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The Media's Portrayal of Trump and His Presidency


Nanker

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CNN’S JOHN KING ADMITS MEDIA WILL BURY COMEY’S ‘DAMNING ACCOUNT’ OF LYNCH’S BEHAVIOR ON HILLARY:

 

While the Comey hearing into Russia was and remains a big story, CNN’s John King admitted Thursday afternoon that the media will not give much (if any) attention to Jim Comey stating that he was disturbed by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch telling him in the midst of the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal that he should refer to it as “a matter,” not “an investigation.”

 

“A number of significant things. One, this won’t get much attention because it’s in the rearview mirror but a pretty damming account from Jim Comey there about Loretta Lynch, the former Attorney General in the Obama administration and her handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation. It won’t get much attention, but that was pretty damning,” King admitted.

 

 

 

Just think of the media as Democrat operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

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This is good:

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/9/15768114/donald-trumps-comey-response-twitter

 

Donald Trump understands, better than any politician I’ve ever seen, that the question isn’t whether you’re winning the argument — it’s whether you’re dominating and driving the coverage of the argument. And that is his strategy in responding to former FBI Director James Comey’s searing testimony. Trump means to take back control of the storyline. But he doesn’t intend to win the argument, or even offer a persuasive counterargument or narrative of events. Instead, his strategy is to crowd out coverage of Comey’s arguments and force the media to cover bull ****.

A bit of set-up is useful here. Matthew Yglesias recently wrote a brilliant essay arguing that Donald Trump is a bullshitter, not a liar. Yglesias is using “bull ****” as a technical term, working off Princeton University philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s seminal book On bull ****, which distinguishes the liar, who is trying to persuade us of a false truth, from the bullshitter, who cares little for persuasion so long as he is achieving his other ends. As Frankfurt writes:

For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

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This is good:

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/9/15768114/donald-trumps-comey-response-twitter

 

Donald Trump understands, better than any politician I’ve ever seen, that the question isn’t whether you’re winning the argument — it’s whether you’re dominating and driving the coverage of the argument. And that is his strategy in responding to former FBI Director James Comey’s searing testimony. Trump means to take back control of the storyline. But he doesn’t intend to win the argument, or even offer a persuasive counterargument or narrative of events. Instead, his strategy is to crowd out coverage of Comey’s arguments and force the media to cover bull ****.

A bit of set-up is useful here. Matthew Yglesias recently wrote a brilliant essay arguing that Donald Trump is a bullshitter, not a liar. Yglesias is using “bull ****” as a technical term, working off Princeton University philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s seminal book On bull ****, which distinguishes the liar, who is trying to persuade us of a false truth, from the bullshitter, who cares little for persuasion so long as he is achieving his other ends. As Frankfurt writes:

For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

 

It's quite possible to be both a bullschitter and a liar.

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Cable News Media - Loved him in the primaries. Loved him in the general election. Love him now as cable ratings are at an all time high.

Print Media - Despised him throughout the entire process.

Aaaaaand that's why Trump won.

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Cable News Media - Loved him in the primaries. Loved him in the general election. Love him now as cable ratings are at an all time high.

Print Media - Despised him throughout the entire process.

 

So what do you now do to try to rig it for the Dems?

 

But what % actually watch CNN to gain any insight on events? 10% tops?

 

Most of the ratings have to come from them being on all the TVs in airports which nobody is paying attention to after the 15 seconds of worthiness in most stories.

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President Donald Trump on Monday boasted that he's "passed more legislation" and accomplished more to date than any of his predecessors “with the exception of FDR" — a declaration that doesn't appear to match with history.

“There’s never been a president that’s done more in this time,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House. “Who’s passed more legislation, who’s done more things than we’ve done.”

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/12/trump-legislative-achievements-239429

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This is good:

 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/9/15768114/donald-trumps-comey-response-twitter

 

Donald Trump understands, better than any politician I’ve ever seen, that the question isn’t whether you’re winning the argument — it’s whether you’re dominating and driving the coverage of the argument. And that is his strategy in responding to former FBI Director James Comey’s searing testimony. Trump means to take back control of the storyline. But he doesn’t intend to win the argument, or even offer a persuasive counterargument or narrative of events. Instead, his strategy is to crowd out coverage of Comey’s arguments and force the media to cover bull ****.

A bit of set-up is useful here. Matthew Yglesias recently wrote a brilliant essay arguing that Donald Trump is a bullshitter, not a liar. Yglesias is using “bull ****” as a technical term, working off Princeton University philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s seminal book On bull ****, which distinguishes the liar, who is trying to persuade us of a false truth, from the bullshitter, who cares little for persuasion so long as he is achieving his other ends. As Frankfurt writes:

For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

 

Vox :w00t:

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Trump is just fundamentally not a good person.

 

I do wonder about that. People in the public eye tend to be portrayed not as people but as archetypes. In reality, people are far more complex. For all I know, Trump's a twittiot, but is loyal to his friends and gives spare change to beggars. I doubt it. But I'm always leery of labeling someone as "fundamentally not a good person" based on public portrayal.

 

Unless they're...you know, Ted Bundy, or Richard Ramirez. I tend to doubt Trump's "notorious serial killer" bad, even at his worst.

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