Biden rips media for economy coverage: ‘Start reporting it the right way’

Collision Resistance@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 311 points –
Biden rips media for economy coverage: ‘Start reporting it the right way’
thehill.com
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My wages have not gone up and the prices i pay are still going up.

"fool! If you knew economics better you'd understand that your buying power is the wrongest metric. Look at the stonks you uncultured swine!"

-a super smart economist, probably

I had someone try to tell me that the economy is better than ever, people are more rich than ever, and my "personal anecdotal evidence" can be completely dismissed.

It's no longer "personal anecdotal evidence" when 150,000,000 people are experiencing the same thing just in my own country.

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How does this garbage have any upvotes?

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Mine and my wife’s have, it’s all anecdata, but we’re doing better than before.

Min wage not increasing and prices increasing isnt anecdotal

Get in a union. Or keep changing jobs just going to wherever will pay you the most.

I have a union job and a non union part time job. Pay has gone up a decent chunk at both over the past few years.

"Just get a new job" is a completely asinine take. Many many reasons people can't. Someone with a family working full time doesn't have the time or energy to develop the skills for a better job. Someone at fast food in a small town has the choice of other fast food or other retail which all pays the same.

In my wife's case, she cares for a disabled family member. If she didn't do it, nobody would. She has no choice.

I mean I agree it’s not a very helpful take, but it is true. Right now is the best time in history to educate yourself and build skill sets that are marketable

I'm interested to know is that your wife's job? You started out by saying people can't just get a new job. Which is fair. But I'm confused as to if she is actually working. Not to say it's a bad thing either way. We gotta do what we gotta do.

The whole get a new job thing doesn't work for everybody. But the main point behind it is employers are more competitive when searching for new talent. Thus hire wages. You don't necessarily have to learn a new skill or change industries. Hopping from McDonald's to Burger King might get you more money in comparison to waiting for a raise. Depends on your market and your industry.

Which part of "cares for a disabled family member" is hard to understand?

Is it confusing to you that someone would care for someone else?

..or is it just a general lack of empathy?

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If you chose to live in a small and isolated town, have no skills beyond line staff at a fast food restaurant, are unable to promote up to management there, and unwilling to travel, I'm sorry, but you sound like you dug yourself into a hole. I have a job I enjoy a lot, even if it's not very high paying, but I still have the experience and skill set to go off and get at least 3 other jobs in 3 other fields that would pay me more, or even getting a job doing what I do now but at a higher paying place, but like I said. I like where I'm at.

Stuff is expensive as hell now, but you can do something about it. It sounds like you may not want to choose any options that exist, though. If you're dealing with something that totally prevents you from doing so. But hell, even work from home Apple help support reps start at like $45k/ year.

If you chose to live in a small and isolated down,

And then on any post about housing prices, all you see are comments like "well you chose to live in an urban area!! If you liberals would just move to rural Alabama you could afford your rent!1!" So which is it?

Then I get downvoted for saying there's a million reasons people can't just up and move, including a lack of jobs and other resources in rural areas. Besides, a majority of people don't necessarily choose where they live. There are countless socioeconomic circumstances that dictate that.

It's just proof that people continue to fall for placing the blame on one another when it should really be directed straight upwards.

You sound like a 20 something, childless white guy that was spoonfed fox News. Glad you had time to build new skills. Some people have children or ailing/disabled families. Some people already work 2 jobs.

Some people struggle, even when they do everything right. Callous ass.

Lol. Holy shit did you fly way off the mark. Try going with 40's, fam with kids, and lean left. Housing assistance,snap, socialized medicine, taxing the wealthy, and all.

Sure, you can have bad luck and get screwed in life, but right now the job market is WAY better than when I got out of highschool just before 9-11 happened. You can get a work from home job at $20 an hour right now, I drive a class B truck as a side job for $26 an hour, and there's a rock quarry that hires green people for over $25/hr that end you up close to $35 after two years. I don't live in some fantastic state, either. Midwest.

Right now there's a ton of work available if you go get your feet wet. The younger than me generation is screwed on housing costs right now. I'll give you that, but so was most of my generation. But you also have the ease of an online education and remote learning making it far easier and cheaper to get into some things than anyone else before has. The job market was terrible when I got out of school. Now unemployment is low and unions are getting a hold again and companies are all having to pay more just to poach other companies for people. John Deer will hire you, pay you to go through their 6 month program to learn how to work on their tractors, give you a truck tool box decked out with tools and send you off as a repair tech for them for like $70k a year. There's not a mechanic shop in the country that isn't behind right now due to the high vehicle prices causing people to hold their old vehicles together longer that wouldn't like another person to do mechanic stuff.

I'm rambling, but the point is, there are pretty ok jobs out there right now. Businesses are willing to train you on the job from knowing almost nothing at this point. If you look and don't live in the middle of nowhere, you can probably get hired doing something that pays better than wherever you're at. Today's economy no longer rewards loyalty.

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I'll talk to biden and let him know of your situation. I'm sure he will do something tomorrow dw.

Ill let him know next November

Trump will 100% be great for your life 💯💯💯💯

Oh boi i get to choose between my life getting worse and my life getting worse.

BoTh SiDes is defeatist bullshit and just an excuse for mental laziness. Try thinking for a change.

The thing is for a great many people they don't care. They aren't getting deported. They aren't getting shit on any worse than with Biden.

That may change, but it didn't in Trump's first term. Biden has to be better now, for the working class, than Trump was. And he just isn't.

The POTUS has little control over the economy. But the economy is way better than when Trump left office, and the outlook is thousands of times better.

It's just that people bought the claim that somehow the economy going to shit under trump wasn't his fault (it wasn't) but now that the same thing that fucked trump is still fucking shit up, it's Bidens fault.

Is the suggestion here that minorities shouldn't or don't matter even though they are a solid chunk of the working class?

You're talking at me and not taking in what im saying. Working full time every week, my life is worse off now than before Biden took office. Im not going to vote to make my life worse.

I do hear what you're saying. You apparently think another option would be better, despite the mountains of evidence against that

The mountains of what? What evidence? Evidence of presidencies besides Biden and Trump's??

Worse off during Biden is different from worse off because of Biden. Hitting the brakes while going downhill 200 MPH doesn't completely stop you from going more downhill. Every modern Republican has been so incredibly short-sighted that it's genuinely destroying our future by insane levels.

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Pandemic-disrupted supply chains are pretty much righted. Inflation is already back near normal levels. Labor shortages have eased. The Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates next year.

We'll still get a thousand stories about a looming recession.

Inflation is back near normal, but prices are not, and wages have not shifted to match those prices (partially due to the government fighting "wage inflation"). People are still worse off than they used to be. I don't think this is Biden's fault, but here we are anyway.

Biden has called this out. A lot of companies are still raising prices or aren't letting prices fall. They're still saying "oh, this is inflation causing this" while their costs fall and their profits rise.

Biden can't stop them singlehandedly. (He's a President, not a Supreme Dictator.) But he can call them out on it and use what powers he has to bear down on them somewhat if they don't stop.

It might not get all of them to stop (some might risk fines because the profits would be greater), but hopefully it will direct the anger towards the actual culprits - big companies taking advantage of past inflation to raise prices.

Biden can’t stop them singlehandedly.

No but since he couldn't stop them he decided the working class would pay the price and had the Federal Reserve fuck over the American people.

The Federal Reserve is independent of the President. They technically answer to Congress, but in reality it's to the big banks.

Powell was reappointed by Biden. Biden is responsible for what Powell does.

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Those articles sure dont reflect the reality of me or anyone I know, by even a smidge

Personal feelings aside, those are the numbers. Empirical evidence that what people think is just plain wrong. Why? I suspect what Biden is saying is true.

Empirical evidence says I still have to skip grocery trips, and cant afford to fix my car.

So... I trust my lived in life over your numbers

Me and everybody I know are doing great. My empirical evidence seems to disagree with yours.

Too bad nothing can be done about that. If only someone, maybe a government agency, could collect all the data and determine how the country is doing as a whole.

Saying "the economy is turning up and things are getting better" when nothing changed is a lot different than saying "its all going to hell" when no one is struggling.

If you dont grok the difference, you were probably not at risk of the economy fucking you over like how people are frustrated about

But things have changed, that's the point. While individual experiences vary, all the economic data this year has been pretty stellar.

Reducing inflation this fast without tanking the economy, and not just not tanking it, actually having pretty decent economic numbers is a major achievement.

When the Fed stated raising rates to curtail inflation almost everyone thought there was no way to do it without a recession, maybe a major one, and increasing unemployment 2-3X. The "soft landing" seemed like a naive hope. We're not all the way there yet but it looks like they actually did it. Inflation is almost down to targets and at the same time, unemployment is still low, GDP growth is good, real wage growth beats inflation, etc.

It's not all blowjobs and caviar for everyone but we were heading for a major disaster and it's been avoided.

Except food is still extremely expensive, and real peoples dollars arent worth more, or getting paid more. The economic data doesnt seem to take into account things that actually matter to people who dont wear suits and golf.

The thing is, a lot of these "rich people" metrics have indirect effects on "normal people" metrics. So yes, while saying "the economy is good" doesn't mean much right now, it means that normal people will hopefully not struggle as much soon.

Oh nice, trickle down economics. Its cool to see someone who hasnt seen the sun on 4 decades, how are ya feelin bud? Thats not been an economic statement anyone takes seriously in a very long time

E: this message is 5 days old, why am I only just now getting notifications about it?

Oooh, the delayed notifications are all from the same instance. Interesting, I guess my instance lagged on touching base with your instance? Thats really odd.

You keep saying that, but that's not what the data shows. It shows real wage growth is exceeding inflation. It's also starting to show deflation across several categories of goods.

It sucks your wages haven't kept up with inflation and maybe eggs at your grocery store aren't any cheaper, but the data shows that your experience isn't typical.

The typical experience is surprisingly good and getting better.

Yeah, you keep saying the data doesnt match reality, but last time the economy went to shit the data told us we were living a lie for 6 months before, magically, the data matched what everyone had been saying for a half year.

You think maybe, the data is fucking bullshit? Again?

Like how unemployment, the measured statistic, doesnt actually measure the unemployed? Just the recently fired who file for active job searching, and only for a specific window of time before they stop counting even if they are still jobless?

You think maybe, yet again, they are lying via statistics to try and make things sound good right before an election year? Since the data contradicts reality, and reality doesnt seem to give a shit?

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You keep saying that, but that's not what the data shows. It shows real wage growth

For the already wealthy

is exceeding inflation.

Fixed it for you.

TL;DR - Don’t be a poor.

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~Yall this is NOT empirical, but anecdotal~. That said, I wish you prosperity and only happy feelings (:

edit: I am sarcasm blind, apparently

Yeah...we know. It's pretty clear wildginger was using it sarcastically and I was using the same words as them.

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Everyone has personal experiences which shape their thinking, that doesn’t mean their thinking is correct or even any more true than someone else's. I can trust that I feel what 2 feet is on a board, but it's better if I measure it before I cut it.

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Deflation is bad. I promise you do not want what you are suggesting is required.

Infinite growth is impossible. Money is made up and stupid.

Okay, let's say infinite growth is impossible. That seems intuitive. If that's true, where's the ceiling? It sounds like you're worried that we're going to hit it and bounce off, so maybe we should be planning for this event. What would be the best things for us to do as a species to prepare for this potentially cataclysmic event?

Money is made up and stupid

You're made up and stupid. 😂 Just kidding, money IS made up, but it certainly isn't stupid. Money doesn't have any inherent intelligence, obviously, but I think your implying that we are stupid to keep using it as a medium of exchange? What would be a better alternative? Going back to the barter system?

Idk, money definitely seems better than that. It allows for greater skill specialization and for the construction of more complex economic systems. I know that can seem scary because there's so much going on to keep track of, but arguably most people participating in society prefer it this way.

Lol the people in this thread are piiiiiiiiiiiiissed. I've never seen factual, tame macroeconomics 101 get downvoted so hard like this.

Lemmings know a lot about operating systems, but by god do they make Raegan look like a triple PhD in economics.

"Deflation is bad" is somehow a hot take around here because it's either "I want prices to be back at 2019 levels and I refuse to hear that the resulting crisis will be worse than the Great Depression" or "I want to intentionally crash the economy to starve half the population to death and implement my stalinist policies. not necessarily in that order".

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That's not why people are feeling pessimistic. Too much of the economic recovery is going to corporate profits and capitalist shareholders. The federal minimum wage is still half of a poverty wage, and the rent is still too damn high. The hyperinflation of the pandemic has made working for a living unsustainable. Taking inflation from 9% to 3% is great (setting aside for this conversation that any President shouldn't really take credit for economic matters) but it's reduce the rate at which a bad thing is getting worse. Existence is still unaffordable even with everybody employed. That's not spin, that's just the reality we've all been living in for a long time. The twin disasters of Trump and the pandemic put it all in stark relief, laying bare the grift of conservativism.

Biden is struggling because he's trying to play old politics. We've crossed the rubicon. Going back to normal isn't enough for people to feel hopeful, and reducing the rate of collapse isn't leadership. Biden thinks being at the helm while the ship slowly rights itself is the same as leadership, and there are enough people attacking him from the extreme other side that nobody is particularly happy with him.

That's not why people are feeling pessimistic

Everything you said is absolutely true and I agree with what is and should be happening.

However, the article is saying that surveyed people think the economy is crashing and unemployment is high.

I think it's fair for Biden to say, "hey, you fuckers keep telling me you want capitalism. This is what capitalism looks like. This is success in capitalism. It's up to the unions at this point in a capitalist system."

Even though like you said it isn't working. But not for the reasons why media makes it seem, which is what turns people to the right thinking that more extreme capitalism and deregulation will fix it!

The looming recession talk is over. They’re ready to start making real money in the stock market again and are tired of the impact the recession talk had this year. It’s no surprise that it’s been about bang on a year since the recession talk started as we came into 2023 and the stock market hit record highs as we’re coming into 2024.

It was all fabricated for… reasons. Big orgs wanted to lay people off for some reason. Investment bankers wanted to gobble up securities for cheaper. Real estate firms wanted to drive down the real cost of homes (higher interest rates = lower sale price but higher cost to families, firms benefit by paying cash). They wanted it so they made it happen. They no longer want it so it’ll end.

Indeed. Much as though I like my payments from JP Morgan, Jamie Diamon was one of the first to scream recession. He did that to increase his own wealth, not any other reason.

That's true but peoples wages haven't gone up at a rate that keeps pace so everyone still feels poor and can't buy the things they need. That's the big issue. That's not been fixed and there is no plan to fix it. Now we all just have to wait around until our wages start to increase but we all know how long that takes.

The problem is that there is no way to fix it without fucking shit up worse. Attempting to create deflation is bad for everyone as the economy will stop growing which will lead to job loss. A recession is another way to get it done, but then that would require high levels of unemployment, and still won't bring prices down.

We're seeing the best possible outcome right now where inflation is down and wages are rising faster than it, and housing prices are coming down, meaning we are on track for the issue of unaffordability to go away. The Fed seems to have pulled off what most people thought was impossible: a soft landing.

We're possibly witnessing something absolutely amazing. This is not to detract from the struggles people are experiencing, but the fact that they don't recognize how much better off they are then how it could have been is disappointing.

When I read the Forbes link I provided, I see that wages kept place with inflation for the last 2 and a half years. When I look at the news, I see unions getting wage consessions. Inflation was a factor, but that's been mitigated

You're speaking as if the majority of American workers are in a union.

It is true that the success of unions on wages effects the wages of non union workers,

Yes but when union membership is only at 10% what impact are you really talking about nationwide?

The 10% of union wages should still impact the rest of the industry, so the 10% of the workforce getting raises and concessions will force other companies to increase wages or benefits, even if it isn't as much as the unions' increases.

Rapidcreek was attempting to make the case that working class conditions are stable and rising. His points of union gains ignore vast swaths of people's material reality. Unions gaining ground in the past year is a great point, one I am not denying, however those gain are a very small fraction of the already small fraction of unionized workers.

Many of the contracts left many workers out of improvements. The UPS contract won by Teamsters for example was very vocal about how it ended a two tier pay scale system, but in reality it just created a new one for part time workers hired after the contract was signed. That's not to diminish from the gains made, but UPS's current model requires a huge segment of their work force to be part time, as they have high volume rush periods where inbound/outbound needs to be recieved/shipped quickly as their floor space cannot accommodate the volume. Those part time workers are essential so why should they be payed at a lower scale than full time employees? Many of those part time workers aren't as involved in union organizing and Teamsters have done a poor job bringing them into the fold, so when they vault their 85% approval of the contract, they neglect to mention what percentage didn't participate.

That is one example of how many of the gains won aren't what they appear at face value. Mainstream media also does a poor job reporting these nuances in labor fights. So again yes things are improving, but definitely not for everyone and it's not the rosy picture Rapidcreek was trying to paint.

Americans are not stupid. You will not convince them the economy is good by spitting out some numbers twisted from the data. They feel it. They know how easy or hard it is to make ends meet. They know their rent goes up every year while their wages do not.

And the harder is gets, the more radical the population becomes. Establishment democrats like Biden will not be able to maintain the status quo. Normally I wouldn't care but their incompetence has consequences. A Trump victory at this point may signal the end of the US as we know it. We cannot continue to stay asleep at the wheel.

Your purchasing power has fallen over 20% in the last 3 years. We're talking and average of around 7% real inflation per year. Not the official "~3%" the government puts out. That's over 3x higher than average over the last 4 decades.

The economy has been bad, but that doesn't change that it is getting better on many important metrics. These are leading indicators, predicting what will be, but the effects that people are feeling are more like lagging indicators that are reacting to the past and present. Hopefully we see these predictions play out in the next year before the election and into the next presidency.

What we're going to see is a slight boost in the coming months as the federal reserve lowers the interest rate (by coincidence, also an election year 🤔)

But with the interest rate going down, the main barrier holding us back from higher inflation is being torn down. What will be the consequences of this? Prices will rise.

I think they are betting that the Ukrainian war ends in the next few months. If not ends, at least becomes a frozen conflict. This would remove a large inflationary pressure from the global system.

It's a gamble. Perhaps they even are negotiating with Russia behind the scenes. Russian high-level officials were spotted flying to DC last week.

We'll have to see. Hopefully they can end the war and lower interest rates. That would in effect give a large boost right before the 2024 election. Is that enough to pry the election away from Trump? I don't know. Biden is incredibly unpopular (even more unpopular than Trump at this same time! One of the least popular presidents in history).

When it comes to "literal starvation" or "overthrow the shackles of oppression" I have a fair idea of what a lot of locals will choose.

The problem is the goal of "overthrow the shackles of oppression" may be a valid goal with class self interest in mind..

But that desire can be manipulated into accomplishing the opposite. And the populist right has shown their ability to harness the fear and insecurity that is growing in this country.

We desperately need a renewed leftist movement that the average American can get behind. Without some sort of mass movement soon, I see things getting worse before they get better.

They forget that the second option is followed by feudalism. Do they want to be serfs? Because they will be literal property of the aristocratic classes if they elect Trump and let him destroy the constitution.

Fuedalism may seem like a utopian pipe dream with what is possible. Imagine a transition to an authoritarian surveillance capitalism state (something like China).

With AI, they can even read your thoughts. You get booked into the police because of something you posted online anonymously, they interrogate you while they read your thoughts. You believe in communism? Terrorist -> prison.

These things can happen faster than we expect. Hitler took Germany from a democracy to a hell hole in less than a decade.

It looks like all countries in the world are slowly converging on a mixture of the US and Chinese system. Capitalist corporations endowed with power by the state. No free market - a few large companies are easier to control. Strong executive power and theater democracy. Large prison populations.

Also, this isn't unique to Trump. The Democrats would bring us to the same destination, just slower. We need a new left. A mass movement like the mass protests of the 60s. That has historically been the only thing that can bring real and significant positive change to the American people.

I prefer not to depend on feelings. My feelings can sometimes be wrong.. isolated data is not a prefered indicator, because it must be interpreted to be meaningful.

I've put several links in this string that should address your point.

Feelings decide elections, not numbers. And a large majority of Americans do not have confidence in the economy.

These people, living day in and out under the system intuitively understand their position, even if they can't spit out figures at you. They recognize their lives are harder than their grandparents. They recognize they are working for less year after year.

Many of us are privileged- I know I am. We make good money working from home, not having any issues paying our expenses and saving for the future.

But we cannot let that privilege blind us into believing misleading optimistic figures. We are on the edge of a precipice, both economically, financially, and militarily. If the left doesn't do something soon, we will lose the next decade to fascism.

I understand. The fact is, however, that the economy is doing well by all measurements. These are figures, not optimistic, just numbers. The US came out of the pandemic economic depression robustly. Also, the fact is that the top percentile has accumulated wealth at unprecedented rates. I suspect we are on the cusp of a generational shift when higher paid older workers retire to be replaced by younger workers. That can never happen fast enough for the younger.

the top percentile has accumulated wealth at unprecedented rates.

YES, THAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM

And he responded. Are those the end of your argument? Because as other poster said, statistics can be used to lie just as well as inform. You are familiar with this, correct?

If you have the stomach for getting in to the nitty gritty, pick one of your metrics and ill explain patiently why theyre bullshit.

So, you want me address your data without addressing mine? I'm not going to get into an hour debate on a chat board for no ther reason but it bores me. Sorry.

"I don't want to put in the work but I'll go through the effort of letting you know I'm not doing work instead of just ignoring you"

You can simply ignore people if you're just going to use a lot of words to say nothing.

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Alternatively, "The Economy Is Booming And Everyone Is Doing Better, Here's Why This Is Bad News For Biden!"

Well, consider me an a shitload of people I know and see stories about daily "nobody"

We’ll still get a thousand stories about a looming recession.

You haven't noticed? They've moved on to this election cycle's migrant caravan. Like fucking clockwork.

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Yeah, even as a solid dem from my perspective this reads as “report how I want it to sound”. It falls flat.

That said; the economy is doing better (but unfortunately the kind of economic improvement that helps shareholders more than regular people), inflation slowed down, unionization is on the rise, fuel prices (temporarily, as always) are down…so that’s good.

But housing or every kind is still out of control. Record profits without commensurately rising wages. New cars are still fucking ridiculous money. We’re being subscribed to death.

So from an everyday perspective we are still getting fucked.

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A new pet peeve. Not slamming, or blasting, but RIPPING. He tore these fuckers' jugulars out y'all!

Once non sensational headlines start getting more clicks, they'll make them less sensational. More people want it that way I guess?

"Bidenomics"

Opinion rejected. It's the same neoliberal trash that's defined American since Reagan, and Republicans want to do an even worse job at.

Did you even watch 1 minute of the video?

Bidenomics

Opinion Rejected

"Rejecting" someone you probably agree with because you can't take a second to understand their position.

Noice.

It's a very simple and time saving system.

Let the term "Bidenomics" cross your lips without at least audible scare quotes, get your opinion invalidated.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


President Biden criticized news coverage of the U.S. economy as he faces growing backlash from voters over his handling of inflation.

In brief remarks Saturday before boarding the presidential helicopter, Biden expressed confidence in the economy and ripped the reporters for the way it has been portrayed.

The economy has roared back from the COVID-19 recession under Biden, who enacted legislation for trillions of dollars of economic relief and investments shortly after taking office in 2021.

Biden and his Democratic allies have largely blamed the media and Republican critics for skewing the public’s views on the economy by exaggerating recession fears and dismissing record-setting job growth.

Pandemic stimulus and restrictions also fueled a surge in home prices and rents, deepening an affordable housing crisis that began long before COVID-19.

Many voters are also struggling with the long-term changes to their jobs and industries caused by COVID-19, along with the lapse of economic relief programs that temporarily lifted millions of Americans out of poverty.


The original article contains 473 words, the summary contains 163 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Translation: "we spent all this time massaging CPI and GDP, yall better report how great the economy is now!"

Translation: you pulled that from your ass. There is no evidence of manipulation of the indicators and those the Gov. is using match those of the business community.

You know the CPI calculations and fields reported change freuqently right? Started back in 1981, when CDOs started getting big and housing prices had a huge jump without ever coming back down

The CPI is regularly manipulated with hedonistic adjustments.

"My numbers are dropping! This is not my fault! Release more articles telling them the economy is great and it's all in their heads!"

The problem is the economy is good in metrics but not for the individual. Corporate greed is leaving most Americans worse off despite the "good" economy

I think this is one of the things Trump got right: there should be a more adversarial relationship between politicians and the press. Of course Trump was adversarial because he wanted to do awful things, and also he wanted to set up a state media apparatus, but still.

Well, Trump was adversarial to certain media outlets. Others, like FOX News, were All-But-State TV. They'd parrot whatever he said as the god given truth and he'd parrot whatever they said as truth. If Trump said that the election was stolen and COVID was no big deal, that's how FOX reported it. If they said that vaccines were dangerous and that immigrants were replacing "real Americans" (read: white people), he'd parrot that right back.

Also, adversarial relationships are good to a point. Biden is asking the media to cover things honestly. Trump was calling the media "The Enemy Of The People" and threatening to go after them (or encouraged his supporters to go after them) unless they fell in line. There's a huge difference between those two adversarial relationships.

Do we have to label calling people on their shit "adversarial"? To me that word has a connotation of reacting unreasonably.

One might just call it "reporting" 😉

I have the same connotation with word adversarial...

I would think combative is closer to your connotation and adversarial is judgement neutral.

What the hell are you talking about? Trump did massive damage to journalistic integrity as a whole. You ever hear the words "fake news" before he used it?

The poor and uninformed are the last to see improvement. That doesn't mean things aren't getting better. Yet they are most likely to vote against their self interests.

The poor and uninformed are the last to see improvement.

And the first to catch hell when things go to shit. When wages start to rise, the fed considers it a disaster to be averted.

"Just stick with us, don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news."

---Trump

"Start reporting it the right way”

---Blue Trump

If Biden wants the media to cover him better he needs to do what Republicans do: give them a simple message. The other day I saw a Biden "I did that!" sticker on a national park fee payment station. Blatantly untrue? Yes. But it's simple and people aren't going to research or even think about whether park fees are Biden's fault.

"The economy sucks and it's the president's fault" is a simple message. But:

The U.S. unemployment rate was just 3.7 percent in November — barely above the pre-pandemic level of 3.5 percent, which was a five-decade low. Annual inflation has also fallen sharply from a peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022 to 3.1 percent in November, and the economy has defied widespread predictions of a recession.

These numbers will just be ignored. They don't fit in a headline or even an unpaid tweet. And I find people's natural reaction to numbers is to distrust them. "Yeah, but that's not the real unemployment/inflation/GDP/etc".

As for what that simple message can be, I have no idea. "Rising employment, plummeting inflation" might be an option, I dunno. But he needs to get someone in charge of messaging who will simplify things.

why all the complaints

if someone mentions voting for someone other than biden you are instantly a trump lover and if you mention voting for someone else other than democrat or republican you are are a biden hater

maybe there should be better reasons for voting other than shirt color or letter or name