Trump Is Playing With the Press
27th January 2017
Glenn Reynolds understands the dialectic.
Why are the relations between Donald Trump and the press so bad? There are two reasons. One is that Trump is a Republican, and the press consists overwhelmingly of Democrats. But the other reason is that Trump likes it this way, because when the press is constantly attacking him over trivialities, it strengthens his position and weakens the press. Trump’s “outrageous” statements and tweets aren’t the product of impulsiveness, but part of a carefully maintained strategy that the press is too impulsive to resist.
As I have been saying. The press is more bull than you think.
In fact, Trump’s basically gaslighting them. Knowing how much they hate him, he’s constantly provoking them to go over the top. Sean Spicer’s crowd-size remarks on Saturday were all about making them seem petty and negative. (And, possibly, teeing up crowd size comparisons at this Friday’s March For Life, which the press normally ignores but which Trump will probably force them to cover).
Trump knows that the press isn’t trusted very much, and that the less it’s trusted, the less it can hurt him. So he’s prodding reporters to do things that will make them less trusted, and they’re constantly taking the bait.
January 27th, 2017 at 16:01
I don’t see where Trump’s lying outright to the American people thereby makes the press less trusted. Maybe you could explain the linkage?
January 28th, 2017 at 15:35
No problem. I’ll even express it as a cartoon so that even a Democrat can understand it.
http://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2017/01/PressAlert.jpg?w=768