He can fuck himself. He’s spent 2 years falling over himself to argue that liberal snowflakes are the real danger to the country and that the problem with COVID was government over reach that he has become indistinguishable from a MAGA republican. It’s a bit late to go back to warning about this.
There was an episode about 4 years ago that in retrospect I think broke him. He got enormous criticism for using the N word and so the following week had a show devoted to black people interrogating him over the incident. It was really uncomfortable viewing because by about half way through you see he had realized his black guests weren’t going to him the pass on it that he thought he deserved. It was early in the Trump presidency and it was like he was thinking “I helped you people get rid of Trump and now you’re going to drag me for using the N word…don’t you know who I am?” He became insufferable RE cancel culture shortly after that.
You take on CNN is a common one, but I think a pretty inaccurate one. It is and has long been a corporate enterprise directed and whatever bent would draw the most eyeballs. Once Trump was elected it became performatively anti-trump, but they did as much as anyone to make him be seen as a credible candidate, both in the primary and then in terms of the way they covered him and Clinton’s campaign. No one could surely have watched that and thought them a mouth piece for the Democratic Party or anything remotely akin to what fox do for the GOP.
Oh, I don’t disagree, bit of an arse was understatement from me, I actually thought he was a grade a wanker long before what you mentioned and haven’t really paid any attention to him in the last couple of years.
Link was sent to me and I liked this one, despite of the messenger.
I mean, the way he explains it there, it’s an interesting concept. If you’re aren’t paying your $8, you become much less relevant and findable. I guess if can get a high enough percentage to pay the money, the thing feeds on itself, and you pay or become invisible. I don’t use twitter, so I have no idea if it would work.
I find Tom usually amusing and wise. He is my favorite American conservative (granted, I don’t have that many I admire of that ilk, but a few like Thomas Nichols deserves admiration in my view)
His sole argument seems to be that bad actors wont pay so they can use algorithms to demote anyone who isnt paying and as long as you dont go too far into the comments you wont have to see the spew and bile. That doesnt remotely solve the problem especially as there is no reason to think the $8 will keep the bad actors and bigots away. I dont think there is anyone who would seriously think this is a viable strategy. It is certainly not going to be enough to coax advertisers back onto the platform.
The bigger tell of him not having thought this through though is his comment about the ads - get your check mark and you will get fewer adds, but better ones…ones that are better targeted. What advertisers hear - we have a way of making sure you ads go to the right people and we’re not going to use it
My recollection is there was a time when CNN tried to shoot the middle between Fox and MSNBC. What I recall of their coverage of election night 2016 is the shocked faces as they realized Donald Trump was going to win a surprising victory, as you may recall all the polls showed him losing.Think of Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and the like, just mouthpieces of the left agenda on social issues, climate, immigration, etc. Hard to see it any other way. The new gals at night seem no different to me.
Everyone at CNN was likely internalizing in real time what they had just enabled with their ridiculous coverage of the campaign and having to do so on live tv. But I’ll repeat, being anti-Trump (especially when it is done performatively, for ratings) is not the same as being a Pro Democratrtic party, or a mouth piece for the party.
Although Maine is a Democrat leaning state, the National Guard base I work at is in a Republican area and I’ve heard quite a few pwople this weekend say things akin to “On Tuesday its a red wave or its a stolen election” as well as old lines about Joe Biden being a peadophile, Janet Mills (the Governor) being responsible for Covid and inflation etc.
Pretty disheartening but I have to contextualise it as these are pretty old people just waiting out their time in the Guard. The younger guys, even the Republican ones, seem a little less extreme in their beliefs.
