American media is now wedded to both the creation and normalization of the rabid chaos Donald Trump’s full descent into sociopathic madness assures. The collective reaction to Saturday night’s futile attack by a desperate lone gunman, which never made it past the security checkpoint designed to halt such plots, clarifies that American journalism no longer concerns itself with whether or not governance addresses even the most basic interests of its citizenry.
Instead our news industry now much prefers to incite and proliferate the endless shock news cycle its interactive doting on a clinically narcissistic President creates. There exists no better definition of interdependence to the maintenance of totalitarianism.
The headlines this week celebrate a brand new national distraction to both the Epstein files, which fully convict Trump as an enthusiastic participant in a child sex ring, as well as the devastation Trump/MAGA impulse nihilism is doing to America at home and abroad. It’s also yet another opportunity to gaslight reporting of the regime’s constant efforts to dismantle democratic processes and cover up a mountainous list of crimes.
Trump is never actually happy, but his ridiculous presser Saturday night provided the all-about-me attention he spends most waking moments seeking out. That he called on first and actually praised CBS reporter Weijia Jiang, current President of the White House Correspondent’s Association, indicated he believed the organization now serves him rather than its mission statement to shepherd the 1st Amendment.
“I just want to say you did a fantastic job,” the POTUS gushed in the way he does when addressing lackeys whose servility he can count on. “What a beautiful evening.” Jiang didn’t disappoint, teeing up fluff for Trump to drive down the fairway. “Can you describe what was going through your mind,” Jiang, still resplendent in her evening gown wondered with the most inane gaze possible.
Trump proceeded to crow about how the attack spared the gathering one of his rambling monologues about the press as public enemy #1, which confirmed his reason for coming was only to pour gasoline and demand all bend the knee. His aim was to declare full vindication since he had last attended the function back in 2011, when then POTUS Barack Obama made a fool of him… back before we understood how Fox/AM could get its legions to adore even the most imbecilic among us.
Trump hoped to declare full victory when he agreed to sit down with Norah O’Donnell for an interview with 60 Minutes. No doubt he figured his sweet talking of her colleague Jiang would carry over and O’Donnell would provide more blank canvass for him to finger paint his narcissism on.
Perhaps O’Donnell didn’t get the memo from her new Trumpist bosses, or maybe she summoned up some courage and integrity. Whatever the reason she decided to lead with Epstein, quoting directly from the manifesto left by the WHCD assailant, which condemned Trump’s involvement in the child-sex atrocities. Trump’s evil malevolence immediately returned as he squinted at O’Donnell and unleashed his worst:
“Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people…you should be ashamed of yourself for reading that… You’re a disgrace.”
Roughly 12 hours later, Dana Bash of CNN served notice to the network’s new ownership that, when it comes to Trump, she’s willing to be a team player. Interviewing one of Trumpism’s most dogged opponents, Congressman Jaime Raskin, Bash demanded to know whether Saturday’s incident made Democrats “think twice” about employing “heated rhetoric” toward the Trump regime. Raskin asked for an example, to which Bash stammered about messaging that called Trump “terrible for the country.” The normally unflappable Raskin appeared stunned by the question, but unlike our POTUS remained polite and professional, mutely pointing out that Trumpist policies are in fact terrible for the U.S.
Of course, Fox/AM will run with such false equivalence and use a crime it welcomes to add propane to its 24/7 messaging that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is an existential threat that should consume any and all “woke” trivialities like basic human rights and civil liberties. We can count on Waters, Faulkner, Gutfeld, Hannity, Levin et al to ensconce Saturday’s freak show into Trump-as-courageous victim lore. Clearly, the “legacy media” Fox/AM villainizes at every opportunity will help that narrative along as much as possible. A ruinously Orwellian juncture for the nation. BC