Donald Trump knows he’s headed for prison
The real narrative of the 2020 election was that if Trump lost, he’d end up in prison in New York. That was the entire story. It explained his motivations, his actions, his desperation to overthrow the results. And the media just ignored it, even though it was the entire story.
Trump’s risky decision to conspire with Ukraine in the 2020 election, which had the potential to instantly end his presidency if they backfired? He didn’t want to lose the election and go to prison.
Trump’s decision to leave the hospital while still dangerously sick with COVID, in order to get back on the campaign trail? He didn’t want to lose and go to prison.
Trump’s desperate, stupid, and self destructive decision to incite an insurrection? He didn’t want to leave office and go to prison.
But the media knew that if Trump lost, it could be several months before his indictment, and a year or more before his trial. They knew that if they acknowledged during the election season that Trump was headed to prison if he lost, they would then spend much of 2021 taking heat from impatient folks after he lost and then wasn’t immediately arrested.
So instead the media seized upon a narrative that it knew was ludicrous, but that it also knew would deliver immediate ratings: Trump was magically going to get away with it all, and was somehow the 2024 frontrunner, and his kids would magically win elections as well!
That false narrative bought the media several months of ratings gold. By now most people can see that Trump is being dismantled, 2024 is a pipe dream for him, and his kids aren’t viable for any office. But few have caught on to the fact that the media spent the first half of this year misleading them in order to milk them for ratings.
This is important because it doesn’t have to keep happening. The media is always going to try to go wherever the ratings are, and the media is usually going to try to avoid going wherever it’s going to face criticism. The only thing that can change is you. If you start rewarding the media for honesty by tuning in when it’s being honest about what’s coming, and if you tuning the media out when it starts pushing false narratives, you’ll see real change. Until then, the media continue to cover elections in inaccurate fashion.
