Media top headlines September 30
In media news today, liberal journalists celebrate YouTube censorship of anti-vaccine content, Matthew Dowd announces he is running for Texas lieutenant governor, and 'The View's' Joy Behar calls Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin 'enemies' of U.S. democracy
Liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow complained that the "Beltway press" have reported unfairly and wrongly on progressives as antagonists rather than allies to President Joe Biden during his first term in office.
Maddow singled out Politico for a pair of headlines in the late stages of the 2020 presidential election entitled, "Progressives prepare to put the squeeze on Biden" and "Progressives unveil 2021 agenda to pressure Biden," on "The Rachel Maddow Show" Wednesday night. More headlines from the Los Angeles Times, Axios and the Daily Beast displayed similar sentiments, predicting there would be "no honeymoon" for Biden with the mounting pressure from the Left.
Those headlines have continued long into Biden's presidency. Politico wrote, "President Joe Biden's honeymoon with progressives is over," on June 23, arguing liberal lawmakers and grassroots progressive groups wanted to see Biden be more "aggressive" on issues like voting legislation, police reform, and eliminating the filibuster.
"Noticing a theme?" Maddow asked. "That was the Beltway line. Like the unanimous Beltway line when Joe Biden got elected. Sure progressives helped Biden beat Trump, but no honeymoon. And for the next four years progressives are going to be Biden's worst nightmare. They'll be the thorn in Biden's side."
(MSNBC/Rachel Maddow screengrab)
That prediction, Maddow said, turned out to be "exactly and 100 percent totally wrong," saying the left flank of the party was the one working hardest to pass his massive Build Back Better package.
Media critics like NewsBusters' Tim Graham mocked Maddow for claiming the press has been unfair to progressives.
"Rachel Maddow is attacking the "Beltway press" for getting things ‘100 percent wrong,’" Graham wrote. "It's Fake News! Why does she hate Democracy and the First Amendment? (She's sticking up for the socialists, er, ‘progressives,’ like the press hates them.)"
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Maddow's condemnation of the press came after her interview with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, where she wondered how the far-left congresswoman remained so "optimistic" in light of all the infighting on Capitol Hill over Biden's new spending package. She also asked Ocasio-Cortez to "explain" to Americans why she and her progressive colleagues were insisting on passing the $3.5 trillion bill.
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"New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, making a really important structural point there about what motivates individual members of Congress and their decisions at moments like this, moments of heartburn as you say … Thank you, Congresswoman, for joining us tonight I know tomorrow is going to be fraught," Maddow said at the end of their conversation. "And I appreciate you helping us set the stage."
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