Oct 292018
 
 October 29, 2018  Posted by at 5:11 pm Primers Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Mestre da Família Artés The Last Judgment and the Mass of Saint Gregory 1500-1520

 

It’s been quite a while since I first wrote that I resented the MSM (New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC etc etc) for effectively monopolizing the entire discussion about Donald Trump. Don’t remember exactly when I wrote that, do remember Jim Kunstler sent a mail and thanked me for saying it. Because he felt- and feels- the same way.

The 24/7 daily Trump bashing machine that was unleashed in late 2015/early 2016 meant that people like us had a choice of criticizing Trump where he needed to be criticized, but that would put us in the MSM camp, where we don’t want to be. And we don’t want to not criticize him either, because there’s so much that needs scrutiny.

A third choice would be to not write at all, but hey, we’re writers. And so we’re either Trump-fans, something I’ve been accused of a lot, and I’m sure Jim has too, or we’re Trump haters, depending on what we publish. In reality, of course, we’re neither, but the way the conversation has been built, there’s no neutral ground. You’re either with us or with him.

Today, almost 3 years later, nothing much has changed about this. Other than, as I wrote at a later date, the mass media have become consciously aware that Trump is their money machine. Their financial people started pointing out that posting negative stuff about Trump all the time got them a lot of new readers and viewers and income streams. And so they continued doing it.

Their ‘news’ didn’t have to necessarily be true, or provable, it only had to look as if it could be true, until the next show or article, or the next day. That’s how we got the Russiagate story, which still lacks all evidence. Like a million other narratives, none of which have really gotten anywhere. It doesn’t matter. People who don’t like Trump eat it up. And there’s plenty of those, not in the least because of the picture the MSM has painted. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy thing.

 

And today, if you take a good look, you can see that the MSM are stuck. Their entire business model over the past 2.5 years has been built on bashing Trump, and now they have to stick with that. This is how they make their money. If their viewers and readers would understand this, then perhaps some of them would wonder: ‘What am I watching here really?’ But they don’t.

There are some who are simply gullible, there are those who fall victim to information overkill and can’t tell black from white anymore, and then there’s still quite a large group who will never like anything Trump does, no matter what. Because.

But that should never be enough for an organization that purports to report only the news, impartial and objective. You can’t publish stuff solely because you know it will be eaten up and make you money. That’s not the news business, that’s entertainment.

Now, I rarely watch TV. When I’m in Greece, where I’ve spent most of my time the past few years, I see none, other than the odd soccer game at a sports bar. But last weekend I flew to Holland, and there I got to see me some CNN. Oh boy. It was when the first dummy bomb package had been reported, and more of them started to spread.

Nobody knew anything about the ‘bombs’ themselves (we still don’t), about motive, about who sent them, none had gone off, they didn’t know if these things could have gone off, nothing at all. But nevertheless CNN labeled the event: ‘Mass Assassination Attempt’. And then, you know, they have all these time slots to fill, so they all yap and yap as if this is something real that they know something about.

 

And then at some point Trump called for civility in the nation. And CNN, sadly and predictably, reacted by agreeing with him. Only to follow that up with: “Trump has to become more civil”. Which may or may not be true, but that was not his point and neither is it mine today.

You see, CNN pulled a perfect bait and switch: While demanding that Trump tone it down in response to his own call for civility, they categorically and emphatically denied that their tone, their ‘news reporting’ must come down too. They didn’t just deny it, they entirely ignore the whole issue. Because according to them, all they do is report the news, you know, objective and neutral, no opinions involved.

After bashing Trump for two years+ they react to his call for a more civil tone by … bashing Trump and ignoring their own role completely. The exact opposite. And then they’re surprised that his reaction to being bashed one more time, again, is to point out that they do, in fact, play a role.

CNN et al paint themselves as victims, as the ones being targeted by Trump (and not even by whoever sent the bombs), completely omitting to what extent they themselves were the ones who targeted Trump. CNN is entirely blind to their own role. They proclaim, and really seem to believe, that they speak for the American people.

But if that were true, Trump would not be president. They may speak for part of the American people, but certainly not ‘the people’. And if they continue in their present ways, they never will. As long as the MSM puts all their chips on making money off of the segment of the American population who despise their president, they only sharpen the divide.

 

Another thing I’ve mentioned before is that with the midterms coming up in a few days, the MSM don’t actually want to impeach Trump, or get rid of him in any other way. They want to continue writing negative stuff about him forever. They want him to maybe lose the midterms, but then to win in 2020. Obama was killing them financially. Now they got their golden goose.

And it’s not Trump who profits from the nation being so divided, or at least not nearly as much as the media does. Trump would like to be appreciated for what he achieves, but when it comes to that, he can’t get a word in edgewise. They can’t risk writing positive stuff about him, it would risk their new business model.

Moreover, after that court ruling that said Trump can’t ban people on Twitter, everyone feels free to call Trump whatever they want, idiot, lunatic, you name it, I even saw Hitler pop up again, and he cannot ban them. Trump is America’s national piñata. While he’s also the President.

And the media say they’re just reporting the news. “Trump calls for civility, but continues his attacks on the media”. Well, the media continue their attacks on him, too. “Trump refuses to acknowledge his rhetoric makes this happen.” So does the MSM rhetoric. “Words Matter”. Indeed, they do. But not only Trump’s words. Everybody’s words.

The MSM have never managed – nor tried- to move beyond the notion that Trump supporters are deplorables. They’re stuck in a time warp. That is what divides the nation. Sarah Sanders was right: the first thing Trump did was to condemn the violence, the first thing CNN did was to blame Trump for it. CNN says that’s not true, they only reported the news. Yeah, 100% objectively.

 

Let’s do a test: when is the last time CNN, or the WaPo, have said anything truly positive about Trump? And I don’t mean three words strung together, but an actual report on for instance jobs and the state of the economy. When is the last time they complimented him, other than perhaps when American rockets landed in some remote and deserted Syrian sandbox?

So you don’t like Trump. And in the MSM you find voices that express your ideas. What you probably don’t realize is that they amplify those ideas as well, and that’s no coincidence. You’re being used by the MSM to prolong their newly-found very profitable anti-Trump rhetoric business model. You’re an easy victim. All they have to do is confirm your thoughts all the time, and tomorrow you’ll tune in for more, and so on.

Or how about this one: There’s so much to blame Trump for, there are so many negative sides to the man, and then the media focus for a long time on a made-up story about collusion with Russians, for which a special counsel with unlimited budget and resources hasn’t found any proof after two whole years. Doesn’t that make you think? Shouldn’t it?

The MSM’s interest is to divide the country, that’s how they make money. If they would write or broadcast positive stories about Trump, which must exist, they would threaten the dividing line that keeps people from talking to each other. Once they do start talking, Trump-bashing will become much less lucrative. They can’t have that.

You don’t need to be a Trump fan to see that, and I’m definitely not, you need to be blind NOT to see it. You’re being played. And what are you going to do when the GOP wins the midterms, despite what you’ve been told would happen, what if there is no blue wave? Are you going to start talking to the other half of the country then, or are you going to dig deeper into the trenches with the MSM? Honest question.

 

 

Home Forums Trump Is America’s National Piñata

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  • #43548

    Mestre da Família Artés The Last Judgment and the Mass of Saint Gregory 1500-1520   It’s been quite a while since I first wrote that I resented t
    [See the full post at: Trump Is America’s National Piñata]

    #43549
    zerosum
    Participant

    Yep! Piñata

    We are all being used and manipulated by the media, the rich, the vultures and the predators.

    #43559
    rapier
    Participant

    Cripes. What next? Goldstein really is the great enemy? Yea, that’s it. Give it a try, Gotta do something to keep those few dollars flowing in. You and JHK have really staked out a pathetic spot here on the interwebs. As if the NY Times means a thing.

    #43560
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Yes. Trump bashing makes money. Just as legalized sports betting is spreading across the USA, anything that enriches the wealthy and impoverishes everyone else is a priority for the ruling class. Donald Trump provides diversions from this reality. Finally, media moguls are globalists. They rule the supranational economic institutions that organize world trade. Trump threatens this with his tariffs. They have to go after him. If anything, that he is still President, shows the residual strength of democracy in its twilight hours.

    #43561
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Great metaphor, Piñata.
    The only U.S. news I get is TRNN. I quit the Guardian years ago.
    So, as a result I’m spared all of the MSM propaganda.
    My news now comes out of Russia, Iran, and/or, from writers who’ve hung on to their integrity.
    Escobar, Crooke, Pilger, Hedges, Giraldi, Zuess, Ilargi, Kunstler, Hudson, Black, Keen, to name just a few.
    It helps that I haven’t possessed a tv since 1994…

    #43576
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “Obama was killing them financially. “

    Whyso? They could have said non-stop negative things about him, and the Right would have eaten it up. Ratings go through the roof, and there was plenty of material: drone strikes, killing whistleblowers, starting 15 wars, etc.

    But they didn’t. They were 100% on board even though it was crippling their profits, and actually against journalism, where you’re supposed to dish (real) dirt on politicos. Now why is that?

    Now, they may be holding short-term clicks but at the expense of long-term existence, as the whole nation seems to be distancing themselves from the legacy media, with only a remaining fringe attached, largely because they are still against journalism, refuse to report, or only with a slant, and can’t be trusted. Yet they are happy to fall on their swords, again. Why?

    CNN is now every day smaller than reruns of Yogi Bear, smaller than any handful of off-beat, non-news bloggers like Mark Dice or such. And every time their business, their advertisers shrink, they suddenly discover they need to attack the competition and “help”, fight “fake news.” You know, last year by “de-monetizing” and therefore moving the half of advertisers that hadn’t run away to their friends and away from their enemies. This year by taking Jones, who is now measurably, easily larger (and more trusted, er…) than CNN and erasing them from the internet, erasing the competition in a ruthless, uncompetitive fashion Jay Gould or John D. Rockerfeller would be proud of (“Competition is a Sin”). As ad revenue keeps shrinking and their own censorship keeps driving click to the competition, this week they (illegally, as in anti-competitive collusion against the Trust Act) drove Gab.com off the internet, by cutting off their PayPal (owned by eBay) and also their server cloud because somebody used them. Calling Ford Motor Company! The 2017 Saipov truck attack in NYC used a Ford. Therefore, we need to shut down Ford Motors worldwide, cut their banking lines and erase them from the internet, along with all existing Ford owners, who are obviously terrorists too. Of course I’m a coincidence theorist and the erasing of Twitter’s competition by stopping both banking AND servers within minutes of each other is a complete coincidence. Just like last month’s purge of 1,000 people who were eating into corporate profits got purged by Twitter AND YouTube AND Facebook within hours of each other was also a complete coincidence.

    It would seem without popular users, who draw followers in the millions and their yummy clicks, the companies might(?) make less profits, yet they’re happy to destroy both profit and their whole business model, AND get sued by users AND risk Federal regulation and anti-trust cases, in order to…get smaller, with fewer, highly annoyed users, less cool factor, and have to desperately steal the flagging remaining revenue by rallying the wagons and shooting the non-insiders?

    Correct me here, but I’m suspecting the profit motive is not what’s driving CNN, Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.

    And if that isn’t their motive, then by their own actions, what is? What’s more important than money, more important than even the continued existence of their collectively multi-trillion corporations? What are they falling on their swords, committing financial suicide for? Interesting question, no?

    #43577
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Power of course.
    What else is there for the truly ignorant?

    #43589
    palloy
    Participant

    > When is the last time they complimented him, other than perhaps when American rockets landed in some remote and deserted Syrian sandbox?

    They were certainly quiet when Trump wanted to strike Syria (Hersh reported that the military knew the chemical weapons attacks weren’t Assad’s, and told him). Same goes for all the attack rhetoric against Russia, China, Iran, North Korea. Do Democrats want WW3 as much as Hillary? Xi certainly thinks so with his “prepare for war” speech “leaked” to the public this week.

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