Media Matters

Misguided Self-Respect

President Trump is not for turning.  He is what he is, and he appears to revel in it.  In the broadest brush strokes possible he lambastes his opponents, making ad hominem attacks left, right, and centre.  Maybe it's effective politics.  Who knows.  But it is largely irrelevant to whether his policies are good, bad, or indifferent. 

The "Fake-News Media" have come in for particular attention from the Mouth-In-Chief.  But, hilariously, the media in the United States have reacted in such a way as to prove that Trump's views have merit.

Newspapers and media outlets across the U.S. launched a widespread effort Thursday aimed at combating the constant attacks from President Donald Trump as well as negative feelings about the media's role in society.  More than 300 newspapers around the nation joined together to each publish editorials that explained the role of journalists and amplified the positive role journalism plays in society.

Co-ordinated editorials published by more than 300 newspapers would seem to be compelling evidence of an orchestrated Groupthink amongst the media--which is sort of what Trump had been lambasting the media for.  How ironic that the media would go out of their way to demonstrate that there is truth in Trump's ad hominem attacks.


One of the heavier weights, did not participate--the Wall Street Journal broke ranks.  Once again, hilariously, it was criticised by NBC:

Not every news outlet was on board. The Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board is strongly conservative, published an article that was critical of the initiative, suggesting the president has a right to free speech and that newspapers have been “colluding.”

The implication is that in media-world the respective editorial teams all have a common opinion of Trump.  This goes a long way to providing evidence that Trump's criticism have far more than a grain of truth attached to them.   One senior writer for Politico, Jack Shafer saw this in a flash:

Jack Shafer, senior media writer at Politico, wrote that the coordinated effort “is sure to backfire.  It will provide Trump with circumstantial evidence of the existence of a national press cabal that has been convened solely to oppose him,” Shafer wrote. “When the editorials roll off the press on Thursday, all singing from the same script, Trump will reap enough fresh material to whale on the media for at least a month.”

Dumb and dumber.