Trump and the media

I made the mistake of working in journalism for way too long. Finally could no longer deal with the pay. I also have a political science degree. Now as punishment I'll probably have to work until I'm 75 years old.

I have a reasonably decent understanding of how the media works and the mindset of a journalist.

As a preface, I think that Trump is a giant pansy and a fake tough guy who puffs his chest out and talks tough despite 5 draft deferments and a propensity for making fun of women's appearances and picking social media fights with women, which is the least manly thing that any man could ever do. Also a real tough guy does not have tiny little adorable soft lady hands, unless they know kung fu or jiu jitsu or some other way to kick arse that doesn't require much hands.

More frightening are Trump's attacks on checks and balances (the first president since FDR to actively campaign against a sitting member of congress from his own party // his public shaming of GOP lawmakers who don't bow down and worship him LEGISLATIVE BRANCH) (Trump's being an accessory or not dismissing the "Deep State" theory // Trump publicly railing on any judge who rules against him and trying to discredit any judge that doesn’t fall in line with him and rubber stamp his policies JUDICIAL BRANCH).

Trump also seems to have some vendetta against the Bretton-Woods World Order, which is probably most frightening. The IMF, World Bank, NATO, etc., those were all creations of the American bully pulpit to benefit America, and they’ll continue to benefit America.

America is amazing, and America is the exception. We have the world’s largest economy and it’s not even close. We also have the highest quality of life for any really big country, and it’s not even close. The quality of life the we enjoy in this country is supposed to be reserved for small homogenized countries with little peckershit military budgets and standing armies.

All other nations that are comparable in size and population to America (top 25 in both categories) are all classified as second-world and are all broke down and goofy (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, etc.)

America is the exception, which is when Trump endorses Brexit and giant isolationist weirdos like Marie Le Pen, while suggesting that NATO may no longer be needed, it’s cause for concern.

That said, the media coverage of Trump has been far from fair, and Obama was way more likely to get a free pass from the media, despite indicting journalists and receiving overall low marks in terms of transparency and being media friendly.

The real danger nowadays are goobers like the Leopold guy from Buzzeed. He was discredited by the traditional media a long time ago and the traditional media would never touch him or hire him. YET, he can always latch on to some internet-only half-arse outfit like BuzzFeed.

The traditional media have been way too quick to cite Buzzfeed reporting and similar outlets, but I promise you that they’ll fix it.

In terms of traditional media, even though their employees are not fans of Trump, they’re actually doing a solid job. The Atkisson lady recently compiled a list of 60-something claims that the traditional media had to walk back and retract since Trump was president. Considering that there have been several thousand sourced claims during his presidency, that’s actually a damn good batting average.

The thing about the media is that the media never claimed to be perfect and infallible. That’s why retractions and corrections have always been a large part of the nuts and bolts of American journalism.

Fox News is largely propaganda, but to Fox News’ credit they have integrity when it comes to retractions and admitting mistakes, just like the “liberal” ones.

Also, it’s important to remember that the reporters and the people in the newsrooms at the New York Times and the Washington Post and CNN really like their jobs. It’s the pinnacle. They worked really hard to get there. And, if they screw up royally or have to walk back one too many stories, they’ll be sent packing, just like the editors in the CNN newsroom were last year. Or Leopold was years ago.

The mere suggestion that NY Times reporters or CNN reporters are “making up news” or that they are fiction is just odd and paranoid schizophrenic.

It’s okay to bash someone like Buzzfeed and call them out when they deserve it, but to demonize the entire media like Trump and many of his supporters do is just incredibly dangerous.

Buzzed got destroyed on all of the Sunday morning news shows by all of the supposed “fake news” media, and they deserved it.

That’s all I got. Don’t feel like writing anymore.