Deja vu all over again
At last, a chastened press, guilt-ridden for the chaos they brought to America in 2016 by promoting the narrative of Hillary’s emails and thereby ruining her campaign, are making amends. They have at last heroically balanced the narrative. They have striven this time to throw Donald Trump’s sins into starker relief. They have cast aside their greedy motivations and are finally taking responsibility for the part they have played in the near-overthrow of democracy.
Nah, I’m just kidding. They’re still full of shit. They are still the lying, virtue-signalling, swift-boating, both-sidesing, double-dealing, mountebank venal assholes they have always been. They secretly relish the idea of a second Trump presidency, where they can expect Trump to commit six impossibly stupid things before breakfast, and every one of them a breaking story.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves, shall we? As far as the mainstream media is concerned, Donald Trump is good for business. Donald Trump is a cash cow. For as long as he doesn’t commit existential suicide by hamderber, the mainstream media is going to continue to milk that cash cow for all it’s worth.
They will continue to platform 90 minutes of Trump “press conference” without a single fact-check or even a half-assed pushback, and only show a soundbite or two of Kamala’s rallies. Why pretend? They want Trump back. They need Trump. He’s more popular than Jesus. He’s better than a fifteen car pileup every time he opens his stupid, goddamn mouth.
I grew up at a time when there were three sources for news, and all of them abbreviated. There were the six o’clock and the eleven o’clock half hour dollops of news on TV, including sports and weather. Then there was radio and the newspapers. The goal of those organs of mid-twentieth century information was largely detached reportage. They told us what was happening, not what to think about it. And if they ever told us what to think about it they were careful to label it “editorial” or “commentary.” They mostly eschewed propaganda, insofar as it was humanly possible.
Certainly they had their biases, but those biases weren’t part of some sinister marketing strategy. They existed to deliver the news, not to sell it, not to make it more exciting than it was. And they certainly didn’t exist to resuscitate bad news and then make it worse by promoting it and keeping it alive.
Somewhere along the way that ideal went to hell. Once news became available 24 hours a day 7 days a week, thanks to CNN, it had to be sold. And in order to sell it, it had to be exciting. Back around 1994-1995 I don’t think people really wanted to hear about OJ Simpson every single damned day for hours on end, but that’s what they got. OJ was good for a whole year’s worth of news. Six years later, September 11, 2001 was good for another whole year. Whole-year news cycles were born!
Donald Trump is the news gift that never stops giving. He’s been feeding the news narrative nonstop for nine years! It’s little wonder that the MSM keeps resuscitating him and refusing to call him what he is: a stupid, lying, raping, criminal pile of shit who couldn’t tell the truth if you put a gun to his head. Trump makes money for them. “News” is just World Wrestling Entertainment in suits and pencil skirts. We are being had.
Oh sure, they have their lamenting pundits who virtue-signal their distress. They moan about how terrible this Trump fellow is, how bad for democracy he is and how much better off we would be without him. They exist as a salve to their insecurities and guilty consciences. They really want to make themselves — and the American people — to feel good about the heroic job they’re doing.
Think of it yourselves. Joe Biden has a single, lousy press conference and the mainstream media hounds and excoriates him for weeks on end. They’d still be doing it if he hadn’t dropped out. Donald Trump holds an insane, stupid, rambling, incoherent bullshit session and they platform him for 90 goddamn minutes and practically praise him to the skies for having the “courage” to hold one. Then they wonder why Kamala isn’t doing the same?
Am I wrong for thinking they are absurdly evil for doing this? Am I crazy for thinking they’re playing with my future, the future of America and the future of the world for ratings? I don’t see how. These people aren’t stupid! They understand what they’re doing and the consequences for doing it! Donald Trump is great for business. Period. If they didn’t legitimise him, he wouldn’t be legitimate in the eyes of so many people.
So, just like 2016, it’s still deja vu all over again. Right up to Election Day the American mainstream media will be secretly pulling for Donald Trump to win. Just like in 2016, we are going to have to beat Trump without their unconditional help. Well, this time I think we will. They have the guns but we have the numbers. And I think this time we won’t just win, we will destroy the Trump-thing once and for all, despite the fact that we get at best net precious little help from the lousy, evil, dangerous, both-sidesing, greedy, worthless mainstream media. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.