Wowzie, does anyone have an explanation for the wall to wall attacks on Biden re Afghanistan?

[ShazamIam]

Even sticking to text, it is hard to avoid the message, we must give up on Biden.

Nothing Trump did including the sell out of Afghanistan to the Taliban has ever received the kind of thrashing Biden is being given over Afghanistan.
The MSM seems intent on convincing all Americans to give up on Biden.
Not even the Jan. 6 attack on the Capital, generated this much anti-Trump coverage.

[jmbar2]

1. 2022 elections

[ShazamIam]

10. Too far off for the attention span, what about those two big legislative agendas, Infrastructure &

the even bigger budget/reconciliation. Are they preparing a path for Sinema and Manchin to withhold support?

Add in the, the not so subtle support the, "big liars," have been given by this same MSM.

[jmbar2]

12. You may be correct

Anything to derail Joe's agenda.

[marble falls]

2. Sure, selling advertising.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Beats me. It's like something sitting there waiting to explode.

[ShazamIam]

56. Yes, for so many reasons, one being to hide the betrayal of the Pompeo/Trump Peace plan.

[NewHendoLib]

4. the media so misses the drama - so they create it to draw eyeballs and make money.

hence we are a no media zone in my house - no TV news of any sort for 17 years now.

It's all utter bullshit

[doc03]

8. They will stick to it until the next shiney object. I

have to give Trump credit, he would have created some kind of diversion by now.

[TheProle]

57. What is bullshit

Is the assumption that the media shouldn’t cover the final chapter of a 20 year war. There is plenty of criticism to go around, but President Biden doesn’t get a pass for his role in this shitshow.

[Lovie777]

5. I think they are shifting tho ....

towards other agencies to beat up. In the end . . . .

Another shinny object.

[Chuuku Davis]

6. I think it is because he didn't

Pull the Americans and SIVs out before pulling the troops.

[PortTack]

13. Biden didn't pull troops..tfg did. Went from 15,000 to 2,500

[Lovie777]

15. Thank you . . .

and shithole's administration made agreements one being the release of 5,000 Taliban from prison back on Afghan soil.

[madamesilverspurs]

7. Might have something to do

with who owns the media.

Non-mainstream media reports that up to 95% of Americans strongly support Biden.

Mainstream media is invested in the opposite point of view.


.

[ShazamIam]

14. The media seems to be intent on changing the minds all the peoiple supporting Biden on this.

They don't even acknowledge the support, only one so far has noted it, Wallace.

[RockRaven]

9. Corporate media and the pundit class are deeply invested in American imperialism...

Any disengagement from that, especially in any manner that has any hint of humiliation, threatens their project.

[Mme. Defarge]

19. Oui!

C’est ça.

[treestar]

37. +1

They made a fortune at the dawn of cable news with the First Gulf War. Then 911, Afghanistan, Iraq. Biden's agenda to fix things back to normal is anathema. It's so boring. Won't keep people glued to the media.

[JoanofArgh]

39. The first Gulf War caused a boom for CNN's ratings. I still remember that.

Bernard Shaw was reporting from under a desk in a Baghdad hotel as cruise missiles went past.

[2naSalit]

46. +2

[ShazamIam]

62. That is certainly part of it.

[PortTack]

11. Ranting for ratings...the country be damned!!

[BlueIdaho]

16. It's August... the slow news days in DC.

So the media decided to whip up a feeding frenzy based on mostly imagined facts on the ground in Afghanistan. Along with that - never underestimate the number of reporters who think taking Biden down a few pegs might do their careers good.

[Sympthsical]

17. Because it didn't go well

Sorry, but it didn't. Complaining about the media nonstop accomplishes little. Our allies are appalled with how it's all gone. (The German government has a lot to say).

There are still tens of thousands of Westerners in-country with no easy or even perceivable path out. There are reports that the British military wants to throttle the Americans over what is happening at the airport.

It's a lot of political damage.

I'm with Biden. We needed to get out.

But the execution is just . . . not great. We're going to find out why. What did our intelligence, both civilian and military, know? Who reported what to whom? How much did the administration know? How much should it have known? We already have three committees headed by Democrats looking into it. They're not happy either. When Congressional leaders aren't happy, you know it's bad.

But man, there's a whole lot of this going on right now, it seems:

[Act_of_Reparation]

20. This

[Hoyt]

29. Absolutely. People seem to want the media to cover this up. It was a poor execution of the correct

decision to withdraw.

Don't see how the execution of the withdrawal plan, assuming there was a plan, can be blamed on others.

Biden could have easily announced that he was delaying the withdrawal a month or two because additional troops and air support -- as a rear guard -- were needed because trump drew the troops down too far. He could have also said that he did not think trump's "agreement" with the Taliban could not be relied upon.

Instead, Biden said this would not be like Saigon. That video and people clinging to the plane will be run 24/7 right up to the 2022 elections (which is just over a year away) and in 2024.

I am glad Biden is sending in additional troops and appears to be taking decisive action now.

[Sympthsical]

38. Agreed

The juxtaposition of Biden's statements and the photos out of Kabul are politically devastating.

And there was at least some warning about all this. More and more articles like this are coming out:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/politics/biden-afghanistan-blame-shifting/index.html

Factions within the Biden administration are embroiled in a blame game over why the US government didn�t act sooner to withdraw American citizens and Afghans who helped the US over two decades of war, leading to a rushed and dangerous evacuation.

Military officials have said that for weeks they urged the State Department to move faster in evacuating its diplomatic personnel. State Department officials have said they were operating based on intelligence assessments that suggested they had more time, but intelligence officials insist that they had long reported the possibility of a rapid Taliban takeover.

An intelligence assessment produced within the last month assessed that the Taliban were pursuing a total military victory in Afghanistan, a source familiar with the intelligence said, despite ostensibly negotiating for peace in Doha and even as the administration continued to express confidence in those talks.

I get that all kinds of people and departments are in CYA mode. But if even half of what's leaking - no, gushing - out is true, the politics of the thing will get worse before they get better.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

18. The MIC doesn't like their toys taken away.

[2naSalit]

47. That's the real reason.

[ansible]

21. The buck stops here

[PRETZEL]

22. No explanation, but an opinion

The initial coverage of a chaotic Kabul shocked alot of people and should not have been ignored. But now that we're in day 2 or 3, things are calming down and it has an appearance of a more orderly transition. But the sensationalism of that first day, and the knee jerk reaction that Kabul was a clusterfuck of incompetence, was just that, a knee jerk reaction.

But to some degree, it has to be noted that there isn't much else going on. Alot of people are getting Covid weary and that the House is not in session to debate the infrastructure and reconciliation bills.

Come September when the House comes back in, and making an assumption that there continues to be an orderly transition of the Afghan government, the narratives will switch.

[ProfessorPlum]

23. Charlie Pierce does

"The only one who got it right was the president. And the more stories I read from anonymous sources at the Pentagon or in what is laughingly called the intelligence “community,” the more I think that what’s driving this heated C-Y-A effort is that the president called bullshit on what everybody was telling him and acted on what was right there before his eyes. He pulled the emergency brake on the damn gravy train.

Believe this. Almost everything you’re reading on this topic in elite publications is an effort by somebody somewhere to duck out of their responsibility for 20 years of fantasy and illusion and outright lies. Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post called all of them out when he printed the so-called “Afghanistan Papers.” Anything that is attributed to the various anonymous sources that is in any way contradicted by Whitlock’s work is simply not to be trusted."

[ShazamIam]

42. Thanks, and Charlie Pierce is a fav of mine. I need scoot over to Eqsquire and catch up on him.

[crickets]

65. Yes. Pierce gets it. nt

[robertpaulsen]

24. Anything to avoid looking in the mirror for blame.

Satire is a mighty lesson.

https://www.theonion.com/withdrawal-from-afghanistan-ends-longest-media-farce-in-1847496557

[malaise]

25. MIC

War is very profitable

[madamesilverspurs]

41. It has become MMIC --

Military Media Industrial Complex



.

[malaise]

44. Indeed

They have their own agenda

[brooklynite]

26. Give me a specific example of the media saying to "give up on Biden"

Over the top descriptions aren’t any better on our side.

[Hoyt]

31. +1.

[ShazamIam]

35. Ok, thanks for your thoughts.

[FloridaBlues]

27. Cable news is frothing and so are most of the guests being dug up

Let the troops do their missions.

[redstatebluegirl]

28. Americans want to "win" these wars that cannot be won.

Especially the military, generals want to win, end of story.

[spanone]

30. It's fucking non-stop

[helpisontheway]

32. They have barely said a word about Iraq and Afghanistan for years

Now it is nonstop because they finally found a way to knock Biden down. All along foreign policy was supposed to be his strength so they want to weaken him. Just as military service was John Kerry’s strength when he was running but the media helped them make it seem like a weakness. They tried to destroy Obama with Reverend Wright but it did not work.

[betsuni]

55. +1

[Kid Berwyn]

33. Well, the Corporate class do need their tax breaks.

Can’t get started early enough defeating the socialist communist left wing blah blah blah with the midterms only 15 months away.

[Locutusofborg]

34. Whatever goes right during an administration

the president gets the credit for (whether he deserves it or not). And whatever goes wrong during an administration, the president shoulders the blame (whether he deserves it or not). Not unlike the quarterback of a football team.

[ShazamIam]

36. I never heard Trump held accountable for anything from the MSM, they always found some false

equivalency, like oh back in 200 bc a Democratic president dis something similar or some bs. Yes, deliberate hyperbole.

[rockfordfile]

40. That's because the 'media" is partially to blame for the lies sending us into there and Iraq

I'm thinking of the song by Green Day, American Idiot.

[Shermann]

43. It's the first major misstep by Biden

So the media is going to pounce. It's good for ratings and helps them to demonstrate some neutrality after ripping Trump on a daily basis for four years.

[multigraincracker]

45. Dirty Laundry....

&t=8s

[Me.]

48. If It Bleeds It Reads

[Mr.Bill]

49. Politically, with

the Newsom recall and Cuomo resignation, they smell blood in the water. Don't think for one minute all these things aren't connected. Watch your back, Kamala.

[kairos12]

50. The MSM hates "boring." If can stir up controversy, they will. That's why they can't quit the

Orange Blob.

[LisaM]

52. In 2001, they were wall to wall pro going into Afghanistan (and Iraq)

In my opinion, the media was.a cheerleader for both of those engagements. I didn't understand it then, and I don't understand why they seem to want us to stay in both places.

[Imperialism Inc.]

53. Because otherwise they'd have to explain why they failed to inform the public.

There are lots of small reasons like clickbait, etc, but really the main one is they are butt-covering like everyone else involved in the 20 wasted years.

How many multi-day frenzies did they have over the 10s of thousands of collateral damage deaths? The corrupt warlords who abused the people? Including the one that had young boy sex slaves? Pocketed our money and put fake names on lists of "soldiers"? They covered none of that. Not even after the Afghanistan Papers came out. You could find it in dribs and drabs but never any major focus on the fact that the war has been a disaster for years.

Combine that with the fact that they are naturally inclined to support the war machine and you get this.

[ShazamIam]

61. Yes, the media has been the faithful servants of the MIC from the beginning.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

54. Such BS !

They can't seem to stick anything else to him.

Crap, he is trying to help people with the pandemic, infrastructure...we just need to change the subject.

[ShazamIam]

60. Yes, they want to lower his standing just as the Republicans in the Senate want to shut down

the government again over the debt ceiling.

[Deminpenn]

58. Biden and his administration have been relentlessly

competent at governing, legislating to help Americans, businesses and industries who need it and generally moving the country in a positive direction on many fronts. The administration is full of competent professionals who are in their positions to serve all Americans and not to enrich themselves with whatever grifts they can while in office.

As far as "must see TV", this is all pretty boring. OTOH, the withdrawal from Afghanistan is a little messy at the moment and lends itself to Monday morning quarterbacking and breathless reporting. Much better for ratings.

[ShazamIam]

59. Things have quieted down but the media is still replaying day 1.

[betsuni]

63. Because of the rule that Democrats are never allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Republicans always are. They never would've blamed a Republican president. Daddy gets respect. Everything's always Mommy's fault.

Also a rule that if anything bad happens during a Republican administration, it's the fault of the previous Democratic one. Once a Democratic administration takes charge, the previous Republican administration that screwed everything up suddenly never existed.

[Johonny]

64. He failed to give the media the war they wanted