Dear Media: The Time Has Come to Pull the Plug on Donald Trump
The corporate media is obsessed with Donald Trump.
I know. Tell me something I don’t already know.
The recent blanket, 24-hour coverage on cable news of the horrific events in Israel and the Gaza Strip these past few days has proven that the media can survive without talking about Trump constantly.
But I’m sure the media will ignore this and go right back to the blanket coverage of the deranged former president once the war in Israel winds down.
Before the attack, Trump was the subject of dozens of stories daily on news web sites and hours-upon-hours of talk on cable news shows. Once Hamas attacked Israel, that all changed. The media (rightly so) shifted into breaking news mode (actual breaking news this time) and Trump got bumped off the air.
Not hearing a word about Trump for five days was a welcome change. Though the reason for his absence on TV certainly was not.
I wrote on Threads when the terrorist attack in Israel began that Trump might be kicked off the air but would not remain silent.
“So I see it takes a real news event to push coverage of Trump off cable news. The fact that he's not being covered 24 hours a day is nice, but I wish it didn't take a massacre of innocent people to do it. By the way, that's probably why he's making noises about suing the Forbes reporter for writing that he's a lying sack of crap and not rich enough to be on the Forbes 400. Because he's not the center of media attention for now,” I wrote.
I was right about the motivation but wrong about his method.
In a speech in Florida yesterday, he ranted about how former President Barack Obama was still running the government. And all this time I thought Trump was the one who refused to acknowledge he was no longer in charge.
He criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, criticized Israeli intelligence for “failing to stop” the Hamas attack, said the attack never would have happened if he was still president, called the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah “very smart,” talked about crime in Washington D.C., and said the U.S. Capitol is “shit” these days.
Has he actually visited the Capitol since he left office? What is he talking about?
This is crazy, unhinged stupidity. It does not make any sense.
Yet the media covers it like they are words of wisdom from an elder political statesman. Many cable news shows ran clips of his speech. Many news web sites imbedded video of the speech on their sites. Every news outlet mentioned the speech and much of its contents.
They all spent way too much time discussing his speech.
Many outlets, to their credit mentioned how unhinged the speech was. Yet they still gave it an inordinate amount of coverage.
For instance, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Willie Geist noted how insane the speech was.
“We've gotten used to it the last couple years, but that is absolutely insane that [Congressional Republicans] are still running defense, still running interference for Donald Trump, who is running for president again -- and, by the way, maybe we won't play it, but... truly, yesterday, an insane event," Geist said, according to RawStory.
Then host Joe Scarborough immediately jumped in and noted that they would indeed run the tape of his speech. He did, however, correctly characterize Trump as “out of his mind” and “absolutely crazy.”
Yet they still give him oxygen. They still cover him like he’s saying anything intelligent.
Instead, the media should treat Trump like an escaped mental patient. Keep an eye on him, but don’t interact.
Cover him if he says anything halfway intelligent (which will never happen). Mention it when he says something supremely stupid (which is all the time). But don’t spend hour-upon-hour covering his every utterance.
Two minutes on cable TV or a story of 100 words or less should be sufficient.
The media seems to think that coverage of Trump serves to highlight his insanity and that “normal” people will see the truth. They don’t realize that the inordinate amount of coverage he gets only serves to bolster his “street cred” with his crazy MAGA base. It only serves to bolster his argument that “the Libs” are out to get him and are trying to bring him down.
The media is feeding right into his insanity. The media created Donald Trump. They can take him down as well. But that would not be good for long-term ratings.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has the right attitude when it comes to Trump.
As he recently told The Times of Israel, “We don’t have to bother with him and the nonsense he spouts.”
When asked if Trump’s recent comments about Israel and its Prime Minister make it clear that he can’t be relied on, Karhi said, “Obviously.”