Kicking. Squealing.
Ryan Holiday sounds about right:
That sure worked out nicely didn’t it? If you were in the news business, this election could not have gone better for you.
…
There must be conflict, it must be dramatic.
How else can Politico, Talking Points Memo, Huffington Post, and their brethren post dozens and dozens of blog items a day? Without incessant online buzz, what will the ttalking heads debate? What will the newspapers round up and review?
Romney polled ahead early but then suddenly it got close until he ultimately won the nomination. Obama polled ahead early but then suddenly it got close until he ultimately won the election. How well that worked out!
If reality does not support the economic demands of the news media—then reality can be changed. When everyone in the business wants certain kinds of events, those events must be willed into existence. And then we can chatter about them endlessly and sell ads against the ensuing din. And hope that it holds us over until a real news story like Hurricane Sandy can wash all the artifice away.
While sitting on the couch watching CNN coverage, I commented to nobody when Wolf Blitzer tugged the reins on John King who starting basically calling Ohio for Obama. King’s reporting was very precise and it basically showed that Romney didn’t have much of a chance in that state. It is the very same technology that CNN and other media outlets rely on to cover elections that makes the entire horserace process so interesting. As a nation, we love watching those numbers roll in and those states get filled in red or blue. There is money to be made by keeping us all tuned in, and I saw Blitzer playing the role of a football announcer who is overly optimistic about the team down two touchdowns with only a few minutes to go. The networks don’t want a Heidi moment like they had in 2000 where the drama there could have kept more eyeballs glued to the television. Of course, the networks have to balance with caution. Part of Blitzer’s reining in of King was likely due to not wanting to recreate the 2000 early call debacle. Regardless, media outlets make money by having stories to tell. When that is the incentive, that is what will happen. Holliday continues:
For the most part, I find the politics of Noam Chomsky to be abhorrent, but when it comes to analyzing the media he’s as good as they come. What I’ve described above was no overt manipulation, no puppet master pulling our strings. Instead, it’s what’s he called a Tacit Collective Action (or Tacit Conspiracy). When actors like Fox News and MSNBC, Drudge Report and Huffington Post share the same incentives and business model—despite their heated ideological differences—they cannot help but act in concert to further each other’s interests. Together, they can conspire and not even know it.
Nate Silver’s polling methodology was called into question down the stretch. Perhaps instead of bias against conservative candidates there is a larger bias against a runaway outcome.
Since Heartiste the pretentious 40-year old egomaniac doesn’t believe in free speech, I’ll just post my comment here:
The biggest block of welfare recipients are white single mothers. The hardest working low-pay workers are Hispanic men. Feminism and female entitlement are bankrupting America, hispanic men are thanklessly keeping America competitive by working their asses off for shit pay while egomaniacal racists like Heartiste allows his hatred of non-white men to over ride any noble desire to destroy feminism the true cause of America’s decline and family dysfunction. Heartiste, you’re too narrow minded and ego fueled to be teaching anyone about Masculinity and Manhood principles.
^ I can’t comment on Roissy’s site either. I doubt it has anything to do with him. Probably wordpress is broken somehow. Your comment is stupid, however.
To the main point, Obama stole this election plain and simple. As Mencius said, 110% turnout of errbody in Cleveland.
Nine out of ten of my comments at CH disappear, many never eventually get posted either. This has been going on for two years now. A lot of people say that WordPress eats their comments and the bloggers know of no way of fixing it. And yeah, the first comment here is dumb.
Naked Capitalism had a great series of posts on this which went along the lines of “Look Now They Have a Race!”. This also fits in with the steady theme of campaign money = speech, that the media supports. Of course the media will never support a reform of campaign spending as they are the primary beneficiaries of spending. What industry in this day and age would turn down an automatic 4-6 bil every two years from one form of advertising? Add to that an industry that has seen advertising revenue drop.
If all elections have fraud and we can safely argue fraud is a bit more rampant on the Dem side, was this race just one where Romney didn’t win above the margin of cheat? When the age of universal suffrage is over, we’ll look back on the practices of 20th century and early 21st century politics as insane and wonder why we put up with them.
The leftist coalition of minority identity groups – blacks, gays, SWPLs, Sex and the City single women, and Hispanics – have come forth in an unprecedented manner. The alt-right has been beaitng this drum for years now, harping on the losing strategy of mainstream conservatism that doesn’t understand the antagonistic agenda of modern liberalism. The left and the lapdog media has successfully convinced minority groups of the narrative that impugns white men as the ultimate and sole purveyors of evil.
And then the Half-Breed Prince gets up there and waxes on unity and equal opportunity and coming together after four years of tireless and unsubstantiated invective against his “racist” opponents?
Fucking sick.
And who, pray tell, owns, controls, and mans the media? Just as whites can and should engage in soul searching, the same applies to Jews. It’s time to call a spade a spade.
A little off-topic, but what about surreptitious voter suppression efforts? I think that’s a more tenable goal than attracting Hispanics and single mothers away from the “gimmedat” party. And it’s already started in many states, predictably opposed by liberals trying to get all of society’s undesirables to the polls.
So what do I mean? Extremely strict voter ID laws and one-month in advance voter registration would be a great start.
Just like a one-sided sport match when one commentator will always stress the possibility of something crazy happening.
SOBL1 has it – This also fits in with the steady theme of campaign money = speech, that the media supports. Of course the media will never support a reform of campaign spending as they are the primary beneficiaries of spending. What industry in this day and age would turn down an automatic 4-6 bil every two years from one form of advertising? Add to that an industry that has seen advertising revenue drop.
The alt right is strong on a lot of issues which are ignored by the mainstream but not this one (other than vague grumbling about ‘corrupt politicians’). Money politics is the source of most American political problems. Money goes from lobbyists to politicians to political advertising. Fix that and you have made a great start.
Plus the mainstream media is the enemy – any step which hurts them is good.
Plus you would be on a conventionally good vibes issue for once. You would be able to look the lefties in the face and sneer at their failure to tackle this.
Marchismo,
I have no idea how you came to that conclusion. CH doesn’t hate non-white men. He lets them comment on his site all the time. I do think he really hates feminists, though. He’s usually brutal to them if they dare comment over there.
Marchismo’s comment reminds me why it is foolish for well off white women to support immigration. Ultimately they end up despising us most of all.