Prickly City by Scott Stantis for July 11, 2017

The only excuse for this week’s cartoons, as well as last week’s, is that Prickly City is at least two weeks behind, and none of Trump’s self-induced calamities have yet “happened” – in time for deadline. But! Given the number of self-induced calamities Trump has in a week (sometimes in a day), by the time Scott could produce a strip, it would be “so ten minutes ago” (to quote another comic strip a few weeks ago).

Last, and certainly least: I am tiring of making excuses for Scott Stantis.

Mr. Reporter, you’re not in the NEWS business as much as you are in the BOREDOM KILLING business (if I may riff on a line from the very prescient and powerful movie “Network”).

They are looking for what sells, not actually “news”.

Carmen sorta has a point here; news has become more about the “presentation”. Someone discovered it’s easier to take a patina of facts and build around it a pile of opinion or observations or analysis which is fills the gaping maw of 24/7 coverage. So instead of getting a lot of facts, or in-depth coverage, the audience laps a cheap, easy to produce buffet of half-baked talk from people who really have NO expertise on their subjects other than how to present their subjects. That’s why we get so many opinions on why someone looks or acts Presidential (for at least the last three administrations). The news media is capable, but it’s costly and hard to cover real news. Also opinion builds an audience, and this is the news BUSINESS. Profits must be made (which is not necessarily a bad thing). No, ultimately it comes back to us and the fact we don’t really support news coverage.

No specifics. What, exactly, is being reported that is not actually news? Hillary’s emails? Benghazi-Benghazi-Benghazi?

Because Trump’s son meeting with representatives of the Russian Government because they claimed to have dirt on a former Secretary of State? And not calling the FBI? That’s HUGE news.

NPR, New York Times and the Washington Post still appear to care about facts and evidence. Broadcast news less so, all the way to the bottom of the barrel with the likes of the National Enquirer or Breitbart.

It’s easier for some people to attack the messenger than to deal with the message. For a very brief period of time Stantis showed a tiny bit of spine and actually criticized some of Trump’s more egregious behavior, but he’s since fallen into line and is back to parroting the party line. Now don’t get me wrong, I expect a certain amount of hypocrisy from Stantis, and I recognize that the schtick he uses is what keeps his strip going, but I’d hoped fir just a little more originality in his biased attacks. Instead he’s just another apologist screaming “Fake news, fake news” when it’s just plain too hard to refute the story being reported.

I guess he’s fortunate that there aren’t any Conservative slanted cartoons that are actually funny. If there were I don’t imagine that Prickly city would be able to sustain it’s subscriber base.

It’s easier for some people to attack the messenger than to deal with the message. For a very brief period of time Stantis showed a tiny bit of spine and actually criticized some of Trump’s more egregious behavior, but he’s since fallen into line and is back to parroting the party line. Now don’t get me wrong, I expect a certain amount of hypocrisy from Stantis, and I recognize that the schtick he uses is what keeps his strip going, but I’d hoped fir just a little more originality in his biased attacks. Instead he’s just another apologist screaming “Fake news, fake news” when it’s just plain too hard to refute the story being reported.

I guess he’s fortunate that there aren’t any Conservative slanted cartoons that are actually funny. If there were I don’t imagine that Prickly city would be able to sustain it’s subscriber base.

Perhaps a tweet from little Donald Jr. will clear things up.

And trump, who decries the media, knows exactly how to keep them off balance. All it takes is one insane tweet and the news is shut down while they all analyze it forever.

Scott, where does FAIR AND BALANCED fit in to the narrative of ‘just report the news’?

Especially the part about Obama being born in Kenya.

Or maybe you could comment on OBAMA IS COMING TO TAKE YOUR GUNS!

Or the death panels. Or the black helicopters.