August 14, 2016

Trump's media bait of the day: The media is crooked!

Here's his series of tweets today, which I'm not going to embed separately because there are so many and embedded tweets slow down the loading. The reason to embed tweets is to propagate them by making them easy to retweet, but just go to his Twitter feed, here. I'm putting the tweets in the order they appeared:

1. "The failing @nytimes talks about anonymous sources and meetings that never happened. Their reporting is fiction. The media protects Hillary!"

2. "The failing @nytimes, which never spoke to me, keeps saying that I am saying to advisers that I will change. False, I am who I am — never said"

3. "If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%"

4. "My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm."

5. "Crooked Hillary Clinton is being protected by the media. She is not a talented person or politician. The dishonest media refuses to expose!"

6. "I am not only fighting Crooked Hillary, I am fighting the dishonest and corrupt media and her government protection process. People get it!"

7. "It is not 'freedom of the press' when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!"

This is a good issue, and he's right that the media are unfair to him and trying to help Hillary. #1 contains an assertion about "meetings" — reported by the NYT here — that never happened. I don't know who's right about that. The NYT says that right after Trump fired Corey Lewandowski as his campaign manager, there was "an intervention":
Joined by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, a cluster of Mr. Trump’s confidants pleaded with him to make that day — June 20 — a turning point. He would have to stick to a teleprompter and end his freestyle digressions and insults, like his repeated attacks on a Hispanic federal judge....  Mr. Trump bowed to his team’s entreaties, according to four people with detailed knowledge of the meeting, who described it on the condition of anonymity. It was time, he agreed, to get on track.
The Times goes on to say that Trump failed to change, his advisers now think "he may be beyond coaching," and that he's become "sullen and erratic" in private, mouthing off about the media. So that seems to have set this series of tweets in motion, with the first one calling the NYT story "fiction."

The second tweet also refutes that NYT story, specifically the assertion that "he agreed" to change his ways. Who knows what the truth is? Maybe his family and advisers talk to him all the time about ways to improve and he listens and is his own man, deciding ultimately what to do. If so, there's no big "intervention"-style meeting or momentous agreement to change, but there is perhaps enough material that the Times reporters think they can entertain and reassure their readers in the colorful fashion seen in the article.

The first 4 tweets went up in rapid succession, 9 hours ago. The first 2 were prompted by that NYT piece. ##3 and 4 branched out to media in general. ##5, 6, and 7 came in a burst 4 hours later. Why return to this subject? What's new seems to be a need to forefront "Crooked Hillary" — in ##5 and 6. And #7 tops off a day of attacking the press by anticipating the defense of freedom of the press.

#7 is troublesome. Freedom of the press does largely mean the press is "allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false." At some point, there is libel law, but a public figure like Trump has to show more than just that the statement is completely false. And I am reminded of how Trump has said that he wants  to "open up" libel law — something I wrote a very long post about last March. He was confronted by a Washington Post editor, Fred Hiatt:
HIATT: But just – given the Supreme Court rulings on libel — Sullivan v. New York Times — how would you change the law?

TRUMP: I would just loosen them up.
Asked what does that mean, he said: "I’d have to get my lawyers in to tell you, but I would loosen them up. I would loosen them up." It didn't get any clearer, I'll just say now. The old post is so detailed, and I don't have the strength to go through it again. I only want to say that Trump is weak on freedom of speech. He's a presidential candidate! He's going to be batted around in the press, and it's going to be unfair and unbalanced and full of problems and mistakes. It will only get worse if he becomes President. There's some value to critiquing the press, but at some point it's too much. He comes across as thin-skinned and distracted. Or maybe just too tweety.

So I'm wary about #7 and it got me thinking about a problem I had with him last March, but Trump succeeded in making media bias the issue of the day. I don't think it will help him get any better press, but maybe the press will pay a little more attention to Hillary's many problems and maybe some people will be a little more skeptical of press reports — even though plenty of people will feel more inclined to think of Trump as narcissistic and petty.

64 comments:

jimbino said...

The media protects Hillary!"

At this point, I'd vote for the first one who could say, in proper English, "The media protect Hillary!"

YoungHegelian said...

I only want to say that Trump is weak on freedom of speech. He's a presidential candidate!

True dat!

Sadly, all of our candidates seem to be weak on defending the Constitution, what with Hillary wanting to undo "Citizens United" (which the press never paint as weird considering the film in question was a critique of her), & Johnson saying that exemptions from the law for religious reasons was a "black hole" ("So, Mr. Johnson, if elected do you intend to eliminate Conscientious Objector status as a reason for exemption from military service?").

Maybe Jill Stein's okay, but somehow, when it comes to guns & robust freedom of speech/conscience, I doubt it.

machine said...

“How dare we cover the comments he makes”

so unfair...

traditionalguy said...

Trump fails to mention that his being character assassinated 24/7 is actually good news. The forces he is fighting are big time into plain old professional assassinations.

Achilles said...

Trumps 2nd amendment position is more than solid.

I can live with it being easier to sue media publications for lying. It is better than what would happen if Hillary is elected.

Sebastian said...

"This is a good issue" Why? Sure, Trumpites and a few GOPers care, and some of us commentators here take perverse pleasure in hammering the issue, but a lot of regular voters he would need to reach, if he were trying to win, don't give a damn.

"He's right that the media are unfair to him and trying to help Hillary" Sure. But whining about it makes no difference. The only thing that would work is to try and do an end-run around them, attacking Hill in a way they can't ignore while laying out a positive vision that resonates beyond the media filters. Of course, that would require some knowledge, skill, and discipline, especially to avoid painting easy targets for the "crooked" MSM.

Anonymous said...

While #7 may be troubling, it's no less troubling that the press is willing to publish knowingly false information to misinform the public. I won't happen to be shedding any tears if their years of irresponsible behavior eventually lead to laws or regulations that aren't quite so friendly to them.

Paddy O said...

Media attention giveth, media attention taketh away.

The story of Trump 2016.

Rob said...

Pointing to reporters, Trump today told a rally, "They're the worst people in the world." FACT CHECK: They're among the worst people in the world, but there are people who are even worse.

Achilles said...

Sebastian said...

"Of course, that would require some knowledge, skill, and discipline, especially to avoid painting easy targets for the "crooked" MSM."

Is there a single republican since Reagan that has more success at this than trump? Did you forget romney killing employees with cancer and beating people up in high school or torturing his dogs?

At some point you people will stop bitching about how bad everyone else is at dealing with the media and actually help us fight. Until then you are worse than useless.

Unknown said...


As I said the other day, Trump will be blaming his failures on others. The media, the rigged system, cheating, whatever. He is a loser and a fraud and has not been treated unfairly by the press. As a matter of fact, he was given undue legitamacy early on as well as hours and hours of free publicity by the MSM. By this point, anyone still bamboozled by this man, needs to take stock of their senses.

Writ Small said...

Trump would not be the nominee but for the media he now disparages. Trump might not be the nominee had his supporters not convinced a lot of Republicans of his mastery over the media.

And yet here we are.

Floris said...

Hillary is also weak on Freedom of Speech. http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/hillary-clinton-citizens-united-225658

n.n said...

The Fourth Estate has emerged as a front-line defense is as much on trial as its clients in the State-established Pro-Choice Church and establishment patrons.

Bilwick said...

As Glenn Reynolds says about the press, "It helps to think of them as DNC operatives with press passes."

I saw a one-panel cartoon online (needless to say, on one of the PRO-freedom sites) a few days ago that showed, in the left side of the cartoon, in large block letters that took up almost the whole side of the panel: "CLINTON LIES." On the other side of the panel there is a gaggle of reporters ignoring the huge "CLINTON LIES" behind them and going on about, "Did you hear what Trump just said?"

eric said...

This is one of the things that I really appreciate about Trump. I get so tired of the Republican retreat. We know the media is biased, so what do Republicans do? Run away. Pretend the media isn't biased and hope it'll all just go away. And when this happens, we end up with Barack Obama as President.

I'm glad he is attacking the media. They are despicable and deserving of some good, hard, law suits. Maybe like the tobacco companies got back in the 1990's. Let sue a few of them out of business and see how they become more balanced in their coverage.

The biggest problem is, it's a protection racket. Half of the government (Or maybe more than half) is protected by this media racket.

So until the media turn their guns on Democrats, we really aren't going to get any progress here. Especially since Althouse and other lawyers think our constitution protect false claims in the media.

On this, I'm with Scalia. It's not in the constitution.

http://www.businessinsider.com/scalia-on-new-york-times-co-v-sullivan-2012-12

whitney said...

Are there still people undecided? It seems like the this election is about voting against someone more than for someone. The biggest decision I will make is will I vote for the madman against the criminal or will I just not vote. I guess I'm undecided

Kathryn51 said...

My recent anecdote:
(1) Old Kindle failed, purchase new Kindle about 6 months ago
(2) Every day - every freakin' day - there is an automatic NEW Washington Post "icon" that appears with the latest click bait (thank you Jeff Bezos). In any one week, there would be one generally anti-Trump click, possibly one "newsie" Hillary click (actual news about emails) and one pro-Hillaryish icon. The rest were usually bland, celebrity or general interest icons. I never bothered to click - and it changed every day.
(3) Last week, the new Trump icon ("Trump sliding in latest polls" - or something like that) appeared - and appeared the next day - and appeared the next day.
(4) What the F**K?
(5) I finally (6 days later) click on the link in the hopes that it may switch to something new. And it did - something bland about the Olympics. Aha - we'll be back to daily changes, I thought.
(6) Yesterday, a new link! "Trump Revealed". I didn't bother to click.
(7) And today - the same link appears. Apparently "Trump Revealed" is a spankin' brand new E-Book published by Amazon that one might pre-order (to be published Aug. 23 for all you anti-Trump yokels!) So. . . the Washington Post icon is now nothing more than an Amazon portal.

Fuck Jeff Bezos. Trump is correct. May not vote for the pig, but he is correct on this.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The media were happy to let Trump prattle-on/tweet the crazy during the primary. The DNC press knew what they were doing. They saw Trump as the weak candidate who would be easy to mock and ridicule later. The DNC press wanted Trump to face Hillary.

The media now have an easy time helping Hillary look sane in comparison, even though she is a horrible candidate, a liar and a crook.

Unknown said...

The DNC press wanted Trump to face Hillary."

And face Hillary he will...unless he chickens out of the debates, which will be next, won't be long now.

eric said...

Blogger AprilApple said...
The media were happy to let Trump prattle-on/tweet the crazy during the primary. The DNC press knew what they were doing. They saw Trump as the weak candidate who would be easy to mock and ridicule later. The DNC press wanted Trump to face Hillary.

The media now have an easy time helping Hillary look sane in comparison, even though she is a horrible candidate, a liar and a crook.


This is true of all Republican candidates during the Republican primaries in all times. The media have no problem treating Republicans fairly when it's Republican vs Republican.

No matter which Republican won, they were going to turn on them once the Primaries were over with.

Kathryn51 said...

Eric said: No matter which Republican won, they were going to turn on them once the Primaries were over with.

This is a given - and the GOP could have selected a candidate better equipped to combat the nonsense. Trump was never that candidate. I agree with AprilApple - the media was happy to enable Trump. Out of the original 17 (or 16?), at least 10 of them would have wiped Hillary off the charts.

Unknown said...

Trump was given an inordinate amount of free media coverage. No other Republican, or Democrat came anywhere near the number of hours of free publicity he got. Dumbasses like Mika and Morning Joe were some of the worst offenders, giving him the legitamacy of a real candidate, when it was obvious to anyone with sense he was a fraud. And then you had morons like Scott Adams pushing some loony notion that Trump was a master persuader, all the while it was Scott Adams persuading the persuadable that Trump was legitimate. Trump's candidacy from day one was a comedy of errors with Trump as the master clown. And you people fell for it.

grackle said...

Trumps 2nd amendment position is more than solid. I can live with it being easier to sue media publications for lying.

Same here. Especially since a President Trump would have zero chance of ever making it easier to sue the poor dears. I’ve never voted for a candidate that I totally agreed with. What bothers me more than having the poor spin-doctors’ lies curtailed is the thought that the MSM has the power to dictate who becomes POTUS. THAT is much more frightening to me than Trump ever could be.

He comes across as thin-skinned and distracted.

Maybe, maybe not. The “distracted” part ties in neatly with “dangerous” and “disturbed,” which is one of the current popular MSM narratives. Maybe he comes across as justifiably angry – or perhaps someone who fights back against unfair treatment. There’s lots of ways to come across, lots of interpretations. Maybe the way an onlooker sees it depends on whether they dislike Trump. On the tweets: I agreed with 6 out of 7 with a minor problem with the last tweet. Plenty good enough to enthusiastically vote for him.

… plenty of people will feel more inclined to think of Trump as narcissistic and petty.

Again, maybe. Obama pretty much blew that issue away for me years ago. A bunch of people voted for the very narcissistic and petty Obama. Doesn’t seem to bother THEM at all. Maybe I would be more judgmental of Trump if I saw some evidence of regret from them for that.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I agree with AprilApple - the media was happy to enable Trump. Out of the original 17 (or 16?), at least 10 of them would have wiped Hillary off the charts.

And I agree with you...

Thank you Kathryn51.

Unknown said...

"Out of the original 17 (or 16?), at least 10 of them would have wiped Hillary off the charts."

Yet the right wing base chose Trump. Ya got what ya deserved.

Kathryn51 said...

"Yet the right wing base chose Trump. Ya got what ya deserved."

Trump won in open primary states - that's not the right-wing "base" as you say. Cruz and others won in states that were either caucus or closed - in other words, the right-wing base.

In fact Trump brags that he brought "millions upon millions" of new voters to the GOP primaries. Those "new" voters can hardly be called the base.

Kathryn51 said...

A bit off topic, but Gary Johnson is planning a visit to my city in a few weeks - my Millennial son wants to go with me.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Even using the phrase "freedom of the press" while attacking the Media is dumb.
Attacking the Media is smart, but it would be more effective if Trump did it in a smart way. Too much to ask, I know.

The Media is terribly biased, and has covered Trump in a biased way. Tying the biased Media to Hillary is a good move--she definitely needs the Media's help to appear palatable and they're all too happy to help her out at every turn.

n.n said...

plenty of people will feel more inclined to think of Trump as narcissistic and petty.

Obama, Clinton, female chauvinists, ...

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Kathryn51 said...(2) Every day - every freakin' day - there is an automatic NEW Washington Post "icon" that appears with the latest click bait (thank you Jeff Bezos).

Yeah, my Kindle Fire gets those, too (I think you get 6 months free with every new Kindle) - they don't bother me too much but what does piss me off is that more than half the time I've clicked that icon it failed to take me to the story they teased!

My lil' Fire is a bit buggy and the internal storage is a joke, but I have gotten a lot of use out of it for a sub $40 device so I don't complain too much about the hardware.

Unknown said...

They are the Trump base, more accurately, I guess. The GOP pretty much was the object of a hostile takeover and where were the true Republican base? Why didn't they fight harder to keep this clown off the ticket? Why did the RNC cave over and over again to Trump? I can tell you this much with certainty, if Trump were to have run as a Democrat, the first time he opened his big mouth about Mexican illegal immigrants being rapists and Putting Muslims on a national registry, he would've been drummed out post haste. Trump's rhetoric resonated with way too many conservatives, they loved his bully boy style. They ignored his very obvious ignorance, intemperance and his unsuitability to hold office, because he said all the right hateful stuff they loved hearing. As I said, ya got what ya deserved.

victoria said...

I just think he is a whiny baby, who is not getting his way and is going to hold his breath until he turns blue. I can wait.....

Trump is getting just what he deserves. He has been courting the press for the last year, using them as free advertising for his campaign. Now that they are being critical (I am aghast!!!) he is reacting like a 2 year old in the middle of a tantrum.

Please.


Vicki from Pasadena

Unknown said...

"A bit off topic, but Gary Johnson is planning a visit to my city in a few weeks - my Millennial son wants to go with me."

Speaking of millennials and young people,

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is consolidating the support of the Millennials who fueled Bernie Sanders' challenge during the primaries, a new USA TODAY/Rock the Vote Poll finds, as Republican Donald Trump heads toward the worst showing among younger voters in modern American history.

The survey shows Clinton trouncing Trump 56%-20% among those under 35, though she has failed so far to generate the levels of enthusiasm Sanders did — and the high turn-out that can signal — among Millennials.

The Millennials survey, the third this year, is part of USA TODAY's One Nation initiative, a series of forums across the country on the most important issues of 2016. The online poll of 1,539 adults age 18-34 was taken by Ipsos Public Affairs from Aug. 5-10. It has a credibility interval, akin to the margin of error, of 4.6.

How millennials would vote if the election were today on a ballot with third party candidates:

Hillary Clinton 50%
Donald Trump 18%
Gary Johnson 11%
Jill Stein 4%
Wouldn't vote 10%
Don't know 8%

How supporters of Bernie Samders would vote:
Hillary Clinton 72%
Donald Trump 11%
Won't vote 11%
Don't know 6%


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/08/14/donald-trump-historic-trouncing-among-younger-voters-hillary-clinton-president-poll/88666746/

Chuck said...

Go back far enough -- Jonah Goldberg said it in the recently NRO column I posted yesterday -- and you can find Trump himself claim that he could, and would, pivot to the center and to respectable debate and dialogue. Trump said that. Trump's handlers, supplicants and media lackeys all claimed that.

Trump is free to say that he won't change and has no intention of changing. But it is at odds with what he has said before, and what lots of his people have said.

Here again is the link to Jonah Goldberg. It is worth re-reviewing in the context of the Trump quotes in this blog post:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438949/donald-trump-sean-hannity-does-hannity-want-hillary-clinton-win

khesanh0802 said...

Trump may be weak on "Freedom of Speech" in the lawyers' sense, but he is correct in expressing the feeling that many have that the press is perfectly willing to pursue a false narrative on page 1 and when called on it their retraction is on page 18. But that is the way it has always been. I don't think Trump hurts himself with the general public by making this kind of statement.

Chuck said...

About Althouse's observation that the media is biased against Trump.

Well, let's see what we can agree on.

First, I'd agree that the mainstream media in the form of the broadcast networks, NPR, the New York Times, most of the other large-city dailys, and too many others to name, shade things consistently in favor of a form of political correctness that meshes with Democrats. So that much is true for any Republican in any election year.

Second, I'd hope that in the age of talk radio, we could further agree that with the internet, and the Murdoch enterprises including the WSJ and Fox News, plus the expanded reach of previously marginal operations like the Weekly Standard, the National Review, and the American Spectator, there's a good bit of conservative news and commentary to push back against the MSM narrative.

Third, in the age of Trump, that aforesaid range of conservative news outlets has splintered. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly all pump Trump up; the Weekly Standard, the National Review and the Wall Street Journal have all dismissed Trump. Still, Trump is not without media support. It just isn't all of the usual conservative support.

Fourth, the nature of Trump is that he seeks out and courts much more media attention than anyone else. Trump media controversies are nothing if not intended. Scott Adams has been telling us that is the art of a Master Persuader. I never bought that part, but we must all agree that Trump's constant media interactions are more or less his own doing; in no sense is he a victim of the media.

eric said...

Blogger Kathryn51 said...
Eric said: No matter which Republican won, they were going to turn on them once the Primaries were over with.

This is a given - and the GOP could have selected a candidate better equipped to combat the nonsense. Trump was never that candidate


Republicans would have been better off with Dole, or McCain or Romney.

Then we would have won for sure.

Mikio said...

In Althouse world

Trump is a genius who outsmarts and plays the (liberal, foolish) media like a fiddle.
But also…
The media are unfairly hurting Trump.
But still…
Trump's a genius, master manipulator and Scott Adams nailed it. Stupid, foolish liberal media, lol.
But still…
Hillary's only ahead because the media are on her side.
But Trump’s smarter than the liberal media.

Contradictions, shmontradictions. Each one feels so good to say!

Mick said...

Trump in a LANDSLIDE. The media lies.

readering said...

Can't believe Althouse is dignifying this crybaby tweetstream with serious analysis. They have to take his twitter away and make him read the teleprompter.

readering said...

Besides. today's latest tweet from Lewandowski more interesting: "Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief"

grackle said...

if Trump were to have run as a Democrat, the first time he opened his big mouth about Mexican illegal immigrants being rapists and Putting Muslims on a national registry, he would've been drummed out post haste.

Among the many reasons I won’t be voting for Crooked Hillary this November: Political Correctness in lockstep.

there's a good bit of conservative news and commentary to push back against the MSM narrative.

“Good bit?” Not really. The MSM dwarves the conservative outlets.

Earnest Prole said...

In sports there’s a name for those whose focus shifts from winning to complaining about the referee. They’re called "Losers."

Gospace said...

I'm sure the MSM coverage of Trump is as accurate as your earlier post showed the NY Times to be: "NYT front page uses the words "unarmed" and "armed" to describe the man the police shot dead in Milwaukee last night."

JaimeRoberto said...

Maybe Trump would get more favorable treatment if he bought more ads.

Unknown said...

"Secret Ledger In Ukraine Shows Cash for Manafort

New York Times: “Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012… Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.”

“Mr. Manafort’s involvement with moneyed interests in Russia and Ukraine had previously come to light. But as American relationships there become a rising issue in the presidential campaign — from Mr. Trump’s favorable statements about Mr. Putin and his annexation of Crimea to the suspected Russian hacking of Democrats’ emails — an examination of Mr. Manafort’s activities offers new details of how he mixed politics and business out of public view and benefited from powerful interests now under scrutiny by the new government in Kiev.”"

https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/14/secret-ledger-in-ukraine-shows-cash-for-manafort/

Michael Fitzgerald said...

AprilApple said...
The media were happy to let Trump prattle-on/tweet the crazy during the primary. The DNC press knew what they were doing. They saw Trump as the weak candidate who would be easy to mock and ridicule later. The DNC press wanted Trump to face Hillary.

The media now have an easy time helping Hillary look sane in comparison, even though she is a horrible candidate, a liar and a crook.

8/14/16, 6:33 PM

As someone has already pointed out, The democrat party media does that every election cycle. Remember John McCain, the press's favorite republican? They had no problem not only trashing him, but printing libels and slanders. Remember Mitt Romney, governor of liberal Massachusetts? A predatory businessman who murdered cancer patients. They even hung Romneycare around him like a millstone after the GOP savants thought the public would like the taste of Romneycare after Obamacare was just shoved down our throats.

The problem with Trump is that too many people who should be outraged and infuriated and downright rebellious over the democrat party's corruption and criminality are #NeverTrump, instead of #NeverCrookedHillary.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Unknown said... New York Times: "...But as American relationships there become a rising issue in the presidential campaign — from Mr. Trump’s favorable statements about Mr. Putin and his annexation of Crimea to the suspected Russian hacking of Democrats’ emails —"
8/14/16, 11:02 PM

Yeah, American relationships become a rising issue in the campaign, but Media Silence on Hillary and Tony Rotten's uranium transfer to Russia, or Hillsy's Foundation laundering Russian bribes, or even The Reset Button- Overcharged!

Why don't you go and read up on Crooked Hillary's treasonous business dealings with Russians? You won't find it in the NYT- try Wikileaks. Since The Most Transparent Administration Ever!!! seems less than upfront and above board with the American people, and the American media industrial complex is all in protecting and enabling their fellow anti-American progressive scumbags, the American people are forced to learn the truth about the democrat party members betrayals and crimes from foreign spies.

Unknown said...

Trump played the media to his advantage during the Primaries and the media lapped it up and helped him. Trump is in the General and the media are questioning him and he doesn't have the answers. Trump's message worked for the 15m Trumpkins in the primaries but it doesn't work for the hundreds of millions in the General.

Trump is now attacking the media furiously and they in turn will hit back as they should. Trump tells lies which the media are highlighting as they should.

Most of Trump's supporters have real grievances but Trump is not your torch bearer but a con man.

EsoxLucius said...

They don't care what you know, but they want to know that you care - Jack Kemp.
What happened to my Republican party?

Kirk Parker said...

jimbino right out of the gate: please stop sperging. If you hadn't noticed, we're speaking English here not Latin.

tim maguire said...

Blogger Kathryn51 said...
Eric said: No matter which Republican won, they were going to turn on them once the Primaries were over with.

This is a given - and the GOP could have selected a candidate better equipped to combat the nonsense. Trump was never that candidate


Kathryn, I couldn't disagree more. Trump has repeatedly led fill frontal assaults of the media for their lying and manipulation. What other Republican wouldn't just whimper and say, "I'm sorry"? I'm sorry I'm rich, I'm sorry Republicans are meanies. No, on this point, Trump is not just the best choice, he is the only choice.

tim maguire said...

Blogger Unknown said...
Trump played the media to his advantage during the Primaries and the media lapped it up and helped him. Trump is in the General and the media are questioning him and he doesn't have the answers.


Are you watching the same election I am? The media is smearing him and he has not managed the right response yet. That doesn't mean he won't. Again, if you've been paying attention, Trump has been here before and come roaring out of the hole he was in.

Kovacs said...

Trump has solutions to this that he's not exercising: buying ad time, sending out mailers, having a nationwide structure to call potential supporters and go door to door, using social media for something other than beefs--you know, the usual ways candidates get their message out to more people than the ones they're physically in front of. He hasn't done those things, presumably in part because he was used to the despised MSM's giving him all that free coverage (which he used to crow about before it became apparent that they weren't, with the exception of Fox News and Breitbart, going to continue to serve his purposes). Options: (a) Trump doesn't know how to get the message out because his campaign is clueless about anything but organizing rallies and putting their man in front of cameras; (b) getting his message out is less important to him than establishing the "stabbed in the back" explanation for why he's going to lose in the fall; (c) he doesn't have a coherent message to offer.

Brando said...

I don't know how good this issue is for him--a lot of us have believed that many major media outlets are biased but when you talk to leftists they actually think the media is biased towards conservatives (you'll notice them using "liberal media" sarcastically every time there's a piece critical of Clinton). Whether they're right or not isn't the issue--to most voters this just sounds like whining from a guy who not long ago kept boasting about his poll numbers and contradicting his statements left and right (often in the same interview).

Besides, media today is far more scattered and less monolithic--if the Times publishes a hit piece, it's taken apart by conservative media organs and every blogger with reach (e.g., this blog). In the old days, you didn't have that--all you could do is read it and wonder if others thought it was as slanted as you did.

A hostile (and far more influential than today) media wasn't able to keep Nixon and Reagan and Bush from winning elections, often by landslides. Trump is losing right now because he's saturating the media with his childish crap, so voters are thinking about him right now and not Hillary. If he could control his need for constant attention for a few weeks his numbers would go back up.

But then, for him this may not be about winning an election after all, in which case this is all going according to plan.

Brando said...

"Options: (a) Trump doesn't know how to get the message out because his campaign is clueless about anything but organizing rallies and putting their man in front of cameras; (b) getting his message out is less important to him than establishing the "stabbed in the back" explanation for why he's going to lose in the fall; (c) he doesn't have a coherent message to offer."

The most likely is Option (b). Consider that Trump spent the years before this election watching his Apprentice ratings drop, he was mocked after his "birther" crap four years ago, culminating in Obama even mocking him to his face at the White House Correspondents' dinner, and if there's one thing Trump can't stand it's humiliation, and if there's another thing he can't stand it's not being the center of attention. (He may also be having recent financial trouble, which could explain not releasing his tax returns).

So what if he decides to run as a publicity stunt, to build his brand and maybe parlay it into starting a media empire? He must have seen how Herman Cain and Sarah Palin used their political fame to cash in, and Palin at least could (for a while) go around the country to adoring crowds and get paid to do TV shows and books. Why not Trump? His buddy Bill Clinton even calls him to egg him on just before he jumps into the race--Bill might have just wanted to shake up the GOP but never imagined Trump would be nominated. Then his brand of Howard Beale style stream of consciousness catches on, and he actually gets nominated. He's loving every bit of it--the crowds, the media attention, the adoration. He doesn't love criticism, but the adoration cancels that out for him.

And the best part is, he doesn't have to win--in fact, if he loses and can blame the media or GOP establishment (he never liked Republicans so couldn't care less if he sinks them) even better. Then he is the wronged martyr, and can use this fame and entry into the political sphere to fire up a media business and leave a legacy.

And for those who think "why would a successful billionaire developer need to do this" just ask yourself why a successful billionaire developer need to hawk Trump Steaks or get involved in a scam like Trump University.

Good for Trump finding a new way to get rich and spread his nonsense, but too bad for the American people that we're giving Hillary the coronation she thinks she deserves.

Freder Frederson said...

This is a good issue, and he's right that the media are unfair to him and trying to help Hillary.

In your zeal to defend Trump, you are slipping in your rhetoric. Rather than add your usual weasel words you have actually made a bold statement here. The media is being unfair to Trump? Really?! Can you think of any other politician, Republican or Democrat, who would have been treated so lightly by the press considering all the truly outrageous things he has said. He also lies without regard to the truth.

Freder Frederson said...

They even hung Romneycare around him like a millstone

So explain how Romney's crowning achievement as governor of Massachusetts became a millstone just because the press pointed out that Obamacare was modeled on it.

lonetown said...

I don't think he cares about the press. I think this is battlefield prep for an election that will be driven more by the internet.

Elections depend on momentum. Trump is doing to the press what Clinton is trying to do to him.

When the race tightens, will he have the momentum?

Its too early to tell but no one will be turning to the press for the answer.

Paul Snively said...

The problem is that attention to media, like so many other things, follows a Zipf (or "power-law") distribution, which means that a few media outlets control most of what is seen, heard, read. It's what the left is complaining about when they complain about "corporate media." It's what the right are complaining about when they complain about "media bias." At one point, many of us in the internet sphere thought the internet would address at least the worst of these issues, but it turns out the internet just produces a larger number of smaller Zipf distributions, so instead of X people getting their news from the New York Times, X-Y get theirs from the Huffington Post and X-Z get theirs from Breitbart. There's no more even distribution of what gets reported; there's no less bias. There are just more, smaller anthills.

Laver10 said...

Let's grow some cojones, stand up to the plate and hit it out of the park. Complaining about the umpire is getting tiresome. Unfortunately, even though we're facing a minor league pitcher with a terrible fastball and a hanging curve, we'll have to wait until "next season." We've got Mighty Casey at the bat.

sonicfrog said...

This is simple: If Trump wouldn't constantly give the media things to write about on a gold embroidered silver platter, they would spend a little more time on Hillary.

I was a media major in the early 90's. I find it ironic that it was a conservative idea to promote the business model of news outlets being driven by rating and profits. Our liberal professors recoiled at the idea and told us it would kill the news business as we know it. We young ones said "Nah... This will give us better news because it's what the people want". Well... Controversy sells, and right now, Trump is generating most of it, intentionally or now.

Even though there are some drips and draps and an occasional spring storm coming from the Hillary side of the stream, everyone is looking at the spectacular waterfall generated by the flood of gaffs caused by the tempest that is Trump.

Laver10 said...

"if Trump wouldn't constantly give the media..." He can't help himself. It's what defines him. Rest assured that he will keep the platter full.