The Press Is Ignoring Trump And Refusing To Feed His Media Attacks

[babylonsister]

https://www.politicususa.com/2018/11/12/press-ignoring-trump.html?fbclid=IwAR3TacYVrgrPHDir2xVxqsjv_E8rAEN-b1hiT3n_G2vTfukOeqiDZzjKdv0

Posted on Mon, Nov 12th, 2018 by Jason Easley
The Press Is Ignoring Trump And Refusing To Feed His Media Attacks


The press responded to Trump banning CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House by ignoring his attention seeking device while fact-checking the White House.

The New York Times reported on how CNN reacted to Trump‘s efforts to provoke a war with the press:

The temptation to play it big was strong. Here was a CNN star in the middle of the action, and television news is nothing if not self-promotional. But at the regular morning meeting on Thursday, Mr. Zucker told his producers to stand down. This time, CNN would not be led by the nose into giving significant airtime to another Trump attack on the news media, especially when Democrats were preparing to take over the House and Jeff Sessions was being forced out of the attorney general’s office.

….

Other news organizations appeared to follow Mr. Zucker’s lead, resisting the urge, for once, to allow the president to turn them into hapless characters in his never-ending national melodrama.

Report On Trump, But Ignore The Drama

Drama and conflict are oxygen for the Trump presidency. The president has no interest in governing, and until Democrats take over the House, there will be no one in Congress focused on policy. The Trump administration is one endless dramatic conflict with the drama queen in the Oval Office always needing to be the center of attention.

Those who say that the press should ignore Trump are wrong. Ignoring Trump would play into the hands of the most corrupt administration in decades. The press has a valuable role to serve as a check on power. The press doesn’t need to be caught up in Trump‘s made up conflicts.

Trump’s Attacks On The Press Are A Political Strategy

When the national focus is on Donald Trump, he and Republicans lose. Trump needs to be at political war at all needs. He needs someone or something to shift attention and blame toward. Trump has been trying to make the press his enemy since he won the election. The president is trying to intimidate the press into compliance, and use a war with journalists to play on the right-wing mythology of liberal bias.

The press isn’t buying it. Trump will be covered and reported on, but no one is going to be slumming it in the Trump tabloid sewer.

Trump is being covered like a president, not a reality TV star, and the press is going to ignore his efforts to provoke fights and create drama.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Ignoring him is what works.

He doesn't care what they say as long as he is the center of attention. Ignore him and he goes insane.

[mitch96]

30. +1 He always wants to be in the spotlight...

Not shining on him is perfect!! They should start every talking head show with how many lies he told the previous day and then say nothing else about him..
m

[0rganism]

2. "Trump is being covered like a president, not a reality TV star"

i'll believe it when i see it

[bdamomma]

16. This SOB

is no pResident.

[gratuitous]

23. I share your skepticism

Every time some reporter or media outlet vows not to be suckered again by President Carnival Barker, they're back the next day or the next news cycle breathlessly telling America about Trump's latest bafflegab.

I suppose the media have to send reporters to cover the whiny ass titty baby; they're not obliged to print or air the story if it's just more hot air from a buffoon.

[Totally Tunsie]

47. Hot Air

Hot Air Balloon


Hot Air Buffoon

[PatSeg]

46. Too bad they didn't do this a long time ago

Like during the campaign, they could have covered Trump like a candidate, not a reality TV star. If they had, maybe things would be different today.

[3catwoman3]

51. Exactly. Way overdue. The press is a big part of why he...

...became the Repuke candidate, for which I cannot forgive them.

[PatSeg]

52. Hopefully

they won't forget what they've done and the consequences.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. About time! Everyone in NY remembers Trump as nothing but a publicity hound...

He never was that rich or did anything worthwhile, but was pissed if he wasn't in the news every other day. At least.

Put him in storage with Paris Hilton or any Kardashian-- famous simply for being famous.

[BigmanPigman]

25. +1,000,000,000,000,000

[SallyHemmings]

33. Amen!!!!!

[2naSalit]

4. Heh. Better late than never I guess...nt

[malaise]

5. They should have done this ages ago n/t

[Gothmog]

6. trump hates to be ignored

[Power 2 the People]

7. Let's hope this is a trend.

[DeminPennswoods]

8. It works well for Rachel Maddow

nt

[rsdsharp]

9. Then stop covering his GODDAMN

Nuremberg rallies!

AT ALL!

[DownriverDem]

14. They are

Even Fox pulled away from the last one.

[rsdsharp]

24. No. It's better than it was. They don't cover them wire-to-wire anymore,

but they still cover them, and often air parts live. He got elected because he sucked the air out of the main stream media. No one else's rallies were covered in full, day after day after day. Most candidate's rallies got little to no coverage. Even Hillary's after she got the nomination. They could run a tape of Trump from summer 2016 and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between that rally and the current one. There is nothing newsworthy about them anymore. It's not news because it's not new. But we're still subject to his verbal diarrhea, and the cheering brown shirts.

[drmeow]

10. They need to adopt behavior modification strategies

Everyone can actually be pretty easily conditioned under the right conditions - but tRump's motivation is so simplistic that he would be particularly easy to condition and manipulate

Reward "good" behavior, punish "bad"

Never, ever, ever cover his "rallies" - send a reporter to note any policy related statements which may need investigation but no cameras at all and only report on the rallies as a passing comment if it is in any way relevant to what is newsworthy for the day.
Don't repeat his tweets unless they are civilized, coherent, and "presidential" - which essentially means never
Only report on his tweets if they are relevant to what is newsworthy for the day

Actually, if the press would simply do their jobs and report on the news, it would automatically achieve this!

[True Blue American]

21. Canle quit covering Trump ralies. Now,what will he do?

There s not much he can do now, the novelty is gone, no one watches. His angry rants are just boresome.

I heard a pundit say Trump is just emotionally worn out. With the election results,fear of what may happen. Waiting for the next hammer to fall.

[ginnyinWI]

34. +1

Yes, cover presidential behavior and language and ignore the toddler like tantrums.

[littlemissmartypants]

39. Sorry drmeow, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. But wouldn't it be nice.

I do like some of your ideas but I don't know how much good they'd do. Sociopaths are like leopards, they can't change their spots. Refusing to signal boost his trash talk and lies would be a welcome change. Could possibly have an effect. I'm not sure if it will be the effect we want though.

I'd love not having to see his face or hear his voice. I wish they'd just use a static "stock photo" to replace a living breathing video of him. It would also be great to hear more mockery of him by the artists and comedians.

Limiting reporting on him to once a week in summary form would be nice, too.

Just save up a whole weeks worth of his nonsense and report it as a synopsis. I'd like to see them try that. If anyone wants to know what he's up to then, just go to twitter.

He's a colossal waste of time and oxygen.

How about a medical 'progress report' type of reporting. Just a weekly, "no change in condition" stamp. That's sufficient, imo.

We should have all figured out by now, that what is currently passing as pertinent information is really just the ego stroking, self serving, word salad, confabulatory behavior of an uneducated, raving lunatic, insipid twit.

His verbiage is so blah. We shouldn't be surprised or shocked by what's really just an example of a poorly executed smoke and mirrors side show. We should have figured that out by now, at the very least.

Presidential Alert me on my phone when he keels over. That'll do.

Ho hum. Yawn, already.

[drmeow]

43. Actually, Sociopaths and Narcissists do respond to conditioning

And they specifically respond to threats to the things they value - money, power, and (for narcissists) attention and love.

Most of them do not present for therapeutic treatment because they don't suffer because of their condition (the people around them do). But when they do present and if they are actually motivated to change, behavioral therapy (which is basically conditioning) is the only thing that works. More to the point, when the people around them present for therapy and they learn behavioral techniques to use on the Sociopath/Narcissist, the person's behavior changes.

True, their motivation never changes. They never become better people - they are always f**king assholes. But their behavior can change and they can be a bit easier to live with. But you have to target what they value and they have to genuinely believe that what they value is threatened. Plus, it is a lot of work for the people around them.

Now, the reason tRump's behavior may never change is because his base and Faux news will always reinforce it. So it depends on how much he values attention from outside his base.

[littlemissmartypants]

45. None of this changes my feelings. Could you please

Direct me to the sources for you claims? Apparently, there's new information out there I haven't seen since the last time I researched personality disorders. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

ETA: I'm not the least bit interested in the psychological rehab of him, by the way. He's wasted enough of my time already.

[drmeow]

48. The information was from my undergrad psychotherapy class

which was YEARS ago and just comes from being around clinical psychologist in academic settings for a very long time. I didn't do any clinical work in grad school so don't have any readily available references. Plus, most researchers don't necessarily study this kind of question - people study treating a disorder, not manipulating someone with a disorder. All I can find is an edited book on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for personality disorders - but CBT goes beyond what I'm talking about. The general consensus I've noticed is that you can manage the behaviors of someone with anti-social or narcissistic personality disorder using pretty basic Skinnerian conditioning - but unlike conditioning, there is not permanent behavior change which is why it is management rather treatment.

[littlemissmartypants]

50. Understood. If such were offered to him

I don't think he'd even be interested. The individual with the problem has to be motivated to change and possess a degree of insight into the problem. I'm not saying such wouldn't be beneficial for some, I think it might, but I don't see either the insight or the motivation in his case.
Thanks for the chat. You helped me kill an otherwise boring day. Keep the faith, drmeow.

[drmeow]

55. Narcissists, at least, do want to be in romantic relationships

That is the one thing which can motivate them to change - I worked for a narcissist who eventually got involved with a new spouse and (apparently - I stopped having anything to do with him) changed for the better. Their kids can also sometimes compel them to get treatment. And criminal and drug dependent sociopaths can end up in treatment. But generally it is pretty rare.

BTW - I didn't mention but I totally agree with you about just getting a summary. If I never had to see that ugly face again for as long as I live I would be an extremely happy person. My suggestion was a bit of compromise - cause the media's NOT going to give US what we'd prefer!

[Demovictory9]

11. if they had reacted this way 3 years ago, Trump would not be President

[3catwoman3]

54. Damn right!

They should have ignored him right from the get-go. "Ooh, ooh - LOOK! Trump is breathing!"

[fierywoman]

12. It only took them 4 years.

[DownriverDem]

13. About Time

No way should they be sucked in by trump.

[StarryNite]

15. No audience, no show!

[Cha]

17. Well this is A BFD FINALLY!

[iluvtennis]

22. +++ agree.

[msongs]

18. how bout making a trump forum on DU where all trump posts r quarantined nt

[NRaleighLiberal]

19. It took far too long for them to finally arrive at this approach

[cstanleytech]

20. They need to stop attending any White House press

conferences and coverage of any events as well as not allow any of Trumps people (including all the Repugnants in Congress who are little more than his fawning bootlickers) on any of their shows until the White House issues a formal apology.

[onetexan]

27. No, no more press coverage for the rest of this hideous administration till they vacate the WH

it's not the usual press coverage we're used to from previous administrations. Huckabee and her Idiot boss she plays fetch for use these briefings as occasions to distort the truth and disseminate lies.

[ginnyinWI]

36. or they could agree to only send black female reporters. n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

56. That is a GREAT idea! I'm all for it. n/t

[BeckyDem]

32. +1

[BeckyDem]

31. It only took them two fucking years to figure it out.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

35. Tell it like it is and ignore the drama...

Exactly how I navigate through my family. Don’t need to ignore what he does don’t get caught up in the drama.

[SWBTATTReg]

37. Drama Queen is getting old...I want to talk about issues seriously, not us vs. them, etc. Are ...

there any adults in the room?

[smirkymonkey]

38. Good. It's about time.

His schtick is getting old and tired.

[Totally Tunsie]

49. ...just as he is.

[littlemissmartypants]

40. Thanks for the post, babylonsister.

Kicking.

[loyalsister]

42. They're a little late

"Drama and conflict are oxygen for the Trump presidency"

No kidding. He has also been generating huge profits for network entertainment and cable news media.

The Apprentice was one of the first staged "reality" shows and cable news - for profit infotainment - created the environment that gave rise to Trump.
But, it didn't start there, and it wouldn't have happened without public demand.
"That's Incredible!!"
Hard Copy
"I want my MTV"

Before that, we had been paying to be lied to via tabloid news sources. Celebrity news and platform talk shows are also in that mix.

It goes back even further if you consider the appetite for entertainment alone.

Beneath all of it is the greed and wealth worship that built entertainment empires.

We have enjoyed story telling probably as far back as when we first became capable of doing it. No telling how long ago we started buying it. But, we do know that exploiting it for profit has been a capitalistic boon, polluted education, and given rise to the populist demand for rock star candidates.
We didn't foresee these consequences and the worst of it didn't start in the US. Goodwin has a point but it's a shame that we didn't look behind the curtain, because Hitler was a rock star.

[SoCalDem]

44. "The president said some crazy stuff & lied some more today"..now here's the news

That's how they should start every broadcast..and then report the truth of what happened today

[halobeam]

53. that's perfect!! :) nt