The media’s dangerous Hillary-centrism: Why our obsession with frontrunners is hurting the Democratic Party

www.salon.com|Matthew Rozsa

The most important moment of Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate involved not what was said, but what moderator Lester Holt made sure his audience would never get to hear. After permitting Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to offer lengthy replies to a question on the drug epidemic, he cut offMartin O’Malley and moved to a commercial break despite the former Maryland governor repeatedly requesting “just 10 seconds” in which to offer his own thoughts.

This was more than just an act of brazen unfairness toward O’Malley. Since the start of the 2016 election cycle, both major parties have been swept up in a “horse race” mentality regarding their respective fields of presidential prospects. If a candidate isn’t believed to have a viable shot at winning their party’s nomination, he or she is openly dismissed shuffled into the background so that their “electable” counterparts can receive disproportionate attention. As a result, underdogs like O’Malley are given scant opportunity to change their fortunes – and, in the process, voters are denied their right to fully assess the options available to them.

Bernie Sanders and David Brooks, both wrong: This year of Fox News and Donald Trump-fueled rage can’t be fixed by any candidate

www.salon.com|Patrick L. Smith

Everything was going smoothly these holidays just past. Then, on the last day of the year, David Ignatius published an opinion piece in the Washington Post that subverted the mood somewhat.

“Making New Year’s predictions is tricky in this turbulent world,” the longtime Post columnist wrote, “but here’s one fairly safe bet: The next president will propose a more assertive U.S. foreign policy.”

I had not boiled things down to quite this extent. So Ignatius got me thinking—precisely what I had looked forward to not doing for a few meager days of guilt-free ease.

Not much to think about on the Republican side, of course: To one or another degree, these people remind me ever more of Mussolini. They promise to feed Americans a more aggressive, militarized foreign policy the way hunters use red meat to bait big game in the jungle. The only interesting aspect of this phenom is why it appeals to so many of us, and I will come back to this.

“Hillary’s look is a practical one”: Can we stop talking about Clinton’s clothes now?

www.salon.com|Mary Elizabeth Williams

In what may go down as the apex of #SlatePitches, on Friday, writer Vanessa Vitiello Urquhart investigated a Democratic presidential contender in a story that declares that “Hillary Clinton Isn’t a Lesbian — but She Dresses Like One.” You know what, fine, let’s take the bait. Because by my calculation we will be having these discussions until at least November.

After Vitiello Urquhart establishes that this isn’t about sexual identity per se, she commends Clinton by explaining, “If Clinton were a lesbian, I’d be proud to claim her fashion sense. Clinton embodies something many lesbians accomplish effortlessly: She dresses in a way that does not cater to, or even consider, the male gaze.” The author understands that of course there isn’t one typical lesbian style, but what she admires about Clinton is her career-long commitment to not pandering. “Hillary’s look is a practical one. She chooses outfits that are variations on a relatively narrow theme. Her clothing and hair are neat and well suited to her face and frame,” she writes, noting, “It’s simply not possible for straight women to dress practically and simply without judgment, reflection, or comment the way men do. Hence the rumors about Hillary’s sexuality.” And she adds that “The expectation that women must worry about being pretty first, and everything else second, can feel constrictive to all kinds of women, not just to lesbians.”

All Trump, all the time: The Donald dominated the airwaves in 2015

Media decrying this circus have only themselves to blame. Trump's gotten 3x as much coverage as both Dems combined

www.salon.com|Eric Boehlert

Donald Trump didn’t announce his candidacy until mid-June of last year, but still managed to be covered as the second biggest news story for all of 2015 on the network evening newscasts.

Between ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, Trump’s campaign captured 327 minutes of airtime, according to television news analyst Andrew Tyndall (ABC: 121, CBS: 84, NBC: 122 minutes, respectively). That figure doesn’t include the network newscasts’ coverage of the Republican debates, which garnered an additional 123 minutes of airtime.

Obama Derangement Syndrome is terminal: The GOP is going to make the next year a living hell

www.salon.com|Eric Boehlert

It didn’t take long for conservative commentators to start hurling childish insults at their television sets last night during President Obama’s State of the Union address. As he mapped out his vision for America, he was called a “crapweasel president,” a “shameless snake” and a “bad man” giving a “stupid shit” speech.

Viewers disagreed, of course, and gave Obama’s address sky-high marks last night.

If you follow these regular vile eruptions you can’t be surprised. Over the yearsduring Obama’s annual, thoughtful national address, his feral critics have excitedly denounced him in real time as an “arrogant,” “flippant” “jerk.” He was “fake,” “thin-skinned,” “cocky and snide”; “patronizing,” “demagogic,” “unpresidential,” and really, really “arrogant.” And he often gave a “stupid,” “Castro-like,” “evil speech.”

No one holds him accountable: The Donald sics his goons on protesters, and the media shrugs

www.salon.com|Eric Boehlert

Donald Trump’s rallies may have reached a new apex of bigotry and intolerance last week when on two occasions protesters were set upon by agitated Trump supporters. In Lowell, Massachusetts, they tore up a “God Bless President Obama” sign, and then hurled insults at a Muslim woman wearing a “I Come In Peace” t-shirt who was escorted out of a Trump rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

According to tweets from inside the South Carolina event, jacked-up Trump supporters were anxious to randomly kick out lots of other people from the rally, even if the targets of their wrath weren’t protesting the event.

The defining American crisis our corporate media still can’t be bothered to cover

www.salon.com|Adam Johnson

Of the five Republican debates and of the three Democratic debates, not one moderator has askeda question involving the words “poverty” or “poor.” While the subject has been touched upon by some of the Democratic candidates, namely Bernie Sanders and briefly Jim Webb, the topic has been entirely unmentioned by the moderators during the three Democratic debates. In the GOP debates, the candidates only bring up the topic as a way to swipe President Obama, which is fair enough but is not a discussion of poverty much less a good-faith attempt to mitigate it. By comparison, the Democratic debate moderators brought up “ISIS” or “Terrorism” 21 times total in all three debates.

A recent study in The Intercept found poverty’s non-status on television isn’t just limited to the debates. Cable news was over 20 times more likely to mention ISIS or terrorism than poverty during the heart of primary season in late 2014.

Palestinian says New York Times edited and censored his quotes to shine positively on Israel

www.salon.com|Ben Norton

“I think that this interview was my last interview ever, I am done with media!” exclaimed Ayed Fadel.

Fadel is the Palestinian owner of Kabareet, a bar in Haifa, Israel. He was featured in a Jan. 3 piece in The New York Times titled “In Israeli City of Haifa, a Liberal Arab Culture Blossoms.” The article, written by Times reporter Diaa Hadid, characterizes the Israeli city as a hub of “a self-consciously Arab milieu that is secular, feminist and gay-friendly,” juxtaposing it as “a striking secular counterpoint to the conservatism of many of Israel’s Arab communities.”

The Times claims Haifa “has embraced its diversity” and is “a comfortable place for liberal Palestinians who want not only to escape the constraints of conservative Arab communities but also to be among their own people.” In order to do so, it quotes young progressive Palestinians like Fadel.

Stop validating nuts like Alex Jones: Mainstream conservatives give credence to conspiracy theories about Obama and guns

www.salon.com|Amanda Marcotte

We have one year, plus a week and a half, before Barack Obama and his family pack their bags and move out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. During the past seven years, we’ve had to endure an endless barrage of paranoid right-wing conspiracy theories about how his presidency would induce everything from economic catastrophe to the apocalypse itself, none of which has happened.

One would hope, after seven straight years of being thunderously wrong, the paranoid right would take a hint and dial things back a little for the last year of Obama’s presidency. But of course, that’s not how these things work. Early indications suggest that the nuts are going to go balls out this year with the lurid fantasies of an imminent Obama takeover in the next few months, using Obama’s eminently reasonable executive actions on guns as an excuse. To make it all worse, the mainstream media is seeding their paranoia with irresponsible coverage of the guns issue.

They made this monster: Conservative media and the creation of the political horror show that is Donald Trump

www.salon.com|Sean Illing

Pundits have spent a lot of time analyzing the Trump phenomenon. For the most part, Trump is considered an anomaly, a product of a uniquely hostile political climate. He’s also a massive celebrity with a powerful brand and a talent for self-promotion, and that goes a long way in our media culture.

Trump’s success as an anti-establishment candidate has raised a lot of questions about the ability of party elites to dictate the nomination process. Party leaders – particularly in the GOP – have traditionally decided who the nominees would be, but that’s clearly changed.

Media quiet as Saudi-led coalition bombs center for the blind in Yemen — along with wedding halls and hospitals

www.salon.com|Ben Norton

Centers for the blind can now be added to the list of civilian areas bombed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen — along with wedding halls, hospitals, residential neighborhoods and humanitarian aid warehouses.

The U.S.-backed coalition bombed the al-Noor Center for Care and Rehabilitation of the Blind in Yemen’s capital city Sanaa on Tuesday morning, U.N. officialsconfirmed to VICE News. The Saudi-led coalition also hit Yemen’s chamber of commerce and a wedding hall.

Fighting broke out in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, in March. A coalition of Middle Eastern nations and militants loyal to President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, led by Saudi Arabia and armed by the U.S., is combating Houthi rebels and militants loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Secretary of schmoozing: How new Hillary emails reveal what friendliness in Washington really means

www.salon.com|Elias Isquith

It’s one of those memes that everyone will soon forget, but it used to be conventional wisdom — in D.C., I mean — that the gridlock that’s characterized much of President Obama’s tenure was the result of his being “aloof” or not liking people.

Rather than point to structural explanations, pundits in the center and on the right would suggest that if President Obama would just spend more time “schmoozing” and glad-handing, he’d be able to get various members of Congress — including some Republicans! — to go against whatever they deem to be in their self-interest and do what he wanted instead.

Media fear-mongers about supposed “ISIS plots” while covering up key details like police entrapment and mental illness

www.salon.com|Ben Norton

Before every U.S. holiday in the past year, warnings of an “ISIS plot” fill the headlines of most leading news outlet. It happened on the Fourth of July; it happened on Christmas; it has become a commonplace.

Equally commonplace has become the press’s misleading treatment of these reports. Virtually every time the media fear-mongers about these supposed threats, it covers up key details — crucial facts that significantly change the impact of the story.

The GOP is really this hateful: How the political press got Trump (and Hillary) so embarrassingly wrong

www.salon.com|Eric Boehlert

Here are two snapshots from this year’s campaign coverage. Both captured common media themes at the time and were likely seen as savvy insider takes within the D.C. pundit class.

When news broke on March 2 that Hillary Clinton had used a private email account and server while secretary of state, National Journal’s Ron Fournier sprang into action. Churning out five Clinton doomsday columns in nine days, he immediately suggested the email revelation meant that, “maybe Hillary Clinton should retire her White House dreams” because “she doesn’t seem ready for 2016.”

According to Fournier, Clinton’s emails had possibly derailed her entire campaign. Her White House dreams might have been dashed.

Fast forward to August 2. As Donald Trump’s campaign continued to gain momentum while Jeb Bush’s campaign slid backwards week after week, The New York Times’ Jonathan Martin filed an upbeat piece on how Trump’s rise actually represented good news for Bush. In fact, according to the Times, some Bush supporters were “all but giddy” over Trump’s surge in the polls because his run was bound to unravel, leaving the Florida Republican as the beneficiary.

Palestinian-American artist detained for sketches & Arabic writing falsely accused of terrorism by right-wing media

www.salon.com|Ben Norton

Palestinian-American artist and author Leila Abdelrazaq was detained and interrogated in Arizona, near the Mexican border, because of notebook sketches and Arabic writing. After her brief detainment, right-wing media outlets distorted the story, spreading myths and blatant lies that the young woman was supposedly leading a terror plot.

Abdelrazaq’s graphic novel “Baddawi” was featured in VICE in early December. She wrote the book during her time as a student at DePaul University in Chicago, based on anecdotes from her father’s life in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.The 23-year-old artist was in Nogales, Arizona on Dec. 2 to research her next art project. She and her friends were near the border for just a few minutes. Abdelrazaq was sketching the scenery in her notebook when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers approached and asked them to leave. They obeyed the orders.