Accountability takes to damn long...

JayMysteri0

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One of my biggest regrets of the 45 administration is strangely the way it changed shows on MSNBC. The one example I hated is how it changed the Rachel Maddow show from a show on topics, to a show on the latest 45 thing. Whether it was motivated by outrage or ratings, a show that would cover a variety of topics in one hour, would suddenly MAYBE have room for A different topic in the closing few minutes. One case in point is how Maddow deep dived into the Flint water crisis, staying on it doggedly trying to give a voice to those who had their voices intentionally taken away. With 45, and Michigan booting Snyder, Flint became a distant memory that I would see brought up occasionally on Twitter to be remembered.

Even now after Snyder & company were announced with being charged, Rachel Maddow was uncharacteristically behind in covering.

Until yesterday.

We finally got back the type of coverage I used to look for, and less obsessing over what fuckery this administration felt obligated to do because they could. We got a story that started with the basics, built to the point, then even steered it to other modern day events. Hopefully this is the return to such coverage with the Biden administration on a variety of topics, and less obsessing over a collection of assholes that warranted exhausting 24 overwatch.

 

JayMysteri0

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On the flip side, this was some quick self accountability I would NEVER expect in this day.

U.S. Sen. James Lankford apologized to Black Tulsans on Thursday for not recognizing that his involvement in questioning presidential election results would offend them.

In a letter addressed to “My friends in North Tulsa,” Lankford acknowledges that his actions “caused a firestorm of suspicion among many of my friends, particularly in Black communities around the state. I was completely blindsided, but I also found a blind spot.”

Arguably, Lankford has been more involved with Black Tulsans, and particularly the historic Greenwood District, than any statewide Republican officeholder in decades.

His decision to raise issues about the presidential election in several key states — most of them with large African American populations — hurt and angered many Tulsans, however, with some leaders saying he should resign or be removed from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission.

In his letter, though, Lankford asks for another chance.

“What I did not realize was all of the national conversation about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, was seen as casting doubt on the validity of votes coming out of predominantly Black communities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit,” he wrote.

“After decades of fighting for voting rights, many Black friends in Oklahoma saw this as a direct attack on their right to vote, for their vote to matter, and even a belief that their votes made an election in our country illegitimate.
“I can assure you,” he said, “my intent to give a voice to Oklahomans who had questions was never also an intent to diminish the voice of any Black American.

“I should have recognized how what I said and what I did could be interpreted by many of you,” he said. “I deeply regret my blindness to that perception, and for that I am sorry.”

Maybe things are changing...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1350043119115509761/
 
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Thomas Veil

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One of my biggest regrets of the 45 administration is strangely the way it changed shows on MSNBC. The one example I hated is how it changed the Rachel Maddow show from a show on topics, to a show on the latest 45 thing. Whether it was motivated by outrage or ratings, a show that would cover a variety of topics in one hour, would suddenly MAYBE have room for A different topic in the closing few minutes. One case in point is how Maddow deep dived into the Flint water crisis, staying on it doggedly trying to give a voice to those who had their voices intentionally taken away. With 45, and Michigan booting Snyder, Flint became a distant memory that I would see brought up occasionally on Twitter to be remembered.

Even now after Snyder & company were announced with being charged, Rachel Maddow was uncharacteristically behind in covering.

Until yesterday.

We finally got back the type of coverage I used to look for, and less obsessing over what fuckery this administration felt obligated to do because they could. We got a story that started with the basics, built to the point, then even steered it to other modern day events. Hopefully this is the return to such coverage with the Biden administration on a variety of topics, and less obsessing over a collection of assholes that warranted exhausting 24 overwatch.


The problem is, blowhard Trump just sucks all the air out of the room. I guess Maddow fell into the trap of reacting to every batshit thing he did. On the one hand, that's an easy thing to do, and her commentary on his corruption and that of his minions has always been excellent.

On the other hand, guys like John Oliver have found ways to discuss all kinds of important topics while still leaving a carve-out in their shows for Trump's latest lunacy.

Perhaps Maddow decided her niche would be to become one of Trump's most vocal critics (as Keith Olbermann was with Dubya), and let others handle other topics. Perhaps she thought he was too much of a threat to the republic to spend much time on other topics.

Or maybe Trump criticism was just ratings gold for MSNBC. After all, hers was hardly the most Trump-centric evening show on the network.

At any rate it'll be nice to return to a news environment where the top ten stories every day are something other than Omigod, what batshit thing has he done now?
 

JayMysteri0

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The problem is, blowhard Trump just sucks all the air out of the room. I guess Maddow fell into the trap of reacting to every batshit thing he did. On the one hand, that's an easy thing to do, and her commentary on his corruption and that of his minions has always been excellent.

On the other hand, guys like John Oliver have found ways to discuss all kinds of important topics while still leaving a carve-out in their shows for Trump's latest lunacy.

Perhaps Maddow decided her niche would be to become one of Trump's most vocal critics (as Keith Olbermann was with Dubya), and let others handle other topics. Perhaps she thought he was too much of a threat to the republic to spend much time on other topics.

Or maybe Trump criticism was just ratings gold for MSNBC. After all, hers was hardly the most Trump-centric evening show on the network.
Sadly I believe it was ratings.

As you said, she ended up becoming what her precursor was, the focused foil of a bad president.

The problem was she didn't start that way, which is what I personally got used to. So the pivot to solely anti - 45 TV just became tiring after awhile.
 

Scepticalscribe

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Yes, it was ratings, but it was also as a result of the deeply disturbed and profoundly narcissistic character of Donald Trump.

@Thomas Veil has made a very good (and necessary) point that Mr Trump - given his obsession with being the centre of attention and the subject of headlines - sucked all of the oxygen out of the political discussion chamber, and would deliberately do something - anything (we can expect something insane, irresponsible and probably extraordinarily dangerous on January 20 - DJT will not be able to cope with the idea that the world will now be talking about someone else, someone else (who he despises) who actually defeated him) to bring media attention back to himself.
 

Scepticalscribe

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Actually, I am reminded of the wonderful - and well known - acerbic but apt observation made by Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, about her father, when she remarked:
“My father (Theodore Roosevelt) always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral,
the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.”
 

lizkat

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On the thread topic but not dissociated from either a particular person or "an accounting" we have today the good news that Louis DeJoy may now find out that his free hand at trying to strangle the USPS --in the interests of profit making and not incidentally making it seem difficult or impossible to expand voting by mail-- may yet be stayed by Biden's intended replacements of three members of the USPS governing board. In fact the good ol 'boy and former major Trump donor DeJoy may find himself out of work.

Biden's three appointments are Democrats and are respectively a former USPS executive, a voting rights advocate and a former postal union leader. Oh, and the Dems will hold a majority on the board if his appointments are confirmed.


Biden will nominate Ron Stroman, the Postal Service’s recently retired deputy postmaster general; Amber McReynolds, the chief executive of National Vote at Home Institute; and Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy.

If confirmed, the nominees would give Democrats a majority on the nine-member board of governors, with potentially enough votes to oust DeJoy, who testified Wednesday before a House panel that his new strategic plan for the mail service included slowing deliveries.

The composition of the postal board elicited sharp remarks before and during Wednesday’s hearing. Several lawmakers have decried the lack of diversity among the governors.

The move is a potential boon for voting rights groups, which have urged congressional Democrats to use the Postal Service to expand vote by mail access as a firewall against Republicans in state legislatures that have introduced bills to do the opposite.
 
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