Sane-washing (h/t Aaron Rupar)an old man's gibberish

Corporate media fucks up again and again

Someone who does not need media sane-washing

I’ve been watching two closely related phenomena over the past couple of days (weeks, months, years). Donald Trump says something so salad-y as to be incomprehensible. It could be about tariffs paying for childcare, denial of raping a woman b/c she wasn’t attractive enough, or trampling on a soldier’s grave for an illegal campaign video. In response, the corporate media, knowing he’s gone batty, summarizes his comments, thereby rendering them mildly understandable.

Aaron Rupar

, whom I interviewed just about a full year ago, has coined the phrase sane-washing, and it has taken hold. It’s a brilliant characterization of what the corporate media is doing, and why we need to keep calling them out and supporting independent journalists.

As we continue our work talking to our neighbors, knocking on doors, writing postcards, donating to downballot candidates, we need to lean in and demand better from the corporate media. We need more conversation about Trump’s age and cognitive state. We need to look more closely at Vance and his creepy and cruel views about breeders (ahem, women). And we need to be out there talking about Russian intelligence services running an active measures op to divide Americans, as detailed in a new DOJ indictment.

Let’s point out that Republican talking points copy the Russian instructions word for word. Let’s speculate on which congresscritter is taking money from Putin, just like the content creators who were carefully not named but clearly identified in the indictment.

And as we draw closer to the debate, we need to continue to have Harris’s back. The picture above is from a visit to Penzey’s spices, where she urged a little girl to thank her teacher and gave her a high 5, told a consumer protection lawyer she was doing good work, reassured a customer that it’s going to be ok, knelt to speak to small humans, told reporters she was honored by the Cheneys’s endorsement. She made a point to say the best part of debate prep is her trip to Penzey’s, and told the crowd that it was time to turn the page on divisiveness. That we have much more in common than what separates us. And that its time to chart a new way forward. It was beautifully done. She connected with everyone. She spoke respectfully to everyone. She paid attention to what they said. She gave hugs. And she stayed on message. That’s a lot to do, all at one time. No sane-washing needed here.

And if you care, and I won’t be offended if you don’t, I think she should respond to Trump at the debate by looking around and saying (after a gish-gallop rant), “Did anyone else understand that? It sounded like an old man’s gibberish to me.”

Here’s the entire 8 minute video at Penzey’s in Pittsburgh. It’s well worth watching.

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