By Mildred Robertson
This is just stupid. And the fact that the media is following it like it is meaningful is also ignorant.
You did not learn the first time. He is manipulating you. Stop reporting his every word. He cannot unilaterally change the name of the Gulf, and you know it. He plans to bully the world to his will, and the media helps him do it by making his idiotic statements headline news.
The Trump strategy is to break everything at once so that it is difficult to strategize and mobilize on any one issue. He vomits one insane objective after the other, without giving thought to the process, costs, or the resources necessary to implement them. It doesn't matter to him whether he can actually implement the policy as long as he can grab the headline. The media breathlessly reports his insane rantings as if they are rational policies and procedures capable of withstanding the rules and regulations associated with policymaking.
Can Trump be king? He most certainly can, if we let him.
The media's breathless pursuit of his next thing is not helpful. In one of my early journalism courses the instructor defined news like this: "Dog bites man" is not news...'Man bites dog' - now that's news."
For instance, I understand why the media reported Trump's statement that he wanted Greenland and Canada to be part of the United States. That was news. But the fact that they continue with the foolishness is absurd. Particularly since it would be necessary for those entities to agree with that move, or for America to decide to seize them. Now, if either of those two things were to occur, that would surely be news! The mere bluster of a megalomaniac, however, does not qualify.
So, the media must learn a new way to report on Trump. They must see who is biting who before they splash the rantings of a seeming madman all over our newspapers, airwaves, social media, and television screens. Trump does and says things that seem to scream for a response. But the media must figure out whether his words warrant their attention.
Can I give you a new definition of news in the Trump era? Sorry, I can't. But I know that current reporting practices are not it.
And by the way, just like the much-reported wall that Mexico built is a non-story, so too is the imperialistic takeover of several sovereign nations; at least for now.
1 comment:
Thanks for your post, Mildred. The post reminds us of the duty of journalists to cover the news. Unfortunately, much of media is practicing what scholars of authoritarianism and totalitarianism call "obeying in advance." They anticipate in advance what Trump wants them to do or say. They fear his possible retribution against their companies or reporters if they displease him. The result is their complicity in his attempt to become an American Tsar on par with Russia's Putin or Hungary's Orban. We are left with a mushy mishmash of reporting on Trump's grift.
Post a Comment