You Know What’s Really Garbage? Tired, Old Political Reporting Tropes

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

Here We Go Again

Like sharks with blood in the water, leading national political reporters went into a feeding frenzy last night after Republicans faked outrage at remarks from President Biden that they construed as calling Trump supporters “garbage.”

This dance is so predictable, rehearsed, and tired that everyone has their roles to play and feels compelled to play them despite how intellectually and journalistically bereft the whole exercise has become.

Among the tells in the coverage:

• Top-tier political reporters quickly jumped on the perceived gaffe;
• The parsing of what Biden said quickly gave way to “meta” analyses that it didn’t matter because it was a gaffe anyway;
• Republican professional fake outrage was treated like a genuine groundswell of umbrage.

On that last point, “firestorm” was the word of choice:

• Axios: Biden sets off election firestorm with “garbage” comment
• Politico: Biden sparks a firestorm on the right over ‘garbage’
• NBC News: Biden sets off a firestorm with his response to Trump rally comedian’s Puerto Rico comments

Among the bigs, the WaPo managed to come closest to capturing the actual dynamic: White House, Trump campaign clash over whether Biden called Trump supporters ‘garbage.’

I’ve grown weary of explaining how these kinds of journalistic set pieces require suspending good, independent news judgment; rely on old, hackneyed journalistic tropes; and traffic in erroneous assumptions about Republicans (and journalists themselves) representing the “real America.”

This kind of coverage has been deeply problematic for a long time, as TPM has pointed out relentlessly for two decades. It has become more egregious and even less defensible when gaffe-based, double-standard coverage is deployed in covering an election with democracy on the ballot.

The coverage lacks intellectual rigor in too many ways to list here, but here’s one example to illustrate the point. When Biden – who isn’t even on the ballot any longer – says something imprecise or wrong-headed, he and the White House scramble to correct the record, say that’s not what he means and not what he thinks, and emphasize what he does actually mean and think. It’s an elaborate self-disavowal. When Trump says something truly outrageous, on purpose, he usually doubles down in the face of withering criticism and confirms that’s exactly what he meant. It’s the former and not the latter that is prone to getting the “firestorm” coverage.

The fact that this manufactured outrage and the race to cover it comes five days after Trump called America a “garbage can for the world” makes the whole thing beyond absurd.

Harris Leaves It All On The Ellipse

With the well-lit White House in the background, Kamala Harris gave a tight 30-minute speech on The Ellipse in DC Tuesday night, framing the choice in next week’s election around Donald Trump being more interested in using the powers of the presidency to pursue his own personal grievances than in serving the American people (starts at the 1:11:00 mark):

In her speech, Harris:

• compared King George (“a petty tyrant”) to Donald Trump (“another petty tyrant”);
• called Trump a “wannabe dictator”;
• accused Trump of ruling by “chaos and division.”

Political Violence Watch

• California: The man already serving a 30-year federal prison sentence for attacking Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul in their San Francisco home was sentenced to life in prison for his conviction on parallel state charges.
• Georgia: “A federal judge sentenced an insurance salesman to 21 months in prison on Tuesday for making threatening phone calls to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat, saying he wanted to deter others from acting similarly against public officials doing their jobs,” the AJC reported.
• Pennsylvania: A 74-year-old man was arrested after allegedly threatening Trump the day before the former president’s rally at Penn State.

Cannon Declines To Recuse In Trump Assassination Attempt

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that Donald Trump’s lavish praise of her and “speculation” that he might promote her if re-elected were insufficient for her to recuse herself from overseeing the attempted assassination trial of Ryan Routh.

Trump Runs Same Old Playbook In Pennsylvania

• CNN: Trump stokes voter fraud fears in Pennsylvania as counties investigate and state urges patience
• NYT: As Trump Sows Doubt on Pennsylvania Voting, Officials Say the System Is Working
• Philly Inquirer: Donald Trump makes false claims about ballots in Lancaster County in Truth Social post

Why Subverting The Election Will Be Harder This Time

NBC News runs through the various scenarios for Donald Trump to try to subvert the 2024 election and none of them are gimmes.

Election Threats Watch

• TPM’s Khaya Himmelman: Courts Shut Down Non-Citizen Voter Fear Mongering Efforts Across the Country
• WaPo: “A jury in this bright-red corner of rural Virginia found an avid Donald Trump fan not guilty of attempted illegal voting in a one-day trial Monday, accepting the man’s claim that he was only trying to test the election system for voter fraud when he asked to vote a second time in local elections last year.”
• NYT: Two local election officials in Michigan who wanted to hand count ballots have been removed from overseeing the vote.

Of Course Trump Is Coming For Obamacare

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed what all but the most credulous of political reporters already well knew: A Trump II presidency will be gunning for Obamacare.

Bezos Backlash Costs WaPo

At least 250,000 WaPo subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions since owner Jeff Bezos’ announced its decision to not endorse a candidate in the presidential election.

The Elon Musk Chronicles

• TPM’s Kate Riga: Musk’s Attack On Media Matters Could Become ‘Playbook’ Under Trump II
• WaPo: On Elon Musk’s X, Republicans go viral as Democrats disappear

MUST READ

Former UVa history professor David Shreve:

In one of the more enduring puzzles of the last half-century of American politics, American citizens routinely and consistently rank Republican presidents, and Republican Party elected officials in general, as better stewards of “the economy.” Indeed, since the late 1980s, this perception has prevailed more often than not and has also transformed political contests more significantly than any other major factor. 

China-Linked Hack Of U.S. Telecom Systems

NYT: “Members of former President Donald J. Trump’s family, as well as Biden administration and State Department officials, were among those targeted by the China-linked hackers who were able to break into telecommunications company systems, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Anticipatory Obedience?

WSJ:

U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history. She has ordered the removal of prominent references to such landmark events as the government’s displacement of indigenous tribes and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II from planned exhibits.

Visitors shouldn’t feel confronted, a senior official told employees, they should feel welcomed. Shogan and her senior advisers also have raised concerns that planned exhibits and educational displays expected to open next year might anger Republican lawmakers—who share control of the agency’s budget—or a potential Trump administration.

Alito’s Pal: Princess TNT

The evolution of Justice Samuel Alito’s German princess benefactor from ’80s party girl to right-wing Catholic crusader is something to behold. A life in pictures:

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