In stark contrast the laughably absurd claim by the Morning Joe panelists last March that the media barely covered the Stormy Daniels story, Salon.com published an article by Adam Johnson on July 25 revealing that there had been 455 segments about that porn star on MSNBC during the past year.
The mocking criticism of the Stormy Daniels overdose of coverage on MSNBC comes from a left perspective since they contrast that sharply with lack of reporting on the war in Yemen which they view as "Trump's war" despite former President Obama also backing Saudi Arabia in that conflict.
Although I knew there was extreme MSNBC over-reporting about Stormy Daniels, even I was quite surprised at the high amount of coverage quantified in the Salon story title, "MSNBC has done 455 Stormy Daniels segments in the last year — but none on U.S. war in Yemen."
July 3, 2017, to July 3, 2018, MSNBC dedicated zero segments to the U.S. war in Yemen, but 455 segments to Stormy Daniels. This isn’t to suggest the Stormy Daniels matter isn’t newsworthy — presidential corruption is per se important. But one has to wonder if this particular thread of venality is 455 stories more important than Trump aggressively supporting a war that’s killing hundreds of people a month, injuring thousands, and subjecting millions to famine and cholera. Did MSNBC editors, poring over the latest academic foreign policy literature, really come to the conclusion Trump’s war in Yemen isn’t important? Or is MSNBC simply fueled by partisan Russia dot-connecting and stories that allow them to say “porn star” as much as possible?
If MSNBC thought that the conflict in Yemen could be a way of removing President Donald Trump from office, then their coverage would be "YEMEN YEMEN YEMEN" instead of "STORMY STORMY STORMY" or "RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA."
What seems most likely is MSNBC has found that attacking Russia from the right on matters of foreign policy is the most elegant way to preserve its “progressive” image while still serving traditional centers of power — namely, the Democratic Party establishment, corporate sponsors and their own revolving door of ex-spook and military contractor-funded talking heads. After all, Barack Obama backed the war on Yemen — though not nearly as aggressively as Trump has — and it’s difficult to make a coherent left-wing, anti-war criticism when the current Republican in office is simply carrying out your guy’s policy, but on steroids.
Huh? "Attacking Russia from the right" in order for MSNBC to preserve it's "progressive" image? Is that somehow supposed to make sense, Mr. Johnson?
Of course, since the 455 count was tabulated only until July 3, it is a safe bet that the up to date MSNBC Stormy Daniels numbers must be much higher, probably exceeding 500. Perhaps at least a dozen Stormy Daniels appearance points just for the story about her husband seeking a divorce while alleging adultery.
