Politico Gets Raked Over the Coals for Kamala Harris Post: ‘One of the Worst Headlines Written in a Long Time’ - eviltoast

Hopefully the mods are okay with a little journalism about journalism so that people know where Politico stands in terms of being a trustworthy source.

The headline in question:

‘Next question’: Harris evades questions about her identity

The background to the headline is from Harris’ recent CNN interview:

“I want to ask you about your opponent, Donald Trump,” Bash said to Harris. “I was a little bit surprised. People might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face-to-face. That’s gonna change soon. But what I wanna ask you about is what he said last month. He suggested that you ‘happened’ to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.”

“Same old, tired playbook,” Harris replied. “Next question, please.”

  • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Honest question from a European: Do you guys still have journalism somewhere? It all seems to be political propaganda or outrage clickbait with you guys.

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      3 months ago

      Point of order from an American: Politico is a wholly owned subsidiary of German multinational Axel Springer.

      • ceiphas@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Didn’t know that (i’m German), but Springer ist known in Germany to outright lie to push rightwing agenda

          • protist@mander.xyz
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            3 months ago

            he

            Corporations are people my friend!

            Edit: I don’t actually believe this lmao…this is an infamous quote from Mitt Romney from when he was trying to be president. And also Axel Springer the man died 40 years ago

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Better regulation in EU and Germany. And better freedom of speech too.
          Many Americans confuse the right to lie with freedom of speech.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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            3 months ago

            I wouldn’t say the Daily Show does real journalism. They do make important stories public, but they have a clear slant both in terms of politics and in terms of making it funny.

            • EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              Daily Show and Last Week Tonight have staffs of ardent pursuers of truth.

              A lot of study & journalism goes in to the jokes & it shows.

              Both offer a succinct wrap of the daily (or weekly) news.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                3 months ago

                Study and research, definitely. But I still wouldn’t call it journalism. It’s satire based on research. When going for a joke over necessary details, they will often go for the joke. And if you read the story elsewhere, you will see that something important has been left out because of it.

                I love The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight a long with A Closer Look on Seth Myers’ show and I regularly watch all of them, but I still wouldn’t call them journalism. It’s well-researched extremely topical comedy. And that’s fine. That’s a good thing. People can get their information from comedy too. It’s just that you shouldn’t necessarily turn to them for a full picture of a story.

                That said, I would say that’s much less true of Last Week Tonight because they go in depth into a subject. The Daily Show and A Closer Look spend at most 6 or 7 minutes on a subject and have to fit in a lot of jokes.

                • EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee
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                  3 months ago

                  And that’s why I (& sounds like you, too) watch them: as you said they bring valid topics to the table. If they’re skewing the facts severely, they make it pretty obviously part(y) of the jokes. Doonesbury was always more of a news media than national inquirer.

                  Comedy delivered from a proper court jester beats the telltale gossip rag for actual useful information every day of the week.

                  That in mind, Late night, Tonight shows, daily shows all do a better job of delivering news than Fox.

                  Plus, they tell you it’s only part of the story or give multiple takes on the situations.

                  Fox, not so much. Some experts agree… Valid topics are only those approved by Sun times & RT.

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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                    3 months ago

                    I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying. I’m just saying it isn’t journalism. It’s informational, helpful and sometimes even profound- but it isn’t journalism. It’s just not journalism when you sacrifice information for humor.

      • littlewonder@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Agree, though their coverage of Bernie’s 2016 presidential run towed the DNC party line, which made me less sure about their neutrality. Now I tend to hit up the BBC if I want US news coverage and I don’t have time to ingest multiple sources.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          3 months ago

          A lot of British people can tell you all about the BBC’s toeing the government line. But both are a lot less biased than many other Western media sources. NPR’s biggest problem is similar to what the NYT and WaPo do, just to a lesser extent- overcompensating and causing an imbalance toward conservatism in an attempt to look unbiased. WaPo and especially the NYT are far worse though.

    • GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      There are a lot of ‘content creators’ that pose as journalists.

      There are journalists that do great work but since their stories can run counter to a narrative, it can be more difficult to find those articles.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Specifically, “Good Work” and “Some More News” spring to mind as producing well researched pieces - they’re both highly specialized and only deliver occasional focused news rather than a continuous spread of general goings-on… but given how many outlets are happy to spam low quality continuous bullshit I consider that a good thing.

    • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      This is the culmination of unchecked capitalism having full control of the media. The truth hasn’t mattered for a really long time – only which words are most profitable.

      • nfh@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        American here: their goal is clearly factual reporting, and I don’t see too often where they’ve missed the mark. Nobody’s free of bias, but they’re pretty good at balancing theirs out.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      We have capitalism that is regulated less and less with every Repub admin, so no, unfortunately.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        I just had an article removed today from Drop Site news because it had been posted on their Substack. :/

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Most of our real journalism lives online or is parroted from foreign journalists

    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I get most of my news from Reuters (which is UK-based I think). I used to read NPR but I think Reuters has more quality content. Beyond that, the Associated Press I guess, and that’s all I really trust.

      The Onion too, for when I need to forget how fucked we all are as a species.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          Liberty for whom?

          The rich, the powerful, the Elect. They want the freedom to own and control anything, even the truth. The “”“Liberty”“” they seek is total privatization of everything, and journalism is part of that.

          Politico’s bullshit is your liberty. You’re free to be lied to by anyone you want!

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Hey, remember when you said you’d vote if Biden was replaced? Good times. How’s that going?