Spotted on Democratic Underground:
Great meme, hat tip to DU. I agree 100% and would like to go one step further.
Trump received 56, 260 votes. NOT TRUMP received 54,038 votes. So if you think about it that way, Trump v. ABT (Anybody But Trump), Trump only won by 2,222 votes statewide, 51%-49% – inside the margin of error. That’s a “razor thin” margin, or you could say a “dead heat” (terms reserved by the media for when a Democrat is leading in the polls).
But did we see any sign in the headlines following caucus night that Trump’s bright shiny star is burning out? That the caucus was closer than the score indicated? Apparently media outlets were spending their energy not offering context but thinking up the most inflammatory, helpful to Trump headlines possible. Here are a few examples of actual headlines I saw:
“Trump Trounces Challengers” – Daily Iowan
Donald Trump “..Cruising to Victory” – Iowa City Press-Citizen /Des Moines Register (they are the same paper now. That is to say the P-C basically no longer really exists).
“Trump’s Blowout Win in Iowa” Washington Post
“Donald Trump wins Iowa caucuses in landslide” – CBS News
“Trump Performed Worse Than Expected in Iowa Caucuses”
“Trump Era Over as Half of Caucus Goers Vote for Opponent”
You didn’t see those last two? Neither did we.
Hardly definitive, certainly calling it a “landslide” or a “trouncing” is wishful thinking or sheer laziness. Why the mainstream media is collectively reporting the results in the exact same way, as a huge win for Trump, remains a mystery. Maybe because that’s what they expected, they went ahead and reported it that way without thinking about it? Check this out.
“The Headline Everyone Expected – Trump Wins Iowa” – NPR
And there you have it.
Here’s my take on it. The media may not want Trump to be re-elected necessarily, but they don’t want him to go away, either. Because what better TV fodder is there than crazy Trump and his misguided followers? What easier, better, readily available headline or narrative than “Trump said this today” (outrageous Trump statement) or “Trump supporter said this today” (bizarre thing a Trump supporter said).
That is basically how they’ve been reporting about Trump all the way back to his first candidacy. I’m old enough to remember when Trump got the media to repeat his made up thing about Obama’s birth certificate. The media ate it up, repeated it over and over, invited Trump surrogates on their cable and network news programs who they knew were going to lie, and gave the story continual air time. It went on and on like that for literally years even after President Obama produced a birth certificate thinking that would make the whole thing go away. Of course it did not.
Trump wouldn’t let it go but the saddest thing is, he knew the media would lap it up and also not let it go, and that’s exactly what happened. They were happy to keep covering this fake story that they knew was fake because it was so easily proven false. They knew it wasn’t true but they kept using the story because… well I don’t really know why, but they did. And just the fact that they kept on talking about it, made it seem to many as if it might be true, that Obama was not born in America, which of course he was.
And it’s still happening. This is just one example, but it is how they cover every single Trump lie.
Someone who knows more about the media than I do said, there is a rule in the media that you can’t start talking about something until someone else starts talking about it first. You cannot interject a counter-narrative. You have to talk about what everyone else is talking about and you have to talk about it in the same way. Sounds kind of like high school.
So if you feel as frustrated about the way the press, local and national, covers all things Donald Trump, you are not alone.
Sadly, the Trump era could be over – if the media could just let him go.
Democracy is unsustainable without a functional press that informs. We seem to be moving further and further away from having one.
Links for the DU meme:
iowa-caucus-turnout-was-lowest-in-years
Number of registered voters and registered Republican voters in Iowa
Blog For Iowa 