Trump Gamble, Manipulation, More
Thank goodness this election is almost over …
The Gamble of Trump
The WSJ never endorses in the presidentials. And this is not a pro-Trump editorial, BTW. In fact, it could be seen as negative – because the editorial board of the Journal is so wedded in believing its core principles, many of which, including globalization and trade, have proven to be a failure.
Where they get it correct is the choice: Four more years of more regulation and higher government costs or the unknown that will be positive in some ways and possibly negative in other ways.
For most of my life – never mind career – I’ve almost always thought the editorial board/endorsement process was important. In the 5.5 years at Patch, which doesn’t do editorials, and thinking about it during that time, I’ve changed my tune about editorials. Can the news business afford the cost of pontificators who are often completely wrong? As I’ve shown before, especially locally, too much of the editorial board seeps into the news coverage to the point where the truth is actually something completely different than what is being reported. Journalists will always have opinions; it’s real work to suffocate them to present unbiased “news.” But the business must return to that ethos or perish.
On Nov. 9 …
Another good Saturday essay from yesterday’s edition of the WSJ that is worth everyone’s time: How to Get Beyond Our Tribal Politics
Our Senator is getting $0 from the Koch Brothers
Interesting analysis here from a left-of-center website … for all the talk about “voting with the Koch Brothers 90 percent of the time” and also being bought and paid for by the Koch Brothers while also being named one of the most bipartisan Republicans Senators in the country, as noted by NHPR last year … (take a breath) … our Senate hasn’t received a dime of the Koch’s money: Republican Kelly Ayotte Lost Millions of Dollars by Defying Koch Brothers on Climate Change
Real jail time
This is how judges should sentence rapists – real jail time – not a few months, like that snot in California got: Former Vanderbilt Football Player Sentenced to 17 Years
NowThis manipulates again
Nice media manipulation here with this creatively edited video. Here’s how it manipulation works – and did, in this case:
The Drudge Report had a video clip up days ago of the president losing his cool at this rally in North Carolina – here is a link with the clip – showing him speaking at the area of the protester and then trying to calm down his supporters – to the point of yelling, with frustration – for more than 90 seconds. A few conservative news outlets had a laugh with it but NO ONE in the mainstream, establishment press reported on it at all. It was kinda funny, it wasn’t really that big of a deal, OK, NP.
Trump, at his rally makes an offhand comment about what he saw when he watched the video and said he would be treated completely differently by the press if he did the same thing. We know this to be true; there are countless examples of the press completely fabricating and taking things out of context that Trump has said and, I would add, telling the truth about what Trump said, too, since he has said some outrageous things.
This morning, we wake up, to HUNDREDS of posts in the mainstream press about Trump lying about the president and altering the video – REMOVING THE 90+ SECONDS OF THE PRESIDENT YELLING – and only including the gracious remarks. Now remember – no one said a word in the press about the president yelling days ago; but they are all over it now. Why is this wrong? Because, if any news outlet is going to write about this or produce a video about this at all, include the 90+ seconds of the president yelling because that is the context of Trump’s comments. This entire thing was trending on FB with more than 1M people talking about it this morning. If you look at some of the comments, you will see the spin – and you will see many people defending the president for NOT YELLING at the rally – something HE DID DO, again for 90+ seconds – because they 1) never saw the original footage; and 2) it wasn’t included in the posts this morning.
We saw this recently with Vice President Joe Biden’s “if I were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym” comment and using a gestured with his hand, in a fist, punching his other hand, essentially showing that he would be punching Trump. A few outlets picked it up; most didn’t touch it; conservative websites went ballistic; leftwing websites agreed with Biden that Trump should be punched.
Later that day, Trump mentioned the comment and replied, “I’d love that. I’d love that. Mr. Tough Guy. He’s Mr. Tough Guy. You know, he’s Mr. Tough Guy, when he’s standing behind a microphone by himself.” Guess which comment made the news? Google for yourself: Trump threatens vice president with violence; liberals completely went off the rails. Very little was made against Biden who made the original threat comment. Why? Because the press likes Biden and they hate Trump or they didn’t report Biden’s comments in the first place.
It’s the old trick: Journalist asks, When did you stop beating your wife? Person says, I don’t beat my wife. The headline then becomes: So-and-so: I don’t beat my wife.
I personally don’t understand protesters in opposing rallies anyway – although we now know, thanks to Project Veritas Action – that the Democrats have been pulling rent-a-riot operations at Trump events for a year, in an effort to garner him bad coverage. The president was very gracious in his comments; everyone can agree on that. But if an outlet is going to cover the issue at all, show everyone the FULL VIDEO of what happened. Don’t edit out the president being frustrated and losing his cool … unless your mission is to manipulate it into only showing Trump in a bad light. He does that well enough on his own without the help.