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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: 5, Insightful) by weeds on Thursday December 01 2016, @12:26PM
We need a higher mod than 5!
In a nutshell, "Trump is a bullshit artist so the press better stop reporting what he says. It's the fault of the press for not recognizing this."
Have we all lost our minds?
Get money out of politics! [mayday.us]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DECbot on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:56PM
The gist that I am getting from this is the press cannot tell the difference from a bullshit artist and a politician, yet the average person believes they can spot bullshit from a bullshit artists. Perhaps this is yet another reason why people liked Trump over the other politicians as they cannot tell the difference between the bullshit and intent from the politicians. Why are the politicians' words important when their actions seem to bring out the opposite result as the intended action? Case in point: lets make healthcare more affordable, result: making nearly everyone pay more for healthcare. Point two: Saddam destabilizes the region and has WMDs, result: regional destability, no WMDs found, trillions in the hole, and international resentment.
Let me get my soapbox
Just because half the population are mouth-breathing, reality TV audience degenerates, it doesn't mean the other half of the population doesn't have two nickles to rub together to figure out that our politicians words do not match their actions and results. It's about time that the press wakes up and realizes their reputation is beyond jeopardy, make a saving throw, and begin reporting on the failures of both sides of the isle. No more sticking to the talking points. Ask the hard and politically incorrect questions that make the politicians uncomfortable because those issues matter more than what bathroom you think is more comfortable for the gender confused. Lets face it, when you are desperate to take a piss, you will use whatever bathroom is available to you at the moment. When people are desperate for work, they don't want to hear that jobs are going overseas or going to foreigners. When companies need to hire labor, they don't want to see exuberant expenses beyond the cost of the wage given to the employee because this gives them an unfair disadvantage against companies using labor in other countries. People don't want half their paycheck going to rent and the other half going to food. Those with working brain cells can see that the press is no longer the watchdog protecting our rights and reporting the wrongs, but the agency for spreading bread and circuses while corporations and lobbyists ravage our rights, education, and government.
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