Milk toast
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“I can’t honestly believe someone as bright as Jon Sopel is as un-opinionated as he comes across in this podcast, so I assume it’s the BBC obsession with “balance” that leads to the tone of uncertainty in this show. Ultimately, the result is very unsatisfactory.
Having read a few reviews of this podcast, I can see that confirmation bias among listeners leads people on both ends of the American political spectrum to feel like this show is too sympathetic to their opponents. This is an inherent challenge to the BBC’s need to be impartial. I’d argue, however, that in a Trumpian, post-truth world, achieving “balance” leads to Jon and Emily bending themselves out of shape to normalise Trump and the RNC, which is inherently unfair to the Democrats.
The recent episode re-capping the RNC featured such gems as “is there an element of dog whistle?” regarding Trump’s not-so subtle references to the suburbs being over-run by the “radical left”. It’s not an element of dog whistle, Jon. I know you know better than this. It’s blatant face baiting.
“I felt the attempt to take the rough edges off his supposedly racist persona was very effective. There was a speech from Herschel Walker, who’s black, you know.” Really? Did the BBC really just use the “he’s not racist; he’s got a black friend.” defence, because it sure sounded like that.
We also had , unchallenged, a lengthy quote from Ivanka Trump with words to the effect of “you always know exactly what my father is thinking because he is so straight talking.” Did I hear that right? The BBC thinks it’s appropriate to just play that clip without pointing out the obvious counter-point that lying thousands of times during the first three years of a presidency, does not constitute “straight talking”?
There was an approving reference to the grotesque, highly tasteless naturalisation ceremony in which Trump pulled several non white immigrants into the White House during the RNC to use them as a political prop. Again, this was discussed as being an effective tool to de-bunk claims of his racism without any discussion of the context and his record on migrants at the Mexican border. I mean, seriously? You didn’t think that that scene merited descriptions like “cynical” or “exploitative” or “at odds with everything shown by his record and policies”?
No mention was made of Trump’s attempts to cripple mail-in voting. Virtually no mention of the egregious use of the White House as a political backdrop.
A fairly basic analysis from the Republican political analyst guest that “voters just want to get back to normal and they won’t like pro athletes going on strike.” Again, unchallenged, as if there is someone other than Trump to blame for the lack of pro sports in the US (for both Covid and racial justice reasons).
Extremely basic analysis of the electoral college and of Trump’s strategy of repeatedly running the Republican primary over and over without expanding his base. All of it crowned with a true classic BBC “on the one hand/ on the other hand” summary that “it’s going to be really close like a jump-ball” in November. This final point might have been the most irritating of all, since it’s so easy to sit on the fence and say it’ll be close. On this, again, I honestly don’t think Jon Sopel believes what he’s saying. Just once, it would be nice for the BBC to take a firmer position and say “unless he can expand his base, Trump will go down 380-120 ish in November. So he’s going to try to scare suburban whites in Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin into supporting him. The possible results range from a Biden landslide , which Trump will dispute as fraudulent to a narrow Trump victory which will actually be fraudulent.”
When the facts are as they are: that a new-fascist authoritarian is running on a platform of stoking hatred and divisions, this “balanced” view is not actually balanced; it’s biased in favour of Trump by normalising his thuggish rhetoric and policies.”
Ale Coaster via Apple Podcasts ·
Great Britain ·
09/02/20
More reviews of Americast
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“A British take on American politics and the craziness is just what I needed to get on over here.
I’m so happy Brexicast now has an America cousin!”
Tbogus via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
02/05/20
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“Interesting commentary on the unfolding Presidential election, but what makes the podcast so enticing is in fact it’s hosts. Highly recommend even for those who don’t identify as political junkies”
eddie devlin via Apple Podcasts ·
Great Britain ·
03/30/20
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“Terrible chemistry. Find someone else.”
Ccmatic via Apple Podcasts ·
Great Britain ·
02/13/20
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