Pondering the Pundits

“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

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Katrina vanden Heuvel: On Trump, the media’s malpractice continues

One of the great ironies of the political moment is that President Trump’s sworn enemy has become, if not exactly an ally, an enabler of his agenda. For all of Trump’s griping about “fake news,” the mainstream media’s prevailing focus on palace intrigue and White House scandals has come at the expense of substantive policy coverage, allowing Trump and the Republican Party to advance harmful, hugely unpopular policies without the scrutiny they deserve. [..]

As I have written in the past, one of the primary drivers of this behavior is simple. In a corporate media environment where ratings are prized above all else, the reality is that sensationalism and scandal play better — and, therefore, pay better — than substance. CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker recently admitted as much, saying, “2016 was the best year in the history of cable news, and 2017 is going to be even better. There is no evidence that the interest in [Trump] is waning in any way.” Zucker’s comment echoed CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, who said last year that Trump’s political ascent was “damn good for CBS” and bragged that “the money’s rolling in.”

And, of course, the corporate media could benefit from more than higher ratings under Trump; they also stand to gain from policies that give even more power to the massive conglomerates that already dominate the media ecosystem. As Lee Fang reported at the Intercept, that was Moonves’s message to investors in February, when he said that he was “looking forward to not having as much regulation” and that Trump’s appointment of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai would be “very beneficial to our business.”

Mary Dejevsky: As Syria’s war enters its endgame, the risk of a US-Russia conflict escalates

Not for the first time there are dire warnings of a direct US-Russia confrontation in Syria that could escalate, in the worst case, into a third world war. What is going on has echoes of the proxy conflicts fought by the superpowers during the latter stages of the cold war, but with added elements of risk because the accepted rules and formal channels of communication to a large extent no longer exist.:

The latest alarm sounded after US forces shot down a Syrian government warplane and Russia said it would in future treat any US plane flying west of the Euphrates as a potential target. Russia also announced that it was cutting the Russia-US hotline designed to prevent accidental clashes in the Syrian airspace. The US said it had acted in defence of opposition forces fighting Islamic State. Russia asked on what authority it was striking against the government of a foreign state.

Christian Christensen: Trump’s silence after the London mosque attack speaks volumes

When something terrible happens in the world, we turn to those we respect to hear sage words of advice. To give us level-headed analyses. To blow away the fog of bias and provide a sense of clarity. These individuals act as our moral, ethical and intellectual compasses.

And, just as we have those in our lives who show us the right direction, we have the inverse: those who, without fail, manage to show us the wrong direction. The trick, of course, is to be able to find out who these people are, recognize their ineptitude and bigotry for what it is … and then do the opposite.

Donald Trump didn’t send out a tweet after the terrorist attack in Finsbury Park in London that killed one and injured many more. His silence after this attack was markedly different from his immediate, fevered tweeting after numerous other terrorist attacks in Europe – and that matters.

For Trump, it’s clear that this wasn’t the right kind of attacker and these weren’t the right kind of victims.

Jonathan Cohn: The Big Lie Republicans Are Using To Defend Their Secret Health Care Bill

Republican leaders in Washington have come under withering assault for the way they are putting together their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act ― specifically, for writing the legislation almost entirely behind closed doors, with zero Democratic input, and with plans to hold a vote mere days and maybe mere hours after finalizing the language.

Some Republican senators say they, too, are frustrated by the process. But so far none has seen fit to demand slower, more open deliberations. They say they are inclined to cut their leadership some slack, because ― supposedly ― Democrats acted the exact same way when they first wrote the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010.

Here, for example, was Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaking to reporters earlier this week: “We used to complain like hell when the Democrats ran the Affordable Care Act ― now we’re doing the same thing.”

And here was Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): “We were very polarized because the Democrats did, frankly, exactly the same thing. So we had a very polarized bill that the public debated for years and years. I don’t think the parties are any different. I would give criticism equally to the parties.”

This is nonsense, as historians and the reporters who covered the 2009 and 2010 debate keep pointing out.

Leo W. Gerard: Veto The Cold-Hearted Health Bill

Donald Trump is right. The House health insurance bill is “mean, mean, mean,” as he put it last week. He correctly called the measure that would strip health insurance from 23 million Americans “a son of a b*tch.”

The proposal is not at all what Donald Trump promised Americans. He said that under his administration, no one would lose coverage. He said everybody would be insured. And the insurance he provided would be a “lot less expensive.”

Senate Democrats spent Monday and Tuesday pointing this out and demanding that Senate Republicans end their furtive, star-chamber scheming and expose their health insurance proposal to public scrutiny.

So far, Republicans have refused. That’s because their plan, like the House measure, is a son of a bitch. Among other serious problems, it would restore caps on coverage so that if a couple’s baby is born with serious heart problems, as comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s was, they’d be bankrupted and future treatment for the infant jeopardized. Donald Trump has warned Senate Republicans, though. Even if the GOP thinks it’s fun to rebuff Democrats’ pleas for a public process, they really should pay attention to the President. He’s got veto power.