Trump keeps pulling the same trick because it keeps working

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-keeps-pulling-the-same-trick-because-it-keeps-working?cid=sm_fb_maddow


Trump keeps pulling the same trick because it keeps working
12/29/16 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen


Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration is still three weeks away, but the president-elect desperately wants Americans to believe he’s already racking up enormous successes – just as long as the public doesn’t look too closely at the details, which show his accomplishments are actually a mirage.

Late yesterday, for example, Politico published this piece, which said exactly what the Republican transition team wanted to see.

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the creation of 8,000 new private-sector jobs in the United States, including 5,000 that he says telecommunications company Sprint Corp. will be bringing back from “other countries.”

“We just had some very good news,” Trump told the transition press pool. “Because of what is happening and the spirit and the hope, I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States. They have taken them from other countries.”

In the same “announcement,” Trump boasted that he’s learned that a company called OneWeb was adding an additional 3,000 jobs – because of, you know, “what is happening and the spirit and the hope.”

The trouble, as Politico acknowledged soon after, is that Trump was pulling a scam he’s leaned on many times: those new jobs were announced months ago. The president-elect wanted credit for others’ work, hoping the public – and news organizations – wouldn’t notice.

If the trick sounds familiar, it’s because this wasn’t the first time Trump has executed the scam.

It began in earnest just 10 days after Election Day, when Trump boasted that, thanks to his amazing work, Ford had agreed to keep a Lincoln SUV plant in Kentucky. There was just one detail he neglected to mention: Ford hadn’t intended to close the Kentucky plant. Trump was either trying to deceive the public or he was bragging about an economic decision he didn’t understand and had nothing to do with.

Two weeks later, Trump announced he’d reached an agreement with Carrier, which initially sounded great, but which was far less encouraging upon closer inspection. Trump exaggerated the number of jobs saved, rewarded a company with taxpayer money that was closing a plant and shipping jobs to Mexico, and fudged the facts about how many of the saved jobs will be eliminated anyway.

By early December, Trump was claiming credit for Softbank hires that had been announced months earlier. (This was an extension of the news he also announced yesterday. He’s claimed credit the same jobs multiple times, despite having nothing to do with them.)

A week later, Trump supporters eagerly credited the president-elect for IBM’s plan to expand its workforce, despite the fact that the company’s hiring announcement was initially made in May – seven months before the presidential election.

Team Trump keeps pulling the scam in part to mislead people, but also because it keeps having the intended effect. The president-elect will tell reporters, as he did yesterday, about some encouraging economic development, which news organizations quickly pass along to the public – before the media realizes that he’s trying to pull a fast one.

The moral of the story should be obvious: stop taking Donald Trump’s claims at face value. This guy has a nasty habit of making untrue, self-aggrandizing claims, which he’ll keep doing so long as his deceptions are rewarded.

[Cha]

1. How gd stupid are the USm$media******? Don't answer.. Rhetorical..

[annabanana]

3. You have to ask yourself:

Stupid or Evil?

only two likely explanations

[ewagner]

5. Both...n/t

[Cha]

13. I'm going for both, too.

[Alekzander]

14. They are not stupid as much as they just do not frigging do their job. They run around & report

what he says immediately but never seem to follow up on facts.

However, remember what Chuck Todd said; it is not my job to fact-check or question the validity only report.

[Ford_Prefect]

16. They have no ability to fact check because they outsourced it long ago and then cut the budget

for external services. The only thing they do now is cheer lead the predominant emotion and demonstrate the attitude we are expected to reflect.

Since their corporate masters don't want us to make fact based decisions that works out just fine. If any facts ever do make it to broadcast they are so late to the argument as to seem circumstantial and irrelevant.

[Alekzander]

17. Exactly right.

[ghostsinthemachine]

30. Trump denied access. No open press conferences in months

Yesterday? Two questions. Unless we can ask him openly, then he can hide.

[Snarkoleptic]

2. Someone needs to explain to them,

the difference between stenographer and journalist.

[tblue37]

15. Stephen Colbert tried to do that at the WH Corespondents Dinner that time. nt

[pangaia]

23. iT WENT RIGHT OVER THEIR HEADS.

oopss caps lock sorry..
I'd make a terrible stenographer

[The Wizard]

4. Hitler convinced enough Germans that

he would make Germany great again. It works when the working class can't stay above water. Trump followers are a sub cult of the larger cult known as the GOP. Another sub cult of the GOP cult is the Ku Klux Klan, and they support Herr Twitler. The Aryans among us are still the minority, but a minority that has gamed a system put in place by ----------------------- slave owners. The Electoral College was a bargain forged in Hades to get slave states to sign onto the Constitution. And today the majority is subjugated by the minority because of it.

[LaydeeBug]

6. There has to be *something* we can do about the press. Without addressing profit margins

we are entitled to a free and open press.

This is bizarre.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. The media needs to CEASE reporting any "tweet" or other "announcement"

from that conglomerate until it is fact-checked... and if it is false, then disappear it. There is plenty of other factual and substantive "news" out there, both nationally and internationally that can be reported.

[pangaia]

25. AGNOTOLOGY

"..... is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology

[Fast Walker 52]

8. If he wants to take credit for it, then he owns the economy starting now, and whatever happens

from now on. No blaming Obama for anything that goes wrong (though of course he will).

[pangaia]

26. He should not GET AWAY with taking credit for it in the first place.

[Fast Walker 52]

37. yes, but the people want to believe will believe whereas the relaity-based community knows

the truth... and so it goes...

[Else You Are Mad]

34. Sadly...

For the next four years, everything positive that occurs -- even if he had no part in such -- Trump will take credit for it and everytime something negative happens -- even if Trump was the reason for such -- it will be Obama's fault.

[Fast Walker 52]

36. No doubt, and we'll have to spend the next 4 years rebutting his nonsense

hopefully that will be the worst that we will have to do

[Else You Are Mad]

38. My concern is...

The media will not report the truth and will just repeat verbatim whatever Trump tweets as if it were truth.

[Fast Walker 52]

39. well, they do report the truth but it's usually buried and the stupid headlines are misleading

[Else You Are Mad]

40. Print media is much better...

Than the television media. I was referring to the news networks.

[Fast Walker 52]

41. yes, but headline are used to mislead in online news, print news and TV news

even for TV a lot of people don't play close attention and just read the chyrons or whatever.

[Else You Are Mad]

42. Agreed. Nt.

[pangaia]

43. AGNOTOLOGY

"..... is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology

[Else You Are Mad]

44. Good call. Nt.

[Mc Mike]

9. Mr. Benen's writing is always great. rec, ntl

[greymattermom]

10. THis is probably a good thing, in the long haul

he'll be busy announcing stuff for businesses and won't have time to do much. Now, Congress has to be stopped, but someone can figure out how to get them to fight among themselves. I hope.

[pangaia]

28. It is not a good thing because it is blatant lies and people with no brains have short,

very selective memories.

[spanone]

11. hey don, those jobs don't have one fucking thing to do with you

[dembotoz]

12. eventually he will claim he knocked up the virgin mary and jesus called him Dad

cause ya know the christianity thing will be yuuuuge

[47of74]

18. And the people lining up to be Donnie's Fluffer

Would insist that's true and attack anyone who says otherwise.

[Kablooie]

19. He controls the narrative because no one contradicts him.

And he repeats it so often that the public will soon accept it as fact.

Even if he was constantly contradicted it would get so tiresome that no one would notice after awhile.

He will win the propaganda war and no one can do anything about it.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. His supporters are also latching onto these news stories

and using it to further cement their love for their "God Emperor" (never mind all of the jobs created in this country since 2009 under President Obama, whose policies at least had some positive effects on job growth/creation). It's maddeningly stupid and sickening that Trump is claiming credit for these scattered jobs stories. News outlets should at least, you know, do some basic fact-checking before posting their stories. At least, do some cursory checking to figure out if Trump indeed was responsible for the jobs instead of just allowing him to wildly claim credit for things that he can't possibly be responsible for.

[usaf-vet]

21. So what is he going to do... say in September of 2017

when his look back take credit machine can't find anything credible in his first nine months to brag about?

[pangaia]

29. Doesn't matter. He is lying now and he will lie then.

And our stenographers, known to some as the media, will type it all down and spew it out..

[rurallib]

22. And last night I listened to NPR tell about the recent Trump triumph

of jobs at Sprint followed up with a comment about his success with Carrier.

I got a new internet radio for Christmas that will be used a lot.

But NPR has this now undeserved reputation for being unbiased. They can do some damage.

[Wounded Bear]

24. Our media...

[wishstar]

27. This morning on CNBC, one of their contributors was giddy for 15 minutes about Trump's jobs

He made one quick reference to some of these jobs already announced weeks ago, but overall excitedly praising and fawning over all the new jobs Trump is bringing back. The Con is definitely a master at media manipulation and self-promotion.


Too bad Pres Obama and his Administration didn't get a tiny fraction of as much attention and credit for the millions of additional jobs since Bush left office- instead it was begrudging mentions by the media with overwhelmingly negative caveats.

[heaven05]

32. a black man as POTUS

has definitely made ameriKKKa show it's true color, nature and culture........I'm glad it's finally in the open. No more lying and distraction/diversion from the fact that an overwhelming majority of ameriKKKans who voted for the new fuhrer are racist pigs with pure hate and evil aka dylann roof, in their wicked putrid hearts.....no more hypocrisy. In the open, they can be dealt with......

[heaven05]

31. he keeps getting away with his lies

and cons, p**** grabbing, racism, sexism, xenophobia ect.....because ameriKKKans on their knees kissing his ass let him do it. Please.... ameriKKKa is screwed, probably irrevocably. And ameriKKKans will be whining soon a I will tell them face to face, stfu!!!!!!!! I have an trumpfuhrer voting ex-friend I just can't wait to scream that at him................

[erpowers]

33. More Than Pretty Faces

Maybe this is why news reporters should be more than just pretty faces. How many of the talking head on television really know anything about the issues they are discussing? I guess the 24 hour news cycle and the desire to put out information first could also be a problem, but how many of these news anchors doing nothing more than reading from a teleprompter? Could the news anchors and the news producers not have asked questions about the 5,000 jobs statement considering it was connected to the same person who had just a few months ago had announced that an investment from his company would bring 50,000 jobs to the United States?

[gulliver]

35. This way the media gets more mileage out of the story.

They report what Trump says. Then they debunk it. Ads appear on both.

[babylonsister]

45. In the media's defense, everything he says is usually

debunkable. Up is down.

Yes, they helped create him, but now we all have to share.