The legendary Edward R. Murrow has to be spinning in his grave. In his famous ‘Wires and lights in a box’ speech he warned about how journalism might become what it has in fact become. Entertainment transmitted to us on TV, computer and smartphone screens – wires and lights in a box that are focused NOT on informing the public about things they need to know but just grabbing and holding our attention to maximize ad revenues. He’d be appalled at how easily modern journalism is distracted by this or that shiny new object/story. And worse, doing more speculating than digging out and reporting facts related to it. Just as I’ve seen in the news today.
There are two meanings to the acronym WMD. Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Weapons of Mass Distraction. It’s the latter one that’s front and center right now. Trump could have done what he did, send in Special Forces to snatch Venezuelan President Maduro weeks ago. He didn’t, and I believe it’s because he knew he’d need a HUGE Weapon of Mass DISTRACTION to start of the new year. He also knew even before he’d bullied so much of the news business into semi-submission they’d fall for his tactic. I’m not saying deposing Maduro and attempting to take over control of Venezuela isn’t a big thing with far reaching consequences. However it’s far from the only thing going on. There’s plenty of stuff taking chunks out of Trump’s political hide (with no end in sight) he needs to get and keep out of the news.
Thankfully use of the former (Weapons of Mass Destruction) has been limited. Alas, the newer version, using the media as a Weapon of Mass Destruction has become increasingly common. I’ve watched more news than normal today (watching and reading lots of news kind of goes with writing for a political blog) and almost without exception it’s been wall-to-wall Maduro/Venezuela coverage. Should it be the lead story and even the dominant one today? Probably. It’s what’s being almost completely ignored that’s an indictment of journalism in general.
I went through several versions of this, all of which I realized got bogged down with details and nuance and had to keep starting over. I and others have written about some of the things I’m going to list before and plenty will be written and said about them in the future. But there’s a method to this latest Trumpian madness and part of it I think is trying to run out the clock on filing deadlines for Congressional primaries. Trump’s own ratings are in the bottom of his fake gold toilet and as in 2028 in the House in particular plenty of GOPers are looking at November and thinking it’s time to get the hell out. But some Senators might be thinking the same. Trump needs the whole country distracted and is hoisting the ‘Rally behind a President in wartime’ flag.
Trump’s got major problems with the public and even some Congress Critters are pushing back, if only a few and only on quite specific matters. Let’s take a quick look at just some of the major sh*t sandwiches on Trump’s plate for the month:
1- Tomorrow is January 6 and the anniversary of the insurrectionist riot he created to try and stay in power. He doesn’t want people thinking about that and for damned sure doesn’t want news outlets showing video. Especially since later this month is the first anniversary of his freaking pardoning all the rioters. Many are back in prison or headed there again for other crimes!
2- Despite attempts by Fox and conservative pundits to spin a ‘Smith couldn’t bring himself to admit any actual evidence against Trump’ narrative the fact is Smith made clear he was prevented from doing so because of judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon’s order that the second part of his final report remain under seal. GOPers knew that all along which is why they didn’t want him saying it in a live, televised hearing. Knowing they would have to eventually release a transcript and tape they buried it by putting it out on New Year’s Eve! If you’ve seen even part of it you know how bad it actually made Trump and the GOP look. So, Trump wants to blow past that and hope other events push Smith’s testimony where it was clear he had the goods to convict Trump both in Florida and DC into the background.
3- It’s been a year since Trump took office promising among other things to bring prices Americans were paying for everyday essentials down. Maybe the cost of eggs did eventually come down but the price of gas didn’t. Nor did much of anything else. In fact they’ve gone up, and while inflation hasn’t spike Trump’s tariffs have been a major cause. Even some conservative pundits aren’t letting him get away with blaming an economy that’s likely already in recession on Biden. THAT is starting to sink in with his MAGAs.
4- The ACA subsidies have officially expired and health care costs including insurance premiums for those who manage to keep it will skyrocket. This month the actual bill comes due. Millions will lose health care coverage or be forced on to b.s. plans no better than the typical ‘Dental Insurance’ plans advertised on TV which cover little beyond the cost of checkups and maybe fillings. It would take at least one entire article to explain the ripple effects. What matters is the sticker shock people are seeing or will see before the end of this month. Trump definitely wants to distract people from THAT.
5- Then there’s the Epstein files which Trump tried and tried to get people, his MAGAs in particular to forget about. The harder he’s tried to convince folks there’s nothing there the more even MAGAs are convinced there are powerful people being protected. MAGAs mostly are still deluding themselves into thinking there’s nothing bad about their Turd-God Emperor Trump but they know there’s raw meat there and they are impatient to feast. Trump ordered AG Bondi to drag out the release mandated by a near unanimously passed law and she’s doing exactly that. Today, Jan. 5 also happens to be the day on which DOJ is required by that law to explain to the courts any redactions made to the released files. It’s pushing seven p.m. out east and I don’t see anything in the news about this.
That’s some serious stuff going on and it’s not even the whole list. Trump really doesn’t care about the GOP in general other than keeping them scared enough of him to keep covering his fat worthless ass. But HE is facing serious problems, all on top of worsening health which is obvious to any and everyone. Any one of them would be enough to drive most Presidents from power, or at least get Congress to start clawing back power it has ceded in my lifetime to Presidents of both Parties.
Even when he was young and had some manual dexterity I doubt Trump could juggle a few tennis balls. Despite his astonishing ability to defy political gravity he can’t keep the running chain saws he’s having to juggle in the air. It can take a long, sometimes very long time but eventually gravity wins. Trump is that giant Troll in the first Harry Potter movie looking up at his club suspended in the air, realizing it’s about to drop on his head and knock him out. He’s been in NEED of a distraction and a big one he could deploy someday if he had to.
Well, “someday” is here. A Wag-the-Dog snatch of another country’s President and bringing him here on drug charges and putting the final touches on sending U.S. Troops into Venezuela is one big-ass distraction. Again, I’m not saying it doesn’t merit significant media coverage. However journalism overall long ago became two things – lazy and gullible. Most can’t ‘walk and chew gum at the same time’ much less multi-task and do real reporting on multiple important stories. Worse, those who can and want to have bosses in the executive suites sucking up to Trump!
That’s where outlets like our little blog and others can help. The fact is that we have seen genuine, effective activism in this country in the past year. Major news outlets don’t seem to want to cover it much. That’s why I ask those of you who come here to learn about things which aren’t getting the attention they should from legacy media to keep doing so. And even more importantly get others to do so. There IS reason to hope because we have seen people organize in small and big (think No Kings – twice) ways this past year. We HAVE seen Democrats overperform and by significant numbers in off year and special elections. Even in the few times our candidate has lost they cut deeply into the margin the GOP candidate would have gotten a year ago.
However today and I suspect in the days to come little if anything about this and news on matters I cited earlier will be seen from major outlets. We have to do this from the grassroots so spread the word folks!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
This is one of the best articles describing the current situation, miasmic as it is, clearly.
Thank you Denis.
I wonder what distraction he’ll come up with when this one stops working?
Which looks like it’s going to happen fairly quickly.
After all, the movie ‘Wag The Dog’ came out ages ago, we all know what is supposed to happen and why.
A true look at the reality of the illegality, https://truthout.org/articles/trump-will-try-to-defend-aggression-toward-venezuela-its-still-illegal/
Concinnity calls it “one of the best articles describing the current situation,” though he describes it as “miasmic”, a bit of a strong word. IMO, it’s rather wordy, which you’ve admitted to yourself. Yes, it’s an informative article, but it can be tedious to read. Two suggestions: learn about punctuation, and read the article out loud to yourself before publishing.
I’ll be the first to admit it’s not a fun read. It wasn’t meant to be. In fact, given it was thinking about Murrow and his concerns about a profession he loved. More importantly he dedicated his life to it because he felt it was so important.
It’s unwise of me to challenge a reader but your comment about the article being ‘tedious’ makes and important point. One about how news outlets are more concerned with grabbing attention (good or bad – just grab hold of the audience so ads can be shoved at them!) or entertaining. Or both. THAT was what concerned Murrow, and he pissed off a lot of his colleagues (and executives in his business) with that speech. His core belief was that television in particular had the potential to be an invaluable tool in INFORMING the public. However informing people was far and away the primary goal. Or should be. He didn’t have anything against a story having some ‘feel good’ or entertainment in it but again, first and foremost he saw journalism’s mission as one to inform the public. Make sure they knew things they need to know. Even if it stings some, or isn’t “fun” or even a little boring or ‘tedious.’
I’d love to have the gift of being able to inform AND making it enjoyable at the same time. I don’t. I’ve said so many times.
I also think back to the movie The American President and that epic speech the fictional President gives to the WH press corps. Some in the audience in the room WERE actual WH reporters of the era and I recall a reaction from one, a close up of her face where she was both rapt with attention and a little shocked. (They were after all getting a scolding for getting distracted by bullshit instead of covering issues a lot more important that a widowed President’s love life)
He says ‘America is advanced citizenship. You’ve got to want it bad because it’s gonna put up a fight.’ Yep. Life moves at a faster pace than it used to and people are pressed for time in a way that wasn’t the case when I was a younger man. I get it. People, at least the kind that read blogs like this want more than a bumper sticker’s worth of information but more than a couple of paragraphs (and not all that long ones) and they start to want to check out.
Again, I get it. It’s not much fun to read something that takes actual explaining. I also know my reputation for OVER explaining (obtained years ago back on DK) has more than a little justification. At the same time, each of the mere five issues I cited could provide for at least one full article all their own. I took what I’d originally tried to write and provided a cliff notes version of each.
Even then it wound up being a longer article than I would have liked. I wish it had been if not entertaining at least not ‘tedious’ to readers – I’m sure you didn’t intend it to be mean spirited and I also assume others felt the same way you did. Like damned near everyone I don’t like criticism but when constructive and given with good intent I pay attention. At the same time even though you offered a criticism you also agreed the article was informative. I’ll settle for that, even though admittedly I wish I’d had the ability to not make it at least a bit of a drag to read.
With the holidays behind I keep playing music in my head including certain selections from Handel’s Messiah. He took a libretto offered to him and thought about it for a while. Then he shut himself away and started putting notes to page at an astonishing rate. In just a few weeks he’d created an epic work. It was well received at the time and has been ever since. Even though I became agnostic decades ago I am moved by so much of that music. The librettist was a little butt-hurt about Handel getting all the attention and wrote to a friend something that friend let get out – the librettist provided a copy of the words he’d written that Handel had set to music and snarkily said he’d made ‘fine entertainment of it.’
Handel as I said learned of it and after the long, long ovation after yet another performance to a large audience quipped to a friend that while he was happy to have entertained them he wished to “have made them better.’ So yes, I wish I had entertained. But for those who gave me the courtesy of opening and reading my article if they feel better informed and/or prompted to truly think about what I wrote then I’ll gladly settle for that.
I DO sometimes try to be more direct and succinct but sometimes a topic requires adding in context and nuance. I simply wasn’t able to find a way to express what I wanted people to take away from reading the piece without some of that. A better writer might well have been able to do so. But even though it stung a bit I thank you for speaking your mind. None of us are perfect (in my case not by a long shot) and have room to grow and improve. I’ve often said the day I no longer feel there is more to learn and no more room to grow as a person I should simply die. However I KNOW there is so much out there I’m nowhere near that point.