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Just before the dawn of the Trump administration, journalism in Washington, DC, faces an existential crisis -- but virtually no one in the profession is willing to diagnose it.
Here it is: For the first time, words don't matter. In August, as a guest on MSNBC's Meet the Press Daily, I noted that voters take Donald Trump seriously but not literally, while journalists take him literally, but not seriously.
[...] And journalists keep falling for it because they, like politicians, over-value words -- and they are now covering a politician who does not. President-elect Trump still takes the same cavalier approach to verbal description as he would in hawking a condo tower that's yet to be designed. And more than enough voters don't seem to mind. Trump has spent a career interacting with journalists, but as the first president never to serve in the military, the cabinet, or another public office before his election to the White House, he's never been immersed in the word culture that drives political journalism. [...] Most recently, when Trump announced he had chosen South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to be his ambassador to the United Nations, journalists raced to re-tweet a March rant from Trump in which he said the people of South Carolina should be embarrassed by her.
[...] Writing endless columns on this or that flip-flop based on Trump's conflicting rhetoric is wasting the time of the readers and viewers who have decided that's not what matters with this particular President-elect. [...] If the press covers Trump the way it covered prior presidents -- too literally -- it may find its own customers take journalism itself a lot less seriously.
Source: CNN
(Score: 2, Informative) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:37AM
Yes, that is one of the dangers of over-using one of the starkest cautionary tales in recent history.
You should also compare with Putin, Mao, Stalin, and Mussolini as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:50AM
When I see arbeit macht frei over the wall Trump is building/not building ("see! You can't trust what he says! Nevermind I was opposed to the wall anyway..."), I will completely recant and beg forgiveness.
But at the moment his evil index is slightly lower than the flighty server trying to push appetizers on me.
Although, you know, it is possible that Hitler will be compared to Trump in the future! Or maybe a Hitler/Bush Cyborg hybrid if the hysterics from the left are to be believed.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bd on Thursday December 01 2016, @10:23AM
The guy is nothing like Hitler, but his election campaign rethoric was.
The reason Hitler got as many votes as he got:
* He was leading a very modern campaign, using an airplane (in a place as small as Germany) to move around quickly and speak in as many venues as possible. Very similar to American election campaigns and new to Germany at the time.
* Extreme dissatisfaction about the political establishment, regardless of left-wing or right-wing. After 1929, Germany was headed in an extremist direction, either communist or right wing.
* Even though people thought of him to be exaggerating and boasting, he had a public image of "he says things that are not politically correct".
* Even though he ran on a right-wing platform, he also had taken over some left-wing positions, providing an alternative to disaffected working-class voters.
* The influence of investment banking and stock exchanges (Wall Street was mentioned) needs to be reigned in.
I would say, there are some parallels there.
Why Trump is not Hitler:
* Hitler did not lie with most of what he said and was not exaggerating and boasting, even though everyone thought he was. Trump has been proven to exaggerate.
* Hitler had a plan. Published 10 years in advance. Trump has not said how exactly he is going to act.
* Trump is not in an actual position of power, as he does not have a loyal party behind him.