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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump has already defeated the news media. And its unclear what we can do about it.
By Paul Waldman November 28 at 1:17 PM
Donald Trump is either a mad genius who has cracked the media code in a way no politician before him was able to do, or hes a kind of political Mr. Magoo, stumbling randomly about yet achieving one success after another. We may never know which it is. But if were going to maintain our democracy, we have to figure out how to deal with the way Trump successfully manipulates the media.
Perhaps, as some have suggested, Trump tweeted his ridiculous lie about millions of fraudulent votes on Sunday in order to distract people from this lengthy investigation in the New York Times of the overseas partnerships that present unprecedented conflict of interest problems for his foreign policy. But even if that wasnt his intent, its what happened and he accomplished some other things as well.
The first thing it does when Trump kicks off a frenzy like this one is thrill his supporters (and Ill admit that I was among those who said that just playing to his base wouldnt be enough to win him the election). Heres how the cycle works. First, Trump says something outrageously false, but which his supporters either believe already or would like to believe. Then Trump gets criticized in the media for it, and his supporters say, There they go again, the liberal anti-Trump media. Instead of convincing everyone that the claim was false, the criticism only reinforces for Trumps fans the idea that nothing the media says can be believed, which further undermines their ability to act as neutral arbiters in any debate.
The more outrageous his claim, the more coverage it gets. At first, a disturbing amount of that coverage just passes along what Trump is saying, particularly in headlines and brief mentions on television, which often take the form of Trump says world is flat. Then the news media find their footing a bit and begin explicitly calling him out for the falsehood. But the more it ends up looking like an argument between Trump and the media, the more that even Republicans who are skeptical of Trump will get pulled to his side, because theyve long been invested in the idea that the media are hopelessly infected with liberal bias.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/28/trump-has-already-defeated-the-news-media-and-its-unclear-what-we-can-do-about-it/?utm_term=.b3468ad9ccd6&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)MadDAsHell
(2,067 posts)Real journalism appears to have been dead for some time, so who really cares if Trump permanently kills off what passes for the "media" today? Let's scrap these losers and bring back real, investigative journalism.
kentuck
(111,076 posts)Trump's comments were meant to distract from the conflicts of interest between his holdings in foreign countries and their possible conflict with the interest of our nation. That is a decision that must be made very soon. Preferably, it would come from the heads of the political Parties in our country?
cwydro
(51,308 posts)And so sad.
Remember Gregory dancing with Rove and company?