Axios, Politico, Punchbowl, etc. are all the same. They are run by and for political hacks who see every issue in "both sides" terms, staying neutral by ignoring or downplaying all the bad shit Trump does, and constantly hammering Democrats for not fixing or stopping all the bad shit Republicans do. They epitomize the worst of what passes for journalism these days.
Thank you Peter. I get all of them and notice that I rarely look at them anymore. The are deleted unread with all of my other digital junk mail. I saw an Axios story extolling the Pretender in Cheese's 1st 6 months and immediately assumed they own massive shares of Chapstick. Punchbowl is a relatively new propaganda publisher (at least to me) and Politico? Intercourse Politico!
Politico posts a "Cartoon Carousel" every Friday with a selection of about 17 political cartoons. I love political cartoons and appreciate seeing both sides getting lampooned. But, ever since Trump reentered office, many of the selected cartoons have a decidedly pro-Trump/anti-Democrat slant, revealing not so much the foibles and idiocy of the Democrats (no lack of material there) as the clear political bias of the cartoonist. Some of them are straight-up propaganda, factually incorrect or even repeat demonstrable lies. I still check them out each week, but am disappointed that many cartoonists are failing their court jester role.
Thank you for this important piece. It is astonishing that anyone could regard the last 6 months with anything but horror. But I guess our "supreme" court 6 are in full agreement.
Regardless of any Right leaning argument, there is NO way to accept thoughless cruelty to other human beings as an accomplishment; or obvious lying to excuse the destruction of government agencies that grew out of experience and humanitarian concern for our nation and the world we inhabit.
These men have seen where the money and power is, and in their desire to be in the in crowd use their lack of depth and imagination to promote what those who put money above all glorify.
Thank you, Judd Legum, for your brilliant and courageous investigative journalism.
"These men have seen where the money and power is, and in their desire to be in the in crowd use their lack of depth and imagination to promote what those who put money above all glorify."
Yup, too many of that kind of man around. Need to cull the herd.
Aargh... I wish the culling would occur sooner rather than later. Maybe all bit coin will end up defunct and cause back lash against the shallow and the greedy. What else? Your word culling had me pondering.
It's quite simple to understand the people these "journalists" worship, really. For them "little people" (i.e. non billionaires) know nothing, are irrelevant, and only get in the way of their grand plans to reshape the world according to their favorite fictional writers (whose half-baked plans always ignore the nature of actual humans in the style of Ayn Rand).
What happens to "little people" doesn't matter to them. They believe the ends they're seeking (always selfish and self-serving) justify any means they might have to employ to achieve them even if that includes the wholesale suffering and death of the rest of our nation's and the world's population. Whatever they THINK they're building, what they'll get is like the video game "Bioshock." if they're not stopped. What all the sycophantic, destructative journalists, such as those at Axios, fail to realize is that THEY are nothing but "little people" in the eyes of their "gods," and will be destroyed and ground into dust at the slightest whim of those "gods."
Neutrality, whether legitimate or right-wing talking points dressed up in the language of liberalism, is a position in it of itself. America is plunging headlong into fascism. To invoke the classic Howard Zinn line, you can't be neutral on a moving train.
Judd, as a faithful reader of yours, I was blissfully ignorant of Axios’ counter factual fantasies until you wrote this thorough description of them. Some things are beneath contempt and better ignored than condemned at great length.
With all due respect, I don’t think we have the luxury of ignoring any source of disinformation and lies. Part of the reason djt’s gaslighting has been so successful is all the support he has received from “disparate” sources. A big mistake of democrats was taking the treatment for a schoolyard annoyance (ignore it and it will go away) and applying it to deliberate, well funded, propaganda machines.
I fear the problem is the opposite. The obsession with countering disinformation is obscuring our duty to enunciate a clear path forward for everyone in this country. Wasting time on refuting Axios means less time spent making the case for economic democracy and fairness, for a country where th majority doesn’t have to struggle just to get by, where the middle class isn’t drastically shrinking, and so on. Making that case is what we need to focus on, not refuting Axios, which, at the end of the day, has a tiny audience and is saying nothing different than any other part of the right’s intentionally delusional media ecosystem. That ecosystem exists partly to keep the center and the left tied up reacting to fiction instead of working to fix reality. Let’s at least deny it the achievement of that goal.
I see your point, I do, but still think it is important to label the conduits for distortions and lies in an effort to reduce distribution and further propagation. I confess to being stymied by “grassroots republicans” who believe outlets such as Axios tell them, that their economic fortunes are on the road to recovery and equilibrium is set to be restored. I guess I am willing to try to find the crack, whatever form it takes, to undermine their false beliefs. It seems that many people have been convinced to vote against their own best interests with a web of sources that create a vast echo chamber. I feel compelled to hack away at the web, the lies themselves, and at the same time, disseminate economic facts and policies that WILL move us along toward economic democracy. That being said, I respect your point and will stay ever mindful of the mission.
I can't remember how Axios ended up in my Inbox. But for the first year I fell for the "neutrality" advertising and kept getting frustrated at what was clearly a right wing lens. Thank you for explaining the background. (I finally got rid of it a year ago.)
Exactly my experience. I kept reading and wondering why it grated so. I finally twigged that they were just presenting a reasonable face while lying out their asses.
Wow! The hubris of these people is next level. I just don’t even understand why people can’t see through something like this. Their writing is their opinion. And they’re bootlickers for wealthy billionaires and people like trump.
Didn't know much about them until now as I don't read much Axios if ever did. Thank you for the informative article so I can steer clear of them. If this is a winning presidency, I'd hate to see a losing one.
I think the same is true of the alleged "Free Press". I still think the hated "legacy" media like NYT Bloomberg, Wapo (which is declining in reliability due to Bezos control) are fair minded and publish retractions when wrong. However, so many who left the legacy media and do their own substacks, like Paul Krugman, are really worth following
“VandeHei and Allen have beliefs, but claim to be objective because they consider their right-wing beliefs, particularly on economic issues, to constitute fundamental truths.”
And this is why they suck at what they do. I used to get multiple Axios newsletters until I felt like my brain was going to explode and I unsubscribed but responded to them first by saying their Trump biases were off the charts. I just cannot stand corporate media. They are rich and white and nothing affects them personally so this administration is just great 😡
This goes right along with the NYTimes article this morning on 11 Latino voters who are Republicans, voted for trump, and think he's arrogant, aggressive, resilient, but will vote Republican again. How does trump get the people he will hurt the most to like him the best?
Where are the articles that interview people who understand the federal government and the presidency and how it's working against us right now?
Axios, Politico, Punchbowl, etc. are all the same. They are run by and for political hacks who see every issue in "both sides" terms, staying neutral by ignoring or downplaying all the bad shit Trump does, and constantly hammering Democrats for not fixing or stopping all the bad shit Republicans do. They epitomize the worst of what passes for journalism these days.
Thank you Peter. I get all of them and notice that I rarely look at them anymore. The are deleted unread with all of my other digital junk mail. I saw an Axios story extolling the Pretender in Cheese's 1st 6 months and immediately assumed they own massive shares of Chapstick. Punchbowl is a relatively new propaganda publisher (at least to me) and Politico? Intercourse Politico!
Politico + Axios + Punchbowl = Pap
Politico posts a "Cartoon Carousel" every Friday with a selection of about 17 political cartoons. I love political cartoons and appreciate seeing both sides getting lampooned. But, ever since Trump reentered office, many of the selected cartoons have a decidedly pro-Trump/anti-Democrat slant, revealing not so much the foibles and idiocy of the Democrats (no lack of material there) as the clear political bias of the cartoonist. Some of them are straight-up propaganda, factually incorrect or even repeat demonstrable lies. I still check them out each week, but am disappointed that many cartoonists are failing their court jester role.
Thank you for this important piece. It is astonishing that anyone could regard the last 6 months with anything but horror. But I guess our "supreme" court 6 are in full agreement.
Regardless of any Right leaning argument, there is NO way to accept thoughless cruelty to other human beings as an accomplishment; or obvious lying to excuse the destruction of government agencies that grew out of experience and humanitarian concern for our nation and the world we inhabit.
These men have seen where the money and power is, and in their desire to be in the in crowd use their lack of depth and imagination to promote what those who put money above all glorify.
Thank you, Judd Legum, for your brilliant and courageous investigative journalism.
Deregulate means eliminate the EPA and go back to the pollution that forced Nixon to allow the creation of the EPA.
Yes. Your comment helps us make connections.
"These men have seen where the money and power is, and in their desire to be in the in crowd use their lack of depth and imagination to promote what those who put money above all glorify."
Yup, too many of that kind of man around. Need to cull the herd.
Aargh... I wish the culling would occur sooner rather than later. Maybe all bit coin will end up defunct and cause back lash against the shallow and the greedy. What else? Your word culling had me pondering.
It's quite simple to understand the people these "journalists" worship, really. For them "little people" (i.e. non billionaires) know nothing, are irrelevant, and only get in the way of their grand plans to reshape the world according to their favorite fictional writers (whose half-baked plans always ignore the nature of actual humans in the style of Ayn Rand).
What happens to "little people" doesn't matter to them. They believe the ends they're seeking (always selfish and self-serving) justify any means they might have to employ to achieve them even if that includes the wholesale suffering and death of the rest of our nation's and the world's population. Whatever they THINK they're building, what they'll get is like the video game "Bioshock." if they're not stopped. What all the sycophantic, destructative journalists, such as those at Axios, fail to realize is that THEY are nothing but "little people" in the eyes of their "gods," and will be destroyed and ground into dust at the slightest whim of those "gods."
Neutrality, whether legitimate or right-wing talking points dressed up in the language of liberalism, is a position in it of itself. America is plunging headlong into fascism. To invoke the classic Howard Zinn line, you can't be neutral on a moving train.
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice!
Thank you for shining a light on this, Judd.
Judd, as a faithful reader of yours, I was blissfully ignorant of Axios’ counter factual fantasies until you wrote this thorough description of them. Some things are beneath contempt and better ignored than condemned at great length.
With all due respect, I don’t think we have the luxury of ignoring any source of disinformation and lies. Part of the reason djt’s gaslighting has been so successful is all the support he has received from “disparate” sources. A big mistake of democrats was taking the treatment for a schoolyard annoyance (ignore it and it will go away) and applying it to deliberate, well funded, propaganda machines.
I fear the problem is the opposite. The obsession with countering disinformation is obscuring our duty to enunciate a clear path forward for everyone in this country. Wasting time on refuting Axios means less time spent making the case for economic democracy and fairness, for a country where th majority doesn’t have to struggle just to get by, where the middle class isn’t drastically shrinking, and so on. Making that case is what we need to focus on, not refuting Axios, which, at the end of the day, has a tiny audience and is saying nothing different than any other part of the right’s intentionally delusional media ecosystem. That ecosystem exists partly to keep the center and the left tied up reacting to fiction instead of working to fix reality. Let’s at least deny it the achievement of that goal.
I see your point, I do, but still think it is important to label the conduits for distortions and lies in an effort to reduce distribution and further propagation. I confess to being stymied by “grassroots republicans” who believe outlets such as Axios tell them, that their economic fortunes are on the road to recovery and equilibrium is set to be restored. I guess I am willing to try to find the crack, whatever form it takes, to undermine their false beliefs. It seems that many people have been convinced to vote against their own best interests with a web of sources that create a vast echo chamber. I feel compelled to hack away at the web, the lies themselves, and at the same time, disseminate economic facts and policies that WILL move us along toward economic democracy. That being said, I respect your point and will stay ever mindful of the mission.
Everything you say is true, Patti. Thanks for the conversation.
I can't remember how Axios ended up in my Inbox. But for the first year I fell for the "neutrality" advertising and kept getting frustrated at what was clearly a right wing lens. Thank you for explaining the background. (I finally got rid of it a year ago.)
Exactly my experience. I kept reading and wondering why it grated so. I finally twigged that they were just presenting a reasonable face while lying out their asses.
Wow! The hubris of these people is next level. I just don’t even understand why people can’t see through something like this. Their writing is their opinion. And they’re bootlickers for wealthy billionaires and people like trump.
Didn't know much about them until now as I don't read much Axios if ever did. Thank you for the informative article so I can steer clear of them. If this is a winning presidency, I'd hate to see a losing one.
By their metric, the losing one would be the Allied Powers in WWII, while the winner would be the Axis. We live in a very upside down world right now.
All of my family were Veterans including my Mother. Have no doubt they would be so ticked by this country turning fascist
I think the same is true of the alleged "Free Press". I still think the hated "legacy" media like NYT Bloomberg, Wapo (which is declining in reliability due to Bezos control) are fair minded and publish retractions when wrong. However, so many who left the legacy media and do their own substacks, like Paul Krugman, are really worth following
“VandeHei and Allen have beliefs, but claim to be objective because they consider their right-wing beliefs, particularly on economic issues, to constitute fundamental truths.”
And this is why they suck at what they do. I used to get multiple Axios newsletters until I felt like my brain was going to explode and I unsubscribed but responded to them first by saying their Trump biases were off the charts. I just cannot stand corporate media. They are rich and white and nothing affects them personally so this administration is just great 😡
Got rid of Axios and Politico a while back as what I was reading was BS.
This goes right along with the NYTimes article this morning on 11 Latino voters who are Republicans, voted for trump, and think he's arrogant, aggressive, resilient, but will vote Republican again. How does trump get the people he will hurt the most to like him the best?
Where are the articles that interview people who understand the federal government and the presidency and how it's working against us right now?
"liberal" media
This is a great article. At the end you laid it all bare when you "followed the money".
If you agree with Allen and VandeHei they call you objective. If you disagree with them they call you biased.