Commentary

I'm A Cool Rocking Blogger In The U.S.A.

by Joe Mandese , October 4, 2024

What do Bruce Springsteen, Liz Cheney and "Red, White & Blog" have in common? Well, we were all born in the U.S.A. and we also put country over party.

This election is not about Democrats vs. Republicans. It's about Americans who believe in democratic institutions, the rule of law and the Constitution vs. those who do not.

I've been struggling with how to characterize those two sides of what should be a simple, binary choice of what we might have described as a battle between good and bad, American vs. un-American, democracy vs. undemocratic, etc., etc., etc., but most of the lip service and media coverage have reduced it to an obligatory partisan political campaign. It's not. Heck, I'd vote for Liz Cheney over Donald Trump, because party, policies and political agendas aside, I know that Cheney believes in American democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution.

So does the Boss. So does Taylor Swift. And so does an unprecedented number of current and former Republicans who have already endorsed Kamala Harris, putting country over party.

The sad truth is that the Trump-Vance ticket doesn't even represent the Republican party, just a mangled, mutated, hijacked version that has taken possession of it and is using it as a means to an end. Alas, a very mean and un-American one.

It's one of the reasons I left the Democratic party prior to the 2016 election, because I didn't want anyone to say I oppose Donald Trump just because I'm a Democrat. I'm not.

Like Springsteen, Cheney and many former Republicans and Democrats, I'm just an American who supports democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution.

* * *

About the Coca-Cola can: Apparently, according to report I just received from NewsGuard's misinformation-debunking team, some conspiracy-minded sources -- or simply bad actors -- have been promoting a boycott against Coca-Cola, because they claim one of its promotions is biased toward the Harris-Walz ticket vs. Trump-Vance.

NewsGuard checked it out and found it to be false. See its verbatim description in itals below. And for what it's worth, "Red, White & Blog" tried it out too -- and tried to input various political references, all of which got rejected. And for what it's worth, it also rejected the term "Red, White & Blog" as a personalized can slogan, so I just mocked this version up to illustrate today's column. Nuff said.

* * *

Courtesy of NewsGuard:

What happened: Coca-Cola’s new can customization tool has sparked boycott calls from pro-Trump social media users, who falsely claim the tool allows pro-Harris slogans, such as “Harris 2024,” but blocks similar pro-Trump phrases, such as “Trump 2024.”

Context: The new tool, available since June on the official Coca-Cola store website, allows customers to order a personalized Coke can that includes a word or short phrase of their choice under the company’s logo.

A closer look: False claims about the tool appear to have originated in a Sept. 25, 2024, X post by the pro-Trump account @jackunheard.

“BREAKING: The Coca Cola boycott is officially happening. Their new custom website allows the use of ‘Harris 2024’ but prohibits ‘Trump 2024’ due to it being deemed ‘political in nature’ or ‘offensive.’ This is election interference.” The post received 4.2 million views in two days.

Actually: A NewsGuard test of the customization tool on Sept. 25, 2024, found that both partisan phrases were prohibited.

When a NewsGuard analyst entered “Trump 2024” and “Harris 2024” into Coca-Cola’s tool, the site returned error messages stating that neither term was “approved.”
Both error messages stated that the tool did not allow phrases that were “trademarked, political in nature, names of countries, celebrities, religious figures, or anything that could be considered offensive for other reasons.”

How it spread: Since @jackunheard’s post, multiple pro-Trump accounts have amplified the false narrative, selectively including a screenshot of the error message when users try the phrase “Trump 2024” without showing the same result for “Harris 2024.”

For example, a Sept. 25, 2024, post by pro-Trump X user @CubanOnlyTrump stated, “[Coca-Cola’s] new custom website allows the use of ‘Harris 2024’ but prohibits ‘Trump 2024’ due to it being deemed ‘political in nature’ or ‘offensive.’” The post, which featured the hashtag “#Boycottcocacola,” received 173,800 views and 1,200 likes as of Sept. 26, 2024.

In response to an email from NewsGuard, Coca-Cola confirmed that its customization tool “does not approve names or phrases that are religious in nature or are for political candidates, trademarks or celebrities.”

The false narrative and its accompanying boycott call did not appear to have an impact on Coca-Cola or its stock. A Coca-Cola spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from NewsGuard requesting comment on how the boycott call impacted the company.

brand image, misinformation, politics, tools

3 comments about "I'm A Cool Rocking Blogger In The U.S.A.".

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Dan C. from MS Entertainment, October 4, 2024 at 12:18 p.m.
When Harris, Biden, and JPK have been very vocal that they question an insitution like the Supreme Court every time they don't like a verdict handed down by the high court, it comes off as disingenuine at best to claim that you are pro-democracy.

And let's not forget that it is Harry Reid who led the democrats to change the filibuster to a simple majority...so now we have this crippled 50/50 split in government vs. precdence that required actual compromise and negotiating to achieve legislation and governence that the vast majority of Americans would benefit from vs. the 51% that we seem to be stuck in.

You can't claim to be for democracy when you tell the American people not to trust higher institutions, flip flop on every major issue you've spoken about in the last 5 years, and your party just recently voted out centuries-old, major majority rule in an attempt to benefit one side vs. the other.

And for someone who claims not to be a democrat, your blog never projects independence.

You've been exhaustingly clear that you hate Trump and you hate the republican party. Which is aslo projected by every commentary by the MP staff - never an opposing viewpoint.

Hard to believe that MP is actually covering the media industry without its own agenda and bias.
Reply

Artie White from Zoom Media Corp replied, October 4, 2024 at 12:31 p.m.

"You can't claim to be for democracy when you tell the American people not to trust higher institutions, flip flop on every major issue you've spoken about in the last 5 years..."

Yeah, you literally just described Trump and the rest of the MAGA cult.

Also, quit whining: no one ever promised you "equal time" or "opposing viewpoints" on Mediapost. This is Joe's blog; if you don't like it, don't read it. Better yet, go start your own.

Michael Giuseffi from American Media Inc, October 4, 2024 at 3:35 p.m.

You yourself said "You can't claim to be for democracy when you tell the American people not to trust higher institutions". Are you serious? That is exactly what Trump and his followers have said every time he has been investigated, indicted or convicted. With his behavior he alone has damaged the America people's trust in the institutions we all depend on to enforce the rule of law. This is the first step toward autocracy.

We question the Supreme Court because they have been bought and paid for by the same billionaires and corporations that have Trump in their pocket.

Republicans cannot win with a simple vote of the majority, their platform is so repellent, so they will use every trick or break any norm to tilt the game with the electoral college.