Wrong, by design, every step of the way
All these pundits who spent the past three weeks acting like Merrick Garland’s DOJ would never indict Steve Bannon, when they knew all along that it would happen? They’ll face no consequences for their deception. You’re all too relieved to notice they were just making it up to manipulate your fears. The doomsday factory won’t get shut down until you stop buying what it’s selling.
Of course now the doomsday pundits are moving on to precisely the narratives that I predicted they would: Bannon magically wins because he’s out on bail. Bannon wanted to be arrested. Bannon will just be “emboldened” to wave even more magic wands going forward, and now we’re really screwed in the midterms.
Sheesh. Give me a break. Scooby Doo could do a better job of providing political analysis – if only because he wouldn’t be making things up. What you have to understand is that the doomsday pundits are always wrong, but not because they’re clueless or confused. They even manage to get the easy stuff wrong. That’s because they’re trying to get it wrong.
After all, this is the same political pundit class who insisted there would be no January 6th Committee (even though they knew with certainty that Pelosi would end up appointing one), then insisted the committee wouldn’t make criminal referrals for contempt (even though Chair Bennie Thompson made clear from the start that he would), then insisted the DOJ wouldn’t act on those referrals (even though DOJ policy dictates that it act on provable referrals from Congress, and Garland is a policy guy). These types are wrong, by design, every single step of the way. Even when something does go wrong, it doesn’t line up with what the doomsday types are predicting, because they’re focused on making things up, not on actual dangers.
For the past three weeks, the doomsday pundits have all managed to bring themselves retweets, and TV bookings, and praise for being “vigilant,” and all that nonsense, just by pushing the notion that the DOJ wasn’t going to indict Bannon. Meanwhile, look how much heat I took from some quarters by pointing out that the DOJ was obviously going to end up indicting Bannon. I was called a “cheerleader.” I was accused of covering for Merrick Garland. And now that I’ve been proven right, other pundits aren’t exactly lining up to give me credit for it, so I’ve gained nothing career-wise by calling this one correctly. And the doomsday pundits have lost nothing by purposely calling it wrong.
The political media and political punditry industry is a cess pool. Most participants craft their narratives based on whatever they think will bring them attention and make them look judicious. Getting it right isn’t part of the equation, because there’s so very little reward in that. This industry won’t change until you all force it to change. The pundits won’t be able to sell their scary doomsday hysteria if you all start calling it out for what it is.
