Trump wasnt build by the media, if anything, Trump built the media that has been covering him.
I say in the second sentence of the vanity:
That is not to deny that he is adept at manipulating the media, that is perfectly plain.
You say:
Its reasonable to not bother wasting time with an argument built on a false premise.
I say,
It is a false technique of argument to create a false premise and then knock that strawman down because it is a "false premise."
If you lead with a false statement, don’t be surprised if readers don’t bother reading further.
I didn’t.
There are way too many reasonable arguments to be made both against and for trump to bother with those which appear built on erroneous assumptions.
SO you cutely deny you made a false premise.
Either Trump is a creation of the media or he is not. You cannot pussyfoot around with juicy sounding claims not all of which can be simultaneously true.