Posted on 03/09/2016 7:10:03 PM PST by TroutStalker
Every politician games the news media, but few play better ball control than Donald Trump. Because hes shameless and because hes brilliant, Trump has run the court with journalists this campaign season. Even this late in the cycle, reporters seem unaware of how he continues to get the better of them.
Theres no better place to start than Trumps demonstration Tuesday night. He had just fanny-whacked the Republican field in Michigan and Mississippi and called a post-victory press conference that went on for 40-plus minutes. There has never been a moment in American politics like it. The press conferencelikened to an infomercial for the way Trump hawked Trump wine, Trump water, Trump magazine, Trump Angus steaks, and other Trump-branded goods and servicesaccomplished several publicity goals for the candidate. By taking to the air first and performing in such a clownish, rambling fashion, Trump dared the top three cable networks to break away from his entertaining buffoonery to cover the Hillary Clinton victory speech in real time. He won that dare. Clinton was relegated to tape delay.
Trump has put a spell on the press. He hasnt rendered them powerless, of course. Exposés of his business affairs abound, and the commentariat keeps ripping into him like a bandsaw, but the punches dont seem to land. Likewise, TV news top interlocutorsNBCs Chuck Todd, CNNs Jake Tapper, and CBS John Dickersonhave pounded him, but they might as well be punching the Pillsbury Doughboy for all the damage theyve done. Cable news has been hypnotized into believing that any willingness by Trump to appearon camera or remote via telephoneamounts to news. And dont get me started on the producers who have decided that any Trump speech deserves airplay. The only explanation for Trumps allure has to be witchcraft.
The news media must break the spell. But before it can, it must understand his magic. At the core of his game is distraction: He shows the media and the public something shiny, sparkly, and outrageous, and they race after it. While theyre running, he returns to his laboratory to conjure something else equally shiny and outrageous for them to chase. Its like watching a dog trainer leading a pack of feral hounds into performing a ballet.
Last nights buffoonery fit the pattern Trump has been weaving all campaign long: Do something provocative for maximum coverage. Wait a day or two or three, to allow the provocation to fester in the press corps collective mind. Then, lance the provocation with yet another provocation. In the case of last nights infomercial, Trumps design wasnt just to declare victory: It was to counter the speech Mitt Romney gave last week in which he attacked many of the moguls branded businesses as defunct. Romneys point was Trumps poor business acumen, and that acumen serves as a preview for what would be a failed Trump presidency.
But Trump got the last laugh: By going on TV last night, waving a copy of Trump magazine, a bottle of Trump water, and exhibiting a platter of Trump steaks, he presented visual refutation of the Romney speech. Or did he? Romney never said anything about Trump water in his speech, according to the transcript. When Romney said Trump Airlines, Trump Mortgage, and Trump University had vanished, he was telling the truth. As for the steaks Trump put on display last night? They were fakethey still had Bush Brothers labels on them. Like a common three-card Monte dealer, Trump had distracted the audienceand the mediaand fleeced them.
What should we expect to happen ifin a few daysa fact-checker contests the accuracy of Trumps infomercial and shows that Romney is mostly right? The usual Trump flimflammery. Hell toss out another mixed plate of provocations and half-truths to sow additional confusion. If all goes according to Trumps plan, the new provocations will incubate for a couple of days before hatched into yet another cycle. The Trump campaign might feel like an improvised, seat-of-his-pants affair, but when it comes to raw politico vs. pressman gamesmanship, and commanding the spotlight, hes a chess player with the gift of being able to see three moves ahead of his opponent.
Sometimes Trumps manipulations look like ordinary flip-flopping. He says something and then takes it back. But it happens so frequently that it must be calculated. Flip-flopping allows him to reap publicity on both ends of the news cyclefirst when he says something outrageous, and then when he tempers or withdraws it days or a few weeks later. He pulled this stunt last month by waltzing around the David Duke issue. First he disavowed the white supremacist. Then he feigned ignorance about Duke when asked about him three times CNNs Jake Tapper. Then he blamed that evasion on a bad earpiece. Then he finally disavowed the white supremacist loudly. At every step of the way, Trump was the top topic in the news. By the time the cycle ended, probably Trump didnt mind if some people came away from the spectacle thinking he leaned toward the racists. A lot more people came away thinking about Donald Trump. Hes sucked up a large share of the total media attentionand likely attracted a considerable number of racist voterswithout really having to own that position.
In September, Trump called for the United States to accept Syrian migrants. The next month, he fully reversed himself. In December, he called for targeting the families of terrorists before saying we shouldnt. He was for torture before he was against it. First he opposed H-1B visas. Then he expressed his affection for them. He was pro-choice then became anti-abortion. For the Iraq War, then against it. Hes been all over the map on gun control, government health care, the budget, taxes and more. Such a Gumby-like approach to policy would damage a conventional candidate, but Trump isnt a conventional candidate. As weve seen, when confronted with his inconsistencies, he sloughs off the criticisms by changing the subject or instigating some new outrage.
Trump hasnt media-proofed himself, but he has made himself impervious to the sort of criticism that usually slays lesser politicians. To lean on the reality TV trope, hes been given a lightly scripted show and fleshed out the role of a lifetime for himself, occupying a place that is part docudrama, part biopic, and all fantasy.
Perhaps its too much to expect the news media to handle a chimera like Trumpespecially cable news, which might like to cut away when he appears before their lens but loves the ratings too dearly. As for the hundreds of working reporters who have been covering him for the past eight months, my modest advice is to maintain your patience. Journalism is long, politics is short. Reporters, by virtue of their tenacity and the permanence of the paper trail, get the final say in recording a politicians indiscretions and embarrassments. But inside the moment, politicians control the ball, determining the days winners and losers.
Your job is neither to stop Trump nor advance him. But we can all do a better job at resisting the shiny and sparkly media events he creates. The next time he launches one of his serial provocations, we should call him on it rather than chasing our tails. Stop letting Trump manipulate us. Compel him to articulate his policy positions. Keep digging into his past. And continue to expose his flip-flops. In the short run, Trump, like most front-runners, will command the advantage. But over the long haul, its still in the power of the news media to convey what a deceitful and nihilistic game Trump is playing.
First they call Donald Trump P.T. Barnum, then they call him Hitler, now he’s being called a Svengali type figure.
Let the voters decide for themselves. It’s the American Way, or so I had thought.
I have seen tons of Charismatics and it always stuns me how they operate.
They never fool me.
Obama is a classic Charismatic
the media trash just have no idea how much we despise them. They think they are heroes but we would just as soon set them on fire and push them from moving aircraft. Hey, there’s a good idea
Great, more garbage from Politico, the group that sucks up to Obama.
There is no bigger fraud or con man than Barack Hussein Obama.
On a daily basis, most often. They could write volumes.
But they don’t.
BTW Trump IS a Charismatic
The GOPe are scheming on Sea Island. Are they hypnotized?
Trump is a master showman.
Obama is an above average black comedian.
Look at the coddling of these C-grade comedians like Larry Wilmore and Trevor Noah. The most offensive part is not the liberalism but the low talent comedy they produce
I know that The Donald must be my father, so I will support him no matter what.
Trump smears himself.
...and don’t forget about the Clinton Crime Family... they are there to ‘protect’ her, don’t ya know...
Umm aint you an Aussie?
Trump shoots from the hip and because of that, the media has to follow him to see what he will say.
Brilliant.
At every step of the way, Trump was the top topic in the news. By the time the cycle ended, probably Trump didnt mind if some people came away from the spectacle thinking he leaned toward the racists. A lot more people came away thinking about Donald Trump.
Winning
Must....... Support.......Trump
If he has the press that bamboozled imagine what he can do with slow witted foreign governments.
They accuse him of flopflop positions, while all the mainstream pols maintain what is poll tested and flipflop after assuming office.
Yeah, I saw right through Politico when they first started sucking up to Bammy. Never believed another word they wrote. Same reason I don’t care for Jimmy Fallon. That’s how he started out, too.
What more could you want?
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