Eric Boehlert: He's not "freewheeling" -- still normalizing Trump in 2021

[babylonsister]

He's not "freewheeling" — still normalizing Trump in 2021
Media madness
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


snip//

Too often Trump is merely depicted as a slightly rogue pol, when in fact, with his ceaseless lies about a “stolen” contest, he’s done more to damage free and fair elections in this country than any other elected official in American history. He left behind a legacy of unmatched abuses, ranging from violations of longstanding norms to potentially criminal behavior.

Even in the wake of the newest revelations of how Trump aggressively corrupted the U.S. justice system and blatantly politicized the Department of Justice in a way that would make Richard Nixon cringe, he’s somehow still normalized in the day-to-day press coverage.

A recent Politico report about the role he might play in the 2022 midterm election cycle described Trump as “freewheeling.”

“Freewheeling”?

After Trump lost to Joe Biden by 8 million votes, he falsely claimed victory and demanded election officials in battleground states throw out millions of votes. Including the time he phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and demanded state officials "find" enough votes to nullify Biden's narrow victory in that state.

Then he incited a deadly mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol and tried to stop the certification of Biden’s win.

While in office he told tens of thousands of lies and likely killed an untold number of Americans by downplaying the Covid-19 pandemic and urging people to inject bleach into their bodies. That’s when he wasn’t demanding the DOJ investigate his political enemies, firing government whistleblowers, and enriching himself by billing the U.S. government millions of dollars, including for Secret Service agents to stay at his properties while protecting him.

That’s freewheeling?!

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/hes-not-freewheeling-still-normalizing

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

May as well call him a "Maverick" as to call him freewheeling. The image conjured is much the same.

Language matters. It shapes thought and creates narrative.

Trump is the leader of terrorists. He's corrupt to his core; a deplorable's deplorable. He is a petty and vindictive authoritarian who would gladly burn the house down around us.

[benfranklin1776]

2. Yes precisely right.

As Orwell understood so well, intentionally diluted language, stripped of the gravity of the horrors it purports to describe, is the single best tool of mass deception and concealment of the true evil of acts and political leaders, which inevitably leads to total tyranny. Your description is the most accurate, and we must demand those in the media use these proper descriptors, lest this normalization of a would be dictator and the creeping fascism he represents continue unabated to its eminently foreseeable catastrophic conclusion for our democracy and We The People.

[Locrian]

3. well said

There are too many in the media that still see him as a way to make $$$$.
They continue to trust that the system will prevail, and all of their privileges will remain intact - so they *do not care*.

To them it's just a game to play, or they hide behind the weakness of "one side says x, one side says y objectivity" and "neutrality". And the most scared of all: don't upset the markets.

[Solly Mack]

8. A common thought too often put forth is that unity requires healing

- but with the definition of healing, in most cases - being to downplay the bad and reframing it as something we overcame with no real, or measurable, lasting damage. A - yes, this happened and it was bad but we've been strengthened as a nation because of it and can now move on - narrative that offers a feel-good and comforting sense that the bad was an aberration that has now been dealt with and all is well.

But that's a lie.

The greater the wrong or bad or damage caused, the more insistent the call for healing and unity and the greater the denial of the lasting harm caused.

A denial of said harm merely allows it to spread.

Normalizing the harm allows it to spread by making it easier to deny just how bad it got.

[twodogsbarking]

4. The media has always been too kind to the orange maggot.

[mountain grammy]

5. more like freebasing..

Come on MSM.. how about being American for a change. There is no longer a Republican party and trump is a fascist.. please report accordingly.

[Martin68]

6. The "media?" The Washington Post doesn't. The NYT doesn't. NPR doesn't. That's the media where I get

my news.

[toughtony]

7. BE MINDFUL OF WHAT GOES INTO YOUR CHILD'S HISTORY BOOKS..

If they're lying now, if they are trying to "normalize" him now, the history books your child reads will also be full of BS when it comes to this maniac. Be ready to teach your children the truth. Because the teachers won't.