The other day one of our American relatives asked: “Why are you writing so much about Trump?”
The simple answer is that President Donald Trump is an ongoing saga of the worst of things that can happen in politics. There are also the greatly increased readership statistics when writing about the political failures of Donald Trump. Canadians are equally fascinated by the subject. And if Trump were not so scary, he would be funny.
Take the ongoing battle with the news media. It is a battle we desperately want him to lose. In fact, he has to lose. In his vanity, he is attempting to destroy the very core of democracy in the United States of America: a free and independent news media.
Admittedly there are huge numbers of Americans who have deserted the traditional print and broadcast media but they are finding no solace in the Internet-based social media. Not everyone identifies with the chaos and confusion social media spreads. To perpetrate that chaos through the malicious condemning of respected news media has to be questioned and combatted by those who want to preserve democracy.
The best example of this disturbing approach during the 2016 election was the “Corrupt Hillary” line that Trump fed his followers. It took a destructive and the still unforgiven besmirching of the reputation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to keep that lie alive through the campaign. Thankfully, it is still harder to sell a lie than to stand by the truth.
Now Donald Trump has turned his attention to the news media. It is over what he calls, “Fake News.” He does not take kindly to criticism. He prefers adoration; it sooths his ego. At a recent White House news conference, Trump devoted time to telling Cable News Network (CNN, owned by Time Warner) why the reporter could not ask a question. As you can imagine, Time Warner can take that kind of criticism directly to the bank. It is worth a good deal in free publicity.
But the problem with that is Trump’s base of supporters want to believe him. They will go along with him that these news media are not telling them the truth about their hero.
But the key question for Trump supporters is why would CNN, the New York Times, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Guardian and the Daily Mail want to produce “Fake News” when what is going on in the White House is much worse?
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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