There is nothing personal or opinion-based about this statement, it’s all rooted in fact and he’s already tarnished the reputation of the US, particularly with Mexico. What she said here is what more journalists should be saying. The “both sides do it” or “stenography journalism” is what’s wrong with the Press today.
“[Trump] is one of the least qualified candidates ever to make a serious run for the presidency,” Roberts wrote late last month in a syndicated column with her husband, the journalist Steven Roberts. “If he is nominated by a major party — let alone elected — the reputation of the United States would suffer a devastating blow around the world.”
If you ask the guy questions issue by issue, not directly which party he leans, is he effectively more of a Democrat than a Republican?
I wonder this because people often agree with our side if asked about specific issues, but if the questions are attached with anything associated with Democrats they oppose (e.g., they like the idea of affordable healthcare, but they dislike once you mention Obama). For some people there seems to be some disconnect between their party ID and opinions about issues.
What’s happened to Cokie Roberts is that she’s lived too long in an insular environment in which those who lean Republican and own the airwaves hold sway. I’ve actually not found anything she’s said in recent years to be enlightening and I don’t say that with any sort of disrespect. She comes from an all too predictable place. Republican lite, whatever she may in her heart of hearts call herself.
LOL – the “no true Scotsman” argument in extremis. She’s really just another complicit Republican desperately trying to cleanse herself of the Trump stench the whole party helped create for the last 7+ years. Not saying Cokie is a total right-wing loony, but she and other mainstream Republicans have spent Obama’s entire tenure legitimizing GOP fantasies and lunacy as legitimate viewpoints with a thin veneer of politeness and/or under the guise of “evenhandedness,” yet now they suddenly want to distance themselves when that veneer has been revealed as a lie all along? Whom does she think she’s fooling? She and the rest of the conservative establishment created this monster, so she really has no grounds to complain about the monster’s existence or that it has turned on its creators. If Republicans truly don’t like what they see in the mirror, merely throwing the cover back over the mirror really isn’t the answer.
The GOP base, the right wing media and GOP leaders have conspired for 30 years in allowing monsters like Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, GW Bush, Dick Cheney, et al to nurture and cultivate a culture of white supremacy, fear, jingoism, xenophobia and hatred of government. The press is far and away “right of center” and it has done little or nothing to call out the misanthropes within the GOP for the harm they do to society. Donald Trump rose from the fever swamp like Godzilla and he’s now too powerful to contain. His behavior and rhetoric are text book GOP. His greatest sin, according to the GOP elites, is that he brings out in the open all the vile truths about the GOP agenda. Sorry, Cokie, but you helped build the Trump beast. He’s loosed on the world and all his creators are now calling for his destruction. The dragon slayer will be Hillary Clinton. When she becomes president, all you right wing shills can blame Trump if that make you feel better.
I resigned, friend. Worked the gig through graduate school, produced the content, still use the skills, still donate the skills to local affiliate. Just don’t use them for NPR anymore.
No kidding. It´s become a mishmash of talking to people about their emotions, ¨arts¨ programming that goes on way too long; and (some) reporters who are so afraid of critical thinking that they won´t make a distinction between night and day for fearing of offending anyone. Not to be too nostalgic, but they used to do news.
I lost respect for her years ago when she attacked the President for visiting his family in Hawaii. Like the rest of the stooges who distort the news at National Propaganda for Republicans, she’s nothing more than an apologist for the Republican Party establishment.
Nope. I sound like somebody who worked for NPR and observed the shift of their programming, content, editorial perspective, budget structure, and federal funding. I actually know what I’m talking about.
I’ve long been an admirer of Keillor. Back during the GWB administration he posted some great op-ed pieces that for a time could be found at his Prairie Home Companion under the category of “The Old Scout” or something similar.
Somewhat off-topic, Keillor has never been recognized or awarded by the Kennedy Center for his contributions to our cultural life. A couple of years ago I actually contacted the Kennedy Center when they were requesting nominations. They confirmed he’d not ever been nominated. I find that totally perplexing.
