Don’t believe the gushing reviews from members of the club. It isn’t “King Lear.” It isn’t even decent political history. It allows Trump to emerge unscathed. Let me deconstruct it for you.
This is one of the most valuable essays that I’ve read since the election, if only because it makes me feel less crazy. If you were paying minimal attention in 2024, you SAW all of this. And yet, the media has swung so far to the right, it’s been possible to believe that you must have seen it all wrong, thus augmenting the crushing depression of Trump’s election with a feeling of “I must be stupid to think that’s how it was when everybody else knew it was not.”
For what it's worth I read your book on the 2016 election and thought it was wonderful. I will NOT be reading Tapper and Thompson's new book. I am a whole lot more interested in the cognitive deficiencies of our current POTUS than I am in those of his predecessor, and I wish Tapper and Thompson had chosen to focus on those.
Thank goodness for Substack, and for writers like you who aren't afraid to hold the mainstream media to account, and to call out the misogyny and false equivalence bullsh*t where you see it.
Great to hear that the 2016 book has had readers, despite the media blackout on it. (I’m not paranoid, really. But it was the first mainstream book of mine that didn’t even get reviewed in the Times, Post, etc. Hard to see it as a coincidence.)
I think I found it because I'd read your book on Anne Boleyn and was a fan. It really is a shame it didn't get more attention from the mainstream media, but I suppose that's because it didn't fit the narrative that was being pushed: that Hillary's loss was her fault for not being sufficiently likeable, not visiting key swing states, etc. I wonder what it'll take for the legacy media to step up and actually take a bit of responsibility for the way they report on women in politics. It's pure laziness and intellectual dishonesty at best, and at worst ... well, there's some real burn-the-witch energy there.
You have an iron stomach. Someone just reminded me that we’re not fighting Trump, but America—the voters, the press, whether propaganda or the already capitulated major media, a left wing that seems more interested in fighting Democrats than fascism….and a Supreme Court majority with a great interest in ‘gratuities’ and little in the Constitution. Who’d have imagined that one of CNN’s chief reporters would stoop to this kind of gossip in the midst of the travesty we’re facing…..already 300,000 dead just from the closing of US AID…. Intellectual disgrace/stares from every human face….Auden wrote in 1939
Ha, my stomach is far from iron!! But my desire to write (and through writing, to communicate with others like you) is stronger than my IBS! There’s a predictable pattern with these political/media pieces: First, the building anxiety about the need to call something out—which in this case lasted awhile—then, the reading and research, which is a lot of fun when it’s movies or tv, but sometimes a chore that I only get through because of Kindle, which makes pulling out quotes so easy, then the writing (the anticipation of which gets me up in the middle of the night) and holds me captive for as many hours as necessary, and then a day of recovery. It’s kind of nuts. But independent writers are necessary, since the mainstream media isn’t going to call themselves out. For me, that’s a major motivation.
I totally agree. I think the media collapse is the most dangerous part of this-- far too many people just sleepily trust them even when they are covering up a damned crime. A little buzz happens around what some man says, it's amplified through media who, since they're not covering the descent of fascism, have time on their hands....and suddenly half the world is confidently repeating an idiocy.
Another reason we need independent voices, especially women's and Black voices.
(And I do the same--it's almost physical--something so upsetting it HAS to be called into question and I won't feel better until I've written about it. A feature of the times.)
Occam's Razor suggests that it was gender. The MSNBC article is telling. Thanks for slogging through these books that I suspect are far more often bought than read.
Yeah, that MSNBC article is really important. Maybe worth a stack of its own? The mainstream media rarely talks about the gender stuff, and it’s so key.
Thanks for reading these books that I refuse to read, and reviewing them critically. I hold onto hopes that journalists primarily care about informing the public. I should let it go. Tapper should be ashamed to publish this book. If he was clueless enough to think, before inauguration, that Trump 2.0 would just be a presidency with some conservative policies (and a lot of crazy tweets), he knows now that Trump intends just what he promised: to destroy the democracy and rule of law. And here Tapper is, trying for a cool take on Biden. I despair for the future of journalism in the US.
I despair, too—more every day, as the need for them to be fighting forces becomes more pressing, and fewer rather than more of them are responding to that need.
When I see reporters being belittled and yelled at by the taco president, all I can think is this is what you all worked toward. Bless your strength for reading Jake’s “book”.
I think one of the biggest indictments of the media and the public after the election is that a week after the votes were in, people were still frantically googling “tariff” to figure out what that even was. It was the MAIN PLANK OF TRUMP’S PLATFORM and NO ONE ever tried to look into it. Shameful.
Yeah, they were too fixated on Biden’s age—and then on dissecting Kamala—to call out the Trumpian bullshit, the “beautiful tariffs” being among the stinking pile.
Yes, when even the Brits are information-and-reason impoverished, the world is in real trouble. But now that I think about it, they’ve always been tabloid-inclined. The Canadians are more vigilant. (I lived there for a dozen years, and wish I still did!)
What a shameful situation. Thank you for taking the time to read that swill and provide a cogent and sober analysis of what the corporate media has become.
I share your sentiment Susan. I’m spending hours a day publishing daily and I can’t do good work and do my job at the same time, so I’m cutting back to every other day. That will give me a chance to read more.
You’re welcome, Mark! The downside is that the time it takes to do stacks that involve reading and research (especially if fury-producing and requiring recovery time watching mindless tv) takes away from my time to read and respond to your stack and others I admire. I’m working on getting more balance in my use of time. It’s hard!
Great post. What we are really watching is the demise of the DC focused mainstream media as they get bought by Republicans to spout propaganda for Trump.
It’s such a contrast to read independent voices on @substack not tainted by such nonsense.
Thanks so much, King Donald! (I have to laugh, when I was writing about Anne Boleyn, I had readers who called themselves “King Henry.” There are some real similarities there, too—except for the fact that Henry 8 was educated and erudite )
Thank good for substack! Where would I be (as a writer) without it?
Here is one of the best critiques of the MSM of not just of the 2024 & 2016 elections but of their behavior in the past 10 years. Also I like how with the Clooney OPed, it’s glossed over that before he wrote that, Biden & his advisors were critical of work that Mrs Clooney’s had done with the ICC. Which to me should have been included or at least mentioned every time George’s claims were published.
He's part of the system. The system acts as one. They've decided to throw Biden under the bus. So they all act in concert. Why? Why must Biden be blamed? Because then the party doesn't have to change.
Susan Bordo, I hope you'll forgive me. I usually read your excellent pieces slowly and thoroughly. I'm so outraged by the waste of time and the cruelty that is Tapper's book, that I had to do more of a "skim" of this piece! I'm so furious at the opportunism of books like this. My husband Scott said he wants to just go up to Tapper and get in his face and yell "WHY????? WHY?????" It's so ironic to catch D*ump tweeting "sleepy Joe" again and again, when he himself has been VIDEOTAPED falling dead asleep in meetings and visits with foreign dignitaries.
Tell Scott I’ll go with him and cheer him on. And I don’t blame you for skimming. It’s like peeking through your fingers when something gruesome is in a movie.
When will they stop being a part of the problem and start becoming a solution to the problem.? In other words, journalist like Jake, Tapper, etc., do your fucking jobs!
This is one of the most valuable essays that I’ve read since the election, if only because it makes me feel less crazy. If you were paying minimal attention in 2024, you SAW all of this. And yet, the media has swung so far to the right, it’s been possible to believe that you must have seen it all wrong, thus augmenting the crushing depression of Trump’s election with a feeling of “I must be stupid to think that’s how it was when everybody else knew it was not.”
Thank you so much, Jonathan. It’s one the main reasons why I write—so people know they are not alone, not crazy, not “over-reacting.”
For what it's worth I read your book on the 2016 election and thought it was wonderful. I will NOT be reading Tapper and Thompson's new book. I am a whole lot more interested in the cognitive deficiencies of our current POTUS than I am in those of his predecessor, and I wish Tapper and Thompson had chosen to focus on those.
Thank goodness for Substack, and for writers like you who aren't afraid to hold the mainstream media to account, and to call out the misogyny and false equivalence bullsh*t where you see it.
Great to hear that the 2016 book has had readers, despite the media blackout on it. (I’m not paranoid, really. But it was the first mainstream book of mine that didn’t even get reviewed in the Times, Post, etc. Hard to see it as a coincidence.)
And yes, thank goodness for Substack!
I think I found it because I'd read your book on Anne Boleyn and was a fan. It really is a shame it didn't get more attention from the mainstream media, but I suppose that's because it didn't fit the narrative that was being pushed: that Hillary's loss was her fault for not being sufficiently likeable, not visiting key swing states, etc. I wonder what it'll take for the legacy media to step up and actually take a bit of responsibility for the way they report on women in politics. It's pure laziness and intellectual dishonesty at best, and at worst ... well, there's some real burn-the-witch energy there.
You have an iron stomach. Someone just reminded me that we’re not fighting Trump, but America—the voters, the press, whether propaganda or the already capitulated major media, a left wing that seems more interested in fighting Democrats than fascism….and a Supreme Court majority with a great interest in ‘gratuities’ and little in the Constitution. Who’d have imagined that one of CNN’s chief reporters would stoop to this kind of gossip in the midst of the travesty we’re facing…..already 300,000 dead just from the closing of US AID…. Intellectual disgrace/stares from every human face….Auden wrote in 1939
Ha, my stomach is far from iron!! But my desire to write (and through writing, to communicate with others like you) is stronger than my IBS! There’s a predictable pattern with these political/media pieces: First, the building anxiety about the need to call something out—which in this case lasted awhile—then, the reading and research, which is a lot of fun when it’s movies or tv, but sometimes a chore that I only get through because of Kindle, which makes pulling out quotes so easy, then the writing (the anticipation of which gets me up in the middle of the night) and holds me captive for as many hours as necessary, and then a day of recovery. It’s kind of nuts. But independent writers are necessary, since the mainstream media isn’t going to call themselves out. For me, that’s a major motivation.
I totally agree. I think the media collapse is the most dangerous part of this-- far too many people just sleepily trust them even when they are covering up a damned crime. A little buzz happens around what some man says, it's amplified through media who, since they're not covering the descent of fascism, have time on their hands....and suddenly half the world is confidently repeating an idiocy.
Another reason we need independent voices, especially women's and Black voices.
(And I do the same--it's almost physical--something so upsetting it HAS to be called into question and I won't feel better until I've written about it. A feature of the times.)
I have dubbed Bordo "the canary in the coal mine" -- I don't know how she does it!
Haha. I have to scrape off a lot of grime after I emerge from the mine!
Occam's Razor suggests that it was gender. The MSNBC article is telling. Thanks for slogging through these books that I suspect are far more often bought than read.
Yeah, that MSNBC article is really important. Maybe worth a stack of its own? The mainstream media rarely talks about the gender stuff, and it’s so key.
If gender bias in presidential elections is not going away soon, do you think the Democrats need to nominate a man in 2028?
Heavy question!! (Which I’m not gonna answer right now. Too many undecided variables to know how the wind will be blowing after the 2026 midterms.)
Fair!
Thanks for reading these books that I refuse to read, and reviewing them critically. I hold onto hopes that journalists primarily care about informing the public. I should let it go. Tapper should be ashamed to publish this book. If he was clueless enough to think, before inauguration, that Trump 2.0 would just be a presidency with some conservative policies (and a lot of crazy tweets), he knows now that Trump intends just what he promised: to destroy the democracy and rule of law. And here Tapper is, trying for a cool take on Biden. I despair for the future of journalism in the US.
I despair, too—more every day, as the need for them to be fighting forces becomes more pressing, and fewer rather than more of them are responding to that need.
When I see reporters being belittled and yelled at by the taco president, all I can think is this is what you all worked toward. Bless your strength for reading Jake’s “book”.
Thank you Abbi. Whatever strength I have comes from anger—and then, from readers like you.
I think one of the biggest indictments of the media and the public after the election is that a week after the votes were in, people were still frantically googling “tariff” to figure out what that even was. It was the MAIN PLANK OF TRUMP’S PLATFORM and NO ONE ever tried to look into it. Shameful.
Yeah, they were too fixated on Biden’s age—and then on dissecting Kamala—to call out the Trumpian bullshit, the “beautiful tariffs” being among the stinking pile.
Kinda like the Brits not understanding what Brexit was actually going to do to them?
Yes, when even the Brits are information-and-reason impoverished, the world is in real trouble. But now that I think about it, they’ve always been tabloid-inclined. The Canadians are more vigilant. (I lived there for a dozen years, and wish I still did!)
Yup, the same.
What a shameful situation. Thank you for taking the time to read that swill and provide a cogent and sober analysis of what the corporate media has become.
I share your sentiment Susan. I’m spending hours a day publishing daily and I can’t do good work and do my job at the same time, so I’m cutting back to every other day. That will give me a chance to read more.
You’re welcome, Mark! The downside is that the time it takes to do stacks that involve reading and research (especially if fury-producing and requiring recovery time watching mindless tv) takes away from my time to read and respond to your stack and others I admire. I’m working on getting more balance in my use of time. It’s hard!
Thank you for reading this for us.
You’re welcome, Theresa!
Great post. What we are really watching is the demise of the DC focused mainstream media as they get bought by Republicans to spout propaganda for Trump.
It’s such a contrast to read independent voices on @substack not tainted by such nonsense.
How long will that last?
Thanks so much, King Donald! (I have to laugh, when I was writing about Anne Boleyn, I had readers who called themselves “King Henry.” There are some real similarities there, too—except for the fact that Henry 8 was educated and erudite )
Thank good for substack! Where would I be (as a writer) without it?
Here is one of the best critiques of the MSM of not just of the 2024 & 2016 elections but of their behavior in the past 10 years. Also I like how with the Clooney OPed, it’s glossed over that before he wrote that, Biden & his advisors were critical of work that Mrs Clooney’s had done with the ICC. Which to me should have been included or at least mentioned every time George’s claims were published.
Good point about Clooney. And thanks so much! Can I quote the “best critiques” part?
You’re welcome and sure you can quote the “best” part.
Tapper said yesterday he didn't expect to make money. If someone thinks you're that stupid, it's insulting to continue any further with them
What??? Not make money?? He undoubtedly got an enormous advance. He’s already made money!
He's part of the system. The system acts as one. They've decided to throw Biden under the bus. So they all act in concert. Why? Why must Biden be blamed? Because then the party doesn't have to change.
Susan Bordo, I hope you'll forgive me. I usually read your excellent pieces slowly and thoroughly. I'm so outraged by the waste of time and the cruelty that is Tapper's book, that I had to do more of a "skim" of this piece! I'm so furious at the opportunism of books like this. My husband Scott said he wants to just go up to Tapper and get in his face and yell "WHY????? WHY?????" It's so ironic to catch D*ump tweeting "sleepy Joe" again and again, when he himself has been VIDEOTAPED falling dead asleep in meetings and visits with foreign dignitaries.
Tell Scott I’ll go with him and cheer him on. And I don’t blame you for skimming. It’s like peeking through your fingers when something gruesome is in a movie.
When will they stop being a part of the problem and start becoming a solution to the problem.? In other words, journalist like Jake, Tapper, etc., do your fucking jobs!
I’ve stopped hoping.
Excellent article Susan!
Thank you Elwood!
You are welcomed.
Thanks for reading this so I don’t have to give it another thought.
A lot of comments have said just this. So glad to have been of service!!