Conventional Wisdom After The Fact

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scarborough

Gulp.

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough reflects on the self immolation of the mainstream media during the US Presidential Election.

Meanwhile…

“When the conventional wisdom is wrong this often, we really ought to take pause. It’s a sign that those in charge of reading the world for us aren’t reading it right. It’s like they’re speaking the wrong language.

It’s one thing to call an election wrong here or there. But to do it again and again should have alarm bells ringing very loudly in newsrooms, in academia, in the corridors of power generally.

It is simply not good enough that almost all of our pundits, researchers, presenters, producers and ‘experts’ are clearly so out of tune with so many voters. It’s one thing to call elections wrong, but what makes it worse, and obviously contributes to all those wrong calls, is that the ‘experts’ are indeed so out of tune and so out of sympathy with so many voters. Worse than that, they have huge contempt for huge numbers of voters”

In fairness.

FIGHT!

‘Conventional wisdom’, based on contempt for voters, got it wrong (David Quinn, Irish Independent)

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64 thoughts on “Conventional Wisdom After The Fact

      1. Neilo

        Unlike Jo-Scar, I know that I’ll never experience the sticky kiss of hair gel again *Suedehead sadface*

  1. bisted

    ‘…Worse than that, they have huge contempt for huge numbers of voters”…wouldn’t be too many of the Broadsheet commentariate able to cast the first stone…

  2. jusayinlike

    At least he’s admitting it, bit late though tbf, a lot of people on here unfortunately bought into their ridiculous propaganda

    1. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

      @ jusayinlike;

      It wasn’t really propaganda, and even if it was it didn’t work. Trump’s support stayed solid throughout.
      It was much more bad or lazy journalism.
      The irony of it is that it made Hillery’s supporters complacent and apathetic.
      – I wonder how many of the protesters out on the streets didn’t even vote

      1. edalicious

        Most of the protests seem to be happening in blue states so here’s a good chance they probably did vote and, if they didn’t, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

  3. Clampers Outside

    Seeing as David Quinn was not supporting Trump, that means he was pro-Hillary, and by association (as per the pro-Hillary brigade rules of association as witnessed in the comments these past couple of weeks) then all the pro-Hillary types are pro David Quinn’s views.

    Imagine that, pro-Hillary liberal logic at work.

    Amazing init.

    (No, I don’t believe a word I just typed. Just pointing out the ridiculousness nonsense that has gone on in the comments all this week)

      1. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

        @ Clampers Outside;
        I don’t understand what he’s trying to say, but where’s the pro-Hillary bit in this? I don’t see it..

        ‘The election has been awful but for me tension-free because a Clinton-win has been on the cards ever since the Trump nomination. #TodaySOR

          1. Jordofthejungle

            Resigned rather than relaxed would be the more apposite word here as to Quinn’s immediate pre-election position.

            In any event, Quinn is now somewhat delighting in Trump & crowing about the defeat of liberal internationalism..

          2. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

            It was the word ‘election’ that confused me. I thought he meant the result or maybe even the election. I didn’t realise he meant the campaign.
            I never understand the man.

    1. Bob

      And not a word on the insanity of Bodgers Anti-Clinton rants about baby eating and devil worship. You’re essentially lambasting one side for something the other was also guilty of, and you continued to be smug about it.

      Do you not see the irony of all of Bodgers posts?

      1. Clampers Outside

        ‘Rants’ or posts you didn’t like?

        Smug to point out the stupidity of the ‘with us or against us / guilty by association’ posts from the pro-Hillary crowd? Really?

        That’s your prerogative mate.

        1. Nigel

          And you can pretend that there’s some equivalence between posting stuff like that spirit-cooking thing and pointing out how stupidly ridiculous it was.

          Mind you, banging on and on about the ‘with her or against her’ mentality smacks of the righteous indignation of someone who wandered faux-naively into a divisive election debate and still can’t quite get over their nuanced position of revilng one side while supposedly not supporting the other inexplicably not getting the consideration it deserved. It’s the equivalert of voters who abstained wondering why they don’t get no respect. .

          1. Nigel

            Just because I criticise your self-righteous indignation doesn’t mean I support anyone else’s. Mostly I just don’t get why you’d expect anyone to else to view what amounts to a failure to commit as some sort of virtue. Obviously it doesn’t matter, none of us had a vote, but anyway.

          2. Nigel

            Case in point. You realise you always trail off like this with a vague comment that could mean just about anything at all?

      2. SOQ

        +1

        What concerns me is that if Broadsheet was so quick to flip to the alt Right when it suited, are they going to it again?

      3. SOQ

        +1

        What concerns me is that if Broadsheet was so quick to flip to the alt Right when it suited, are they going to it again?

        1. jusayinlike

          I doubt Hillary was involved in any of the spirit cooking mentioned above, podesta however is a different story, him and his odd brother are up to their neck in something very odd, I’ve had a look at the case and to me it’s compelling, his brother James’ instagram photos were very dubious pretty much all of them were of scantily clad toddlers the guy doesn’t have kids that the curious pizza parlour with its pedo symbol the dodgy video and the strange business arrangements with Haiti, I doubt Hillary had anything to do with it the jury is out on podesta though

      4. Daisy Chainsaw

        That whole Spirit Cooking thing was hillarious. It’s a book by an avant garde artist. I’m sure if Hillary was caught reading Harry Potter she’d be accused of witchcraft.

  4. DubLoony

    Joe was one of the big pushers of Trump from the start. He needs to take responsibility for his part in creating the orange monster.

    What Trump & Sanders both got that others didn’t, (except Robert Reich) was the obvious fact that the US economy does not work for millions of people.
    Rather than blaming China or immigrants, there has been a huge amount of automation in old muscle jobs. There isn’t an army of pick ax wielding coal miners needed anymore because one fella on an earth eating machine can do the work of fifty. What happens to those men? Become software engineers or baristas?

    1. Kieran NYC

      But unemployment is down to 4.9%

      Wage growth has been stagnant but is now rising.

      I figure it’s like what goes on in Ireland. The angry narrative is that EVERYTHING IS AWFUL and anyone who dares challenge that with positivity gets their head taken off as ‘part of the establishment’/’shill’, etc.

      1. Clampers Outside!

        Is it really though, minimum wage is a joke in USA, and let’s not forget the two biggest welfare beneficiaries in the US…. McDonald’s and Walmart

        4.9%… but how many are good jobs.

        1. Kieran NYC

          There was a candidate advocating for a large minimum wage increase, and it wasn’t Trump…

          In fact Trump at one stage said he would abolish the minimum wage.

  5. Nigel

    In fairness anyone who voted for Trump or abstained came by that contempt honestly. Arguably they were giving the voters more credit than they deserved.

    1. nellyb

      Rather – ‘they were giving Electoral College more credit than they deserve’, since it’s them really electing the president.
      Clinton got majority popular vote – i.e. majority of citizens preferred her. BUT some popular voters must have ticked Hillary Clinton for president and at the same time ticked an anti-Clinton Elector, who gave that state vote to Donald Trump.
      Imagine majority of your county voted for Kenny, but your county representative (which you’ve elected) voted for Martin. With other counties reps voting for Martin he would have won, even though Kenny collected more votes all together.
      I am still not sure I understand their system correctly. But it was explained this way and what I’ve read – tallies up. But I stand corrected if I’ve misrepresented.
      A bit tired of ‘redneck’ bashing…

      1. Nigel

        They did seem to have a touching faith in their system. I also wonder how much to attribute to various methods of getting people to not vote, something that always works in Republican’s favour.

        I despise redneck bashing myself and that was not my intention, though I suppose I did lay myself open to the charge. I doubt I’ll ever not think of the election of Trump as not stupid, whoever cast those ballots.

  6. realPolithicks

    Quinn probably orgasmed when he heard Trump was elected. Right wing nutters bonding across the ocean.

  7. Gorev Mahagut

    “It is simply not good enough that almost all of our pundits, researchers, presenters, producers and ‘experts’ are clearly so out of tune with so many voters.”

    Experts should be at odds with popular opinion; their very expertise subsists in knowing things the rest of us don’t. The “expert in public opinion” is an oxymoronic chimera, despite it being one of the sustaining fictions of journalism.

  8. Deluded

    I liked Michael Moore’s piece, it explains why so many people voted for Trump when he was being actively repulsive. Mitt Romney got 61 million votes in 2012, Trump will get about 60 million.
    Seismic Shift.

    Moore says he wouldn’t vote for Hillary as she voted for the Iraq War, he makes the point that people don’t like her, don’t trust her. They didn’t vote for her and the Democrat gamble failed.
    Now they have President Trump. I’m presuming he will do Republican stuff. Does anyone think that the elites are worried in any way? Are the power-brokers and the lobbyists getting nervous? The lads in Washington prepared to be bamboozled?
    Is Wall Street quaking? They might be if you believed his acceptance speech but the thing is, having a lot of American friends and family, I can say that different people say you can ignore or discount different things that he says.
    In fact, he might do or say anything! Plus, if he only does half the horrible things he said he would then generally his supporters will be happy. This is a grotesque and sickening time for a lot of people, not just for idle commenters in ivory towers.

  9. 15 cents

    its not that they arent reading it correctly .. it’s that theyre bought to say stuff, so its not the peoples opinions, but the wealthys.

  10. Serval

    CNN and MSNBC etc would rather have Trump as President than Bernie Sanders as President, that’s for sure.
    They’re not really that upset, they’ll remain wealthy and probably become wealthier under Trump than under Clinton.
    He did promise to reduce corporation tax from 30% to 15%.

    1. sǝɯǝɯʇɐpɐq

      @ Serval;
      He sums it up well, but in common with a lot of the content from Young Turks he repeats himself too often.
      I wish they didn’t do that. Shorter videos get more viewers. More concise arguments persuade more doubters.

      Otherwise they suit my Liberal Progressive palate just fine.
      tinyurl.com/o5b39x6

  11. President von Clownstick

    Bodgey gonna sh&£ the bed when he finds out who I’ve lined up for treasury #filltheswamp

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