Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Now imagine if, instead, as we would *expect* amidst an insurrection, media spent half its time reporting on the insurrection and half its time on those fighting the insurrection. McConnell would be framed as he actually is—an insurrection supporter—and responses to him likewise. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

In so doing, it creates a vicious circle. Democrats have to treat McConnell as a politician one could actually dialogue with rather than an active insurrectionist because media treats him that way, so if Democrats refuse to deal with him they will be cast by media as the problem. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

In Hamlet, Shakespeare described Ophelia as being “incapable of her own distress.” That’s media today. It religiously follows a POTUS who makes little real news—because DC is broken—while not putting a *single body* on Flynn as he prepares a run for POTUS with Roger Stone’s help. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

So we get infinitely more coverage of Joe Biden falling from his bike than we do coverage of Michael Flynn openly preaching the illegal overthrow of the Biden administration all across the country. Why? Because conventionally media had a POTUS beat, not an *insurrectionist* beat. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

In place of interviewing Republicans, you’d think CNN and MSNBC would understand they need to spend time in the dark crevices of the internet, where those the insurrectionists listen to are making *news* by issuing dangerous directives and disinformation. But they don’t want to. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Threats against journalists by pro-Trump domestic terrorists are increasing at an alarming rate. CNN and MSNBC have lost access to most Republican politicians for interviews—though this hardly matters because in Trumpism lying to the public is seen as a feature rather than a bug. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Trump has made clear that if re-elected he’ll push crushing new regulatory frameworks that attack the free press and could even lead to journalists being jailed for doing their jobs—something Trump has made perfectly clear he wants and that McConnell supports by supporting Trump. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Viewership for CNN and MSNBC is collapsing because they no longer have a constituency: everyone on the right believes them liars, and increasingly everyone on the left believes them to be completely out of touch with reality. And they seem to have no sense of themselves, either. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Some of the leading publications on Substack are religiously devoted to spreading disinformation that kills people because they know they can do so without facing any moderation. And if Donald Trump is indicted, they will start to turn toward implicitly *violent* rhetoric, too. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

The head of Trump’s Truth Social, Devin Nunes, has sent his lawyer Steven Biss around the nation filing crippling defamation lawsuits against major media. A recent ruling in Texas gives disgruntled Trumpists the right to sue social media platforms for making moderation decisions. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

If MSNBC or CNN find themselves on the cusp of bankruptcy, as a last gasp effort they’ll attempt to pretend they understand the universe of information and conflict in which they both currently inarguably exist. But they will be destroyed by non-economic forces well before then. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

The answer is no one. In a market economy institutions operate as they always have up until the point that they declare bankruptcy. We do not see dramatic mid-stream course-shifts unless an institution is losing so much money it is willing to try one last thing before bankruptcy. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

It’s for this reason I describe contemporary major media as a “zombie institution”—a relic of the time and place in which it was conceived that has no sensible relationship to the time and place in which it now resides and lumbers about dumbly. So who will be the one to fix this? — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Media is not adapting to the imminent End of America not because it doesn’t see it, but because it faces a *format* problem. Our media landscape, including every single one of its conventions, was created decades ago when America was not at the point of total political collapse. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

So when I read an article implying anyone in America should give a f****** s*** about what Mitch McConnell says about this policy debate or that policy debate, I feel like I’m living in Bizarro World—like if media suddenly started referencing Charles Manson as just a folk singer. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

If McConnell were at this moment an active and engaged member of the homicidal Manson Family, there would be no articles about his pressers that did not identify him as such. The Trumpist insurrection that McConnell supports is considerably more dangerous than the Manson Family. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Every time Mitch McConnell is referenced by media he should be identified as an insurrectionist who supports the end of U.S. democracy in 2024 through the installation of a man who does not believe in the peaceful transfer of power. Everything else about McConnell is secondary. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: My position on this hasn’t changed and won’t change: the GOP is now a political front for a violent far-right insurrectio… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

The fundamental political divide in the U.S. is between those who understand we’re in the midst of an insurrection and those who don’t. Those in the first group are concerned about gas and food prices and other issues but understand that the insurrection must be dealt with first. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Either America is in the midst of fighting off a violent insurrection with administrative components that could end our democracy in the next 36 months or it isn’t. There’s no middle ground—no room remaining for conventional reporting that sounds like it came straight from 1993. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

I don’t want polling summaries from David Chalian discussing Biden’s approval rating if they do not also acknowledge that at this point only one major political party in the United States is committed to the peaceful transfer of power. Otherwise, we are whitewashing insurrection. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

I do not want Harry Enten of CNN on my television screen talking about polling data unless there is some acknowledgment in his reporting that one of the sides being polled seeks to violently pull down American democracy and replace it with a neofascist authoritarian autocracy. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

I’ve been impressed with certain members of the media, like Anderson Cooper, who do seem to get the threat that we face and have changed how they talk about events in Washington. But there are other journalists who want to still play the same Democrat-Republican horse-race games. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Last year Donald Trump sought to personally lead an armed warband to capture and kill members of Congress and install himself as the first American neofascist autocrat. Mitch McConnell said he will vote for him in 2024. What is there to negotiate with here? Nothing. *Nothing*. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

When you’re in the midst of defending America against an insurrection, you don’t negotiate with the insurrectionists on any topic but their political and paramilitary surrender. You do not engage in pleasantries or niceties or discourse on other issues. Democrats do not get this. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

But outside of that improbable scenario—for instance, Collins admits she voted for Supreme Court Justices who committed perjury in their nominations but still won’t allow a filibuster carveout to address the Dobbs case those perjurers signed onto—there’s no one to negotiate with. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

If any elected Republican official wants to formally renounce Trump and insurrection and cease participation in the administrative insurrection McConnell launched when he denied a Democratic president his power to nominate Supreme Court Justices, that person can be acknowledged. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

My position on this hasn’t changed and won’t change: the GOP is now a political front for a violent far-right insurrection with paramilitary and administrative elements. Until it rejects Trump and insurrection, it’s not a negotiating partner for Democrats. https://t.co/orqhr3r6DO — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

One serious person and four clowns — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: I may be as angry about this as I’ve ever been about anything in politics. We were told to be patient and trust DOJ—despi… — PolitiTweet.org