It was with a heavy heart that we learned last night (on ALL In) of the death of media critic Eric Boehlert. Boehlert, a veteran journalist was a genuine national resource and corrective to the often nutso right-wing misinformation and hypocrisy in the news media. He died on Monday in New Jersey after being struck by a New Jersey Transit train while riding his bicycle near the Watchung Avenue station in Montclair. His death was confirmed by his wife, Tracy Breslin.
As Chris Hayes noted, Boehlert achieved name recognition with his work as a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, especially exposing the vast mendacity of the FOX News machine. Boehlert never shied away from searing critiques of what he saw as bias in the mainstream press and the circular impact of media on politics. Mr. Boehlert’s last article 'Why Is The Press Rooting Against Biden?' on Press Run, was published the day he died. He questioned journalists’ slanted coverage of the Biden administration, saying the news media was playing down the president’s achievements. This is a point of view I have personally totally believed and written about, e.g.
As Boehlert himself wrote:
“The glaring disconnect between reality and how the press depicts White House accomplishments means a key question lingers: Why is the press rooting against Biden?....Virtually all the Beltway coverage today agrees on this central point: When it comes to the economy, Biden’s approval rating is taking a hit because Americans are freaked out by inflation.
But maybe it’s taking a hit because Americans are under the false impression that jobs are disappearing. Voters don’t know what they don’t know because the press isn’t interested in telling them about record job success and an economy that’s years ahead of where experts thought it would be coming out of a global pandemic."
Those interested can read all of Boehlert's last piece here:
https://pressrun.media/p/is-the-press-rooting-against-biden?s=r
And see exactly that Boehlert nailed how the press-media is leading Americans into an authoritarian disaster, as I warned in my own post.
After a stint as a media writer for the website Daily Kos, Mr. Boehlert started Press Run in 2020, which he described as “an unfiltered, passionate and proudly progressive critique of the political press in the age of Trump.”
What is sad is that another critical, rational voice is now lost to us, one less voice to penetrate the propaganda and negativist fog that has riddled the nation's collective mind. And emanating from a press that one would have thought had enough of Trump and his gang, and being called "enemies of the people". Especially after clips emerged (see link below) of Trump boasting of his relationship with Putin even as body bags were piling up in Ukraine. Americans would really want this POS Traitor as opposed to a decent president like Biden? If so it may be time to head back to Barbados!
See Also:
Eric Boehlert Got Everything Right About Our Petty, Self-Congratulating Media | The Nation
And:
by Meaghan Ellis | April 15, 2022 - 7:38am | permalink
The Real Reason CBS News Hired Mick Mulvaney (and Musk's Latest Escapade)by Robert Reich | April 15, 2022 - 6:49am
Excerpt:
Neeraj Khemlani, co-head of CBS News, explained to the CBS News staff at a meeting last month that when it comes to contributor hires, “getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms.”
“Getting access?” Access to what? To the big lie about the 2020 election? To lies about COVID? To bonkers economics? To insights about how to pull off a coup that nearly destroyed American democracy and continues to threaten it?
Since when does CBS News’s decisions about whom to hire depend on predictions about which party will prevail in the midterm elections, anyway? What if the party that’s predicted to win is so contemptuous of democracy that it continues to claim, without basis in fact or law, that the last presidential election was stolen? Would the CBS News of the 1950s hire as an on-air contributor Senator Joseph McCarthy (who conducted a vicious anti-communist witch hunt that wrecked the lives and careers of countless Americans) because the News Division wanted access to “both sides?”
Excerpt:
Neeraj Khemlani, co-head of CBS News, explained to the CBS News staff at a meeting last month that when it comes to contributor hires, “getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms.”
“Getting access?” Access to what? To the big lie about the 2020 election? To lies about COVID? To bonkers economics? To insights about how to pull off a coup that nearly destroyed American democracy and continues to threaten it?
Since when does CBS News’s decisions about whom to hire depend on predictions about which party will prevail in the midterm elections, anyway? What if the party that’s predicted to win is so contemptuous of democracy that it continues to claim, without basis in fact or law, that the last presidential election was stolen? Would the CBS News of the 1950s hire as an on-air contributor Senator Joseph McCarthy (who conducted a vicious anti-communist witch hunt that wrecked the lives and careers of countless Americans) because the News Division wanted access to “both sides?”
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