I don't post about Trump on social media. Ok, I'm lying. Sometimes his actions are so egregious, I can't help it. But now, I refrain from the instinctive, quick to pull the trigger posts of my past.
The same can't be said of mainstream media. I have found myself wondering what on earth mainstream networks reported on, before Trump came down those escalator stairs. Since then, it has been all Trump, all the time.
News stories write themselves now. No need to research or develop ground breaking stories. Just one Trump car crash after another. The public can't look away, can’t not talk about it, no matter how hard we try.
Trump knows this, of course. For all his shortcomings, he knows how to propel himself to the forefront, knows how to remain relevant, knows how to inject himself into the collective consciousness. Congratulations, Kansas City, “Kansas,” Trump just stole your thunder.
What his followers have shown is that there is no policy too cruel, no comment too derogatory, no act too treasonous, no level of ineptness idiotic enough, no crime too flagrant. They aren't protecting the Constitution or the republic that the rest of us worry about. They are protecting racism, remember?
So, while mainstream networks eagerly report his latest, his followers cheer even louder. Chastising his idiocy simply endears him to his base. They love him because he seems stupid like them. They, like many Americans, don’t value exceptionalism, unless it is in the form of exceptional monetary riches. Similarly, chastising his cruelty also endears him to his base. They love him because he is racist like them.
I and others like me can’t be the only ones who notice this. The billion dollar news organizations have certainly ran matrices, which have long alerted them to this. Yet, they continue with all Trump, all day. Like state run TV, except, with them levying “criticism” in the name of journalistic integrity. All publicity is good publicity though, from what I've heard.
Thus, I have come to believe that, despite all their self righteous indignation, mainstream media actually loves Trump.
Mainstream media must save a ton, not having to fly a Diane Sawyer to a far flung locale to engage in investigative journalism. All that's needed now is a good Skype connection and a panel of pundits to discuss what Trump ate for breakfast that day.
The public obviously devours what passes for journalism these days. Trump related news clips and articles circulate the globe at lightning speed, and, in less than 24 hours, a new cycle begins.
If only mainstream media's reliance on the low hanging fruit of easy stories was solely due to sheer laziness. Of course that's only a minuscule part of this equation. As with every thing else in this country, one simply needs to follow the money.
Corporations' coffers have been flush with loot since Trump's tax cuts. News organizations were not exempt from the windfall that the grifter in chief gifted the rich. Imagine if news organizations declined the tax windfall, due to ethical considerations? Maybe donate that money to the poor they generally claim to care so deeply about. No, that certainly was not the route they chose. They, like many others, took the money and ran.
Not surprisingly, it is almost impossible for a layperson to figure out precisely how much news organizations benefited from Trump's tax scheme. But, if other large corporations are any indication, news organizations made out like bandits.
For 2017, AT&T received a reported $20.4 billion in tax cuts. Southwest, $1.3 billion. Disney, $1.7 billion.1 I wonder what Rachel Maddow's 2017 bonus was?
News organizations repay Trump's kindness, by giving him free advertising. $5 billion. That’s the amount of free advertising that Trump got in 2016 alone (inclusive of public fueled internet mentions).2 Reading that figure made me feel physically ill.
A corporation’s sole duty is to generate profits for its shareholders. Who better than Trump to help news organizations fulfill that duty? He is the gift that keeps giving. Cheap, quick, easy, reaction inducing stories, AND ungodly unconcionable sums in tax savings? Why would they want the public to elect anyone who would stop that gravy train?
They love Trump.
I've long tired of their disingenuousness. What if we demand they end the non-stop Trump news cycle? What if we all stop giving Trump free advertising?
1.https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/big-businesses-promised-wage-hikes-trump-s-tax-cuts-what-n970081
2.https://www.thestreet.com/politics/donald-trump-rode-5-billion-in-free-media-to-the-white-house-13896916
About the Author: Alexi Laine* is a Jamaican immigrant who is stranded on a very different island, Long Island, New York. She makes the best of it by raising three future revolutionaries, working as an attorney, and, some times, finding time to write.
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