Trump And The Right Wing, Hatin' On the Media

THE AMERICAN NEWS MEDIA has become the whipping post of Donald Trump and, generally, the conservative community. What a perfect way to distract the public's attention away from Trump's disastrous presidency, and from the crushing failure of conservative policies! Find an enemy, and this enemy might as well be the messenger, and hammer so hard nobody can hear anything else. The complaint by Trump is that the media doesn't give him a fair shake, and the complaint by conservatives seems to be that the media are just plain way too liberal. Either that, or just plain not nearly conservative enough. Both complaints are utterly fatuous at best, blatantly dishonest at worst. Trump's war against the media is hilarious, on so very many levels. First, more than anyone, he uses the media, social media, to attack the media. Then too, Trump has spent his entire life seeking media attention. Throughout his entire adult life he has chased after media attention, to make himself famous, which he evidently assumes will help his bottom line. He's right. It does. It seems to have worked splendidly, and for his savvy use of the media, he must be given credit, if not admiration. This has been going on for well over forty years. There is really no reason why I should have ever heard of Donald J. Trump until he began his campaign for president, and yet, I have been quite familiar with him for forty years, primarily through tabloids. Trump has not run away from tabloid yellow journalism, he has run towards it, always seeking the most possible attention for, in particular, his sensational business accomplishments, his glitzy lifestyle, and marriages to glamorous women. Trump himself promoted all this, for decades. What he calls "fake news" is actually accurate reporting of his bizarre behavior. Did he expect to spend eight blissful years as president basking in unmitigated media adulation? A picture of him stepping out of a limo and onto a red carpet, hot babe on arm, has always been fine with the Donald. To report to the American people that the FBI is investigating his conduct in office is horrible, hateful, unfair and fake, in the world according to Trump. Problem is, the FBI investigation is a true fact, and that's the part Trump hates, as all narcissists love admiration but can't tolerate factual criticism. God, what a sissy. The news media in America are corporate, profit seeking entities. The media are neither pro liberal nor pro conservative; they are pro profit, and will say anything we want to hear to make more money. Profit. Its

the American way, right? For this, the media seek to sensationalize, in order to attract attention. It (the media) first finds out what the American people want, and then gives it to them, for a price. That's why, for example, there is so much violent and sexual content on television. Its what we the American people want, and it makes money for the media companies. We have a choice whether to pay attention to it, and we choose to pay attention. Seems to me it all works out just fine in the end.