How the Media Helps Trump Gaslight Everyone

[applegrove]

How the Media Helps Trump Gaslight Everyone

August 13, 2019 at 6:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 32 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2019/08/13/how-the-media-helps-trump-gaslight-everyone/

"SNIP....

Philip Bump: “In the first phase, he does or says something that any unbiased observer would categorize as controversial. This is generally something geared toward embarrassing or undermining a perceived political opponent.”

“In the second phase, he tells media outlets that they’re misunderstanding his true intent, which was something less objectionable. Sometimes doing so demands stuffing some awfully big claims into some awfully small boxes, but Trump and his supporters are generally content if he at least gives it a shot.”

“This tactic is well-designed for leveraging the media. With decades of inculcated assumptions about the good faith of the president, reporters find themselves forced into declaring that, while most people would agree that the president’s statement was problematic, he insists that it is actually not problematic for whatever reason. His supporters embrace the original intent and meaning of what Trump does, and the media has to leave it there. Works great, at least for him.”

.....SNIP"

[gratuitous]

1. The media often do their own gaslighting

After Trump tweets or says something completely false (like today, when he again took credit for Veterans Choice, which was signed into law in 2014 by President Obama), the media often fall all over themselves trying to squint just so and hold their mouth just right and turn a bald-faced lie into something a little closer to reality. You hear it all the time, and I don't think the talking chuckleheads even notice it anymore: "What I think the president meant was . . ." followed by a complete recasting of what he said or stabbed out on his unsecure phone with his stubby little thumbs. Once they've rehabilitated the lie, any responsible opposing viewpoint has to contend with that, instead of what Trump actually expressed.

[Pantagruel]

2. Problem number 1

No press conferences. The daily bloviation in front of a loud helicopter allows Trump to hide the questions and instead answer on any topic he wants unchallenged and mostly incoherent.

Media should refuse to participate, demand real press conferences. They won't because the whores need a story every day regardless of truth and the good of the nation.

[Funtatlaguy]

5. Mr President, please silence the helicopter 🚁 during questions.

If he says no, everyone should walk away.

[Midnightwalk]

6. Agree with first paragraph

Problem with the first part of the second is spicer and the yeti did nothing but lie every day. Going back to that wouldn’t help.

I agree they are whores.

TV news is a difficult media to cover a president who routinely lies. Worse they have no interest in exposing lies in general. They prefer controversy over facts.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

3. If you want factual reporting,

Look OUTSIDE the American news media for it.

We started reading foreign press years ago. Read a number of different outlets, so that you do get a balance on what you read. But foreign wire services and print media do not have to defile themselves defending the garbage and filth from this trouser stain or worry about retaliation from him and his vile little minions. They are free to speak truth to the lies, fact to the fiction and science to the nonsense. And they are not fooled for one minute by the pseudo-religious american christianistas.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Also, too many people take the Media ...

to mean journalism.