[Politics] Effing Trump and the Media.

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

In case you haven't noticed, Trump made a dipshit tweet about AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ayana Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib...and the media's been running more or less nonstop coverage about it since, playing the dual role of reality TV producer and WWF color commentator and laughing all the way to the bank the whole time.

Meanwhile, Trump effectively ended US asylum policy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/us/politics/trump-asylum-rule.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-us-is-slamming-the-door-on-asylum-seekers/2019/07/15/98a2ed26-a746-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html

I swear, every goddamn time.

Trump tweets covfefe,
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/covfefe-trump-typo-turned-meme/579763/

FCC kills net neutrality.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fcc-chair-ajit-pai-explains-wants-scrap-net-neutrality

Trump tweets hamberders,
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18183480/trump-hamberders-clemson-football

news breaks SNAP benefits are running out in the wake of the shutdown.
https://fortune.com/2019/01/29/shutdown-food-stamps-snap-benefits-february-march-2019/

This is why you don't trust corporate media, folks. They'll take dumbass Trump tweets and run with them for entire news cycles, because that's what gets dullards tuning in to watch the 24-hour reality TV shitshow that is our current political system. This directly benefits Trump, because real stories the American public needs to hear get buried in the pursuit of more profits. He does this shit on purpose, knowing the media takes the bait every time and the American people eat it right up.

That's how you get Trump cruising into office on $5 billion dollars' earned media, and the four media conglomerates that collectively control over 95% of all media Americans consume, laugh all the way to the bank while reaping the benefits of Trump era deregulation.

 

[Kwak]

To be fair, it's a pretty big deal for a president to blatantly fabricate lies about political opponents in a way which will endanger their lives, then keep doubling down on it. He's utterly insane.
Those other things are still reported on, but human spectacle and drama will always have more appeal over cold policy changes. There's no deliberate conspiracy, they just follow what people viscerally respond to. Which in Trump's case, is a continual state of 'what the fuck?!'

 

[Trunkage]

Whoever made up that MSM is on the side of Liberals is just laughing now. They're on the side of profits, not anything else.

Also, the same problem has been happening for a few decades now. I have no idea why we need so much 'reporting.' 24hrs of News seems to both flood the market with news and, inversely, report less on important thing. But this is what, as a society, we want. This would not happen unless it was profitable to watch. It's our fault too.

Also, before the current system, it was far more state controlled and the media took out individuals based on popular opinion. They deliberately attacked anything that wasn't Status Quo and made sure certain individuals could be targeted. They acted like Alex Jones. Also, before that, the current Fox News style of reporting was the standard, telling, demanding that the president does what they say. Which also involved a bunch of fabricated lies that took down political opponents. The News being used to take out political opponents is not a new thing.

What is new? Social Media. Despite all the negative things that can be said about MSM, they aren't that bad. Imagine if the news landscape became Dave Pakman, Dave Rubin, Majority Report, Ben Shapiro, Young Turks and Jordan Peterson. And those guys are way better than a whole swathe of people under them that don't even have the integrity of these guys.

News will never be honest or unbiased. Those that pretend (especially about the 50s and 60s being an honest time for news) just don't know anything about history

 

[CaitSeith]

Just don't assume that non-corporate media is any more trustworthy. Whatever it's MSM or not, always double-check or you'll end up spreading misinformation. Also check how you are getting glimpses of the news, because chances are that it's the algorithm in your search engine what throws you a disproportionate amount of articles about "what Trump tweeted today" than "what Trump officially signed today".

Still, remember he is the fucking POTUS. How does people expect him to handle delicate diplomatic situations when he defames members of the Congress like that?

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Here's the issue.

We deal with things in a timely matter.

The last thing to happen leads.

The visible forefront of America being seemingly racist is a black eye to the Nation as a whole, and does so much to ruin our own creditability on the main stage (if he had any left after he was elected).

What you linked was literally yesterday's news.

Pelosi speaking about Trump's comments [https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-racist-tweet-immigration-july-2019/h_990e0a26e02d2a6004f50daa8a2b9553] now on the Floor is literally this minute's news.

It's not like people stopped the news cycle to talk about it. Civil Rights Groups are literally filing all the suits they can now to fight Trump's new rule [https://www.wsj.com/articles/civil-rights-and-immigration-groups-file-lawsuit-challenging-new-trump-limits-on-asylum-claims-11563310786].

But the issue isn't the focus. It's the sheer number of boneheaded and idiotic things that Trump does per day that it becomes a Balancing act to figure out which one to focus on at any given news cycle.

If you want to get an idea of how much we're inundated by, just look at what's been happening in July Alone [https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/archive/2019/07/]. Almost every one of those things curdle my blood. It isn't the failing of News Outlets to have to pick and choose what fuckery Trump did today to lead with. If they presented all the other things and the ramifications that will come from his actions, we almost literally would have no other news per day.

That isn't the fault of News Outlets. It's the fault of the man himself.

 

[Trunkage]

Trump and the fascist machine the republicans have built around him is unstoppable at this point.

The best thing to do right now is just vote him out of office in 2020 and watch the entire conservative party crumble when they don't have ole Teflon Don deflecting all their crimes.

Id point out that many Republicans and pundits on Fox News spoke out against him during the primaries. But once he one, they turned against their ideals and became a follower. Anyone who didn't were targeted and are now out of the party

 

[Silvanus]

Here's the issue.

We deal with things in a timely matter.

The last thing to happen leads.

Hrmmm... "timely" implies that it's being dealt with appropriately and proportionately, which isn't the case. It would be more to the point to say we deal with things in a fleeting, forgetful way.

 

[bluegate]

America, you get your act together and get that guy out of office in 2020, I dread to think what the world would look like with another 5 years of that corrupt government of yours emboldening racists, xenophobes and down right trash-turned-humans all over the world.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

It both is and isn't a big deal.

My left leg it isn't a big deal. It's the defining, I'd even argue existential, issue of our time. We have four multinational conglomerates -- AT&T/Time Warner, Disney, Comcast, and National Amusements -- that control over 95% of media Americans consume, and are entirely non-competitive despite extensive diversification and integration, because their constituent outlets curate audiences based upon demographics, interest, and ideology. That's down from six since the start of the Trump administration, because AT&T merged with Time Warner, and News Corp divested 21st Century Fox to Disney knocking itself off the list despite still being huge.

Look, if other folks in the thread don't get it, here.


That's Sinclair Broadcast Group, a nickel-and-dime operation compared to the big four. However, they control local news in 40% of the country, and broadcast news with a conservative propagandist spin.


That should speak for itself. Here's a PBS News Hour segment on Sinclair and their influence:


Does that sufficiently tickle the Trump derangement nerve?

This all boils down to the fact these major conglomerates' interest isn't in informing the American public, it's in maximizing profit. Before the incessant waves of mergers, takeovers, and consolidations first enabled by the '96 Telecommunications Act and subsequent deregulation, news outlets at least had to compete for audiences and thus could be relied upon to deliver quality coverage, or else audiences went (or hell, had a place to go) elsewhere. Moreover, said coverage was guaranteed by law and regulation such as the fairness doctrine that required news programming be of pre-determined quality and informative value.

Don't even get me started on the repeal of Smith-Mundt's prohibitions against state propaganda broadcast within the US.

Without mincing words, the media put Trump in office. Trump announced and ran his entire campaign based around shooting his mouth off and letting the media cover him nonstop. Because the media ran pieces on Trump, ratings went through the roof and so did ad revenue, and didn't stop running pieces on Trump until he won. That's how you end up with $5 billion in earned media for Trump, which is the single biggest campaign contribution from any individual source in history, single-handedly exceeding the entire cost of every Presidential election so far. The total cost of the 2016 election was $10 billion.

...but news is at the behest of its sponsors and they have to do what gets views.

So here's the $64,000 question: why do defense contractors like Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, and General Atomics, who don't even produce consumer products in the first place, advertise on cable news?

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

My point in saying "It's not a big deal" is that pointing it out feels like shouting into an uncaring void. Is he going to change? No. Will people who support him change? Also no.

Power and money drive this country. But most of us know that.

You can show people the trail and try to reason with them and hope that some of them come around. But it's been too late for a while. We've been neck-deep in the damage since the inception of the country.

Well, my point is more "the biggest collection of Trump supporters in the country is the media, they're the people who got him elected, and they're the ones to blame for this mess". You can't wish away five billion in earned media, pretend any number of minutiae are really to blame*, and then act like media companies aren't making record profits during the Trump administration while being the outstanding beneficiaries of Trump deregulation. Even outspoken anti-Trump outlets are in the party; is it any wonder legacy media is in a full-court press to pressure social media and user-driven platforms, nominally to exclude extremism, to self-regulate in favor of their own outlets?

Compared to today, I'm an old guard media-critical progressive. Even a decade ago, discussions of media regulation and breaking up media conglomerates, reviving the fairness doctrine, and strengthening campaign finance law were absolute staples of the Democratic party platform. Today, even Citizens United is a tertiary at best issue, the DNC killed bans on corporate and independent donations, and the 2020 frontrunners are accepting corporate and bundled contributions despite individual pledges not to do so and no one calls them out on it.

Last months' debate was the Comcast debate, the debate at the end of this month is the AT&T debate, and September's is the Disney debate. The fourth through sixth venues and broadcasters haven't been announced yet, but to be frank I'll be damned surprised if even one of them is on public media. As it stands with regards to real action and remaining consistent with rhetoric, the party is further to the right now than Republicans were a decade ago, and it's absolutely wretched.

Likewise, the absolute dearth of critical thought, healthy skepticism, and due diligence in information-gathering among the American populace, particularly the left and center, is absolutely stunning. That Democratic-affiliated persons' trust in the media [https://news.gallup.com/poll/243665/media-trust-continues-recover-2016-low.aspx] jumped from 51%-76% in the wake of the Trump election baffles, and frankly outrages, me. Regardless of the reasons, at least Republicans are willing to admit we have a problem.

Frankly, to me it feels as if we're living a prelude chapter to Fahrenheit 451.

* [Honestly, surprised people haven't blamed the weather yet. We have so much support for the correlation between weather and election turnout, political scientists can predict that for every inch of precipitation on election day above average, outcome swings in favor of Republican candidates by 2.5%.]

 

[Marik2]

It both is and isn't a big deal.

My left leg it isn't a big deal. It's the defining, I'd even argue existential, issue of our time. We have four multinational conglomerates -- AT&T/Time Warner, Disney, Comcast, and National Amusements -- that control over 95% of media Americans consume, and are entirely non-competitive despite extensive diversification and integration, because their constituent outlets curate audiences based upon demographics, interest, and ideology. That's down from six since the start of the Trump administration, because AT&T merged with Time Warner, and News Corp divested 21st Century Fox to Disney knocking itself off the list despite still being huge.

Look, if other folks in the thread don't get it, here.

Literal NPCs

 

[Saelune]

Why do we have to be mad at only one thing at a time? We can be mad that Trump is racist AND that he is a rapist AND that he is a pedophile AND that he is a hypocrite AND that he is bad at running the country. We can be mad at all of these things at the same time. We can stop pretending that Trump isn't these things, we can stop pretending that his supporters have any excuses, we can stop pretending that there is nothing we can do about it.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

So, Neo-Nazis are out right applauding the man [https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/group-of-white-supremacists-throw-support-behind-trumps-go-home-comments] and stating this is exactly what they voted him in for.

Can we stop trying to walk on eggshells, pretending this is not the case now? They admit they put stock in Trump for this very thing. Can we all just be open about this now?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I mean, CNN just had open white nationalist and human punching bag Richard Spencer on to talk about Trump's tweets, so...

 

[Saelune]

Know what the real problem is, any ONE of these things should be enough to get ANY president removed from office. Any single one of the things I mentioned about Trump should have had everyone from all parties uniting to remove any person from office if they did those things. But nope. The Republican Party continues to be perfectly ok with all of it.