Not sure this was the best way to go, as the spin given is exactly what I'd expect (Acosta is badgering and grandstanding), but given this Administration's refusal to actually answer questions, I'm not sure that there's another option. Sitting quietly and hoping you're called upon, and then hoping you're actually answered, obviously hasn't worked.
And you KNOW some of the people in attendance will kowtow to the threat of being removed (because access!), rather than asking hard questions. So that'll be a bonus for Trump and cronies.
Someone has to ask the questions, and the President and press secretary have been hostile to reporters since the get go. No real reason not to keep this up. They don't get access, and the majority of info into this administration comes from leakers. The press pool is just not an asset with these people in charge.
It's a testament to the incompetence of the WH press metings that they are so utterly incapable of handling questions like this; the president had a full week to come up with a way to dig himself out of the hole he dug (something along the lines of "I was terribly stressed by the burden of leadership and the challenges I have had to shoulder when I said something ugly and cruel and for all those who I offended I am terribly sorry.")
But for that to happen Trump would have to be capable of scraping together the tiniest micron of humility.
+11
Options
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I don't see it as incompetence (in a general sense, I'm sure they have hired in some idiots there too), I just see it as direction handed down by a pack of howling baboons from on high demanding them to accomplish an impossible task.
There is no way to spin Trump effectively like every other president I have been alive for. His base eats his toxic crap and asks for seconds sure. But he's impossible to wrangle into a consistent position because he literally doesn't have one beyond, "Trump is the best at anything/everything all the time, ever".
They are tasked with sending out the messages they are told to send. They don't get to pick whether they want to tell people Trump is a giant man baby or like, really smart. They get the directive, probably some general guidelines and talking points, then they have to go off and try and make it sound like it isn't a giant plate full of bullshit... which is, more often than not, impossible to do beyond his base, which mostly just key into his twitter and such anyways.
And that's when Trump isn't directly contradicting himself (and by extension what they were told to spin) the very next day, if not the same day.
Jeff Flake just finished his speech against the President and his treatment of journalism in general and it was fucking brutal. So much so that Fox News' headline right after was "Jeff Flakes big audition for the Trump despising media."
Jeff Flake himself, is a spineless opportunistic trash person, but this speech was on point and he went a lot further with it than I'd ever imagine he would. It almost reached Maxine Waters levels of bluntness about President Trump and his actions.
+12
Options
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Jeff Flake just finished his speech against the President and his treatment of journalism in general and it was fucking brutal. So much so that Fox News' headline right after was "Jeff Flakes big audition for the Trump despising media."
Jeff Flake himself, is a spineless opportunistic trash person, but this speech was on point and he went a lot further with it than I'd ever imagine he would. It almost reached Maxine Waters levels of bluntness about President Trump and his actions.
He was getting grilled on NPR this morning about how far he would take it.
and now to vote for everything he wants like all the other times!
I fully believe that if trump proposed the 'fillet the media in 2018' act that Flake would vote for it.
That was specifically one of the things Flake was asked about on NPR.
His response: He's not going to vote against Trump out of spite. If he disagrees, he'll make it known, but he is still a conservative. He specifically called out voting over 30 times to repeal & replace before Trump even came along.
Mr. Inskeep followed up by asking if Flake would vote with the Democrats on censure or release of the tax returns, and he said that was a hypothetical that hadn't happened yet. And he doesn't believe candidates should have to release their tax returns...
and now to vote for everything he wants like all the other times!
I fully believe that if trump proposed the 'fillet the media in 2018' act that Flake would vote for it.
That was specifically one of the things Flake was asked about on NPR.
His response: He's not going to vote against Trump out of spite. If he disagrees, he'll make it known, but he is still a conservative. He specifically called out voting over 30 times to repeal & replace before Trump even came along.
Mr. Inskeep followed up by asking if Flake would vote with the Democrats on censure or release of the tax returns, and he said that was a hypothetical that hadn't happened yet. And he doesn't believe candidates should have to release their tax returns...
and now to vote for everything he wants like all the other times!
I fully believe that if trump proposed the 'fillet the media in 2018' act that Flake would vote for it.
That was specifically one of the things Flake was asked about on NPR.
His response: He's not going to vote against Trump out of spite. If he disagrees, he'll make it known, but he is still a conservative. He specifically called out voting over 30 times to repeal & replace before Trump even came along.
Mr. Inskeep followed up by asking if Flake would vote with the Democrats on censure or release of the tax returns, and he said that was a hypothetical that hadn't happened yet. And he doesn't believe candidates should have to release their tax returns...
so it's do nothing. I get that he's 'still a conservative', but if he can't imagine a way to use his immense power (seriously, he and one other senator could shoot down anything at this point) to curb the president than what good is he?
all he'd have to do is say something like "while I'm for this bill in spirit, if the leader of our country can't manage to act like a goddamn human being, I will be voting against his legislation, ball is in your court"
I wager with that threat, trump could be curtailed. flake is retiring anyway and is already rich as fuck so what would he be losing? (the answer is nothing, his righteous indignity over the treatment of the press is laughable when he refuses to speak a single syllable when it would actually do anything)
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
While racing light mechs, your Urbanmech comes in second place, but only because it ran out of ammo.
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
I am truly shocked by this development when the president's record of following through on his promises is so... consistent.
I got a genuine sensible chuckle out of this. I can only hope in part it's happened because everyone was failing to act how he wanted and started competing for it.
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
Meh, I’m not impressed by Trump’s twitter followers. I remember more that one report that year that at least half of them are just bots. His brain droppings get read by people and some reported on, sure, but not by as much as he thinks they do.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I am truly shocked by this development when the president's record of following through on his promises is so... consistent.
I enjoy that Trump's own press secretary describes the sputtering disaster of this Two Minutes Hate for the mainstream media in the same terms one would describe a hurricane losing force.
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
Meh, I’m not impressed by Trump’s twitter followers. I remember more that one report that year that at least half of them are just bots. His brain droppings get read by people and some reported on, sure, but not by as much as he thinks they do.
That part is a given... Trump thinks he is (or at least puts on a damned good show of) the most important, special, intelligent, and interesting man on the planet (if not beyond).
He doesn't care about first amendment rights because he not only doesn't understand them, but they are actively allowing people to talk badly about him.
If the debate was over their ability to flatter him, you bet your ass he'd be all over talking about the first amendment being of utmost importance... much like he went on about the 2nd, which I doubt he has any concern over beyond getting a lot of adulation from people who were up in arms (pun intended) about gun rights.
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
Meh, I’m not impressed by Trump’s twitter followers. I remember more that one report that year that at least half of them are just bots. His brain droppings get read by people and some reported on, sure, but not by as much as he thinks they do.
They all go viral (at least the crazy ones do) so more people are probably reading him than are following him.
I mean, they get shared enough here that the mods have had to ask people to not simply regurgitate every last brainfart he has onto the forums.
One could gleefully avoid Twitter and still not be free of them (without a browser extension that blocks the platform entirely, and even then many people copy them out or discuss them enough to get the gist, if just by context).
Which is to say that simple Twitter follower counts aren't entirely the story, no. When what you tweet is then shared on the major broadcast networks, discussed in the news, and even finds its way over to our humble home, I suspect we can assume a lot more people are seeing them, whether they want to or not.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
Meh, I’m not impressed by Trump’s twitter followers. I remember more that one report that year that at least half of them are just bots. His brain droppings get read by people and some reported on, sure, but not by as much as he thinks they do.
They all go viral (at least the crazy ones do) so more people are probably reading him than are following him.
True, but it’s because of the press that they go viral, leading back to FencingSax’s point that Trump’s White House needs the press more than they need him. Just his Twitter by itself does nothing.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
0
Options
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
Meh, I’m not impressed by Trump’s twitter followers. I remember more that one report that year that at least half of them are just bots. His brain droppings get read by people and some reported on, sure, but not by as much as he thinks they do.
They all go viral (at least the crazy ones do) so more people are probably reading him than are following him.
True, but it’s because of the press that they go viral, leading back to FencingSax’s point that Trump’s White House needs the press more than they need him. Just his Twitter by itself does nothing.
My point is more that every White House needs them. The whole point of press secretary is to keep the White House's narrative focus in the news. That's a massive reason why credibility is so important with the job.
There's also the whole issue of the Press office is supposed to be using the press to their advantage. Press conferences are for the WH benefit. As we can see, news organizations will get the info, it's the press office's job to control that and spin it.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
This only works if the majority of americans trust trump's twitter account and given that he hasn't been above 45% approval since day 6 It seems clear that it isn't up to the task.
So this is what this came too? A pathetic wet fart?
Amazing.
Did you expect more? The boy's an infant.
I expected them to be cancelled. Or some fucking pageantry. Where's my authoritarian showmanship? Where's the glitz? Where's the heart? Where's the ego?
This is just sad and pathetic. It's not even worrying anymore. He just slunk out the back and mumbled something at the camera.
+12
Options
Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
Putting on a show would require out President to be able to focus on something for more than twenty seconds.
VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
I thought it would be stories he didn't like, things about him playing golf and collusion and such. not mistakes that were admitted to already and corrected, and number 1 reads like a prediction?
It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?
Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.
Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.
...
So we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight. I suppose we could get lucky somehow. But on economics, as on everything else, a terrible thing has just happened.
If that list is numbered in a particular order, putting this as number 1 is... well it's completely within Trump's character to not understand the difference between news and an op-ed, he is a Fox News viewer after all.
Posts
It's a testament to the incompetence of the WH press metings that they are so utterly incapable of handling questions like this; the president had a full week to come up with a way to dig himself out of the hole he dug (something along the lines of "I was terribly stressed by the burden of leadership and the challenges I have had to shoulder when I said something ugly and cruel and for all those who I offended I am terribly sorry.")
But for that to happen Trump would have to be capable of scraping together the tiniest micron of humility.
Unfortunately, they are as incompetent as the rest of the admin, so we get this stupidity. (Seriously, why did they go with Disinterested Monotone?)
I've said it before, but the administration already has a spin tool far more effective at spreading information: @realdonaldtrump . Trump gets away with treating media like shit because he doesn't need them.
I don't see it as incompetence (in a general sense, I'm sure they have hired in some idiots there too), I just see it as direction handed down by a pack of howling baboons from on high demanding them to accomplish an impossible task.
There is no way to spin Trump effectively like every other president I have been alive for. His base eats his toxic crap and asks for seconds sure. But he's impossible to wrangle into a consistent position because he literally doesn't have one beyond, "Trump is the best at anything/everything all the time, ever".
They are tasked with sending out the messages they are told to send. They don't get to pick whether they want to tell people Trump is a giant man baby or like, really smart. They get the directive, probably some general guidelines and talking points, then they have to go off and try and make it sound like it isn't a giant plate full of bullshit... which is, more often than not, impossible to do beyond his base, which mostly just key into his twitter and such anyways.
And that's when Trump isn't directly contradicting himself (and by extension what they were told to spin) the very next day, if not the same day.
Jeff Flake himself, is a spineless opportunistic trash person, but this speech was on point and he went a lot further with it than I'd ever imagine he would. It almost reached Maxine Waters levels of bluntness about President Trump and his actions.
He was getting grilled on NPR this morning about how far he would take it.
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/17/578546253/sen-flake-to-counter-trump-s-fake-news-claims-in-senate-speech
I fully believe that if trump proposed the 'fillet the media in 2018' act that Flake would vote for it.
That was specifically one of the things Flake was asked about on NPR.
His response: He's not going to vote against Trump out of spite. If he disagrees, he'll make it known, but he is still a conservative. He specifically called out voting over 30 times to repeal & replace before Trump even came along.
Mr. Inskeep followed up by asking if Flake would vote with the Democrats on censure or release of the tax returns, and he said that was a hypothetical that hadn't happened yet. And he doesn't believe candidates should have to release their tax returns...
So he's still useless then, got it
"I think the way he does things are Unamerican and dangerous, but if he votes for something I want, eh, I ain't gonna stop him."
so it's do nothing. I get that he's 'still a conservative', but if he can't imagine a way to use his immense power (seriously, he and one other senator could shoot down anything at this point) to curb the president than what good is he?
all he'd have to do is say something like "while I'm for this bill in spirit, if the leader of our country can't manage to act like a goddamn human being, I will be voting against his legislation, ball is in your court"
I wager with that threat, trump could be curtailed. flake is retiring anyway and is already rich as fuck so what would he be losing? (the answer is nothing, his righteous indignity over the treatment of the press is laughable when he refuses to speak a single syllable when it would actually do anything)
NYT reporter.
I am truly shocked by this development when the president's record of following through on his promises is so... consistent.
I think he is going to find out that he in fact does. Only the fringe follows his twitter and listens to nothing else.
The gop 'fringe' is like 90% of the party at this point. Even if only a fraction of them see his tweets, the majority of the rest hear about them favorably from fox.
I got a genuine sensible chuckle out of this. I can only hope in part it's happened because everyone was failing to act how he wanted and started competing for it.
Meh, I’m not impressed by Trump’s twitter followers. I remember more that one report that year that at least half of them are just bots. His brain droppings get read by people and some reported on, sure, but not by as much as he thinks they do.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I enjoy that Trump's own press secretary describes the sputtering disaster of this Two Minutes Hate for the mainstream media in the same terms one would describe a hurricane losing force.
That part is a given... Trump thinks he is (or at least puts on a damned good show of) the most important, special, intelligent, and interesting man on the planet (if not beyond).
He doesn't care about first amendment rights because he not only doesn't understand them, but they are actively allowing people to talk badly about him.
If the debate was over their ability to flatter him, you bet your ass he'd be all over talking about the first amendment being of utmost importance... much like he went on about the 2nd, which I doubt he has any concern over beyond getting a lot of adulation from people who were up in arms (pun intended) about gun rights.
They all go viral (at least the crazy ones do) so more people are probably reading him than are following him.
One could gleefully avoid Twitter and still not be free of them (without a browser extension that blocks the platform entirely, and even then many people copy them out or discuss them enough to get the gist, if just by context).
Which is to say that simple Twitter follower counts aren't entirely the story, no. When what you tweet is then shared on the major broadcast networks, discussed in the news, and even finds its way over to our humble home, I suspect we can assume a lot more people are seeing them, whether they want to or not.
True, but it’s because of the press that they go viral, leading back to FencingSax’s point that Trump’s White House needs the press more than they need him. Just his Twitter by itself does nothing.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
My point is more that every White House needs them. The whole point of press secretary is to keep the White House's narrative focus in the news. That's a massive reason why credibility is so important with the job.
This only works if the majority of americans trust trump's twitter account and given that he hasn't been above 45% approval since day 6 It seems clear that it isn't up to the task.
.....
.... fake news?
It appears he posted it 16 minutes ago on his Twitter. It’s a link to the GOP website which was down when I clicked on it.
Fox News SHOCKINGLY has the inside scoop.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/01/17/president-trump-reveals-winners-his-fake-news-awards.html
It's apparently a general denial about collusion and 10 stories he's grumpy about; and no, none of them are substantive.
Amazing.
Did you expect more? The boy's an infant.
I expected them to be cancelled. Or some fucking pageantry. Where's my authoritarian showmanship? Where's the glitz? Where's the heart? Where's the ego?
This is just sad and pathetic. It's not even worrying anymore. He just slunk out the back and mumbled something at the camera.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
so yeah this is more pathetic than I expected
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/opinion/election-night-2016/paul-krugman-the-economic-fallout
If that list is numbered in a particular order, putting this as number 1 is... well it's completely within Trump's character to not understand the difference between news and an op-ed, he is a Fox News viewer after all.