picture of what is going on.

I’m afraid that today’s ‘journalists’ a lot of whom are hacks and ‘columnists’ employed by the paper to not to report facts but to hack a certain line usually left wing and anti establishment.

Most of them have no objective view or will give any credence to those in charge but just concentrate on any negative point they can find.

Most sensible people just ignore them.

VicMackey1

2u2me wrote: »

Apparently Chris Cuomo(CNN Anchor) had a bit of a meltdown and revealed more than he should have on Monday:





Here he is clarifying his comments Today,


Source

His honesty is refreshing.

Cuomo and CNN were claiming that he was under quarantine in the basement and separated from his family! According to the cyclist, he had the confrontation with Chris Cuomo at Chris Cuomos second property in the Hamptons which is under construction. He is broadcasting from his basement every evening under quarantine and traveling around during the day with his family. Fredos pants are on fire!

From Business Insider
Also on the Monday broadcast, Cuomo had told a story about a man who he said had approached him on Easter Sunday when he was outside of his home with his family. Cuomo said the man "didn't know the rules" about social distancing and had criticized him for being outside with his family during his COVID-19 infection.

2u2me

VicMackey1 wrote: »

Cuomo and CNN were claiming that he was under quarantine in the basement and separated from his family! According to the cyclist, he had the confrontation with Chris Cuomo at Chris Cuomos second property in the Hamptons which is under construction. He is broadcasting from his basement every evening under quarantine and traveling around during the day with his family. Fredos pants are on fire!

From Business Insider
Also on the Monday broadcast, Cuomo had told a story about a man who he said had approached him on Easter Sunday when he was outside of his home with his family. Cuomo said the man "didn't know the rules" about social distancing and had criticized him for being outside with his family during his COVID-19 infection.

That is hilarious can't believe I missed it. I guess there's no-one to hold journalists to account afterall!

Especially not his brother :pac:

Kivaro

Gas.
This story has legs.
The bicyclist in the story has filed a police report today because of Cuomo's threatening behaviour.

2u2me

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a publicity stunt by CNN(Cuomo having corona). It would explain why he was so angry at the cyclist and his meltdown on his podcast.

I guess we'll find out one way or the other.