It’s not my habit to write about blogging process for a Sunday post. But this is the disastrous Trump era, however long it lasts. And in the disastrous Trump era, news moves at such a pace that what is a big story mid-week is likely to be overtaken by an even bigger story by the end of the week. Even as I write these lines, I wonder if the new big news will be overtaken by even bigger news tomorrow or the next day.
But this post isn’t really about Trump. It’s about the media that are so responsible for the disaster that is Trump. As I wrote last summer, when so much that is not and must never be accepted as normal came to be the lived reality: If fascism ever does come to America, the media will be goose stepping right in line.
There are many independent reasons why the popular vote loser Trump sits in the Oval Office. There are many independent factors without any one of which Hillary Clinton would be president. These include the Clinton campaign's failure to lock down its firewall states; the Russian government's manipulations, investigations of which Republicans on all levels are with clear intent assiduously and cynically obstructing; and of course the unprecedented and unethical interference of the New York FBI office and FBI director James Comey, which also may never be fully investigated.
But another factor that by itself made possible Trump's historically narrow Electoral College victory was the incompetence and at times complicity of the major media. They made Trump possible, and despite his unprecedented hostility toward them, they continue to enable him. It would be embarrassing for them, if they hadn't long ago proven they are beyond embarrassing. It is, however, dangerous.
The depth of the media's sycophantic depravity with Trump is exemplified by the image at the top of this post.
The inexplicable prominence of Chris Cillizza as Washington Post analyst is exemplified by his pathological obsession with Clinton's emails last year, and he continues to prove he hasn't grown or learned a thing since. In this case, he does acknowledge Trump's disassociation with facts, as highlighted in the Post’s adjoining article, but that doesn't prevent him from writing:
he can be, dare I say it, presidential when the moment demands it.
And:
He's not going anywhere, folks. And that speech suggests he might have more upside than almost anyone thought.
Specifically, Cillizza points to these as among Trump's supposed highlights:
Trump hit a few very nice notes: His condemnation of threats against Jewish community centers at the start of the speech was a very nice grace note, and his honoring of the widow of the Navy SEAL killed in the recent Yemen raid was a remarkably powerful moment.
And never mind that earlier on the same day, in an unscripted and unteleprompted meeting Trump bizarrely and ominously suggested that those threats against Jewish community centers may be a false flag operation designed to make him look bad.
And never mind that the Navy SEAL was killed in a failed operation that also has yet to be fully investigated, but that Trump on the same day as his speech blamed on the military and the Obama administration. But Trump read words, and to Cillizza's ilk that was the big pivotal moment they've been so desperately waiting for. More intelligent and principled observers from across the political spectrum—including military veterans and military analysts—had a different reaction.
But Cillizza was not alone. The punditocracy was beside itself lauding Trump's apparently remarkable ability to read words off a teleprompter, and they found Trump's staged and calculated honoring of the Navy SEAL's courageous widow transformationally presidential. This despite the lingering questions around the political circumstances of his having been killed; the administration's repeated lies about those circumstances; the report just a day earlier (and confirmed a day later) that the mission itself produced no significant intelligence; Trump’s own questionable behavior that horrible night; and the civilian women and children who also were killed that horrific night.
At best, call the media's reaction to Trump the toxic bigotry of no expectations. They’re desperate to believe he can be what he’s spent decades proving he never will be. A more realistic assessment of the media would be to wonder how they'll get Trump's boot polish off their tongues. Do they understand that the public's reaction was far less impressed, with both the size of the audience and the approval rating being significantly less than for the first joint speeches of Barack Obama and even the Lesser Bush?
The deferential desperation by so many in the media is even more proof of the totality of their degradation. It hasn’t been even a week since their colleagues were shut out of a White House press office gaggle, while Trump himself was doubling down on his dangerous authoritarian labeling of the media as enemies of the American people, before taking it to the next level and declaring the intentions of the New York Times are evil. But nothing Trump says or does prevents large segments of the major media and their punditocracy from throwing themselves at his feet like the timid toadies they are.
They made his ascension possible in the first place by lavishing him with billions of dollars of free coverage. They openly touted the profits he made them. He plays them for the fools they are, and they continue to grovel and do his bidding. If he now reversed course and decided to attend their annual exercise in self-congratulation know as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, they’d probably strew rose petals before him.
But some did pay attention to the substance behind the gloss, and some of those paying attention are among the professional media, although lacking requisite obsequy is not likely to land them on television.
And there were many who were unimpressed with the media’s breathless fawning.
We may yet get through this without suffering too much damage to too many people, but any damage to any people makes those responsible beyond excuse. And the media types who fawned and slobbered over Trump’s speech are as responsible as those who helped usher Trump into the White House in the first place. It didn’t take even 24 hours for their idiocy to be exposed for what it was. Not that they will learn. But they can at least take comfort in knowing their insular little club wasn’t alone in lauding Trump’s speech.