I’m trying to be as peaceful and calm as possible in the final stretch of the election cycle. The media is really trying to make the “Donald Trump is finding a late surge of support” narrative happen, and I want to believe that it’s all about ratings and the tabloidization of politics. There is a larger conversation happening concurrently alongside the election/politics storyline: the conversation about how the American media is fundamentally broken and incapable of adequately informing and educating the public at this point. The past nine years, we’ve seen the American media’s inability to deal with Donald Trump. They placate him, they fetishize his cult, they soft-pedal Trump’s words and promises and they seem happy to both-sides this country into a literal fascist dictatorship. Then they wonder why Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t give a f–k about playing by their dipsh-t rules. Anyway, this situation came to a head on CNN last night, when Charlamagne Tha God appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show and called out CNN and the media writ large:
Charlamagne: I feel like I heard more on this network about “is Kamala Harris Black” than I do about Trump being a fascist
Cooper: That’s bullshit
Charlamagne: That’s bullshit to say you don’t have those conversations pic.twitter.com/145q2vRMMJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 25, 2024
“We talk about him being a threat to democracy but we don’t treat him like one” is profound. Like, Charlamagne has said some problematic sh-t in the past, but props to him for all of this, everything he says here is completely on point. Anderson Cooper doesn’t even watch his own network if he’s claiming that it’s “bullsh-t” that CNN doesn’t platform some of the stupidest MAGA talking-points out there. CNN absolutely did segments on “is Kamala Harris Black?” When Harris did an interview with CNN, she was even asked about Trump’s racist questioning of her race. Charlamagne is like: what is wrong with you people, can you focus on Trump’s literal fascism? I’d also like to add: journalism is more than just saying “Trump said this, what do you think about it?”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- -New York, NY – 20191215 – Special NY Reception to Celebrate Just Mercy -PICTURED: Guest -PHOTO by: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Startraks Photo for licensing fee and rights information at sales@startraksphoto.com or call +1 212 414 9464 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Startraks Photo reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Charlamagne tha God Where: New York, New York, United States When: 15 Dec 2019 Credit: JOHN NACION/startraksphoto.com
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- 75th Annual Writers Guild Awards held at New York’s Edison Ballroom Featuring: Charlamagne Tha God Where: New York, New York, United States When: 05 Mar 2023 Credit: Udo Salters/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images
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- 17th Annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute at The American Museum of Natural History. Featuring: Anderson Cooper Where: New York, New York, United States When: 10 Dec 2023 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Charlamagne is so on point.
Yup, he is.
I never thought I would agree with anything Charlemagne said…but here we are.
Even.Allan.Littman-has called out.CNN and other media outlets for glossing over.trumps.fascistic.ways and talking polls which for the past several election cycles meant absolutely nothing.
Wow, I watched the clip and yes, Charlamagne is on point, but Anderson Cooper is soooo defensive. Somebody hit a nerve there.
Exactly 💯 Anderson Cooper is Andy Cohen’s friend – need I say more?!?
I’m glad someone finally said it.
Is Trump actually having a late surge? I keep seeing those headlines and refuse to read to articles because I don’t want to aggrevate my anxiety. Someone please make me feel better, lol.
The seven swing states – the states people are worried the votes won’t get validated etc – all have processes in place to make sure that that doesn’t happen and their votes are counted.
Trump has only lost followers since his win. He lost to Biden. And has continued to lose more followers. He can’t even fill an auditorium anymore. They literally close and cover top sections so he doesn’t tantrum.
May all that is good protect us and the world at large from fascism and the chaos of a Republican presidency.
Mark Elias and his group Democracy Docket have been doing goddess’ work in getting the courts to stop Republican meddling in the election. If you are still on Twitter, he is worth a follow.
@Megan — I watch Mark Elias on YouTube, Brian Tyler Cohen frequently has him on his channel as well. Definitely worth watching!
It’s statistical noise at this point, as far as the polls go. It doesn’t make sense that we would be having wild swings this late in the game, more likely that it’s a herding effect. Is the media trying to set a late surge narrative? Absolutely. Look at the comment count on any website that covers politics, or not on those articles and you’ll have your answer.
I’m with you, Miranda. I am STRESSING. I opened my computer for work this morning and the first headlines I saw were how Nate Silver is predicting a win for Trump and a Newsweek article talking about Trump surging in the polls.
If Trump wins, I’m moving to Mexico (I’m in Texas, so Mexico is closer than Canada, LOL!)…
Trump is not surging in the polls. It is not true! Trump affiliated pollsters have been dumping their junk polls into the averages to deliberately create the appearance of a Trump surge. I actually believe that the opposite may be occurring with Kamala getting some momentum but I only have anecdotal evidence of that so far. In any case, at this late date, why would Trump be surging? Everything about him is getting worse, so it makes no sense that people are suddenly supporting him. Breathe.
Btw, I heard that Nate Silver is partially funded by Peter Thiel. Enough said.
This is what I needed to hear, @Brassy Rebel. Thank you for talking me off of a ledge!!!
👍😀
Yeah, I wouldn’t trust Nate Silver @ grant but I know what you mean abbot freaking out. I vacillate between she’s got this and don’t be a worrier to omfg I’m so scared. I’m canvassing this wknd and the next and hoping hoping hoping she wins. Kamala has the momentum though as @brassy rebel says.
This part. Dan Pfeiffer made the really smart point that they are flooding the polls with republican polling as part of the strategy to claim a Trump win/election fraud if and when he loses.
I also found that same statement profound: We talk about him being a threat to democracy but we don’t treat him like one.
It is so spot on. Media think they have to give equal time and respect to both sides. But both sides are not equal. Trump is not a normal candidate. TREAT HIM LIKE HE IS DANGEROUS, BECAUSE HE IS!
Emily, but they don’t give him equal time–the media have flooded us with Trump for longer than I want to think about. It’s all about the clicks and making money. Besides, they have a billionaire on the board that wants to make CNN like Fox, so I would say Anderson Cooper needs to think about where he wants to be.
Anderson was FUMBLING. And I’m really relieved to see Charlamagne out so frequently and so vocally because some of his cohosts feel very differently than he does.
Agree @crowhood Anderson was very defensive…and we all know why!
MVP Harris was tough on Anderson during the CNN interview, she wasn’t taking any crap from him and frequently interrupted to set him straight. I think he’s totally toeing the conservative line CNN demands and won’t call out Trump and MAGA for what they are — a bunch of bumbling fascist lunatics.
It struck me that he spoke about having conversations/debating people who want to have a “legitimate” conversation…When will he learn that these people don’t care about “legitimate” anything! They don’t care about legitimately winning an election. They don’t care about espousing legitimate talking points. They will bend themselves into pretzels and BREAK if it means remaining a MAGAt and Trump supporter.
There’s a clip going around social media of a man interviewing men at a Trump rally about a “new bill” that was drafted to mandate vasectomies for young men. Guess how all of these men felt about the government making decisions about their bodies??? Yeah…we are WAY past legitimate, Anderson.
Glad he called them out.
I saw a clip this week of someone – maybe Jake Tapper actually? – saying on CNN that they treat Kamala Harris like a normal candidate, they parse her words the way they would a normal candidate etc but they don’t treat Trump like a normal candidate. Like Trump talks about liberals being the enemy within and CNN is just kind of like “well that trump, he’s so kooky sometimes.” Meanwhile if Harris or Walz were to say “October” when they meant November or whatever the press would destroy them. And he was right and I thought it summed up the issue really well. It’s not just the sane-washing that many of us have called out on here before. It’s like the press just expects the Democrats to be the grown ups in the room and Trump is the tantruming toddler with dreams of dictatorship, and the press will be disappointed if he draws with crayons all over the room but isn’t that the fault of the Democrats for leaving the crayons where he could get them?
This also just keeps bringing to my mind that great metaphor about journalism – if one side tells you its raining, and the other tells you its sunny, its not your job to report both. Its your job to look out the window and determine which is the truth.
Amen to that. And looking at “both sides” doesn’t mean that you bring a Holocaust denier and a Holocaust survivor together to “debate both sides.” A debate can only happen if there’s a shared set of truths and basic values that both sides accept as axiomatic. That one candidate is being held to standards of decorum, morality, intelligence, and policy and one side isn’t is dangerous as well as frustrating. I fear that this election could come down to our country’s fundamental belief about the superiority of white men. If a candidate only needs to be a white male to be considered qualified, no matter how stupid, how criminal, how senile, how catastrophic that white male, and any woman or POC, no matter how stellar, how talented, how well-prepared, then we will discover something truly terrifying about our country: America is the dominion of white males before all else. It means that a majority of Americans are willing to let America die before they let it be run by anyone other than a white male. That it’s worth destroying America to protect the hegemony and superiority of white males.
I don’t know how much more starkly and bleakly I can put it. I fear I’m about to watch my country die in fewer than 10 days. It reminds me of that scene in Revenge of the Sith: “This is how democracy dies. To thunderous applause.”
A vote for anyone but Harris is a vote for the death of democracy. Liz Cheney will probably never agree with Harris on policy but she understands the stakes. A vote for Harris means that America continues. Four years later, if Republicans can recover themselves from this extinction burst, they can stage a policy comeback. A vote for anyone else, including not voting at all, is a vote for chaos. It may even be the last vote we ever have. I wish I were being histrionic but I’m not.
Spot on. I believe that’s exactly what it’s coming down to: white men and their wives (because women only matter in the context of their relationship to men) wanting to maintain the class, ethnic, racial, religious, and gender hierarchy. And men in general, regardless of race or ethnicity, who hate women and are scared sh!tless of losing power over them. They want to go back to the time when they could just bully anyone they wanted with no consequences, and be on top without having to do anything to earn it.
@Becks1 and @lanne, these are great comments.
I read somewhere else………… “One is allowed to be lawless while the other is required to be flawless”. That says it all.
That was Van Jones who said that, and it bears repeating because it’s true. I also think that it goes beyond the “both sides” arguments we’ve been having about political reporting for years now. The man has 34 felony convictions, but they all fall over themselves to refer to him as “president”, not even as “former president T”, or “Mr.”
That was Van Jones who said it. I watched the town hall and then some of the commentary afterwards and then shut it off in disgust.
When the town hall ended, I turned it off quickly. I knew she was about to get body slammed even though she did great. And I knew she was going to wade into the audience which she did. The voters there were more impressed with her than the CNN panelists. There were some good YouTube videos yesterday on her interactions with the audience members.
The “why didn’t she do Joe Rogan’s show crap” bothers me even more. That mofo doesn’t deserve Kamala”s time.
We use Spotify and when I tell you my Conscience stings like hell fire when I think about the platform and money they have given him…. It’s on the list of like 30 million things to address.
@friendly crow I canceled Spotify and never looked back. Mind you I don’t do podcasts just music, but I am really happy with youtube music.
@Noo…I 💚💚💚💚 Spotify…LOVED IT! Paid for the Premium from DAY 1! The algorithm was my BEST FRIEND! Did the Podcasts & EVERYTHING! But after the M&H BS on TOP of Rogan…I dropped it like a 🔥 🥔! Also it dawned on me that I was ALREADY paying for YouTube Premium (worth EVERY penny ❤️ & includes YouTube 🎵) so I was ACTUALLY being redundant
While we dunk on the British media a lot on this website, our media is moving in the same direction. When Stephen A Smith, and CTG are calling out Hannity and Anderson Cooper on sane washing Trump, you know where we are. Van Jones (!) said it best after the CNN Town Hall he can be lawless, and she has to be flawless. This is what happens when 4 billionaires own the majority of newspapers, radio stations, and television stations though. Their viewpoints get highlighted, and it’s about clicks. They get clicks for the people that hate maga, and it get the clicks from the people that love maga. There’s so much wrong with the fact that 1.1 billion dollars has been spent on this election, that people are treating clear narrative pushing polls as legitimate, that this man can say he wishes he could operate more like Hitler, and the New York times runs a story this morning on whether or not Kamala Harris is losing Democratic support by trying to appeal to sane Republicans. I’m just so disgusted, but I’m not giving up and you shouldn’t either. voted on Monday and I’m taking my dad and Stepmom to vote today. I will be serving for the fifth time as an election judge because despite all that I still believe in our democracy. Don’t lose the faith people.
Thank you so much for serving.
Dear god I can’t think about it all without feeling deeply ill. I have phrases I repeat to myself to try to calm down – political facts etc – but it’s not working anymore.
Yep. Apparently the WP is refusing to endorse a candidate just like the LA times. Obv, the editor is Will Lewis from the UK tabloids. He is part of the sun hacking case with Harry. But at the end of the day, that decision likely came from Bezos.
Ivanka is one of Lauren Sanchez bff’s now. Hanging out together all the time. Lauren Sanchez is Bezo’s fiancee and former side piece when they were both married to other people.
@Dee, when I went to vote I witnessed an election judge doing great work. As I was standing in line I could hear the man in front of me instructing his wife who to vote for…Trump, Cruz, etc. When it was their turn he actually tried to go to the same voting booth with his wife. He kicked up a fuss when he was told that he couldn’t do that. The election judge came over and asked why he needed to be with her, and the husband told him that he needed to tell her how to vote. The judge then asked the wife if she needed help and she quietly said no, then said to her husband “It’s my vote, you have your own.” The judge then led her to a booth and I was not the only person, men and women both, looking like we wanted to cheer. I’m very afraid that she paid for her courage, but that’s how this election might be won, with acts like that.
I agree with Charlamagne Tha God’s take on Trump. TFG is absolutely being downplayed and normalized all over the place, and fascism, putting people in camps, deportation, etc, should be scaring the bleep out of us. He’s also right about who cares if Kamala Harris is going on Joe Rogan or not. The far right handbook that Trump et al are using to win this election should be front and center!
The California newspaper of record has suddenly decided not to endorse a native Californian for president in a audden change of direction. Axelrod is huffy about how our VP speaks instead of what she’s saying. Nate Silver (cough, cough, Peter Thiel?) has been meh on Kamala Harris, questions why she picked Walz, treats Biden/Trump/Harris as equals, and is saying (gut) Trump will win. The NYTimes is both sidesing an election between a fascist and a normal politician. With friends like these, who needs enemies! I’m glad Charlamagne Tha God stuck to his guns here.
@ML, the LA Times’ non-endorsement of Harris is because the paper’s billionaire owner wouldn’t let them run one, unless they do a “both sides” piece. The head of editorials, Mariel Garza, quit in protest, she talked about this in her resignation letter: https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/los-angeles-times-editorials-editor-resigns-after-owner-blocks-presidential-endorsement
Axelrod (Axelrove to me) is not our friend. Ignore him.
The LA Times story is a preview of what life will be like in another Trump term. The free press will be the first to go since the ownership of most major media outlets, both print and broadcast, is in the hands of Trump’s oligarchs already.
Succinct, clear and accurate description of what the media is and is doing to us. Thank you for this.
Charlamagne is spot on in pointing out the obvious double standards the mainstream media has been employing regarding Donald Trump. Van Jones (of CNN) said something similar the other night: Trump gets to be lawless; Harris is expected to be flawless. This is NOT a normal election, and Trump is not a normal candidate. He is a convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, civilly liable for business fraud, twice-impeached, fascist dictator Wanna-Be, who promises to release the military on the “enemy within” and tried to subvert democracy & the will of the people in the last election. All of those things need to be repeated on an endless loop when Trump is covered by any media.
I don’t f*ck with him, but he was right to call out Cooper. Legacy media has been infiltrated by Billionaire oligarchs who want to control the most powerful nation in the world. Some of these billionaires are on board with everything that Project 2025 is.
Now that we know WHO and what they are and want, we as democrats have no excuses. It is up to us to be a part of dismantling this attempt at suppression, by running for the school superintendent positions, to state representatives’ roles, to governorships, mayorships and beyond. Since 2020 we have seen our eyes open more and more. After the midterms in 2022 we saw more of what we can do. And now with this race we see that we are no longer on the defense, and we cannot rest because they don’t EVER. Rest.
Well said, Girl_ninja!
I lost all respect for CNN with that first debate …. Or rather it was an eye opener for me …
Anderson Cooper – you’ve just reminded me that in spite of some of who you are – you are also an older white guy raised in very posh circumstances
Amen. This is nothing but the truth. It feels like 90% of U.S. media is on the wrong side of history right now.
On the I’ve Had It Podcast, Don Lemon had some interesting things to say about his former employer.
VOTE! We are not going back!! VOTE BLUE!
For me it was as much Cooper’s reaction to what Charlamagne said (which was so spot on) that really pissed me off. He was so defensive, denied what we all know to be true. Bizarrely said he’s not MSNBC like they’re some sort of ‘Harris TV’ and condescendingly suggested we don’t understand what his job is.
The media never had a reckoning or debrief over how atrocious they were in 2016. So most still don’t get it. Jake Tapper was the one questioning it yesterday but even then it’s like, we’ve been screaming this for a year and now you suddenly ‘get it’ two weeks out from the election? Like thanks but you’re not getting a cookie. Too little too late.
I mean, yes good for him saying it.
But the threat to democracy narrative just like the fascism one is just too esoteric for the average American voter to fully grasp. And we’re also battling against the collective amnesia about his first presidency. People remember the good stock market and economy and forget about all the bad shit. Additionally, people think that nothing truly terrible (and yes
I know Jan 6th!) happened during those four years and they make the mistake of thinking it will be the same this time around. They don’t realize that ALL the people who were trying their best to keep him in check (the generals, Pence, a small handful of Republicans in Congress) are GONE and replaced by sycophants, enablers and Yes Men.
And Kamala has done a great job pointing this out when she’s asked whether he’s a fascist or not. She always pivoting to examples in which his fascist behavior can affect American lives. There’s just a big disconnect there in terms of Americans truly understanding the danger of this man and concrete, relatable, real world examples help Americans understand the fascism narrative better. Like, I don’t think any American supports the idea of a POTUS weaponizing our military to fight their perceived persecutors or their personal battles or whatever, even if they can’t fully grasp what a fascist in the White House would look like.
He wasn’t good at the economy at all.
Trump lost jobs, which almost no president does, including even Bush W.
Under Biden/Harris many jobs were created
I’m talking about people’s perceptions, not reality.
And no, Trump wasn’t good on economic issues (tariffs are economically irresponsible AF) but he inherited 8 years of Obama’s economy, after he diligently brought us back from the brink of disaster. THAT’S what people were experiencing and Trump happily took credit for it.
And this is what Republicans do: take credit for the good economy they inherited from a Dem POTUS and then slowly destroy it by employing terrible economic policies like Trump’s tax cuts for the 1%.
I think white people think nothing bad happened til COVID.
1. He refused to release funds to states he hated.
2. He separated children from their families at the border to the point the US got sued and had to settle a whole freaking lawsuit about it.
3. His deregulation is what is causing the massive food recalls we are getting now.
4. He ensured that the wealthy got a tax break and everyone else’s taxes went up and or your refund got reduced.
5. He did not support BLM even a little.
6.Workplace safety got worse under him because once again they pulled back many rules.
7. Added religion to how many education requirements?
I can go on.
Exactly. And I feel like all of these destructive actions just paved the way for him to do massively horrific things during a second term. But yeah it’s absolutely a Financially Comfortable & Insular White Person mentality to think that just because their 401(K) is up and gas prices are down, life is great. And that’s to say nothing about the fact that this shitbag brought us Dobbs.
She HAS to win. She just has to.
“We’re not talking about whether Kamala is black!”
But you are talking about Trump talking about whether Kamala is black. You’re still amplifying a BS message and nonsense conversation.
It’s “The Black Vera Wang.”
Anderson Cooper lost me entirely when he showcased those fake undecided voters during the debate. Unfortunately, Anderson thinks he’s so rich and white that they aren’t going to round up his gay @$$ along with the other journalists under Project 2025 if they win. The fact that he became so defensive so quickly says a lot. Despite the GOP’s lurch into total fascism, CNN and Anderson Cooper continue to normalize Trump and Vance.
CNN continues to pay Scott Jennings to come on their shows and make bad fair arguments, downplay, and outright lie on behalf of Trump. I stopped watching.
Some of the independent you tube media is trash as well.Beware of TYT home of the progressives .Attacking Kamala and saying she is for sure going to lose
Speaking of Trump, I just saw the funniest cartoon about Puff Diddy (whatever he calls himself) from Mike Luckovich. It showed Diddy in prison-orange speaking to his lawyer, and the lawyer advised Diddy that “In order to escape accountability, he should consider running for president.” It worked on so many levels, sadly.
He was on point with everything he said. The media act as though they are afraid of Donald Trump and are gonna walk us right into a dictatorship.
They don’t do a good job of calling him out on his racism and his lack of policies. It’s ridiculous. It’s like watching someone who’s highly intelligent(Kamala) and someone who’s a third grader (Trump) run for president.
They all need to call out his fascism
I despise those CNN panels with the Nazi apologists disguised as Republicans. CNN has elevated false equivalency to an art form. Jake Tapper didn’t go nearly far enough with his critique. He should have denounced all the false equivalence and both sides bs, then refused to participate in the charade any longer. Van Jones had it correct when he said Trump and Kamala are not taking the same exam. And that’s just deeply wrong and contributes to the public perception that this is just another election. To me, the political process has been so subverted and perverted by Trump that we have people (undecided voters) who can’t tell the difference between a steak dinner and rat poison.
Charlamagne should have called names like Jake Tapper and Dana Bash who accommodate that nonsense.
Among other indignities Jake Tapper said it was a “genius” idea for Joe Biden to take Insurrectionist Donald with him to QEll’s funeral. I wanted to hurl. Dana Bash has less airtime, easier to ignore.
Off topic: I’m sorry her body had cancer but I’m glad QEll held on long enough for Trump and Boris Johnson to be out of office. I would’ve felt sorry for the entire world to see Trump swanning around at her funeral, giving interviews.
WaPo just refused to make an endorsement for POTUS.
Absolutely disgusting and the definition of cowardice. Jeff Bezos is only concerned with himself and not making himself an enemy in Donald Trump, since Trump has loudly proclaimed he is going after his political enemies, including THE PRESS.
It would be nice if they let the woman get in a word.
Anderson Cooper reminds me of Grandpa Munster. That’s all I’ve got.
Anderson Cooper got pretty defensive there. Wow.
I live in Erie, PA. One of the counties likely to swing the vote. I am so proud of PA right now.
2500 fake voter registrations caught downstate this week.
And also…it’s crazy right now. But this very Catholic town is NOT happy about the shenanigans. An idiot Trumper posting on X that the Benedictine Nuns aren’t really at the address. Then doubling down after the Nuns’ press release. Press release from Nuns!
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/25/politics/benedictine-sisters-of-erie-pennsylvania-election-fraud-viral/index.html
And we need poll watchers!! I’m training tonight – last chance.
But for Pete’s sakes – all swing states need Poll Watchers (outside, not inside) to help.
https://www.mobilize.us/east/event/646045/?referring_vol=6592431&rname=Stephanie&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link
And…first time commenter, long time lurker. Like over a decade maybe? Anyway…just want to amplify this story because so many Catholics here are super pissed. Like, don’t fuck with our Sisters pissed.