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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: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @07:56AM
"How do you tell when a politician is lying?"
"His lips are moving."
News flash: that joke was old when I was young.
Think he's the first politician to throw up walls of bullshit? It's about presenting an image, not crystalline visions of perfect truth.
The same people who tend to think that Slick Willy was a great president seem to have selective amnaesia about the question of what the definition of "is" might be in his words. Or for those a little older, perhaps they can remember what fantastic piles of crap Nixon generated, not to mention LBJ.
So Trump's brand of bullshit is less handwavy. I can't even begin to care.
As for the people who call Trump a demagogue, I have bad news. If he is one, he's a failed one. There is absolutely no prospect of him turning Congress into his pet poodles - not even the republicans, despite their cautious (reluctant) determination to work with him. He couldn't even get a plurality. He was a protest vote by the disgruntled, who only made it into office because Hillary's profile is so massively tainted by her own reputation for dishonesty, incompetence and apparent malfeasance that his just wasn't that alarming. Trump was just the best of a bad lot, given the state-by-state breakdown the way that the electoral college works.
The fact is that he's a safety valve. If he drains the metaphorical swamp, some pressure will blow off. But if he wraps it up tighter for the elites, we may be looking at civil war - and the ones who rise up will not love him then.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @09:01AM
Yeah, except for every single fucking Republican bending over backwards [newyorker.com] to kiss his ass to try to get in good with him so they can grab some power for themselves. Are you living under a rock or just intentionally ignoring this shit as it happens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @09:27AM
Ya, they kiss his ass cause that's what an egomaniac needs to feel powerful. Then they mock him behind their back, but they don't have much moral fibre left so what do they care? Hey, maybe he'll be able to get some things done with his blusterous attitude and relying on his public supporters to give him attention. Or maybe he'll be incredibly ineffective and it will be a huge power grab for every republican.
(Score: 4, Touché) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday December 01 2016, @10:16AM
>Hey, maybe he'll be able to get some things done with his blusterous attitude and relying on his public supporters to give him attention. Or maybe he'll be incredibly ineffective and it will be a huge power grab for every republican.
Or maybe he'll have enough power and influence to royally fuck things up. Does that really not concern you?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:22PM
Well said.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Phoenix666 on Thursday December 01 2016, @10:38AM
We're really headed for revolution anyway. Hillary would have meant instant revolution, as in today. Trump has meant we got a few weeks to watch the elites shit their pants. That was fun. Now that his cabinet choices show he's the same old shit with a different wrapper, I recall my conviction that none of this shit will ever really end, or be even interrupted, until all of us get into our pickups and converge on DC to redecorate the place with axe handles. So keep your favorite implements handy, your foot on the gas pedal revving the engine, and your hand on the shifter ready to slam it into 'drive.'
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @01:44PM
Hope not.
While the elites are most definitely on the chopping block, so will their handmaidens. And that will include a huge swath of liberals for little more than being useful idiots, which will have the flavor of the Reign of Terror. It won't be worth the effort to separate the evil from the merely gullible, and that is going to be ugly and taint the soul of all involved.
I mean I really hope people will come to their senses and see what's on the line, but given recent responses, that seems pretty far removed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @05:37AM
Yeah, Reign of Terror. Yeah, elites on the chopping block. Yeah, lots of handmaidens on the chopping block too. What all of you don't seem to have yet grasped is that revolutions are not at all tidy. They tend to be very messy affairs. Lots of (innocent?) people end up dying in the cross fire. What's that? You have plenty of guns and ammo stored up just for the occasion? You've got plenty of food stockpiled? You're all prepared? Yeah, I'm sure you will continue to fervently believe that right up until that moment when YOU end up in the cross fire. *Sigh* When will people ever learn?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:49PM
Trump has meant we got a few weeks to watch the elites shit their pants.
Yeah, all those elites being handed cabinet positions are shitting their pants as we speak.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @08:36PM
Those aren't elites, silly.
Those are Just Regular Folks Like You And Me.
Elites are people who read books and talk in big words about things like equality and political correctness. B. O. R. I. N. G.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 02 2016, @01:44PM
Yes, right? Well, let's not pretend for an instant that the same exact people would have been brought in under Hillary. She made millions in stupid speeches at Goldman Sachs.
It seems Trump really meant, "make my bank balance great again."
Can we all drop the false dichotomy of left vs. right now and acknowledge that the entire system needs to be scrapped? We have some distasteful business to get through with bringing the elites to justice for violating our laws; I'm pretty sure we can make room for them in our prisons by paroling those caught up in the forever War on Drugs for possession. Then we can convene a second constitutional convention and comb the fatal flaws out of the first version.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:52PM
So keep your favorite implements handy, your foot on the gas pedal revving the engine, and your hand on the shifter ready to slam it into 'drive.'
What? You have an automatic transmission in your pickup truck? I suppose your ax-handle (should be "pick axe handle, more wood) has a rubberized non-slip grip! Oh, this revolution will be over before it begins.