Okay, this bullshit meme about taking Clownstick "literally but not seriously" versus the other way around has to stop. Right. Fucking. Now. For the media's sake, and for their consumers' sake.
I'm still kicking this notion around, and will expand on it in an upcoming post, but the bottom line is that if a journalist, or anyone who is supposed to be dealing in objective facts and informed opinions, starts letting their subjects dictate the tempo and tone of actual coverage, then there is literally, seriously no fucking point in said coverage.
Of course his entire scampaign was an extended troll, and it worked, so of course he's going to keep doing it, for as long as they keep falling for it. They are devaluing their own currency, and getting spun hard in the process, to the point where many of them do not seem to know how to cover him.
There are rules to the job of president, basic rules and norms which all holders of that position must follow, if this thing is to work. Probably the most basic of those rules is that while what the president says may fall within a greater context, the minimum expectation is that he speaks for all Americans. Literally. Seriously. This is not a new expectation, and we are not changing the rules and expectations because a reality-teevee pro-wrestling hack squeaked in by his hairpiece.
The only people who believe otherwise are authoritarians, dictators, caudillos. If we want a banana republic, we are well on our way to getting it. A resistant media is not necessarily going to prevent that, because El Caudillo's fan base hasn't cracked a book since they dropped out of tenth grade, so they're not reading the Post or the Times in the first place.
They love him because he legitimizes their bullshit grievances, and asks nothing of them but their fealty. You don't have to retrain or learn a new skill, because I'm going to bring your non-existent job back. You don't have to pretend to be nice to the meskins that moved in down the block, because I'll deport them, or at least make sure they don't get any free shit. I may not lock her up or build that wall, but I'm more likely to than anyone else you know, so there's that.
So a media entity that resists this nonsense may not prevent the worst, but a complaisant, cooperative, belly-up media that engages in this where did we go wrong navel-gazing will surely enable it. The media monkeys have a decision to make -- you either cover facts, things that were verifiably said and done, or you don't.
This motherfucker will have you chasing your tails for the rest of your fool lives if you're not careful. Stop playing his game, and remember what your job actually is. It's only complicated if you make it so. Quit worrying about what the townies in Brokedown Gulch think about whatever hoax-news item they're falling for this week, quit following Clownstick's endless Gish Gallop, and stick with the facts and the stories and pound those things mercilessly.
Also, too.
I'm still kicking this notion around, and will expand on it in an upcoming post, but the bottom line is that if a journalist, or anyone who is supposed to be dealing in objective facts and informed opinions, starts letting their subjects dictate the tempo and tone of actual coverage, then there is literally, seriously no fucking point in said coverage.
Of course his entire scampaign was an extended troll, and it worked, so of course he's going to keep doing it, for as long as they keep falling for it. They are devaluing their own currency, and getting spun hard in the process, to the point where many of them do not seem to know how to cover him.
There are rules to the job of president, basic rules and norms which all holders of that position must follow, if this thing is to work. Probably the most basic of those rules is that while what the president says may fall within a greater context, the minimum expectation is that he speaks for all Americans. Literally. Seriously. This is not a new expectation, and we are not changing the rules and expectations because a reality-teevee pro-wrestling hack squeaked in by his hairpiece.
The only people who believe otherwise are authoritarians, dictators, caudillos. If we want a banana republic, we are well on our way to getting it. A resistant media is not necessarily going to prevent that, because El Caudillo's fan base hasn't cracked a book since they dropped out of tenth grade, so they're not reading the Post or the Times in the first place.
They love him because he legitimizes their bullshit grievances, and asks nothing of them but their fealty. You don't have to retrain or learn a new skill, because I'm going to bring your non-existent job back. You don't have to pretend to be nice to the meskins that moved in down the block, because I'll deport them, or at least make sure they don't get any free shit. I may not lock her up or build that wall, but I'm more likely to than anyone else you know, so there's that.
So a media entity that resists this nonsense may not prevent the worst, but a complaisant, cooperative, belly-up media that engages in this where did we go wrong navel-gazing will surely enable it. The media monkeys have a decision to make -- you either cover facts, things that were verifiably said and done, or you don't.
This motherfucker will have you chasing your tails for the rest of your fool lives if you're not careful. Stop playing his game, and remember what your job actually is. It's only complicated if you make it so. Quit worrying about what the townies in Brokedown Gulch think about whatever hoax-news item they're falling for this week, quit following Clownstick's endless Gish Gallop, and stick with the facts and the stories and pound those things mercilessly.
Also, too.
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