February 3, 2017

I have officially hit my limit on news reports of what's happening in social media.

This is what put me over the edge: "Tammy Baldwin opposes Donald Trump's SCOTUS pick, sparks Twitter war with Scott Walker."

If mainstream journalism thinks it's better than social media, it should go out and find real-world events to describe and explain. I can read social media for myself.

And I'm especially sick of the ridiculous hyperbole like "war."

If you want mainstream prestige, talk about what is important and use grownup language. Don't effuse like a teenager about the nonevent that somebody said something on-line and then somebody else retorted.

47 comments:

MayBee said...

If mainstream journalism thinks its better than social media, it should go out and find real-world events to describe and explain. I can read social media for myself.

Thank you!! Yes.

Come on media, more light- less heat. There is real news out there in the world you can tell us about! We need you for that.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Media: How dare you disagree with any holy precious democrat - ever. That is "war" talk.

**Good point.


Derek Kite said...

You start with the assumption that it is even possible.

The glory of free speech is we can actually find out how blitheringly stupid people are. The shackles of editors and institutional styles have been removed, and oddly these silly people sound silly.

Curious George said...

Tammy Baldwin. Soon to be the first openly lesbian ex-Senator.

F said...

Right on! Thank you.

rhhardin said...

Retorts are measured in newton-meters or joules per radian. There's some controversy.

rhhardin said...

Mainstream journalism is not importance based. It's soap opera woman based.

Business is business.

rhhardin said...

"A giant program is to Conquer Cancer is begun. At the end of five years, cancer has not been conquered, but one thousand research papers have been published. In addition, one million copies of a pamphlet entitled ``You and the War Against Cancer'' have been distributed. Those publications will absolutely be regarded as Output rather than Input."

John Gall, Systemantics

traditionalguy said...

Hillary claims it is the Russians doing it all with their mighty Dis-information Attacks. Another reason to attack Russia!

traditionalguy said...

Morning Joe did not have his girl friend on to support him this morning and he was floundering , and then he admitted that he was too confused to figure out how to attack the President anymore. The Fake News scandals are suddenly so irrational that he was stunned..

Etienne said...

What I absolutely loathe*, is the sentence "We tried to contact the person via email for a response, but they haven't replied yet."

Yea, stupid, everyone has a spam filter since AOL's "You've got mail skippy!".

Remember when reporters got off their typewriter (computer) and actually left the building to see what was going on in the world, or putting their foot in the door of the person they wanted a comment from?

Yea, OK, it was a long time ago...

I always remember "to loathe" rather than to "be loath." English sux...

Captain Curt said...

I'm all, so over this juvenile social media stuff in the MSM! So, it's like, awesome to see Althouse is woke about it too!

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

So we have Fake News (no truth at all) and Fascia News (no facts other than social media as a front to write a news blurb).

rhhardin said...

The news has become feminine.

All surface.

rhhardin said...

Of course Nietzsche thought that the truth was feminine as well, so the surface may not be missing anything.

Nonapod said...

Twitter: where reasoned debate goes to die.

rhhardin said...

Nietzsche

1. The true world -- unattainable but for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man; he lives in it, he is it.

(The oldest form of the idea, relatively sensible, simple and persuasive. A circumlocution for the sentence, "I, Plato, am the truth.")

2. The true world -- unattainable for now, but promised for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man ("for the sinner who repents").

(Progress of the idea: it becomes more subtle, insidious, incomprehensible -- it becomes female, it becomes Christian.)

3. The true world -- unattainable, indemonstrable, unpromisable; but the very thought of it -- a consolidation, an obligation, an imperative.

(At bottom, the old sun, but seen through mist and skepticism. The idea has become elusive, pale, Nordic, Konigsbergian)

4. The true world -- unattainable? At any rate, unattained, and being unattained, also unknown. Consequently, not consoling, redeeming, or obligating: how could something unknown obligate us?

(Gray morning, The first yawn of reason. The cockcrow of positivism)

5. The "true" world -- an idea which is no longer good for anything, not even obligating -- an idea which has become useless and superfluous -- consequently a refuted idea: let us abolish it!

(Bright day; breakfast: return of bon sens and cheer-fulness; Plato's embarrassed blush; pandemonium of all free spirits.)

6. The true world -- we have abolished. What world has remained? The apparent one perhaps? But no! With the true world we also have abolished the apparent one.

(Noon: moment of the briefest shadow; end of the longest error; high point of humanity; INCIPIT ZARATHUSTRA.')


- History of an Error

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Don't effuse like a teenager about the nonevent that somebody said something on-line and then somebody else retorted.

This is how I feel too. The media have become like a pack of junior high mean girls maliciously spreading gossip and pitting people against each other for no real reason. Juvenile minds. Juvenile knowledge. Juvenile emotions.

I think that one, among many, reasons that Trump and his campaign resonated with people is that it seemed to be "grown up" in its goals and addressed grown up real world problems.

(Now comes Chuck and others to say...but but but...look how badly Trump acts. How childish etc etc etc. The answer is so?....all the better to make his opponents act even more childish and more irrational. This is HOW you deal with juveniles and children throwing tantrums. Get them to do a melt down, then laugh at them and point out how ridiculous they are being. Grow up!)

Lyle said...

The New York Times has no mention of the Louvre attack on their website currently.

Big Mike said...

Tammy Baldwin as one of the mean girls clique in high school. Who'd a thunk it?

mccullough said...

Nietzsche's problem was that 9 out of 10 women could take the whip from his hand. His philosophy is the power fantasies of a paranoid invalid.

George Grady said...

It's kind of like when ESPN spends oodles of time reporting about one of their employee's mock drafts. They even put it in the scroll on the bottom of the screen sometimes.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

It's only interesting if one of the participants is reported to be "destroyed". On second thought, even then it's usually not interesting.

Bill said...

Our culture has become a junior high-school cafeteria.

PoNyman said...

They remind me of what I hate about some sports reporting. Ginning up battles and controversy over every little thing an athlete/owner/manager might say. I'm reminded of the fake issue from years ago that the sports media made up around Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Mickelson said something negative about the brand of golf clubs that Woods had newly become associated with. The media decided to make it about Mickelson directly insulting Woods. It got to the point where Woods and Mickelson had to 'make-up' with each other for this fake media crap.

Curious George said...

"Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...
It's only interesting if one of the participants is reported to be "destroyed"."

I've seen the same video being used by both sides claiming their guy destroyed the other.

Bill Peschel said...

Damn, I was going to ask Ann if Tammy Bruce DESTROYED Scott Walker, but I was beaten to it.

I gotta stop drinking so early in the morning.

Birkel said...

I'm so old, I can remember when Scott Walker was DESTROYED by a recall effort.

ALP said...

Years ago, I would never would have believed that I could get better political analysis from a website called Cracked.com than the New York Times - but I do.

These days, most media is a train-wreck experience: you know you shouldn't look but you do. And "alternative" media is just plain hilarious, and getting more unhinged by the day.

Fernandinande said...

NYU Prof Screams at the NYPD Because They Didn’t Beat Up ‘Nazi’ Gavin McInnes
"Her tirade was captured on video."

Michael K said...

"Nietzsche's problem was that 9 out of 10 women could take the whip from his hand."

That was what Bernard Shaw said about him.

Probably true of a lot of leftists. Orwell was not very complimentary about Socialists, either..

Fernandinande said...

Fernandinande said...
"Her tirade was captured on video."


The dumb bitch, er, professor really lost it. It's funny.

Chuck said...

(Now comes Chuck and others to say...but but but...look how badly Trump acts. How childish etc etc etc. The answer is so?....all the better to make his opponents act even more childish and more irrational. This is HOW you deal with juveniles and children throwing tantrums. Get them to do a melt down, then laugh at them and point out how ridiculous they are being. Grow up!)


Oh, I have had plenty to say about Trump's loony and error-filled Twitter feed.

But not this time! I think that we are seeing the pathway for a Baldwin defeat in 2018, and I sure hope it happens! It is in part all about candidates. We need a really good one, to oppose Baldwin in 2018. We also need solid legislative performance -- a growing economy and a sensibly reformed health care plan -- before the 2018 campaign gets out of reach.

It's hard to beat incumbent Senators. But this is a bad election cycle for Tammy Baldwin. She's vulnerable, and she should be beaten. Tammy Baldwin tacking left to pick up the Occupy/MoveOn/BlacBloc radical crowd could seal her fate. Still, she won't be beaten if Trump does something (or a bunch of stuff) that is very stupid between now and then.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Nothing contributes to deep understanding of vital current issues like four folks perched on stools around a glass top table with coffee mugs, interrupting eachother about some Twitter flame war.

Sebastian said...

You may be sick of "war," but "war" is not sick of you. We're all gonna get more of it, bad but hard. The left doesn't stop. A luna continua.

Fernandinande said...

‘Clock boy’ loses, ordered to pay attorney fees

firstHat said...

Don't worry. All your social media will belong to us (apparently) Our university's social media director joyfully sent out this "story" a moment ago:
"Facebook Updates News Feed Algorithm to Focus on Authentic and Timely Content
(www.socialmediatoday.com)
Facebook has announced a new News Feed algorithm update, this time focused on authentic and timely stories."

To which I responded "hmmm exactly who determines what is authentic and timely?"

Of course, I'm not terribly popular here. the response was
"Im sure they have algorithms to get rid of clickbait articles and theyre committing to trying to get rid of fake news timely..i imagine its all about trending topics based on research"

My response: "uh huh.. one man's fake news is another man's real news"

Her response: "harriet theres no such thing as fake news, only alternative facts :-)"

My retort: "Actually, there is no thing such as alternative facts, but there are many ways to present the same facts.... our president's idiocy aside"

Her response: "all about context i suppose."

Final word from me: "I don't like arbiters of "truth" I'd like the opportunity to see it all and figure it out myself."

I bit my tongue and didn't say that unlike some, I don't need a mommy and daddy to decide what news I want to read.

I'm just so very very very very tired.

BxBomber said...

Seems to me that there is a business opportunity to create a new news service and elevate the standard of news. What you described Professor is the desire for actual news. Major media outlets today are looking for "buzz".

The newco news service should have reporters with the average age of 50. Rather than 25 or lower in the major news outlets (because cheap.) Get people who actually have experience and a bullshit detector.



SukieTawdry said...

Another bloody fool who thinks that regardless of the applicable law, the purpose of the judiciary is to stand for progressive schemes and dreams and those who hold them dear. It would be interesting to see her client list from the years she practiced law.

Media social justice warriors consider it their duty to stir the pot when it advances their goals and smooth the waters when it doesn't. Plus they apparently are altogether lazy and not very bright. Social media is becoming quite tedious (Twitchy has to be one of the most boring blogs on the Internet), news reports on it even more so. Click bait rules!

Gusty Winds said...

The best hyperbole comes from Joe Scarborough. It's part of his MO.

Sebastian said...

luna = luta. A luta continua. Luna too perhaps, but less relevantly.

Martin said...

Telling the media to act like adults is noble but pointless.

Regardless of chronological age, they are almost all immature little kids, almost to a boy or girl.

Name 3 major media political news people you would trust to house-sit your home and cat for a week while you are out of the country and hard to reach.

And you cannot say Jake Tapper, because he jumped the shark when he led CNN's reporting on the Trump "Dossier."

I might grant you Major Garrett---but after that...?

Fabi said...

Question for Fernandinande: Was that a human being at the 10:20 mark? I'm confused.

Michael K said...

"Media social justice warriors consider it their duty to stir the pot when it advances their goals and smooth the waters when it doesn't."

I agree with others that peal SJW occurred in 2014 when Matt Taylor apologized for his shirt when the comet lander landed.

In discussing the mission on camera after the landing, Taylor wore a Hawaiian-style shirt depicting cartoonish, scantily clad, buxom women brandishing firearms. And just like that, Taylor stood for the subjugation of women and their exclusion from the world of science.

Taylor was mercilessly condemned on Twitter and the Internet until the next day he apologized in tears, for having committed the sartorial equivalent of a thought crime.


He eventually, on November 14, 2014, he apologized for the shirt.

That was peak Social Justice Warrior. If we are lucky, we will never approach that point again. If we do we will have to kill some people.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You are insane. This is the medium that POTUS prefers to channel for his communication; it's absolutely reasonable that this should now be followed for his opposition's political communications - esp. as regards his acts and nominations, etc.

Provide a real or at least credible reaction.

Marc in Eugene said...

One 'event' on social media that you won't see the news media reporting about is that several hundred people (at least) have undertaken to read St Augustine's City of God over a couple of months and to 'meet' on Twitter Thursday nights, 8pm to 10 pm Eastern, to chat back and forth about the current reading (we're up to books 8 and 9 for the 9th). Lots of different backgrounds and expectations, I think, but there's been no screaming, no threatening, no name-calling nasty puerilities: so while I see a great deal of dross on Twitter and Facebook I'm not giving up on 'em quite yet. Any of the people I see regularly at #CivDei I'd trust to housesit the cat (if I were silly enough to have a cat).

rastajenk said...

"It's only interesting if one of the participants is reported to be "destroyed". On second thought, even then it's usually not interesting."

Or "shredded." As in, "Colbert turns Trump into a pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw on top."

Or something like that.