March 28, 2017

NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Trumped-Up Headlines, But What Of The Charges?

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Trump has a new scandal every week. Actually, it’s probably more than that. I mean, really, it would be a lot more productive if all the newspapers stopped writing about Trump and just formed a separate, side newspaper that only reports on Trump. There’d be enough material to fill an issue every day. Guaranteed. It would be the best magazine, I mean newspaper, because you have good stories. The best stories. Not like fake CNN, or the failing New York Times.

Anyways, you get the picture. Trump says a lot of stupid stuff, and he does a lot of stupid stuff. With that kind of volume, it becomes more necessary to sift through what looks like garbage to find the hidden toxic nuclear waste. As more and more garbage has come up, the mainstream media has done a poor job in filtering out what is really indicative of foul play, because they’re far too caught up on what they consider outrageous.

Let me give you an example. Recently, Trump accused Obama of wiretapping him during the presidential campaign. While this is clearly a serious accusation, and one that should not be treated lightly, it has had no bearing on Trump’s presidency as of yet, and is unlikely to. I mean, the most significant direct consequence is that Obama sues Trump, or something like that. But if a lawsuit isn’t enough to convince voters that fake news isn’t fake- as we saw in the Trump University case – how bad would the backlash have to be for them to care? The worst thing this tweet can be is Trump trying to cover up for something worse, and we won’t know that until that “something worse” comes out. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth reporting, but it’s nowhere near comparable to the Russia story that’s been developing for months. And yet, the media so easily allows itself to be distracted by it, despite Obama’s astute decision to downplay its importance. This isn’t just Obama observing respect for the sitting president – he realizes it’s important not to get sidetracked.

obama

Well, I want to sue him…but I’ll show him how a real master plays the game.

It’s not just that, either. Just a few days ago, the internet was flooded with stories about how Comey confirmed that the FBI are investigating the Trump administration’s ties to Russia. Like, duh? Of course they’re investigating. There’s so much circumstantial evidence that it would be a miracle if Trump was uninvolved – in the same way it was a miracle that Reagan wasn’t involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. Indeed, such miracles can be shocking, to some people at least, but it turns out it’s not that easy to pin something on the men and women at the very top. The only way to do it is politically. The Republicans will only impeach Trump if he is a burden, regardless of what he’s done. The same goes for the Access Hollywood tape that was published in October. Y’know, grab ‘em by the pussy. Remember that? People were surprised that that wasn’t enough for Trump to lose the election, but I was surprised people seemed to care about it that much when it came out. And it turns out they didn’t care all that much when it came down to it. It’s the least of Trump’s problems now. It’s not even that inappropriate for someone like him. When you get down to it, Trump isn’t a politician and he’s not a polished speaker. And people accept that. Once you start holding him to different standards, it’s just hypocritical to suspend that for something you personally think is amoral. I guess the Republicans realized that truth right after Trump became president, and maybe they’ll come to a different realization when it becomes convenient for them to do so. Apparently, no one cares about such blatant hypocrisy – at least, no one who matters to them.

What I’m saying is, Republicans right now are far ahead of the American media, who needs to realize that it is not about what Trump did right or wrong. Of course, every incident must be reported, but if we want to get this lunatic out of the White House we need to adopt the same tactics the Republicans did – but for good. That means reporting on the serious things even when we’re not sure they happened, and asserting our opinions on this score. Sure, we didn’t know that the FBI was investigating Trump for sure – but come on. It was obvious. Was it really such a big deal that it was confirmed? Sure, it meant something that Comey was willing to break protocol and confirm an ongoing investigation, but the way it was reported, people were focusing more on the fact of the investigation rather than that break with tradition. This is just another example of the media focusing on the wrong headlines. The only thing that will get Trump and the Republicans out is the same thing they’ve been accusing Obama of for years: treason. That’s what needs to be written about: not his statements or his blunders, but his crimes. We need to stop worrying about all the little distractions Trump is trying to put in our path – even if some are not so little – and focus on the bigger picture: not what Trump is doing about us, but what we should be doing about Trump.