Why Trump wants you to hate the media

[babylonsister]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/opinions/trump-wants-you-to-hate-media-ghitis/index.html

Why Trump wants you to hate the media
By Frida Ghitis


(CNN)If you watched President Trump's astonishing press conference on Thursday, you might be forgiven for concluding that the most urgent problem facing America is that the media "is out of control." Some media "is fantastic," the president allowed. But on the whole, journalism is plagued by "false, horrible, fake reporting."

It's clear that America's new President has chosen his new best enemy. Now that the campaign is over and it's not very useful to drive the crowds into a frenzy of hatred against Hillary Clinton, Trump has found the new direction in which to focus his supporters' animosity. But this time, the anointed enemy serves an even more useful purpose.

The advantages of having an enemy are well-known. In Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" -- suddenly a new best-seller in the Trump era -- the masses engage in a daily mandatory ritual, the "Two Minutes of Hate," during which their anger is feverishly stoked against the foe of the moment. Dictators, strongmen and autocrats have practiced the art of drumming up loathing toward others to great effect.

Trump is no dictator, but he does have strong authoritarian tendencies and, like other demagogues, he knows that perceived enemies can help him fire up the base, rally the crowds and shift responsibility. Don't look at me, this script cries out; look over there, there is a threat, a danger, a foe.

When it comes to enemies, a demonized media is even more useful than the average antagonist.
Trump's real nemesis is the truth. By attacking the media, he opens up a new line of attack against facts, his true target. He is, after all, the Gaslighter in Chief. He is trying to confuse the public so that they will not believe inconvenient truths.

What he wants is to manufacture his own pseudo-truth; to create a reality where he always wins. Where the only polls that count are the ones where he's doing great. Where the only comments about him are compliments, and where anything negative is false, the work of an out-of-control media.Where when things go wrong it is someone else's fault: He practically blamed the media for Russia's positioning of a spy ship off the US coast, buzzing US ships and illegally launching a cruise missile. It happened, he said, because the media's false reporting made the Kremlin think there's no chance of improved relations.
His administration is in chaos, but it's all the media's fault. And besides, there is no chaos. But if there were...

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/opinions/trump-wants-you-to-hate-media-ghitis/index.html

[BeckyDem]

1. He keeps priming his supporters to keep them trusting him over any message he doesn't approve of.

It is not as if the msm is great, they were terrible when it came to the lead up to the Iraq war, but that is not what Trump is concerned about. I hope his supporters start to understand that about him.

[gordianot]

2. Many in the media will take credit when Trump is removed.

Many who paid attention will know better and that alone is not reason enough to hate American media. What I am waiting for are the fossils such as fragile moralizing Tom Brokaw and Andrea Mitchell to take credit when Trump goes down.

[GusBob]

3. The media hurts his tender feelings, wait until AQ or ISIS makes a move

He can't handle the media or the truth. He is fighting his battle with tweets.

Meanwhile the government is in complete disarray. Terrorists will rush into the void.

When the terrorists strike he will blame the media, the courts, Dems, Obama, HRC, immigrants, Muslims and SNL.

He wants a terrorist attack in the worst way

We are back to the days of MIHOP

[Thor_MN]

4. And Donny needs an enemy, because he sure as shit has no ideas.

[flygal]

5. This!

[TrekLuver]

8. And Bannon too....and they are just copying Russia's tactics.

[moondust]

6. Agree.

What he wants is to manufacture his own pseudo-truth; to create a reality where he always wins.

History's tyrants have never wanted anybody poking around into what they're doing and then criticizing it in public. As noted on The Last Word last night, Drumpf comes from a privately owned "family" business where he could normally control the narrative with little accountability. He can't deal with all this public accountability stuff.

[lark]

7. Exactly!

He's not a dictator - YET - but he sure as hell is trying to get that title. That's why it's ultra important to try and drive a wedge between the media and our population - he doesn't want us to know the truth. He knows he's out of office the minute the real truth is out there. He thinks he can be a traitor in secret if he can only shut down all media except the fascist kind (I refuse to use alt-right, that's also fake news). He knows repugs are traitors and won't out him, because McTurtle and Eddie Munster are in on this. The Intelligence Community and journalists are his true enemies because only they have the power to bring him down, iIF they can get the truth shown. He wants to sneak his turning over the world to Russia by us until Europe is in turmoil and war is breaking out and he's gotten all his loans forgiven and Vlad has given him the tape back. Of course, he's really stupid, Vlad will never stop his blackmail as long as drumpf is in office.

[TrekLuver]

10. The truth will come out...it already has a smidge...his campaign folks were speaking to high

level Russians. That is just an atom of a snowflake on the tip of the iceberg.

[lark]

11. I hope you are right.

But I often despair, he's so good at threatening others, goes so over the top, that information is suppressed. Repugs are shoulder to shoulder with his treachery and they are also complicit with Russia colluding to change the election. They will never truly investigate him or allow the truth to come out if they do stumble on it and can't keep it suppressed. How is he impeached when no one in power will allow that to happen?

[TrekLuver]

12. Good whatever Repugs are complicit ....well guess what it's time to clean house! We don't need

every Pug to grow a pair and investigate this....we just need some and that is already happening! So the question is....where will you be the moment you find out when the shit went down? That moment will live forever in anybody who is alive today. Right up there with the OJ verdict....LOL. And I am so looking forward to it. I have a bottle of champs in the fridge just awaiting.

[lark]

14. Hope it doesn't go stale!

[TrekLuver]

15. LOL that won't happen....if this gets drawn out then I'll need to pop it for "coping" mechanisms..

[Mr. Ected]

9. With Trump's affinity for FOX and Breitbart and all the alt-right propaganda machines

He is both the victim and the perpetrator of fake news.

He's constantly listening to it, just as we are constantly reviewing new REAL news items. Our news shapes our thinking, as does his.

The disaster is the decades-long dissemination of propaganda. The man in the Oval Office has been compromised and brainwashed by it.

[Mc Mike]

13. Chris Hedges pointed out the Christian Right has the same tactics.

They tell their followers 'Don't believe the scientists, don't believe the experts, don't believe the media, think for yourself. You're 'free' to think for yourself.'

Then once the people are 'free' from listening to actual experts' viewpoints, they have nobody to give them any info about issues or reality, so the only person they can turn to for info is the one who made them 'free'. They're 'free' to believe what the snake fundy christian leaders tell them what to believe.

They're free to be slaves. They learned how to know nothing.