He's not trying to shut down free speech. He's just a whiny child who has more important things to worry about. Again, embarrassing.

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Of course he shouldn't. We just don't need to make it more than it is.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The biased claim at best is totally irrelevant. It's a humor show - they can do whatever they want. Say bias when it comes to CNN or the NYT, but not when it comes to something like snl. Plus he won the campaign and is the top story in the country. What the hell else does he want them to lampoon? Perhaps those who agree with the bias claim want snl to stage a skit where Hillary runs into some random soccer mom in the woods while hiking, in addition to a standard skit about Trump. Maybe that'll be more fair?

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Did you see the video I posted. That was the first thing they did right after the election. It wasn't even meant to be funny or satirical. It was like the whole staff spent the week crying that Hillary lost and they did that to help with the healing.

Obviously they don't have to be fair and balanced but we also don't have to pretend they aren't just because they are a "comedy show".

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah, they don't have to be fair or unbiased, but the problem with Trump pointing out that they clearly aren't isn't some threat to the Republic, it's just dumb and embarrassing like leash said.

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Freedom is our Strength.

It's things like this that make it seem like me and others are "Trump defenders". A lot of these Trump controversies are pretty much meaningless and there is a new one every day. It's just like him taking a call from Taiwan. Everyone was like "YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE CHINA MAD!" and then I think people started to realize that it wasn't a big deal and if China doesn't like it then they can deal with it. We spent all election hearing about how Trump is going to be controlled by Russia but then he violates a policy that is literally "Don't talk to Taiwan because China says not to!". It's just laughable.

Trump is an idiot on twitter but as long as he stays as a harmless idiot on twitter it isn't a big deal.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Rick, I have seen that video in the past. It is clearly, as you and other said, sympathetic to Clinton. I don't think SNL has tried to run away from its liberal leanings. That being said, it was still bizarre, but maybe it's something the staff/talent really wanted to do. Not sure, but anyway it's not "bias," it's just a left-leaning show doing something left-leaning. Now, again, if an "objective" news organization did something similiar, we should definitely be outraged. It's just that sometimes I think the objective questioning of Trump on substantive issues is seen by some as bias, when to see that as bias more so a possible case of one's own bias speaking, at least that's how I see it.



It's not a direct threat, sure, but I will maintain that attacks against purported objective investigating reporting of government and government officials, to the extent that they're internalized and taken seriously by a large amount of the population are not healthy for a democracy. If I were to say Trump's tweet was an assault on free speech, you may be right in accusing me of reading too much into that tweet, but I'll just say the subtext of Tweets like that doesn't come off too well. And it's not the first time he's done it.



I'm not going to go too far deep into the Taiwan thing, but I'll just say the issue there is clearly more complicated than what you summarized above. It's been a long-standing understanding for more than 25 years for a reason. That being said, Trump did say he was going to shake things up, and he's obviously already started doing that. I read the call as a logical extension of Trump's anti-China rhetoric during the campaign, and I think it's stupid that the call is being covered as a breach of protocol when it's obvious that Trump has ulterior motives. Plus when did Trump give a shit about protocol anyway?

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

That's the point, though. Many, such as myself, fear that Twitter is a foreshadowing of things to come (or very well could be). It isn't Twitter itself that worries people - it's that if he really thinks it's appropriate to go on social media and blast a comedy show that probably is biased (but again, who cares?), what is he going to do when provoked by actual dangerous people and regimes? It's an indicator of his temperament. And while I don't believe he is trying to stifle free speech, it is disconcerting to me that he is ignorant enough not to know how careful a president has to be regarding criticism of the media. It's just a general awareness that is lacking.

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He is also following the most media savvy president of all time. That makes Trump's unpredictable and childish demeanor all the more glaring.

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Right, and there is a clear bias among what I would refer as "respectable" media, i.e. those that are believed to have gravitas, who might act as debate moderators, etc. rather than the "fringe" media like Breitbart.

For example, there's this overwhelming desire to paint almost everything Trump does as "dangerous". And whether you believe he is dangerous or not isn't the point. He may well be the most dangerous man to ever hold the office. But I don't recall the "respectable" media- the same media that is now challenging Trump at every turn- ever characterizing a Secretary of State who also ran a foundation that accepted large sums from foreign governments as "dangerous", though I'd say it had the potential, at a bare minimum, to be far more dangerous than anything Trump has said or done thus far.

Additionally, regarding the sudden hue and cry over "fake news", does anyone really believe that anyone would be talking about this had Clinton won? It wasn't the American right that blurred the lines between comedy and political commentary.

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Freedom is our Strength.

I agree they don't have to be unbiased. In reality, I don't think any political show needs to be unbiased unless they truly are striving to be the news. Maddow and Rush can have their biases come through just like SNL and The Daily Show can. The 6 o'clock news should be unbiased but those aren't personality driven shows.

However, it is fair to point out the biases of anyone who gets into political discussions in the media.

I think it would be different if they were discussing policy or negotiating with them(like we do with Iran while they want to destroy Israel). Accepting a congratulatory phone call from them is not a big deal even if China doesn't like it.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think that Trump himself is probably the most media savvy president himself. He certainly wrote the blueprint on how social media will be used in future campaigns. For everyone here who is angered or dismayed by Trump's tweets- and I maintain that this board leans left- there is at least one other person somewhere who is saying "Go Trump!"

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Freedom is our Strength.

To me it is the "Boy who cried wolf" syndrome though. Some of his appointments are downright scary. Why the hell is Ben Carson being in charge of HUD? Steve Bannon has a very divisive history. Trump saying we should jail or deport flag burners is stupid but probably just a dumb thing he said that will never be mentioned again.

The problem is that people also make a big deal about him fighting with SNL and him taking a call from Taiwan. It all gets lost in the noise.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

What was he trying to do when he attacked Hamilton?

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

You may be right; I don't know of anyone on this board making a big deal out of the SNL tweets, though... unless you're just generally talking about the media. I posted that in the Trump Tweet thread because it is just another in a long line of "dumb" tweets. It's not even close to the worst thing he's ever done, obviously.

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He was pissed off that his VP got lectured when he went out to see a play with his family. Obama would have stood up for Biden too.

The 'very overrated' comment is his personality. If he disagrees with something, or if something pisses him off he thinks it must suck.

Or he is a secret genius and he did that to take the heat off of his Trump U settlement.

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I actually said at the time that the call with Taiwan was overblown. And then he had to go on Twitter and talk about how much business we do with Taiwan and how everyone is hypocrites. The guy can't just be above anything.

Also, he needs to realize that he has tools to change national discourse... but it shouldn't come directly from him. If he wants to point out the hypocrisy of the media, he should have his surrogates and talking heads do it. He himself has to be above that shit.

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It's definitely the former, IMO. Trump is Hanlon's Razor personified.

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This Taiwan thing is HUUGE. Maybe start the next cold war, who knows. Not saying I'm fur or agin but it is a major story. For whatever reason ($$$????) we've kowtowed to those MF'ers for 70 years.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I don't think he was trying to do much of anything.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I agree. He's just an idiot. Nas, I think you give him too much credit for his savviness.

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MANY closet Trumpets here on the board are cheering his tweets.

I was down in the deep South this weekend in beautiful Salem, Illinois. MANY are celebrating Chairman Trump's poor behavior.

I've been saying from the beginning that MANY of you all don't give him enough credit.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

There is a school of thought that says he tweeted Hillary's exact flag legislation to point out media hypocrisy. If so, it worked.

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Freedom is our Strength.

The reason that people are making his SNL tiff a big deal is because he has made it a big deal.

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That's pretty good then.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Agreed. At some point he should start acting presidential.

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Freedom is our Strength.

His people need to tell him that tweets from the President are not equal to tweets from Donald Trump. He just did what he's always done. Someone in his administration needs to tell him he can no longer do that. His life has changed, a one off tweet about you're pissed at something on TV carries a hell of a lot more weight now.

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the board leans left?

that ship already capsized.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

And I certainly don't think a president should impetuously use a social media platform to single-handedly blow up longstanding U.S. policy and protocol.

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Freedom is our Strength.