Why is the media reporting and repeating lies from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?
The President of the United States is giving the MSM—Main Stream Media—fits.
Reporters working in the two cities which fancy themselves the source of all knowledge and wisdom—New York and Washington—compete constantly to outdo one another in writing ain’t-it-awful stories about the rude and crude behavior of the occupant of the Oval Office.
He tweets one lie after another in the pre-dawn darkness and the wire services, cable news networks and major news outlets rush to repeat the lie(s) as “news.” This is something they’d never do if the mendacity was coming from any other citizen.
The excuse that they are compelled to report lies and distortions because they spew forth from the nation’s chief executive is bogus. Presidents haven’t always been the sources of breathless—and mindless—news coverage. On Halloween the nation’s leader told ABC News, “I try to be truthful, when I can.” Apparently, that’s not very often. The Washington Post has kept track of the lies, exaggerations and misstatements of the leader of white resentment and grievances since he took office. He averages eight “untruths” a day.
It can be argued that the advent of television made the Presidency more important among the three branches of government because the White House made it easy for herd journalists to file “news” even if it was thin in terms of facts. Television, in particular, has to “feed the monster.” Unlike newspapers, they have to fill their scheduled time with…something. The White House understands this and exploits it to a fare-thee-well. Nationally, the White House is like cop news on local stations. It gets covered regardless, because it is easy. Make no mistake. Reporters and editors like easy.
Repetitive lies
In my book, “Prisoner of War: The Story of White Boy Rick and the War on Drugs,” Chapter 14 (The Journalism Herd Stampedes) takes a hard look at the mindlessness of “We had that, too” journalism. It explains how one TV reporter referred to Richard Wershe, Jr. as “White Boy Rick” and the Detroit journalism herd quickly swallowed whole the fiction that a 14-year old white kid had somehow become the Godfather of the city’s deadly cocaine trade. Wershe was quickly labeled a “kingpin” and “drug lord” in daily news coverage, without a shred of evidence or documentation to back up the libel. Detroit’s press corps mindlessly repeated “news” that had no basis in fact. Wershe is convinced, probably correctly, that the repetitive lies in news coverage about him added years to his time in prison.
One of the principal figures in the White Boy Rick story was Detroit’s then emperor-mayor, the late Coleman Young. The FBI had recruited young Rick Wershe, Jr. to spy on the Johnny Curry drug gang because Johnny was engaged to, and eventually married, Cathy Volsan, the mayor’s niece. Young was notorious for insisting that his family was above the law and not to be treated like mere mortals. The FBI suspected Johnny Curry enjoyed police protection because of his relationship to the mayor’s niece. There is no evidence Young was involved in Curry’s drug dealing, or anyone else’s. But an FBI undercover drug sting operation resulted in the conviction of about a dozen police officers—and Mayor Young’s brother-in-law.
In his daily political skirmishes, Young was a powerful and skilled politician who knew how to minimize and trivialize his adversaries.
Young often used an old but effective political tactic. He seldom, if ever, used the name of a political opponent or adversary. Oh, he’d talk about their positions on the issues. He would criticize them without mercy. But he wouldn’t mention their name(s). The media would cover Young’s fulminations about this and that, but rarely was there a quote from Young mentioning his opponent by name. This tactic deprived the opponent of the oxygen of politics: media coverage.
So, what does all of that have to do with the media herd’s agony over reporting on the nation’s Liar-in-Chief?
Simply this: the news media should starve the megalomaniac at 1600 Pennsylvania of what he craves the most in life: his name in headlines. Any time he’s pushed off the front page for hurricanes, the funeral of a war-hero senator, for pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democrats, the Oval Office occupant fumes and seems to suffer withdrawal-like symptoms. You’d think some brilliant media mind would figure this out and develop a plan to exploit it.
Suggestions for the National Media
Here are a few suggestions from a guy (me) who has been in the news racket for decades:
- Use your best creative writing skills to avoid using the President’s name in a story.
- Get him off the front page or the first block of stories on the evening news. Cover him and his policy decisions, but don’t give him and his divisive agenda star billing.
- Wean yourselves from mindlessly and reflexively reporting as “news” whatever belches forth from the occupant of the White House.
- Take the time to do your job: that is, do some reporting and fact-checking before writing a report on whatever is coming out of the mouth of Mr. Pay-Attention-To-Me.
If the national media would do this regularly and consistently, I can say with confidence the guy with the fake tan will be the one having fits. He craves attention above all else. He has internalized the old Hollywood movie star line, “I don’t care what you say about me, just spell the name right.”
By the way, I wrote this blog without once mentioning his name. Coleman Young would be proud.
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