Right-Wing Media Scramble To Recast Obama As Trump-Era Villain

[DonViejo]

Eric Boehlert

Right-Wing Media Scramble To Recast Obama As Trump-Era Villain

March 7, 2017 6:00 am

In science, nature abhors a vacuum. On cable news, Fox News abhors not having a Democratic villain. So the network is trying to bring back former President Barack Obama for the starring role.

Desperately searching for someone with a high profile to blame for the generally chaotic start of Trump’s controversy-filled administration, the conservative media are refitting the former Democratic president, who has kept a low profile since exiting the White House, as an all-powerful gremlin who’s to blame for Trump’s laundry list of political woes.

And now, of course, Trump has seized on the right-wing media theme. Brandishing little more than a right-wing radio rant that was typed up by Breitbart, Trump over the weekend made the wholly unsubstantiated, and nonsensical, claim that Obama ordered a wiretap at Trump Tower. Trump then demanded that Congress investigate the alleged abuses. (Surprise! Trump’s right-wing media allies support the call.)

The burgeoning blame game started last month with allegations that Obama was responsible for the big crowds protesting Trump’s presidency. (He wasn’t.) Since then, the allegations have widened, and now Obama is viewed as some sort of all-powerful troll who’s mysteriously capable of disrupting all factions of the Trump administration.

But let’s take a step back and understand what’s also going on: The right-wing media cannot survive without high-profile liberal villains who can be used to rile up the Republican masses. For the previous eight years, Obama was portrayed as an almost demonic figure bent on destroying the American way of life. And for the last two years of Obama’s term, Hillary Clinton received co-star status as America’s Villain on Fox News and in other right-wing media, which denounced her every move, real or imagined, as an outrage.

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http://www.nationalmemo.com/right-wing-media-obama-villain

[yurbud]

1. the problem with this "villain" is he's more popular than Trump.

[dalton99a]

2. Their intended audience will swallow it up - and come back for more.

[justgamma]

3. Heard this morning that Obama

is spending taxpayer dollars to fund the protests. Yes, they believe that nonsense and it's scary.

[world wide wally]

4. It's beginning to look like Trump wants to lock up Obama along with Hillary.

Who else are his political enemies?