Our political media is deeply broken

A simple paragraph in a newsletter paints a depressing picture

Hot tip in Politico

I opened the Politico Playbook newsletter this morning eager to read about the various plans for the Republican debate tonight and the various machinations around Trump’s impending arrest in Georgia. The very first paragraph was this nugget.

This is a list of most of the major political media figures from almost every network and major newspaper including ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Daily Mail, New York Times, and Washington Post. All at dinner with the most awful people of the Trump campaign.

It took me a second to chew on what I was reading. The major political reporters we rely on for hopefully unbiased reporting on our political moment having a dinner at a restaurant where the cheapest steak goes for $45. Who were they with? Well, Jason Miller, who slipped a girlfriend an abortion pill in her drink; Chris LaCivita, who led the disgusting Swift Boat Veterans campaign against John Kerry,;and long time Trump flunky and spokesman Steven Cheung.

The dregs of MAGA world all having a good old time over dry-aged beef.

The Swag

One extra tidbit in the piece was that Politico included these super fun pictures of the “dessert” and the hilarious DeSantis debate Bingo card they handed out to participants. You have have seen them floating around social media and not known the source.

The oh so clever dig at Ron ‘Pudding Fingers’ DeSantis

The absolutely rip roaring hilarious bingo card

Notice the fancy plating of the pudding pack? They went all in on that ‘pudding fingers’ bit and didn’t want to miss a beat.

But, look closely at that second picture of the Bingo card. Aside from the “Ron!” play at Jeb Bush’s failed campaign logo and DeSantis ticks in the boxes, I want you to look at what it’s sitting on. On the left is a hit on President Biden with a picture of Hunter Biden looking like he’s on drugs.

That’s what was sitting on the table for the journalists to collect and take home.

The innocent explanation

I haven’t seen any of the journalists comment about this being reported publicly, but, as an old spokesman and public relations executive here is what they will likely say. First, they will dismiss it as nothing at all. Just a standard dinner with campaign folks that every journalist does. Second, it will be written off as an ‘off the record’ or ‘on background’ dinner meant to inform these journalists of the Trump campaigns plans for the debate and messages so they can use them in their stories later.

All perfectly innocent and standard journalistic practices. Nothing for you little people to worry your little heads about. You just don’t understand the system. Leave it to the professionals. We don’t need to know if they paid for their own meals or it was comped. That’s for their management to know and not you folks.

Nothing to see here.

Except it’s not

No, it’s not okay. I have seen so many people baffled by how the media keeps featuring Jason Miller on their shows and in stories even with his history and working on a campaign for a candidate facing criminal charges in four jurisdictions. This is how it works. He is on the shows because he provides them things and they provide him things back.

He gives them the inside scoop at a 4.5 star restaurant over wine and expensive steaks and they provide him air time and quotes in their stories. He has what they want and they have what he wants. Will they report as critically on his candidate after rolling back to their room with a dry-aged Tomahawk Ribeye in their belly paid for by the idiot donors who keep shoveling money to Trump?

They will say…yes, of course!

But, do we know that?

No.

A deeply broken system

This is the system in politics and media. I have seen it myself over and over. The political press has their sources and their sources have their press. They frame the stories the way each wants it and they all get a good chuckle over pudding fingers and that ‘Wipes Snot’ spot on the bingo card.

We are left to fight for our democracy without a critical press even bothering to pretend they care about the future of our country because let’s face it…even fascists love a good steak so the access train will never stop rolling.

In this case a man who is too much of a coward to even show up at the debate will have his main talking points and messages already in reporters hands before the debate even happens. They will have their little Bingo cards and will be following along to see if old Ron steps on it and get a good chuckle.

Finally, I think the ultimate symbol of how broken the system really is lies in that last sentence. “And across the restaurant, feet away; members of Team DeSantis.” Remember when Team DeSantis laid off a third of their employees last month because cash is getting tight and they need to run a leaner campaign? I guess they can still afford a good steak dinner for the folks who stayed on board.

I bet the food was delicious.

My take on the DeSantis Debate Strategy Leak

I did a break down video of the bizarre leak of debate strategy, polling, and oppo research that found its way to the website for Axiom Strategies, the huge consulting firm all but running the Never Back Down PAC for Ron DeSantis. I touch on what happened, why it likely was there, and what was in this huge dump of campaign data. Check it out and be sure to subscribe to MeidasTouch Network too.