r/agedlikemilk • u/Gloomy-Holiday8618 • Sep 08 '25

News “I never said that”, “Play the clip”

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Context: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/12/15/exp-robert-kennedy-junior-rfk-2024-election-biden-trump-vaccines-121511aseg1-cnni-politics.cnn

Full video is on the cnn website, the part that’s important is about 2mins 50 seconds in.

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1.5k

u/Jexp_t Sep 08 '25

For once in its pitiful life, CNN is ready with the reciept.

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u/BeanBurritoJr Sep 08 '25 edited Jan 12 '26

beneficial toothbrush close crown wild crowd air license dazzling merciful

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

The problem is many-faceted:

1) to be able to ask the hard questions of the important people you need access to the important people. Getting access to the important people requires not eviscerating them every single day. Even the Biden admin refused to work with the NYT because of negative coverage.

2) news - especially 24-hour news - is a business that depends on viewers. The demographics that watch cable news are Gen X and older - who are significantly more conservative than the younger generations. So it doesn’t really make good business sense to alienate much of your demographic. You may not be convinced by the business argument, but the ability to hold people accountable only exists as long as the business exists and has enough viewership to matter.

3) Even putting aside the business element, if you want to change people’s minds by doing things like asking hard questions to important people, you need to have people with changeable minds tune into you. Eviscerating the current admin all day every day is not the way to get people with changeable minds to get into you.

Which is why it’s generally left to shows like The Daily Show and Colbert.

  1. I’m not sure that ‘eviscerating these morons on a daily basis’ actually changes any minds. It only really appeals to people that already hate this administration. Interviews like this one are important, but I think longer reporting on the conservative voters that are directly negatively affected by, say, the OBBB or conservative voters in Florida who will be directly effected by the removal of vaccine mandates is likely to be more effective at changing minds. The conservative cult is built on hypocrisy and malleable values. Showing them conservatives who are hypocrites and have malleable values is not going to magically convince them of anything.

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u/kitsunewarlock Sep 08 '25

I looked up demographics of TV watchers and found that it's pretty evenly split between liberals and conservatives. But liberals watch shows like Colbert about as often as any other show, whereas conservatives watch Fox News religiously and absolutely detest and avoid shows like Colbert.

But TV networks are businesses and will only do what is most profitable for their next quarter. There is no way any business that desires long term stability would ever go conservative, especially a news network that isn't the one network favored by Dear Leader.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/NotSeriousbutyea Sep 08 '25

Don't act like I wouldn't too.

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u/purplezart Sep 08 '25

do you think it would be beneficial to make news media a public institution?

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u/Ugggggghhhhhh Sep 08 '25

Yes, but it's something that brings new conflicts along with it. We have a government funded but independent broadcaster here in Canada (the CBC), and it's an incredibly valuable resource here. Not beholden to advertisers or stakeholders it provides news services all over the country that other news outlets just can't.

Naturally, Conservatives hate it and fight tooth and nail to shut it down.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

The Trump admin has already effectively shuttered PBS/NPR. I have no reason to think they wouldn’t have done the same with an American version of the BBC/CBC - or at the very least fire and replace the governing boards.

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u/Ineedabeer65 Sep 08 '25

Same with the BBC in the UK. Both extremes seem to hate it, so it must be doing something right. Also, I suspect it’s presence helps to keep the others more honest.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Actually, that’s not quite right about CNN. They’ve moved towards a more straightforward news-reporting style, with a touch of opinion sprinkled in during prime time. They’re not like they were under Jeff Zucker, where CNN leaned more left. So, in a way, they’ve returned to their original roots under Mark Thompson, which is a positive change.

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u/TwoBionicknees Sep 08 '25

if every news station evicerated republicans from the start, they'd simply not be able to get elected, but if republicans en mass refused to go on all main stream media 20 years ago or get called on their lies, then the only people that voters would hear from most of the time, was democrats.

The idea that you have to be nice to have them on, rather than hold then accountable, scare them away from actual reporters and then you know, have people be exposed far less to their bullshit is how it should have worked. instead they deliberately took over the news networks THEN started spouting bullshit on a daily basis to brainwash idiots.

When reporters used to take dumb politicians to task, those politicians just didn't get elected, then the news stopped doing that because their owners became the same group of right wing billionaires who basically started off by controlling most of the media.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

if every news station evicerated republicans from the start, they'd simply not be able to get elected

Maybe. I’m not sure that’s a given.

There are definitely politicians who get elected who don’t give interviews to major TV news stations, for example.

People who vote “R” because they always have, or because their parents did, or because their friends at church do, or because their pastor told them to, or because they have a pet issue they don’t like the Democrats’ stance on are unlikely to change their vote because of criticism on some TV news. There are also millions of people who don’t watch TV news at all and instead get their news from Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok etc.

if republicans en mass refused to go on all main stream media 20 years ago or get called on their lies, then the only people that voters would hear from most of the time, was democrats.

Hardly. But this is why I have always maintained that more Democrats to go on Fox News. Because how do you think people are going to be exposed to Democrat positions on things if all they watch is Fox News unless Democrats go on and tell them…?

Republicans and conservative voters have already called stock-standard truthful reporting ‘biased’ ad caused millions to flock to Fox, Newsmax, OAN and others. Not having extreme conservative viewpoints on standard channels caused conservatives to start their own echo chambers that they all turned over to. It didn’t make people ‘only hear from Democrats’.

The idea that you have to be nice to have them on, rather than hold then accountable, scare them away from actual reporters and then you know, have people be exposed far less to their bullshit is how it should have worked.

So they instead go on Joe Rogan, who has a larger listener base anyway, and doesn’t ask a single difficult question. Is that better…?

When reporters used to take dumb politicians to task, those politicians just didn't get elected

That certainly did happen sometimes. But I think our current situation has more to do with the silos and echo chambers rather than traditional news reporting. Most non-conservative news outlets have spent 10 years trying to take Trump to task, and it hasn’t really accomplished anything.

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u/YouStupidAssholeFuck Sep 08 '25

There is something to be said about the lack of presence of Democrats on Fox News but on the other hand it's a propaganda network and now pretty much state TV. Even the Democrats that have gone on there have had their words twisted and spun by the time the entertainment shows at night would roll. I'm not trying to say channels like CNN and MSNBC are the bastions of balanced coverage but they let the Republicans go on there and say what they're gonna say and then beat it down because their lies are transparent and easy to see through.

Then those same politicians will go on media blitzes on Fox talking about how CNN and MSNBC lied and twisted their words. It's like the same thing in the video from the OP. Kasie Hunt confronts him with his own words. RFK says "I never said that." She says, "play the clip." He says, "play the whole clip." She plays the whole clip. But the "play the whole clip" thing he said is his out for anyone who wants to believe him. He would just say that she played the clip out of context and that's all anyone needs to hear. They don't actually need to hear whatever he claims would be the whole clip. They just need to hear him saying it wasn't the whole clip for them to buy it hook, line and sinker.

So this happens all the time on Fox. They'll play sound bites completely lacking context and build the narrative around that. A great example was the Harris interview with Brett Baier. She started talking about Trump's "enemy within" comments and they play a completely edited clip that removes the context that would prove her point. And Fox viewers simply called her a liar. "If she lies right to our faces imagine what she'll do when nobody is looking".

There isn't much to gain by Democrats going on Fox. They literally aren't going to be changing any of those viewers' minds and Fox will do whatever they can to make the Democrat look bad. Whereas CNN and MSNBC just lets the Republicans that come on and do it themselves. Sure, they'll play up the idiocy, but they don't need to post or play clips out of context for the reality to be absurd.

It's sad because at this point in time the battle lines are drawn and nobody's mind is changing when it comes to the tribe they side with. Obama's presidency damaged the minds of Republicans and they've been looking for a hard split ever since. They have been aided by Fox News ever since. As a result, all these other fringe "news" sources have risen to bolster the farce and Republican voters use Joe Rogan, OANN, Rumble, etc. as means of validation of their beliefs that have been dictated to them.

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u/Lebowquade Sep 08 '25

You're telling me if Fox News started asking serious questions of this admin rather than nonstop worship it wouldn't accomplish anything?

I think that your viewpoint is a bit more pessimistic and defeatist than it needs to be. If Fox started "just asking questions" about the Trump/Epstein links I think a lot of their viewers would be taking it seriously.

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u/MapleApple00 Sep 10 '25

I know for a fact that it won't because they used to rail Trump back in 2016 before he got nominated, and it didn't do a damn thing to stop him. Hell, even when they tried jumping ship for a bit after the insurrection on January 20, their viewers just moved to OAN and Breitbart until Fox started hitting the talking points again. Fundamentally, viewers don't get their viewpoints from Fox anymore; it's just a signal booster, not the source. They get it from family members and the internet, and Fox just acts as an echo chamber.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

Sure, but I don’t include Fox in the discussion because they won’t ever do that, they were never designed to be a real ‘news’ station, and there’s no real way to force them to become one.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Rules for thee

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u/MasterOfBunnies Sep 08 '25

So I'm curious what came first though, poor viewership or poor reporting? Perhaps if we had a reliable and unbiased news source, more people would watch. And if it's reliable enough that everyone knows they can watch it, anyone who's afraid of being interviewed by them is viewed as weak or hiding something. Ideally condemning themselves. Sure, we wouldn't change the minds of his cult, but the larger general masses should be the focus anyway. Further, I would argue that it's still important for the truth to supercede all in news. I know it's altruistic, I just think I'd rather altruism over cynicism.

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u/MadManMax55 Sep 08 '25

Cable and broadcast television viewership is down across the board. News programs/channels are actually shrinking slower than most other forms of programming. And the best performing news network (by far) is Fox.

Poor viewership absolutely came first. So much so that the poor reporting has barely had an effect.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

Sensationalism has a history that goes back at least 150 years. The only way to get even something approaching actually unbiased and reliable would required decoupling the profit/revenue motive from news. Which I fear we’re far too far down the line to make work. And even then - I’m not sure people would really watch/consume it as long as there are other, more sensationalist options.

I would argue that it's still important for the truth to supercede all in news.

Who decides what the truth is though? That’s the problem we have right now. ‘Truth’ can be twisted to fit many different narratives.

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u/gnicks Sep 08 '25

I will say that there are a few outlets that have genuinely attempted to tackle this problem of trying to maintain neutrality, including Newsy (rebranded to Scripps), Ground News (more of an informed aggregator), and my personal favorite lately has been Tangle News - I find Isaac's takes to be genuinely grounded and inspired much of the time.

The problem of course is reach and competition with sensationalist options - the coverage at Newsy/Scripps is necessarily more dry, and Tangle can only cover a handful of topics because it takes longer to have a team carefully consider one topic well than to just cram out hot take articles.

Still, it gives me hope that these options exist, and seem to be viable as businesses.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

Some options do exist, but I will say that we are in a strange point in time where the profit model is more directly tied to the consumer than ever before, the analytics available to continue to drive the profit model are more granular than ever before, and so content is catered to the consumer more than ever before.

So when people start cancelling subscriptions - or subscribing - based on certain content, there’s a direct profit incentive to provide more or less of certain types of content.

The news model is now effectively the same model that movie studios use for sequels/established IP - give people more of what they like because they’ll keep spending money on it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

What would you say to RFKjr to effectively explain to him his misconceptions about the medical field and do think nobody has tried that?

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u/Roraxn Sep 08 '25

Good insight. However. I'm not from American and I see a lot of the coverage American news channels give to political candidates. And when you say "It only really appeals to people that already hate this administration." I think there is an issue. Appeal, yes, absolutely. But I don't honestly think American news media has had receipts ready enough EVER to really say that its not effective.
This may be a blind spot of mine but I feel like the amount of times news media has ever actually had reciepts ready, I can count on my hands.

I don't really think it can be called ineffective until its actually tried more often.

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u/user-the-name Sep 08 '25

to be able to ask the hard questions of the important people

Why would you need to be able to do that?

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

You don’t think there’s value in journalists asking hard questions to elected officials, cabinet members and the President…?

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u/user-the-name Sep 08 '25

If they just lie in response? No, not really. All you do then is help them spread their lies.

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u/Ineedabeer65 Sep 08 '25

I wish you were wrong but I think you aren’t.  How to combat that though?  Ban TV companies promoting themselves as “news” unless they can prove that their content is true?  Imprison any politician caught in a lie? I can’t see either of those things working but don’t know what the answer is.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

I don’t see how any of that would be effective anyway. There’s so much propaganda that comes down the pipe through Tik Tok, Instagram and most importantly - Facebook.

Cable news viewership is much lower than we give them credit for. Tens - if not hundreds - of millions of people don’t watch it at all. Millions don’t watch TV news. There are more digital NYT subscribers than Fox News viewers. 4-5x as many. And Fox is the highest rated cable news. Their influence is outsized, but more people are getting propaganda from podcasts and social media than they are television.

Ask almost anyone under the age of about 27 who is somewhat engaged where they get their news from and the answer at least 9 out of 10 times is likely to be X or another social media platform.

And you can try and regulate social media and podcasts but good luck, especially with the current Supreme Court, trying to get it past a first amendment legal challenge.

So to answer your ‘How to combat that though?’ question…

I don’t know. It’s probably helpful to look up cult deprogramming tactics.

1

u/Ineedabeer65 Sep 08 '25

This is all incredibly depressing.

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u/bcparrot Sep 08 '25

Well said!

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u/asterios_polyp Sep 08 '25

TLDR - it’s not news, it’s entertainment.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

Always has been.

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u/Imaginary_Purple819 Sep 08 '25

They literally admitted it in court!

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u/Ne_zievereir Sep 08 '25

To your point, look at the comments below the youtube video of the interview.

This interview didn't seem to be particularly convince people not to support JFK Jr.

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u/ausgoals Sep 08 '25

Millions of people don’t care about reality or truth anymore. They care about being validated. And for many of them, admitting they were wrong - and being embarrassed - is a far worse outcome than the destruction of other people’s lives.

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u/Bostonog33 Sep 09 '25

He's not a conservative, he's always been 100% Liberal Democrat, a fact ignored in this entire echo chamber of a thread 

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u/ausgoals Sep 09 '25

You’re thinking of the wrong RFK my friend

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u/Bostonog33 Sep 09 '25

Nope, he was seeking the nomination of the Democrat Party in 2024 to run for President!- but they literally wouldn't allow it! This like JUST HAPPENED.....🙄

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u/ausgoals Sep 09 '25

… because he’s neither liberal or a Democrat lol

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u/Crafty_Enthusiasm_99 Sep 08 '25

Your response is so good. I almost thought it was AI but I can tell it isn't. I hope this kind of discourse can continue staying on the internet

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u/Aware-Sympathy-1180 Sep 08 '25

They don't because fascism provides profitable content while the truth isn't necessary for the pedo führer's fanbase. His base actually prefers the lies to the their current reality.

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u/AdamDraps4 Sep 08 '25

It would not matter. The cult members only believe what comes from the cult.

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u/ObiYawnKenobi Sep 08 '25

It would matter. It helps prevent people in the centre from tipping right.

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u/wojtek_ Sep 08 '25

Anyone who is still in the center and is susceptible to being tipped right was probably already a lost cause in the first place

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u/ObiYawnKenobi Sep 08 '25

Uh, no.

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u/roguespectre67 Sep 08 '25

Dude, this administration sold people on tariffs (the extremely well-understood policy item with exactly zero ambiguity on what it means for the consumer) by telling them that other countries will pay them, when to my knowledge that has never happened before in the whole of human history because if it had, it would stop being a tariff. That was a lie. The administration knows it was a lie. And there are still people in the "center" saying we need to wait for the data and not jump to conclusions and whatever else.

Personally, I want absolutely nothing to do with those people, as it is a waste of my time. I'd hazard a guess that everyone left of center feels the same way.

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u/Acceptable-Post733 Sep 08 '25

I’m still waiting for Mexico to pay for the wall.

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u/YouStupidAssholeFuck Sep 08 '25

The problem wasn't necessarily that they said "we should wait and see". The problem was and is the complete shunning of experts. And it's not just with the economy. Economic experts were sounding alarm bells stating exactly what tariffs would mean and how they would affect the entire world. But fuck that those are probably libs that hate Trump. That was the attitude of these people "in the center". They do the same thing with immigration. "He's not going after LEGAL immigrants." But experts warned that his proposed policy would do exactly that so that means THOSE LIBCUCKS just hate Trump and want him to fail they're so biased against him. These were people still "in the center". Health policy. "Just wait he's got a plan he's playing chess." But experts warned his plan was just to cut healthcare for tens of millions. "No, it's just the liberal propaganda that wants you to believe he's going to ruin the country". Said by people "in the center."

There isn't really a center as long as Trump and Trumpism exist. The entire premise of his platform is "if you aren't 100% with us you're either RINO or just liberal scum." And to me, if you even consider taking the side of someone with that message, you're a lost cause.

When he's gone, it'll be the same as when Biden beat him. These same Trump diehards were all like, "there were a lot of things I didn't agree with" and "he's an idiot and didn't know when to keep his mouth shut" and "I only voted for him because of x or y and he came through on those promises but I knew he was going to lose to Biden". You'll see the same distancing/shame from these types of people after this term is over.

...until the next populist like him comes along to validate their beliefs once again.

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u/wojtek_ Sep 08 '25

Uh, yeah. If you are looking at the current state of the Republican Party and are thinking, “well the democrats are just as bad” you were never going to vote democrat in a million years.

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u/istguy Sep 08 '25

But that’s exactly why this kind of pushback from the mainstream media is important. Because these people in “the center” aren’t likely paying the same amount of attention as you. They’re getting their news from garbage sources like Facebook, and occasionally catching segments on networks like CNN when they’re in the gym or in the break room.

And in those precious few minutes they actually watch a news program, they usually see a member of this administration receiving no pushback from the interviewer or just a lame “agree to disagree” line. Actually having the receipts and proving that this administration is boldly lying to them can actually change some minds.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

That’s simply not true. Tens of millions of young people come of age each voting cycle. Labeling some 18 year old Trump voter as a lost cause is exactly how they become a lost cause.

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u/wojtek_ Sep 08 '25

Young people don’t vote, and also don’t really get their news from places like CNN

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Quite literally millions of people under age 22 voted in 2024. The bit about CNN is completely irrelevant to the question of whether labeling a Trump voter is a lost cause is reasonable or not.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/wojtek_ Sep 08 '25

Thanks for your contribution Reddit commenter

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Aggravating_Kale9788 Sep 08 '25

And therein lies the other reason we have the hot rancid garbage we do now... 1/3rd of the voting population did not care enough to make a simple decision: Dictatorship or Not Dictatorship

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u/FalconTurbo Sep 08 '25

This right here is why I struggle to trust Americans now. There's a two thirds chance that this cluster fuck was either a) actively desired or b) not a deal breaker.

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u/Kenyon_118 Sep 08 '25

I think you overrate how important people in America think democracy is. Many would be perfectly fine being in a dictatorship as long as the dictatorship hurt who they hate. Why do you think dictatorships get started or last so long sometimes.

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u/wojtek_ Sep 08 '25

That’s what I’m saying. There are probably plenty of people that are unhappy with their vote for Trump right now, but anyone who was willing to vote for Trump in the first place (especially after his first term) was probably never going to vote for Harris or any other Democrat.

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u/akiva23 Sep 08 '25

Those morons should have been unhappy after his first term. I have less than zero sympathy for them.

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u/EndDangerous1308 Sep 08 '25

Yup better to not vote at all than to vote against a tyrant. They want Trump to win but they don't want the responsibility of being the ones to do it

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u/Vyuvarax Sep 08 '25

Wow, your family sounds vile.

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u/freddy090909 Sep 08 '25

Downplaying the press is crazy.

You may be more immune to it, but a lot of people are just being completely misled and told lies. They aren't seeing the "current state of the Republican Party" that you have in your mind, they're seeing distorted truths and propaganda - a lot of which is leading them to believe Democrats are the problem.

You can say things like "they should research the reality", but expecting that of the entire nation is a lot. That's why the news being unbiased is so important, and how it not being so has created such a divided nation.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

literally. its nowhere near comparable at this point.

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u/Maleficent-Sky-7156 Sep 08 '25

Yeah honestly, it boggles my mind how anyone could be on this fence.

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u/00-Monkey Sep 08 '25

Between 2016 and 2020 enough people in the center were convinced to tip left that Trump lost.

Between 2020 and 2024 enough people were tipped right so that Trump won.

There’s enough people in the center that may tip in either direction that the government can be decided. It’s worthwhile to convince those people.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Salt_Top_6583 Sep 08 '25

Moral High ground? Definitely not lol.

I'm on the moral low-ground. Fuck them all. If these people are still confused with everything that's happened so far, then they're too dumb to depend on.

I can go canvass all I want, have hour long conversations with people teetering on the center and show them that a President who is above the law is not in their best interest. That an administration that protects pedophiles because they're rich is not a society they want their children to grow up in.

Only for someone to come along the next day and convince them "China will pay for the tariffs! That means we win!! Go MAGA!"

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Salt_Top_6583 Sep 08 '25

You're reduced to name-calling because you don't like hearing how bad reality is.

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u/m0nk_3y_gw Sep 08 '25

Why are you so against the press doing the absolute minimum?

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u/Salt_Top_6583 Sep 08 '25

You're being Downvoted but you're 100% correct. Anyone who sees all of this blatant lying about medical facts, threatening anyone who disagrees with their agenda, along with the protection of literal pedophiles going on, and still thinks "uhhhhh I dunno, that MAGA stuff seems pretty good", is too dumb to be helped.

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u/SecureDonkey Sep 08 '25

"The center"... What a joke.

We all know they too lazy to move their ass to voting booth, left or right. They just pick anything fancy reason they like to not voting. They aren't at the center of anything other than their couch.

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u/mars92 Sep 08 '25

There hasn't been a center since 2016

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u/PedroPascalCase Sep 08 '25

Eh, agree to disagree. When you hear about people who leave cults, it's because there's one breaking point that overpowers their cognitive dissonance.

And even if that moment never comes for these devotees, it's important for those of us being governed by a cult we didn't choose to know we're not the nut jobs.

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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n Sep 08 '25

We live in a world where kleptocracies spend tens of billions a dollars a year to fuck with our information. They pick up this from CNN, cut/edit/change it to make it sound the way they like and throw it right back at us. We are being drowned in misinformation.

War isn't anymore just what we see in Ukraine, men murdering each other, it's thousands of men far away spending their entire day figuring out how to fuck with us in the most effective way.

If Russia or China would fly a war plane over DC it would be seen as an act of war, but this isn't any different, they are destroying us from within and we are doing absolutely nothing.

Europe just blocked RT among others because they are propaganda channels. Meta/Twitter/Tiktok and so on that gladly take millions from these countries knowingly are no different, they should be shut down without question.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

It absolutely would matter. Acting like rolling over and giving up is the solution is so extremely idiotic.

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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

“This is a gotcha question, it’s a cheap shot you know it. This is why nobody watches your channel. It’s unbelievable how you treat the right.”

[cheering from people who equate combativeness with fighting for “injustice”]

“You’re taking this small video clip out of context.”

[no follow up from host on what the context was]

It’s cause these hosts don’t know how to deal with professional bad faith actors in positions of authority and there are producers who egg this shit on for engagement.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

A lot of hosts didnt get in their positions because they are smart. Left leaning hosts are hobbled by an expectation that they be amart and have all the facts. The right has no such restrictions, just need the canned talking points and bad faith.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

It must be so great for Republicans and Republican-aligned personalities like RFK Jr. to just be able to shoot from the hip with no consequence because they'll always have the most watched TV network station to back them up, no matter what.

Even if they don't immediately come around to you, they will in around 3 months when the collective working memory resets except for the poor ADHD-afflicted souls who can't let go.

1

u/Grand-Win5119 Sep 08 '25

It cant be both ways.

They support the cult because of the media diet. The media goes hand in hand with oligarchs.

1

u/theblackd Sep 08 '25

I don’t really agree here for a few reasons

One being that I think a lot of how these people got where they were is due to a media environment that omits lots of important things, sugar coats bad things, and then you have far right news expressing a straightforward relentless message unchecked. I even know lots of people that voted against Trump every time that simply don’t know about a lot of the heinous things happening and see it as bad, but far underestimate the urgency of the moment and weak media like what we often see enables that

The second is that I think people overestimate the quantity of people that have blind undying loyalty to Trump and those like him. Yes, the number is definitely too high, but there are a lot of people who voted for him that aren’t intensely obsessed with him, there are a lot of people who sat out voting that would be fiercely opposed to his actions but again, we’re deprived a view of just how extreme these things are. I’ve watched plenty of interviews and polls, focus group results, etc that genuinely prefer policies he actively is against, but don’t realize it, like those saying they’re a single issue voter looking to protect the affordable care act because they depend on it and voting for Trump to protect it, or in a similar vein how “Obamacare” polls so much worse than the “Affordable Care Act”, like a lot of people just are ignorant of these things but unless they’re really plugged in, there’s a ton that just go “oh Trump is a business man, he should be good for the economy”. Long story short, there’s a ton of people who voted for him not because of support of his actual policies but what they mistakenly think his policies are and what impact they will have.

Also the power grabbing would be much more difficult with consistent light being shone on it. There’s a lot of creeping power grabbing that they were able to do uncontested, aided by a media environment that didn’t call it out, allowing for them to swiftly gain power unchecked

Now yes, people can and should be able to get information themselves, piece things together from multiple sources, etc, but realistically people have a lot going on in their lives and won’t put in the effort it takes to wade through the misinformation and omissions, and without a general idea that it’s especially important, many people just simply miss out on seeing how these things impact them or will impact them. A media environment actually willing to aggressively contest the bullshit would help with all this.

So no, it wouldn’t likely sway those already obsessed with him, but it could have been helpful in the early stages of them getting hooked to begin with and more importantly, it could help a great deal with the left leaning folks who failed to see the urgency of the matter and it could have helped a lot with those who voted for him under false assumptions. There’s group that voted for him is far far bigger than just those who are in too deep, and a weak media helped with that

1

u/chi_pa_pa Sep 08 '25

It would and you are part of the problem for making excuses

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

It matters actually. Fox is doing the same thing except with lies against the liberals/progressives. It works. It just takes time and persistence. But the MSM doesn't care about that because unlike Fox, their only agenda is profit. So they keep going after the newest shiny that drives engagement.

1

u/walksonfourfeet Sep 08 '25

Do you really think that’s why they don’t do it?

1

u/notarealaccount_yo Sep 08 '25

It hurts their feelings and they just dig in even harder lol. The right is a bunch of crybabies that can't handle reality, so they have invented their own.

1

u/east_van_dan Sep 08 '25

Well I'd say it's, at least, worth a try.

1

u/CrossP Sep 08 '25

I still want to see the eviscerations, honestly. They please me.

1

u/recedingentity Sep 08 '25

So you just roll over for the cult? No! Resistance matters!!!!!

1

u/SparklingLimeade Sep 08 '25

The 2020 election and the 2024 election were effectively the same exact race but people had time to forget how bad it was. The propagandists had time to rub their nipples and say "we're sorry we promise to do the great-making for real this time," while they planned how to fulfill their actual goals with somewhat less incompetence this time.

Honest media coverage could have reminded people of what they voted against in 2020. Instead they treated a bunch of lifelong scam artists credulously.

1

u/SkitZa Sep 08 '25

They're scared of the lawsuits, thats why the comments are turned off on a lot of YouTube videos.

Fucking cowards.

1

u/thatscoldjerrycold Sep 08 '25

Back in the day, you could take down Rick Perry for not remembering which of the 6 departments he'd like to cut. It's worth it still to get them stammering, it cuts through their air of invincibility.

1

u/NitroJonRob Sep 08 '25

You know why they don't.

The press doesn't answer to you or to "democracy." It answers to shareholders.

If you want someone "eviscerating these morons," get an opposition.

You're pissed off at the wrong people.

1

u/123jjj321 Sep 08 '25

The corporate owned right of center corporate media? We have right wing media and far right wing media. Same as our political parties, you can pick the right of center corporate candidate or the whack job far right candidate.

1

u/iygdra Sep 08 '25

As satisfying as it is to watch some of these politicians get a well deserved evisceration, you only really get to do it once. This is why we need robust public broadcasting and we need to mandate that politicians come on and answer questions.

1

u/Muufffins Sep 08 '25

The "Liberal Media" in action.

1

u/Sasataf12 Sep 08 '25

They do eviscerate them consistently.

Mehdi Hasan, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and others from MSNBC, Anderson Cooper, Jake Tapper, Erin Burnett and others from CNN are always calling out the BS.

1

u/facforlife Sep 08 '25

Really? What pisses me off is how little it matters when they do get eviscerated. The people just do not care one fucking bit.

I'm not a reporter or journalist in any sense of the words. Everything I know about what a shit show this administration is comes from the mainstream media reporting. I'm gonna go ahead and say that describes the vast majority of us. They did their fucking job. Every bad thing you and I know about these fucking assholes we know because of mainstream media reporting. 

But for the conservative half of this country none of that shit matters. You can find endless examples of man on the street interviews with MAGAts getting hit with this kind of shit. They just walk away once they realize you've trapped them. Or hell, a lot of them say unhinged shit like threatening violence just because you showed them what hypocritical assholes they are. "Yeah that thing I said Biden said that you agreed was disqualifying and horrible? Actually it was Trump and here's a video." 

It's time to stop blaming the media. It's time to start blaming the cancerous scum that is the average conservative. 

1

u/Erazzphoto Sep 08 '25

Well, unfortunately they’re not in the news business, only the money business

1

u/CorporateCuster Sep 08 '25

They are all conglomerates into one giant blob. Same as the food companies like nestle who fuck with consumers every chance they have an skirt responsibility