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Dec 3, 2021
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YES! I remember a time when I was literally hired to run a major part of an agency to "put it on the cutting edge." While I cannot take personal credit for doing that, with the help of a very dedicated and highly skilled staff, we together did just that. But guess what? It was simultaneously too much and not yet enough. I don't miss those days, let me tell you!

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Thanks for this. You have beautifully articulated what is a shameful problem in...I was going to say "corporate America," but it's not confined just to there. In my own limited experience in corporate life, I observed, almost everywhere, men in positions of authority being "supported" by brilliant women...and by "supported," I mean the women were doing most of the work and coming up with most of the good ideas. Heck, even in the hidebound GOP, the women are doing the heavy lifting, whether at the RNC with Ronna, in the sane wing of the party with Liz Cheney, in the troll section with MTG and Boebert, and at SCOTUS with Amy (who is much smarter than Brett et al).

The sooner we have more women in positions of authority, the better off the world will be. I just hope we can get there before the men destroy it all.

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Too many of the women who are doing the work seem hell bent on signing on to the “good ole boy” strategem, albeit vicariously

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Again: you nailed it.

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Thank you.

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I’ve admired MVP since I watched her at the hearing for Bret Kavanaugh. She is obviously extremely intelligent, well-prepared, & quick thinking. It is upsetting to me the way she is dismissed by the media. Not sure why the media is so critical, but then I think about the way they have dismissed able females (HRC & Amy Klobuchar, for example) & embrace the likes of TFG, I should not be surprised.

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Who owns and operates the AP? WaPo? NYT? I have to wonder if the white men running around at the top of all these news organizations just give lip service to liberal values and whether they’re just racist and sexist too and don’t know it.

The system is still sexist to the core. And now that we have a woman VP (in a stage whisper, “OMG and she’s colored, did you know that!?”) I think the system is having a reactionary moment. Just like the racists in the country had a backlash giving us Orange-Dayglo-Toupee-Poster-Boy-for-White-Male-Supremacy after eight years of Obama, now even the “liberal media” is getting triggered because of the proximity of a woman to the Resolute desk.

Of *course* you find it upsetting. It’s revolting. Our country is racist to the core and sexist to the core. 48% of voters chose to re-elect Racist-Sexist-in-Chief over Biden-Harris in 2020. Anyone who thinks we live in an enlightened democracy (present company included) has to be reminded about the 48% of the country that wouldn’t mind going back to the confederacy and some version of slavery and men having power over women in all respects. The USA was Saudi Arabia not that long ago people. I’m speaking to myself too. I’ve had on rose-colored glasses as well.

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Thank you.

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Truth.

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Excellent points.

I throw this out there just to sharpen your argument (and since you asked): AP is different from the other news orgs, in that it is a not-for-profit cooperative owned by the member papers. Lots of women in positions of power, and a diverse senior leadership group and board featuring many brilliant people:

https://www.ap.org/about/our-people/leadership-team

But...they are there to serve the members, who are mostly old white guys. Just at one remove.

And I know what you mean about rosy glasses. The tolerance, if not outright support, of racism, misogyny, and despotism in this country is shocking. It's shocking. I didn't think it was this bad. It's worse than I thought it was even in early 2020.

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I think about other countries (Great Britain, Germany, India, for example) who have had effective female leaders versus the USA which disparages females who enter into the political arena. I am retired & had thought, in my working years, that surely women were advancing to the point where they could be respected as equals in the workforce. It’s discouraging to see how naive I was.

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How naïve all of us have been.

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“It's shocking. I didn't think it was this bad. It's worse than I thought it was even in early 2020.”

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The media is run mostly by old white men, and the coverage reflects that. The right wingers, meanwhile, recognize that KH is a threat to their worldview, and actively craft narratives to smear her.

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I thought I posted this, but it isn't showing up. Forgive me if I repeat myself.

AMEN to your analysis! Chris Cillizza is the #1 reason I do not watch or read anything from CNN. Incidentally, I tweeted this to CNN and tagged him as well. I also sent it to MSNBC just as an fyi.

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He is both dumb and vile. The way he wrote about Ivanka, in particular, was unprofessional and gross.

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Accurate diagnosis, "racism and misogyny" is a powerful motivation that seems as problematic as ever.

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I agree completely. And maybe it’s the White House itself that is racist and misogynist. Maybe all those stories are coming out of the White House itself and the journalists are just reporting what they hear.

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Then if that is so, why don’t the journalists call them out?

*deleted previous tweet thanks to autocorrect* 😸

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EXCELLENT question 🏆🎉🏆

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Vice Presidenting while Black and femaling is the ultimate mortal sin.

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👍👍

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Wait until the "vice" modifier is removed from that sentence. ; )

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Sadly I don't know if I will see that in my lifetime.

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Actually Kathleen I think you will. This article of Greg’s is highlighting an under-the-radar development, the grooming of Kamala Harris for the Presidency. If you’re around in 2024 and 2028, it’s going to be a fierce battle for Harris in one of those elections, I predict.

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There's no doubt she is being groomed and I would happily support her. My fear is that the media will succeed in destroying her as they did Hillary. They're getting off to a "great" start //s. I think she's amazing.

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Then the $hit will really hit the fan.

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Another reason I love Kamala is that she's Gen X. She moves the generations along. Throughout his career, but since 2008 especially, Biden was shown himself to be the opposite of racist and misogynist. Not many older white men could have handled being VP to the county's first Black president as adroitly as he did. But he is still a product of his times, and has his limitations. I'd like to see him front and center on the abortion issue, for example.

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Well said.

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"Maybe he thinks we can pray away the Rona, like he thinks we can pray away the gay?" Greg, you slay me. I couldn’t stop laughing.

As usual, great article. Spot on.

A minister who told his flock not to get vaccinated, better to pray away the virus, died from the virus.

The last Vice President had no free will. Whatever spell the Former Guy had over him was total. But they still wrote about him, didn’t they?

But, “Make no mistake about it, the media and Harris critics are not merely oblivious to her presence, they are refusing to acknowledge it.” It’s hard not to say the prime reason the media don’t acknowledge VP Harris is, she’s Black/Asian and so doesn’t have anything worthwhile to say. And her presence is overlooked as she is not “out there” read, loud and obnoxious, as some have said, and she doesn’t garner the ratings as say, the orange man.

The right wing attack VP: they wanted Princess Purses, as Ivanka is called, to be in her shoes. Not happening.

As to Cillizza, he isn’t a journalist when he was with The Washington Post, and he isn’t now. But there he is on CNN spouting claptrap.

Today, the headline in INSIDER reads, Body language can say a lot. Here's what one expert told us after studying Kamala Harris's and Pete Buttigieg's interactions on their joint trip to Charlotte.

A body language expert started by telling us Buttigieg is gay. What that has to do with his position as Transportation Secretary is beyond me.

He tells how their feet are pointed— Secretary Pete’s feet “Neither one of his feet are pointing toward her once toward the door a little bit sort of anger toward the door.” Odd sentence, but OK.

Body language is important, in some instances, but this is not one of them. And true to form, reporters didn’t ask about infrastructure they asked about 2024 election.

Heaven help us all.

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Thanks for this insightful comment. The media wants a Mayor Pete / MVP heavyweight match for the next nomination. They are trying to create tension there. It's disgraceful.

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Media need to change their business model. It's all about revenue intake, read, golden goose/geese and not about giving citizens unbiased, objective news. Reporters have fallen down and the can't, or wont, get up. They're comfortable buying into lies and misinformation.

Good case in point, CNN and Chris Cuomo who helped his brother....Look at how long it took Zucker to suspend him indefinitely. Why? They have only now suspended the man who had the highest ratings on CNN.

Boo Hoo Hoo. They need to deal with it.

Now if only there could be a permanent suspension of Fox's Carlson.

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Rupert will never…

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I have been ignoring the lame and sporadic articles about “problems in the White House” with the veep. I am from California. I voted for Harris in the primary (I think, maybe it was Warren or Sanders, the embarrassment of riches in 2020 leaves me mesmerized and befuddled). Harris is a magnificent human being. Magnificent. And she’s from Oakland and Berkeley. Everything I have ever seen about her personally in print in California makes you smile. What’s not to love. OK, she’s had some career problems. Who hasn’t.

Perhaps the journalists in the lame-stream media (covering the VP) all live in trailer parks and shanty towns and read National Enquirer first thing when they get up every day. After catching the headlines in the Enquirer, perhaps they tune into Jerry Springer. Because I think they’re all addicted to salacious gossip. They’ve had four years of the biggest criminal and scumbag in the oval office, and now they are geared to looking for dirt. They appear to have forgotten that there are people who are honest, hard-working, ethical, and competent. The lame-stream media does not seem equipped or prepared to report on competent government work in the WH. Always hunting for scandal, even when there isn’t any. I’m surprised they’re not reporting about Hunter Biden every week, like the greaseball media does.

I think, based on insufficient information and being just an outsider, that the mainstream media is falling into the same racist and misogynist trap that the greaseball news sources revel in.

Dummies.

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It's all about the clicks, all about the traffic, all about them.

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They are following Rupert down the rabbit hole, to the detriment of us all. There are no words…

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“But let me make this as simple as possible, in case Cillizza is reading this: The last Vice President tried to kill us all. The MVP is trying to make our lives better.”

I love you, Greg, but that is not the narrative here. I agree with Reecie. We already had a president with an African-born father, and now we are on the verge of having a president who is a woman with a Jamaican-born father and an Indian-born mother.

That is the narrative. That is definitely why the right wing press is going bonkers, and I would venture to say that the White House itself must be racist and misogynist, why else would they try to make her invisible. And your CNN turkey is part of the white male racist sexist corps as well if he has any problem with Kamala. Kamala is an absolutely magnificent human being.

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Yep. Just racism and misogyny, with a soupçon of antisemitism mixed in, since her family by marriage is all Jewish.

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Good point. I'm sure the rightwingers loved the picture of the MVP and the Second Gentleman lighting the menorah.

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And nailing a mezuzah to the doorway of the Residence. Which they did a couple weeks ago.

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Nice, Linda, thank you for that 🙏

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Thank You. Right on, sadly.

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Thank you. Your article was excellent and I'm so glad you engaged Reecie Colbert in this discussion. I am enraged at the media coverage of MVP Harris. OK, I'm enraged at the media all the time. I think we need to just say it - the media are as sick, twisted and Fascist enabling as Trump and the GQP and they are willfully and gleefully engaged in undermining democracy. We have to stop making excuses for them. The kindest thing I can say about them is that they're lazy, sycophantic stenographic hacks who are not very bright. Thank you for letting me rant.

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"lazy, sycophantic stenographic hacks who are not very bright" should be written in the job description, honestly...well phrased!

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Thank you!

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Hear hear 🎉🙏🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

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MSM has become what chump accused them of. Fake news…. Lethal for our democracy

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I follow Reecie on Twitter!!! I'm a Fan Geezer since I'm way too old to be a Fan Girl!

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Jaimie Harrison, DNC Chair, is implementing exactly what Reecie is talking about. DNC is hiring people who live and work in communities to engage in organizing and networking all year long. He agrees that we just can't waltz into precincts 3 months before elections and expect to effectively engage voters.

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Good!

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Finally! Stacy Abrams has paved the way in Georgia.

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Stacey Abrams is a freaking genius. My sister heard her speak at her law firm and says she is exactly as brilliant and ethical as advertised. The fight for governor of Georgia is going to be nearly as epic as when Harris runs for president, when she wins the Democratic Party nomination.

I give the race for governor of Georgia 5 popcorns out of 5

🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿

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"...Yet even as she embarked on a high profile (and ultimately successful) diplomatic trip to Paris. . . which included bilateral talks with President Emmanuel Macron of France, the media ran multiple stories falsely claiming that she was invisible....”

Indeed. We heard a lot about $500 cookware too, didn't we? All through the Trump years I took the media's side, believing that ultimately what they were doing and reporting on was good; that even though Trump supporters, and certainly Trump himself, kept whining that they were being treated unfairly, the media was only reporting on what they herd and observed. But, now it seems that nothing much has changed. I will NEVER go so far as to say that Trump actually WAS treated unfairly because he was and is, a garbage person who hasn't even had the common courtesy to die, but it does seem like the media is only out to drum up controversy for their own bottom line. I think Roland first mentioned rose colored glasses. I've now taken them off and smashed them.

Kamala Harris was my first choice as candidate in 2020 during the primaries, and I was more than a little excited when she was chosen as the VP by Biden. Now, I fail to see the reasons for not only the low polling, but the media coverage of her. I guess since I'm not a racist or a misogynist (I couldn't even spell that without my spell-checker!), I didn't recognize what's been happening. Now, of course, I do. The media -- almost ALL media -- is obscene in their continued quest for dollars in their piggy banks. It hasn't been QUITE as important up until now, because now, this kind of crap is really weakening our democracy. It's a damned shame that one has to read every news story now with a Bullshit Meter running in the background, constantly checking if what you're reading is 100% true. Luckily, for most of us here, bullshit still rings as bullshit, and for those of us with common sense, it is hard to put one over on us. It's still a shame though that something enshrined in the First Amendment can't really be trusted anymore.

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As the MSM railed against what chump called them, they have silently become just that. Wonder why? Where are our journalists..??

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