Posted on 09/23/2016 2:18:16 PM PDT by Kaslin
Last week, Trump held a press conference that Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post called the greatest trick he ever pulled. It was quite a show, alright. Promised a major announcement, the press showed up with cameras on, only to get the briefest of statements by Trump that (accurately, as it turns out) laid the birther story at the feet of the 2008 Clinton campaign and then be regaled by a passel of high-ranking military endorsing Trump for president. Result? 90 minutes of more free coverage for Donald Trump.
Boy, was the press pissed. The outraged tweets that followed were hilarious. They got spanked. And you know what? They deserved it. The press has played gotcha with politicians (or, more accurately, conservative politicians) for decades. This time, they were on the receiving end of the gag.
They arent laughing.
But the rest of us are, watching them get hoisted on their own sanctimonious petard. Just three days before Trumps press conference, his running mate, vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence, was interviewed on CNN by anchor Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer asked Pence to denounce infamous racist and ex-KKK member David Duke. Pences response was unequivocal. He said, Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don't want his support and we don't want the support of people who think like him.
Oh, but that wasnt enough. Blitzer tried to get Pence to call Duke deplorable. Pence refused to take the bait. Im not in the name calling business, he replied.
Ladies and gentlemen, this was a classic ProgMedia trap: Call Duke deplorable and Pence both becomes a hypocrite and takes the teeth out of Hillarys use of the term; the story then becomes, Big deal, both sides have done it. If Pence refuses to call Duke deplorable, he triggers predictable headlines like those that followed:
NBC News: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
Slate: Why Mike Pence still wont call David Duke deplorable
U.S. News & World Report: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
The Hill: Pence declines to call David Duke deplorable
USA Today: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
Huffington Post: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
Politico: Pence declines to call David Duke deplorable
Heavy: WATCH: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
ABC News: Mike Pence still refuses to call David Duke deplorable
See how this works?
Pence should have called Blitzer out on this stunt before even responding to the question it was abundantly clear where it was going - but Pence was professional and polite about it. In case youve forgotten about Mitt Romney, heres another example of how the press treats someone who is professional and polite. No wonder so many people relish Trumps bombastic tone.
Trump beats the press at their own game, and they cant stand it. But the most delicious irony of all is that the press fear and loathing of Trump as well as decades of media bias and deceit is precisely why Trump is where he is today. One of the reasons cited why Trump skated to the Republican nomination is that he was given media coverage he didnt have to pay for. But as I noted last week, it was overwhelmingly negative!
As it continues to be. Just last month, the Washington Post pooh-poohed claims that Trump was doing better with black voters. But two days ago, an L.A. Times/University of Southern California poll showed a sharp spike in support for Trump among African-Americans. Search the internet for Trump and Hispanics, and there are plenty of headlines about Trumps massive problem with that demographic and the inevitability of his loss as a result. (See also, Trump; Catholics). But recent data suggests that it may not be as clear-cut as all that.
How is it that the more the press lambastes Trump, the better he does?
A big factor is public distrust of the press. According to a poll this past spring, just 6% of the public trusts the media. In the eyes of the public, the press is too willing to sacrifice accuracy and the public trust on the altar of their personal ideologies. This goes a long way toward explaining why the press visceral and visible - loathing of Trump translates to increasing popular support for him.
That may have flown back when people were stuck with a handful of news sources that controlled the flow of information, but there plenty of other sources today.
And thats the problem, according to some. In the past two weeks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ("Social media makes it hard to reach some people"), FBI Director James Comey ("It's enormously challenging" to counter the "echo chamber") and Hillary Clinton ("It's harder to be heard") all blamed social media for their negative public perceptions. Right on cue, Google, Facebook, Twitter and others announced a coalition to filter out online misinformation.
Given the numerousaccusations of bias against conservative politicians and viewpoints, this doesnt exactly instill confidence. As Trumps juggernaut continues, its fairly clear that those who want to stop him will stop at nothing to accomplish that.
NBC News: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
Salon: More dangerous than Trump: Why we should fear Mike Pence for refusing to call David Duke deplorable
Slate: Why Mike Pence still wont call David Duke deplorable
U.S. News & World Report: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
The Hill: Pence declines to call David Duke deplorable
USA Today: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
Huffington Post: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
Politico: Pence declines to call David Duke deplorable
Heavy: WATCH: Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke deplorable
ABC News: Mike Pence still refuses to call David Duke deplorable
See how this works?”
Yes!
Great example of media corruption!
Yep we distrust and despise the lying propagandists of the LSM!
Distrust and despise doesn’t even cover it. I would love nothing more than to see all of them, down to the camera men, getting their living out of dumpsters.
And I'm glad Pence responded as he did. Pretty obvious that the media wanted to neutralize that highly effective story line of the Trump campaign.
Also, perhaps the media wants to stuff the search engines with stories that distract people from see are hearing the Hillary's "deplorable" statement.
But I think it's already too late. "Deplorables" is now part of 2016 election vocabulary and a huge black eye for Hillary.
But the rest of us are
We started laughing the first time the parrots all started screeching "Dark!"simultaneously. You'd figure at least some of them would be embarrassed by this sort of thing by now, but apparently not.
I’m feeling especially gracious tonight!
We have two great men in Trump and Pence ready to lead America out of the abyss.
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