Hopefully the mods are okay with a little journalism about journalism so that people know where Politico stands in terms of being a trustworthy source.

The headline in question:

‘Next question’: Harris evades questions about her identity

The background to the headline is from Harris’ recent CNN interview:

“I want to ask you about your opponent, Donald Trump,” Bash said to Harris. “I was a little bit surprised. People might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face-to-face. That’s gonna change soon. But what I wanna ask you about is what he said last month. He suggested that you ‘happened’ to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.”

“Same old, tired playbook,” Harris replied. “Next question, please.”

  • Omega
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    2494 months ago

    HOLY SHIT. This is a much bigger deal than people realize. Politico is suggesting that her identity is in question to begin with. It’s not.

    She didn’t evade a question about her identity because there is no question about her identity. She passed an opportunity to get upset over Trump’s comments.

      • Omega
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        484 months ago

        At least with the birther shit, there was a question of whether Obama should just put the question to rest or ignore it.

        This is literally just an insult for her being multiracial. And Politico is asking if she’s hiding something.

        • @blazera@lemmy.world
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          304 months ago

          Even pro obama people got gaslit by how hard they tried to sell the lie. The question was always “put to rest”, his birth certificate was already released, birthers were demanding a document that was the first result in a google search of said document.

          • Omega
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            114 months ago

            I just looked up something birther related and the second result was a legit looking site that just had a ton of misinformation posted in 2016.

    • @grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      314 months ago

      Just changing the word"evades" to “deflects” would have made all the difference in the world.

      Not a Kamala fan, but her response seemed totally appropriate.

      • @ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        384 months ago

        Kamala slams Trump’s “same old, tired playbook” for questioning her identity

        … would have made all the difference in the world, and been more accurate as well. I wouldn’t even have minded the “slams” here.

    • @pyre@lemmy.world
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      34 months ago

      yeah this is like saying “next question” when someone asks you if you’re an extraterrestrial lizard and then politico saying you “avoid questions about extraterrestrial origins”.

      • @Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Any picture of her face, on any campaign poster in any of her campaigns, shows her Black heritage. She doesn’t have to say anything about it, it’s obvious. And Harris is a common Black name. Her Asian heritage is not as apparent, so it bears mentioning. I might also mention that the Asian and Black communities have a history of discomfort with each other, so being obviously Black could have caused some Asian people who didn’t know her full heritage to vote for the white male Republican rather than a Black person. Black people have more experience with mixed-race heritage. Being a savvy politician, knowing how to approach different people, is a positive thing.

        But she’s always run on her own capability. It’s others who tout or disparage her racial experience.

        • @maniii@lemmy.world
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          04 months ago

          What discomfort between Black and Asian ( esp. Indian Asian ?? ) that doesn’t exist at all. Chinese / Japanese communities may or may not have issues with Black communities, but Indians have emigrated to Africa and elsewhere without any issues with Black communities.

          Not all Asian or Black communities are the same.

  • @Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win
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    4 months ago

    The hypocrisy. Trump evades questions about EVERYTHING, yet gets called almost never. Her answer isn’t even an evasion. It was a whole dismissive argument on the absurdity of both the claim and question summarized in a terse “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”

    • Miles O'Brien
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      364 months ago

      Same energy as Quinten Tarantino refusing to answer some questions about violence in media or using the N word in movies.

      It’s been asked a thousand times, you have nothing new to add to this discussion, we’re moving on.

    • @rayyy@lemmy.world
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      204 months ago

      Trump lies about EVERYTHING too. Not a peep out of the media when they interview him. How about, “Sir, why do you lied constantly?”

  • @CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Honest question from a European: Do you guys still have journalism somewhere? It all seems to be political propaganda or outrage clickbait with you guys.

    • @protist@mander.xyz
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      1484 months ago

      Point of order from an American: Politico is a wholly owned subsidiary of German multinational Axel Springer.

          • Flying SquidOP
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            4 months ago

            I wouldn’t say the Daily Show does real journalism. They do make important stories public, but they have a clear slant both in terms of politics and in terms of making it funny.

            • @EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee
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              44 months ago

              Daily Show and Last Week Tonight have staffs of ardent pursuers of truth.

              A lot of study & journalism goes in to the jokes & it shows.

              Both offer a succinct wrap of the daily (or weekly) news.

              • Flying SquidOP
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                24 months ago

                Study and research, definitely. But I still wouldn’t call it journalism. It’s satire based on research. When going for a joke over necessary details, they will often go for the joke. And if you read the story elsewhere, you will see that something important has been left out because of it.

                I love The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight a long with A Closer Look on Seth Myers’ show and I regularly watch all of them, but I still wouldn’t call them journalism. It’s well-researched extremely topical comedy. And that’s fine. That’s a good thing. People can get their information from comedy too. It’s just that you shouldn’t necessarily turn to them for a full picture of a story.

                That said, I would say that’s much less true of Last Week Tonight because they go in depth into a subject. The Daily Show and A Closer Look spend at most 6 or 7 minutes on a subject and have to fit in a lot of jokes.

                • @EarthShipTechIntern@lemm.ee
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                  24 months ago

                  And that’s why I (& sounds like you, too) watch them: as you said they bring valid topics to the table. If they’re skewing the facts severely, they make it pretty obviously part(y) of the jokes. Doonesbury was always more of a news media than national inquirer.

                  Comedy delivered from a proper court jester beats the telltale gossip rag for actual useful information every day of the week.

                  That in mind, Late night, Tonight shows, daily shows all do a better job of delivering news than Fox.

                  Plus, they tell you it’s only part of the story or give multiple takes on the situations.

                  Fox, not so much. Some experts agree… Valid topics are only those approved by Sun times & RT.

      • @littlewonder@lemmy.world
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        24 months ago

        Agree, though their coverage of Bernie’s 2016 presidential run towed the DNC party line, which made me less sure about their neutrality. Now I tend to hit up the BBC if I want US news coverage and I don’t have time to ingest multiple sources.

        • Flying SquidOP
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          34 months ago

          A lot of British people can tell you all about the BBC’s toeing the government line. But both are a lot less biased than many other Western media sources. NPR’s biggest problem is similar to what the NYT and WaPo do, just to a lesser extent- overcompensating and causing an imbalance toward conservatism in an attempt to look unbiased. WaPo and especially the NYT are far worse though.

    • @GoofSchmoofer@lemmy.world
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      154 months ago

      There are a lot of ‘content creators’ that pose as journalists.

      There are journalists that do great work but since their stories can run counter to a narrative, it can be more difficult to find those articles.

      • @xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        144 months ago

        Specifically, “Good Work” and “Some More News” spring to mind as producing well researched pieces - they’re both highly specialized and only deliver occasional focused news rather than a continuous spread of general goings-on… but given how many outlets are happy to spam low quality continuous bullshit I consider that a good thing.

    • @LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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      114 months ago

      This is the culmination of unchecked capitalism having full control of the media. The truth hasn’t mattered for a really long time – only which words are most profitable.

      • nfh
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        134 months ago

        American here: their goal is clearly factual reporting, and I don’t see too often where they’ve missed the mark. Nobody’s free of bias, but they’re pretty good at balancing theirs out.

      • @girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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        14 months ago

        I just had an article removed today from Drop Site news because it had been posted on their Substack. :/

    • Midnight Wolf
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      14 months ago

      I get most of my news from Reuters (which is UK-based I think). I used to read NPR but I think Reuters has more quality content. Beyond that, the Associated Press I guess, and that’s all I really trust.

      The Onion too, for when I need to forget how fucked we all are as a species.

        • Cadeillac
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          24 months ago

          They are a known troll. Just keep that in mind if you continue to engage with them

        • queermunist she/her
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          4 months ago

          Liberty for whom?

          The rich, the powerful, the Elect. They want the freedom to own and control anything, even the truth. The “”“Liberty”“” they seek is total privatization of everything, and journalism is part of that.

          Politico’s bullshit is your liberty. You’re free to be lied to by anyone you want!

  • @Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1184 months ago

    Multi race people are use to this shit. We are denied one race or another. If you don’t look how people expect you will receive racist shit about both races, really fun.

    I have many issues with Harris, but I’m glad she is exposing this shit. I’m tired of closet and undercover racists.

  • @Euphorazine@lemmy.world
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    1034 months ago

    so that people know where Politico stands in terms of being a trustworthy source

    I just assume all media actually want a Trump victory, because they get money writing articles and the money was good his first term. If Trump is good at anything, it’s making headlines.

  • @UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world
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    734 months ago

    Keep in mind race is very important to conservatives. VERY IMPORTANT. to them, once an association is made … It can not be changed. And you can’t be 2 races at once. its very important to them and they have lots of rules about it.

  • @grue@lemmy.world
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    654 months ago

    How is plainly calling it out as the bullshit that it is “evasion?” That headline isn’t just misleading; it’s a straight-up lie.

    • Omega
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      84 months ago

      They asked for her reaction to Trump being extremely racist.

      Politico - “Okay but what if Trump is right?”

  • @elrik@lemmy.world
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    654 months ago

    Bash said: "But what I wanna ask you about is what he said last month. He suggested that you ‘happened’ to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.”

    Where was the question? That’s simply a statement about what Trump said.

    Politico’s headline is outrageous, but what was Bash even trying to do here? Because it reads like she was trying to ask (without asking) if Harris is black, which is just as weird and absurd as Trump’s original comment.

    Harris’s reply is great because it applies both to Trump’s racism and the problem with journalists giving these comments anything more than ridicule.

    • @cybervseas@lemmy.world
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      334 months ago

      Where was the question? That’s simply a statement about what Trump said.

      All of Dana Bash’s questions were just Donald Trump talking points.

    • @Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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      -164 months ago

      This is a horrible take. Bash lobbed this question in as a total softball. Dana is an excellent interviewer and she deliberately framed the question this way so as to allow Harris to be free to frame it with her response; instead of trapping Harris with a strongly premised question.

  • @ultranaut@lemmy.world
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    584 months ago

    Acting like there’s any legitimate questions about Harris being a black person is inherently racist and doing the bidding of Trump. I didn’t think very highly of Politico before this but unless they fire whoever wrote that headline they are dead to me now.

    • ...m...
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      4 months ago

      …she’s half caribbean and half south-asian…

      …is that black?..that’s on you…
      …does it matter?..that’s on you, too…

      …any issue says more about the person asking the questions than it does about the candidate; what i think is noteworthy is that nobody’s talking about her gender, a fact which constitutes a substantial milestone for cultural progress…

  • Mîm
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    474 months ago

    Axel Springer bought Politico a while ago. In other words: it’s utter shit and absolutely useless for any actual reporting. But great if you want to peddle some reactionary bullshit.

  • @paddirn@lemmy.world
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    424 months ago

    That seemed like the entirely right answer. It was a bullshit question that didn’t need dignified with a response.

    • @Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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      74 months ago

      The Harris campaign has consistently handled Trump with a deftness and results-oriented system that we haven’t seen from anyone else. It’s impressive in both its success and its consistency.

  • @mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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    4 months ago

    Journalism was already in a death spiral but this type of article just highlights it.

    They’re just taking a secondary source with a shitty headline, cherry picking spicy reactions on Twitter and then writing another shitty headline.

    I could theoretically do the same thing, cherrypick Twitter and then post the following “article” to my own shit-tier political news blog:

    “Mediaite panned for misleading headline about headlines.”

    The only “sources” I have to cite are random Tweets that I preselected because they already agreed with my point of view.

    We are approaching something that is close to the opposite of journalism.