Current Events > The Democratic Party has an MSNBC problem

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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/the-democratic-party-has-an-msnbc-problem.html

The Democrats need to stop obsessing about Trump and Russia, and start talking about the bread-and-butter issues that matter to ordinary people. Since Donald Trump took office, that sentiment has been a refrain for the partys leading critics on both the left and right. It is also fundamentally unfair.

In truth, the Democratic Party is quite focused on promoting a progressive critique of the GOPs positions on taxes, health care, and social spending, because it knows that Republicans are deeply vulnerable on those issues. MSNBC, CNN, and the broader mainstream media, however, are obsessed with the White Houses myriad scandals because they know that a federal investigation into the American presidents potential ties to the Kremlin (and/or porn stars and/or white-collar crime) is ratings gold while daily broadcasts reiterating the regressive implications of the GOPs tax law and health-care plans would be anything but.
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But if you get your news from cable television or secondhand from friends and family who watch cable news then you will think that Russia-gate is the Democratic Partys central concern; because that is just about the only thing that cable news channels invite Democratic officeholders to go on television to discuss. As the Daily Beast reports:

Eager to move a message that focuses on things like minimum wage hikes and health care premiums, [Democrats] have been overtaken by a steady stream of stories of Russian meddling, porn star payoffs, and shady Trump-world figures. Ultimately, many offices and aides have come to the conclusion that they should simply give up on trying to break through on cable news at all.

Its impossible, said one Senate aide, unless you want to talk about Russia.

[N]umerous other aides echoed this point, sharing stories of fruitless calls and emails to bookers and abrupt cancellations on pre-existing bookings. Jessica Post, executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said she was bumped three times from a prime-time MSNBC show due to Trump scandals.

It is not MSNBCs job to promote the Democratic Partys economic message. And the Mueller investigation is an important and fascinating story thats tailor-made for television news. It would not be realistic for Democrats to expect any for-profit media company to prioritize conveying its preferred political narratives over covering the most sensational events of the day.

And yet, Republicans do get that courtesy from the nations most-watched cable news channel. Fox News puts the GOPs messaging needs ahead of maximizing eyeballs: When big breaking news about the Mueller investigation reflects poorly on the Republican president, Fox lets its competitors own the days top story.

This puts Democrats at a profound structural disadvantage especially in the war for the hearts and minds of working-class white voters in the deindustrializing Midwest.

A significant percentage of such voters are cross-pressured: Their class identities and often, family history of union membership leave them receptive to Democratic messages that paint Republicans as the party of bosses and big business. But their regional and racial identities make them similarly receptive to the GOPs charge that Democrats as the party of condescending coastal snobs and mooching (largely nonwhite) layabouts.

Fox News promotes the latter narrative on a near-constant basis. By contrast, Rachel Maddow devotes more air time to Trump-Russia developments than to all other issues let alone to those most likely to raise the class-consciousness of Obama-to-Trump voters in Macomb County.

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No kidding. I went to the gym last week right on the hour, and all the TVs had MSNBC on in the background on mute. Literally the entire hour of the show was about Trump. There was not one second devoted to covering anything else. And almost none of it was actually newsworthy -- Russian election conspiracy talk, criticizing him for the North Korea talks, calling him a warmongerer looking to attack Iran, complaining about one of his tweets, a segment "speculating" that his economic gains are not sustainable... It's almost unbelievable.

Just like their naivety in 2016, the Dems and liberal media are severely delusional if they think Trump hysteria is enough to make large elections gains.
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Honestly the only folks I've heard say "The Dems only issues are Russia and being anti Trump" are conservatives or Trumpers on here

And they're doing that thing where they try to act like impartial moderates/undecideds
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The Admiral posted...

Just like their naivety in 2016, the Dems and liberal media are severely delusional if they think Trump hysteria is enough to make large elections gains.

But the article makes pains to note that Democrats themselves aren't so single-minded:

If you get your news from Democratic Twitter accounts, then you might well think that the biggest scandal in American politics right now is the Republican Partys war on the middle class.
https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/993496975021658113
https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/993631342704365568

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'It would not be realistic for Democrats to expect any for-profit media company to prioritize conveying its preferred political narratives over covering the most sensational events of the day.'

This is patently false - during the election, the DNC was approving and even writing articles for a lot of news organizations. This was proven by the DNC hack.
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darkjedilink posted...

This is patently false - during the election, the DNC was approving and even writing articles for a lot of news organizations. This was proven by the DNC hack.

The election was 2 years ago. Time to move on yo.

Like no one from that time period is employed by the current DNC anymore.
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I mean, if you watch CNN they generally talk about policy decisions across the board. If there's a particularly crazy day of white house antics, it leans towards weighting on that, but that's kinda to be expected, then again when I do tune in it's pretty much only in the morning and it's the New Day show, so maybe it's just that show that is pretty on top of things.
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This is why I stopped listening to MSM.
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People don't care about politics

They care about being angry at someone for their shitty lives, whether its bush, obama, or trump.

COVxy posted...

I mean, if you watch CNN they generally talk about policy decisions across the board. If there's a particularly crazy day of white house antics, it leans towards weighting on that, but that's kinda to be expected, then again when I do tune in it's pretty much only in the morning and it's the New Day show, so maybe it's just that show that is pretty on top of things.

New Day is way better about it than their after work programming imo
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It's very much 2016 all over again.

What? A speech on economic policy? No, lets watch this podium for two hours while we wait for Trump to announce the opening of his new hotel. What? A speech about energy policy? Who cares; have you heard the latest drama from the Trump campaign? What gets more viewers in seats? Foreign policy reporting about complexities of intervention in Syria or the refugee crisis or more tea about Hillary's mishandling of emails? Do we want to hear more about the Trump campaign's dubious courting of torture as a means of gathering national security info, or Hillary's desperate battle with exhaustion and pneumonia? What's going on with infrastructure? Does anyone know what's going on with that Flint water situation? No? Ought we have reported it? Probably. Give it thirty seconds in the closing block.

Meanwhile on CNN, Anderson Cooper moderates a panel on whether or not it is appropriate for GOP candidates to sling dick jokes at each other, and how this might affect the tone going forward. And if that doesn't kill your soul, the follow up interview with Kellyanne Conway in which she gaslights people for fifteen minutes almost certainly will.

EDIT: To be fair, democrats have struggled getting media to focus on their economic policy for at least a couple decades. Media is a moth drawn to the flames of scandal, a lot of that comes from the fact almost all media is a for-profit entity of some kind looking sell ad space. Still the past eight years have been particularly obnoxious.
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Balrog0 posted...

COVxy posted...

I mean, if you watch CNN they generally talk about policy decisions across the board. If there's a particularly crazy day of white house antics, it leans towards weighting on that, but that's kinda to be expected, then again when I do tune in it's pretty much only in the morning and it's the New Day show, so maybe it's just that show that is pretty on top of things.

New Day is way better about it than their after work programming imo

That's a demographic thing, though.

It'll be an older audience up that early to watch and they likely care more about policy

After work is for the masses and idiots

Same with Fox...there's a reason primetime is laced with pundit hacks across the media

I still don't get why people want the news fed to them instead of looking at multiple sources...but who has time I guess. I know I haven't been able to keep up as well with the new baby...

Cheater87 posted...

This is why I stopped listening to MSM.

Just get your US news from the BBC. A lot of the bullshit is filtered out on the way across the ocean and back.

Oh wow, you don't say
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Oh my God Admiral managed to avoid calling the media a liberal mouthpiece. Edit: nevermind. He just didn't go on as large a rant as usual.

This is why I mostly avoid getting my news from 24 hour networks. NPR and PBS tend to do a much better job as far as news goes.
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The Admiral posted...

Just like their naivety in 2016, the Dems and liberal media are severely delusional if they think Trump hysteria is enough to make large elections gains.

....The article literally says the opposite. Jesus Admiral it is even in the part that the TC quoted .
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