S.E. Cupp on Moderation and Social Media

On today’s episode, CNN’s S.E. Cupp joins Sarah and Steve to talk about the Biden ...

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On today’s episode, CNN’s S.E. Cupp joins Sarah and Steve to talk about the Biden administration, Congress, and why extremism is taking over the politics of today. Plus, the trio discusses the effects of social media on the news business and the challenges that come with being the target of internet trolls. 

Show Notes: 

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  1. Avatar photo
    The Bell Tower

    Social media is Paris at the height of the French Revolution. It’s a bubble of incredible stupidity and it is completely detached from reality. It isn’t only politics by the way.

    I’m in a baseball group and they can’t stop arguing about Barry Bonds and Pete Rose. I’m in a frog identification group and they can’t stop arguing about invasive cuban frogs. I’m in a neighborhood group and they can’t stop arguing about speed bumps. I’m in a spider identification group and they can’t stop arguing about brown recluse spiders. Social media amplifies the trolls and drives off the sane.

    The thing is, I can get what I want from those things provided I can tune out the noise and ignore the trolls. And there is value in knowing what kind of snakes are in my yard or what my HOA is doing. But it’s like doing a term paper at a rock concert. Sifting through the noise is difficult.

    When it comes to journalism, this noise has done severe damage to our political system. Conspiracies abound and false information is everywhere. Knowing whom to trust is challenging enough without Zuckerbots tsk tsking everything that doesn’t fit their narrative.

    Politicians are supposed to reach across the aisle, not piss across it. Thing is, pissing gets you viewers and followers while reaching gets you ignominy from the Twitter fart cloud.

    That is not reality. There are millions of us who, like Steve, have long ago deleted social media from our phones and even more of us who haven’t watched cable news in years. If we do show up at the polls, we see the choices available and we want to carve our eyeballs out of our heads with melon ballers.

    Social media does not need to be regulated. Journalists and politicians need to wean themselves off it. No good comes from knowing what Nicki Minaj thinks about vaccines. It’s as if the National Enquirer, CBS nightly news and the New York Times letters to the editor section mated and birthed this god awful abomination of endless news cycles of inane crap like Jeff Goldblum merging with a fly.

    The Dispatch is almost the only place I know I can get reasoned, rational thought and reliable news. You folks are doing it right here. How do you get the rest - and by extension our utterly brain dead political leaders - to follow? I don’t know.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Steve Hayes: They’re the parent! They can take away the phone. Or not give it to the kid in the first place. A 5-year-old doesn’t need a phone. Or a 12-year-old for that matter. I don’t even think an 18-year-old needs a phone…

    Steve, you’re a man after my own heart.

    Also from Steve, because the Dispatch worked hard to hold Trump to account for untruths, it needs to hold Biden to the same standard. If I wasn’t already going to renew my yearly Dispatch subscription when it comes up, you would have just earned my subscription for another year right there.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Sam Elder

    On a lighter note, the discussion about panelists pandering to their audiences reminded me of this Onion classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFpK_r-jEXg

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  4. Avatar photo
    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    This was an interesting discussion. But I was very disappointed to hear all three participants, after agreeing with each other that social media creates many problems, jump immediately to (my paraphrase): "This may justify government regulation, despite my traditional skepticism about regulation and my enthusiasm for the First Amendment and related liberties."

    Before you'll get me to agree with you, you need to explain what that government regulation will be, who will be actually running it, and — most importantly — what you have, besides good faith and almost desperate hope, to show that the government regulation is likely to work. Show that it will work at all. Then show that the good work it will accomplish will outweigh the bad consequences it will inevitably entail.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Mandy

    I hold Sarah, Steve, and S.E. in very high regard and really enjoyed their discussion. I got frustrated, though, when they stopped short of discussing the "primary problem" as they lamented the issues facing the exhausted majority in the political middle. Moderates (which at this crazy point I'm simply defining as anyone who's not far right or far left) can't assert ourselves and demand representation in the midterms or any other election if: 1) we don't have reasonable candidates on the ballot in the first place and/or 2) our districts are so gerrymandered that it doesn't matter when we do. It would obviously help if moderates would start mobilizing for primaries in numbers that allow us to compete with voters on both extremes, and I think things have gotten so nuts in many of our districts that we're starting to understand that. But it's still crucial that our elections function to select candidates who actually represent voters. We need to fix our broken elections. Lots and lots of very smart people and effective organizers are pouring everything they've got into pushing for nonpartisan primaries, ranked-choice voting, and independent redistricting. When we're talking about the exhausted majority, let's also talk about viable paths to being heard once again.

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  6. Avatar photo
    MarqueG68

    Sarah's theory of what motivates the members of congress was particularly thought-provoking. Going to be chewing that one over for a while.

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  7. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    How would they know the exact number of Americans? Is there a list? What if there are Americans who have not identified themselves? What if the number actually keeps changing? That's an unreasonable fact for one todemand Biden and officials get exactly correct.

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  8. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    How would they know the exact number of Americans? Is there a list? What if there are Americans who have not identified themselves? What if the number actually keeps changing? That's an unreasonable fact for one todemand Biden and officials get exactly correct.

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  9. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    How would they know the exact number of Americans? Is there a list? What if there are Americans who have not identified themselves? What if the number actually keeps changing? That's an unreasonable fact for one todemand Biden and officials get exactly correct.

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  10. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    How would they know the exact number of Americans? Is there a list? What if there are Americans who have not identified themselves? What if the number actually keeps changing? That's an unreasonable fact for one todemand Biden and officials get exactly correct.

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