The Press Is Normalizing Trump's Multi-Pronged War On America

 A hallmark failure of the press for four years has been that it refuses to use the proper language to describe the truly lawless nature of Trump and today’s GOP.

By Eric Boehlert

Trump’s election sabotage campaign is running out of time, but the damage he’s inflicting will have long lasting consequences. Covering this unprecedented attack on American election integrity, the press is still not being honest about Trump’s ruinous final chapter.

The Daily Beast last week reported on Trump’s “quixotic and potentially destructive effort” to steal a victory. “Quixotic” and “possibly destructive”? He’s the first president in 240 years who has not accepted the election results, after losing by six million votes. Worse, he’s been on a three-month crusade to denigrate free and fair elections in America, and he’s making it impossible for there to be a smooth transition of power.

This is so far beyond “quixotic.” Of course it’s destructive to our democracy — does anyone think the Republican Party will soon return to the days of rationally accepting ballot results? The GOP has blown a permanent hole in our election process.

A hallmark failure of the press for four years has been that it refuses to use the proper language to describe the truly lawless nature of Trump and today’s GOP.

Instead of referring to his treasonous post-election behavior surrounding the would-be coup by a power-hungry authoritarian out to steal an election, we get news updates about Trump’s “tactics,” his vague “moves” and “chicanery”; his legal “strategy” and “power play” while “sulking” and “brooding” inside the White House. None of that captures the historic events that have unfolded since Election Day. Events that if they occurred in a foreign country would be covered much differently by the American press.

The idea that Trump’s harmlessly wandering the West Wing in a funk, despondent over his loss doesn’t match reality. In truth, Trump has spent weeks, with laser-like focus, actively trying to engineer the open theft of a presidential contest. He’s dispatched an army of lawyers who are committed to throwing out as many legitimate U.S. votes as possible. When that has proven to be a failure, he’s shifted to getting state Republicans to block or delay the certification of the popular votes in their states. And much of the Republican Party supports him, either publicly or tacitly by standing by and watching.

Trump’s just “sulking” and Republicans are nervous and upset about his actions — that’s the false narrative too many in the press are pushing.

“Senior GOP lawmakers grow anxious over Trump's effort to overturn election results,” read a recent CNN headline. But CNN could find just three Republicans who were supposedly “anxious” about Trump trying to overturn an election where more than 150 million Americans voted. One CNN report last week suggested Republicans had “no choice” but to back Trump’s election sabotage. Politico dismissed Trump’s ongoing rampage as nothing more than “performance art” and “bad sportsmanship.”

When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to making the stunning inquiry about throwing out legal ballots, the New York Times headline made it seem like a quirky strategy: “Lindsey Graham’s Long-Shot Mission to Unravel the Election Results.”

Amidst Trump’s stunning election sabotage campaign, the Times sat down with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for a lengthy Q&A. The paper did not pose a single question to McCarthy about how the Republican president was trying to get legitimate votes thrown out and overturn an election. Instead, McCarthy and the Times reporters discussed what a long-term asset Trump could be to the Republican Party after he leaves office.

Additionally, the Times cast a sympathetic eye on Republicans state officials who supposedly face the tough “choice” of certifying verified voting results, or helping Trump cast doubt on them as he tries to overturn an election. That’s a truly dangerous way to view, and to present, what’s currently unfolding.

Incredibly, Trump-appointed General Services Administrator Emily Murphy who refuses to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory — her call would officially begin the transition process — has been receiving kid-glove coverage as the press depicts her as simply caught in a tricky position. She’s “struggling” to do the right thing, CNN stressed, while quoting anonymous friends about how honorable she is. What’s the struggle? Biden won, period. Murphy is purposefully making the transition more difficult. Yet, the Washington Post framed the story as a partisan one, suggesting Democrats were “fuming.” Fact is, no GSA in history has refused to acknowledge the clear election winner, the way Murphy now refuses.

Authoritarianism has been on display for weeks now, as Trump throws all his energy into casting doubt over free and fair elections in the world’s oldest democracy. The daily news coverage needs to say so, and drop the idea that Trump’s simply passing his days feeling sorry for himself, in a state of “denial.” He’s been waging a multi-pronged war on America.

Right-Wing Protesters Now Getting The Tea Party Treatment — Fawning Press Coverage

Anxious for a political angle to the ongoing pandemic story and one that can produce instant conflict (as well as compelling pictures), the news media are showering attention on the small groups of GOP protesters who are angry about life-saving social distancing orders.
By Eric Boehlert

Anxious for a political angle to the ongoing pandemic story and one that can produce instant conflict (as well as compelling pictures), the news media are showering attention on the small groups of GOP protesters who are angry about life-saving social distancing orders issued by governors to battle the Covid-19 pandemic. The right-wing, Fox News-fueled street actions come as polling confirms an overwhelming majority of Americans support the stay at home orders, designed to curb the pandemic's growing death toll. Even when restrictions are lifted, most Americans say they're not sure they'll resume "normal activities" right away.

Proving once again that every Beltway news cycle revolves around the very simple question of, 'What are Republicans angry about today?, the recent emergence of Trump-sanctioned protests has grabbed the media's attention, even though some events are drawing modest crowds.

"More than a dozen protesters gathered near the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge Friday calling for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) to suspend measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus so people can go back to work," the Washington Post reported over the weekend. [Emphasis added.] Meanwhile, the New York Times made sure to shine a bright spotlight on a Texas protest that attracted "more than 100 people." The newspaper's print headline claimed the event was indication that protests were "sweep[ing] nation."

Most people understand that in a nation of nearly 330 million people, pro-Trump events that boast dozens of activists don’t qualify as major news. Yet news outlets seem to think small bands of angry conservatives must be treated as a big deal. The Times article completely misread the protests, suggesting they were representative of a widespread movement. (They're not.)

But, in a deeply divided nation, the size of the protest in Michigan, and the appetite in other states for more rallies, suggested that anger over the no-end-in-sight nature of the lockdowns was not limited to the far right.

In Michigan, a couple thousand people participated in a drive-by protest, where most people stayed in their cars. In a state of 10 million people, how does that suggest there's a widespread "appetite"? The Times article also provided zero evidence that the rallies featured anything but far right activists. In fact, virtually every person quoted was a hardcore Trump supporter. Why try to paint the rallies as bipartisan?

ABC News marveled that the protests were moving “coast to coast,” while conceding that a grand total of five states saw rallies over the weekend — five out of fifty states. On cable news, the word “protesters” was has been mentioned more than 150 times since Friday, according to TVeyes.

We've seen this double standard before. During the run up to the Iraq War, news outlets routinely ignored and downplayed anti-war rallies that drew tens of thousands of people. The press was very slow to cover the left-leaning Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. Instead, during Barack Obama's presidency, it was the deep-pocketed, right-wing Tea Party movement that captivated the Beltway media's attention, as the protests were relentlessly hyped as clarion calls of common sense from the heartland.

In 2010, when Republicans used Tea Party rallies as part of the midterm election cycle, the three major television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, devoted 666 minutes of nightly news coverage to the movement. Compare that to 2018, when Democrats used the Trump resistance movement as part of its winning midterm strategy. For that, the networks set aside less than half as much airtime, just 247 minutes.

The Tea Party was literally created by the media. It was born on CNBC, when reporter Rick Santelli started ranting about Obama on the floor of the Chicago stock exchange, warning viewers the new Democratic president was steering the country toward a Cuban Castro-like economy. CNBC then boosted the clip incessantly ("Shot Heard Around The Word"/"Santelli's Manifesto"), while NBC led its evening newscast that night of the rant with a clip of Santelli, announcing his rant had struck a "populist" chord.

Today, indications are that the stay-at-home-order protesters, like the ones in Michigan last week, are also being promoted by deep pocketed players, anxious to stir up trouble in order to hurt Democrats, even as governors struggle with an historic public health crisis. "The whole charade was facilitated by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a conservative political group that doubles as a front for the Michigan Trump Republicans, and promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a conservative group with ties with Betsy DeVos," Mother Jones helpfully pointed out.

For now, the protesters' muddled battle cry seems to be, “Curse the tyranny of governors! But only the Democratic ones!" since several Republican governors are also holding firm on stay at home orders. None of it makes sense. Neither does the fact some protesters show up carrying assault rifles and confederate flags to protest social distancing guidelines for a pandemic.

Then again, Tea Party protests didn't make sense either. Obama hadn't even finished appointing his cabinet secretaries when conservatives took to the street to denounce the new president’s supposedly socialist agenda. Keep in mind, Obama had just won the election in a landslide. Yes, protesters showed up carrying Hitler posters. And yes, the movement was born, in part, out of a deep desire to protest on behalf of insurance companies.

It’s distressing to see, but while covering right-wing social distancing protesters, the press is making the same mistakes they made covering the Tea Party.

Trump's Coronavirus Press Briefings Criticized By Media Experts | MSNBC

The coronavirus pandemic responses of Donald Trump, NY Gov. Cuomo, and U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams are compared and contrasted by Joy Reid's pane

Journalists Jump High In Pursuit Of The Mythical 'President'

In the wake of White House briefing where Trump warned of 100,000-plus coronavirus deaths in the U.S., journalists marveled at how serious and "somber" he was. It's like the Normalizing Olympics.

By Eric Boehlert

If President Barack Obama had overseen the deaths of 100,000 Americans during the Ebola outbreak in 2014, do you think many Beltway journalists would have given him high marks for his "tone"? Me neither. Yet that’s what unfolded this week in the wake of White House briefing where Trump warned of 100,000-plus coronavirus deaths in the U.S. — journalists marveled at how serious and "somber" he was. It's like the Normalizing Olympics.

Or, to mix metaphors, it's a Moby Dick-like pursuit of a mythical 'presidential' Trump. That pointless search began weeks before Trump was even inaugurated, as Beltway observers calmly predicted that the Oval Office would soon change him and he'd grow into a statesman. Instead, Trump has unraveled in public view for more than three years while the press clings to this fantasy that underneath the narcissist and liar and bully is a man who wants to lead.

Even if Trump unveiled a completely new approach to governance and forever stashed away his usual array of insults, threats, and lies, that's no reason to give him credit. Especially not during a pandemic, when he wasted an entire month dithering about the coronavirus, famously announcing we'd soon have "zero" cases. (The government still hasn't secured enough test kits and respirators for the mounting crisis.)

The media’s Trump failures are all about tiptoeing around the truth and not being honest with news consumers. For instance, the New York Times this week published a lengthy and worthy article about how Trump has regularly lashed out at women in public office during the current crisis, much more so than men. Yet nowhere in the piece were the words "misogyny" or "misogynist" mentioned, because the Times and most of the press refuse to use clarity when analyzing Trump's deformed character. That's why the Times newsroom is not allowed to call Trump a "liar" or a "racists" even though he is both, as well as a textbook misogynist.

It’s that purposefully timid Trump reporting that mars much of the pandemic coverage. Responding to online critiques of the media's performance this week, one Politico editor, Blake Hounshell, responded, "You know, enough of this. It has taken entire teams of journalists to tell this story in all its many facets, and the press is by and large doing it extraordinarily well as the media industry collapses around them." He's right, the press has largely done an "extraordinary" job covering this once-in-a-century emergency. But in terms of the Trump pandemic coverage, that has been almost uniformly lacking, and by far the weakest link of the virus reporting.

Just look at the media rush to shower Trump with hosannas after he supposedly changed his "tone" on the deadly pandemic. "The grim-faced president who appeared in the White House briefing room for more than two hours beside charts showing death projections of hellacious proportions was coming to grips with a reality he had long refused to accept," the New York Times reported with urgency.

Over at CNN, White House correspondent Jim Acosta, following the pandemic briefings, announced Trump now "gets it," stressing, "I have never seen the president like this." Added NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, "The tone and seriousness was different today."

Oh thank goodness. Trump had finally come to terms with the significance of a pandemic that will likely claim 20-plus million U.S. jobs and perhaps 100,000 American lives.

To the surprise of nobody, days after Trump's "serious" briefing, he was back to his usual public antics while ostensibly addressing the national emergency — he bragged about his popularity on Facebook, mocked assembled journalists, tried to create a diversion by turning Wednesday's pandemic briefing into a press conference about a new drug trafficking initiative launched by the Department of Defense, and accused Democrats of launching a “witch hunt” against him. Trump also returned to taunting Democrats on Twitter, specifically a U.S. senator from New York, the epicenter of the deadly outbreak.

All if this is completely predictable, and all of this is why the press should refrain from claiming a mad man like Trump has changed his ways, or embraced a serious, somber “tone.”

Back in 2017, when Trump gave his first address to the nation from Congress (technically it was not a State of the Union since he had just been sworn in), cable news discussions of the address included more than 300 references to the optics of his speech -- including mentions of a “pivot," “presidential,” “reset,” and “tone," according to Media Matters. (Even the White House was reportedly surprised at how fervently the press praised the speech.) Trump, of course, did nothing following the speech to "pivot" towards more "presidential" behavior.

More recently in March, CNN's Dana Bash, after watching one of Trump's erratic pandemic briefings, showered him with praise: "He is being the kind of leader that people need, at least in tone, today, and yesterday, in a tone that people need and want and yearn for in times of crisis and uncertainty." Over subsequent days and weeks though, Trump proceeded to mislead the nation about a possible virus cure, lie about dismantling the White House's pandemic team, accused hospital workers of stealing much-needed surgical masks, and told governors on a conference call that he hadn't heard complaints about a lack of coronavirus tests.

Trump's never going to change. It's the press’ job to accurately describe who is now, and who he'll be for always.

A chilling reality: Media's not equipped to deal with Trump’s ramped-up war on democracy

Eric Boehlert 

Purging the Department of Homeland Security; cheering the cover-up of the Mueller report while claiming federal prosecutors who investigated Russia collusion were guilty of treason; defying a lawful order to turn over his taxes; ordering the Department of Justice to launch criminal investigations into perceived enemies; wishing he could unleash "rough" U.S. soldiers on women and children seeking asylum in America; promising pardons to border officials who break the law; aggressively subverting the independence of the Federal Reserve by nominating two obviously unqualified board members; and inciting violence against a sitting member of Congress.

That was Donald Trump's recent week, as he clearly escalated his war on democracy and democratic institutions in America. Increasingly, though, it looks like the press simply isn't equipped to deal with his radical and dangerous foray into authoritarianism.  

"This is how democracies die. The rule of law is slowly strangled. The unthinkable becomes commonplace. The illegal becomes accepted--from violations of the emoluments clause to self-dealing to Federal election law crimes to serial sexual abuse," tweeted David Rothkopf, a professor of international relations. "We are dying the death of a thousand cuts. Right now, this week, the president and his band of thugs are winning. They have become unabashed in their attacks on the law."

And the press is playing a central role in this dangerous demise. It’s been part of allowing the unthinkable to become commonplace, and last week provided many stark examples. Trump's brazen, anti-democratic behavior becomes more pronounced, and as he appears to operate without the slightest concern of the press for holding him accountable, it seems the American news media doesn’t understand, or won't acknowledge, what is happening, and the dangers that democracy faces. They don't know much about covering authoritarian regimes, or how to respond to them, and they're too busy treating Trump's spectacle as a reality TV show.  

That's the kind interpretation. The unkind interpretation is that the press is simply too cowardly to confront Trump, and hides behind phony newsroom guidelines in order to avoid loudly telling the truth.

"So many ‘Savvy Washington Insiders’ and ‘fair journalists’ are actually in on the con," Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii lamented last week on Twitter. "They know one side is absolutely bonkers but they are deeply, personally attached to the fake objectivity that allows them to be blind to cruelty and racism manifested as public policy."

Those racist policies were on full display with regard to the southern border last week. After musing about permanently closing the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump threatened to separate refugee children from their parents when they came across the border, urged officials to ban asylum-seekers from entering America (contrary to U.S. law), promised pardons to those who did, and wished the U.S. military could be more "rough" with migrants seeking shelter in America, completely unconcerned that a founding principle of American democracy is that the military is not allowed to enforce domestic U.S. laws without specific authorization from Congress. (That's why the troops Trump has sent to the border as part of the "national emergency" are not allowed to apprehend anybody.) Then came word that the administration had directed the Department of Homeland Security to ship immigrant detainees to “sanctuary cities,” including the district represented by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

At least one of last week's anti-democratic incursions clearly represented an impeachable offense: Trump ordered government officials to break the law, and then promised pardons if they were prosecuted. Yet none of that sparked "scandal" coverage in the press. As writer Oliver Willis noted, one CNN reporter treated the lawbreaking as just more Trump news. She stressed, "He seems more intent on creating chaos and scoring political points, especially as he looks ahead to the 2020 re-election campaign, and perhaps reanimate his base, which of course we know cares very deeply about the border.”

Breaking the law in order to animate your voting base isn't a thing! Or at least, it shouldn't be. But for Trump there are no rules. Just look at the unfolding Mueller report cover-up and how Trump's attorney general is busy obfuscating for the White House and trying to create legal distractions. While testifying before Congress last week, William Barr obediently pushed conservative conspiracy theories about Trump being targeted by the so-called “deep state” in 2016. “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr said, adding when pressed: “I think spying did occur, yes." The nation’s top cop seems intent on helping Trump punish his enemies.

“His testimony raises profound concern that the attorney general is doing what we urge emerging democracies not to do, and that is, seek to prosecute your political opponents after you win an election,” California Rep. Adam B. Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Post's Greg Sargent. "The Trump precedent after only two years is that you can fire the FBI director who is running an investigation in which you may be implicated as president.”

Recall that one reason the administration's slow-walking of the Mueller report cover-up is motoring along today is because news outlets provided a crucial assist when they pretended the press release Barr released on March 24, supposedly summarizing the report, and announcing Trump had been exonerated, represented a good-faith effort to be transparent. News teams tripped over themselves to declare that "Mueller" had cleared Trump, when in fact it was just Trump's hand-picked attorney general doing damage control. Pretending they had actually read the Mueller report, newsrooms eagerly ran with GOP-friendly headlines: "Mueller finds no conspiracy" (Washington Post), "Mueller finds no Trump-Russia conspiracy" (New York Times)," Mueller finds no Trump-Russia conspiracy" (Politico), "Mueller doesn’t find Trump campaign conspired with Russia" (Wall Street Journal), "Mueller finds no Trump collusion, leaves obstruction open" (Associated Press).

The fact that journalists have to wait until this Thursday to finally see even a redacted version of perhaps the most important government report in decades ought to remain a source of embarrassment. Yet it also stands as testimony to Trump's ability to bully journalists and bend reality to his will.

Note that when the Trump administration refused to comply with a lawful congressional demand that Trump turn over his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, after Trump became the first American president in nearly half a century not to make them public, the press mostly played the refusal as a ho-hum he said-he said partisan affair. That despite the fact that Trump occupies a mental never-never land on the topic. "No, there is no law," he absurdly claimed, when asked about the statute supporting the request for his tax returns. "There’s no law whatsoever."

The Post buried this quote in the final paragraph of its staid report on the showdown: "Mark W. Everson, who served as the IRS commissioner under President George W. Bush, said there is little dispute that Congress has the authority to receive Trump’s tax returns."

When the president of the United States refuses to acknowledge the law of the land, that represents creeping authoritarianism. And that that ought to be the day's only news.

Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.

They Never Learn: The Media LOVES Trump's Military 'Might'. Why?

It was hard not to have flashbacks this week to the Iraq invasion while watching the mainstream media cover Trump's Tomahawk missile strike against a Syrian air base. How could you not be put in mind of Chris Matthews' man-crush of GWB in his bunched up flightsuit when Brian Williams waxes rhapsodic on the 'beautiful images"…

Donald Trump Doesn't Mind If Vladimir Putin Murders His Media Critics

Dictator Donnie The Mango Mussolini believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a strong leader for having journalists killed for having the audacity to question his authority.   Dictator Donnie made the comments during an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly which will air Sunday in America.    

The Washington Post‘s Abby Phillip reported Saturday night that a preview of the O’Reilly interview, which will air before Sunday’s Superbowl game.

When asked about his relationship with Putin, Trump told O’Reilly, “I do respect him. Well, I respect a lot of people, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get along with them.”

“Putin is a killer,” O’Reilly responded.

“There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers,” Trump said. “Well, you think our country is so innocent?”

Putin’s regime is one of the most dangerous in the world to journalists, who put their lives on the line by criticizing Putin and the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) — the shadowy security agency that replaced the KGB after glasnost. Other Putin critics have been poisoned or repeatedly jailed on spurious charges.

Given these comments. Journalists in America should have concern for a leader that would willingly condone the murder of journalists, dissidents and the jailing of the government's critics.  Is the future Americans have to look forward too? One certainly would hope not. That said, given Donald Trump's complete inability to deal with criticism does this indicate he'll follow in Vladimir Putin's footsteps?

Donald Trump Blames The Press For His Failures And Encourages His Followers To Hate Them

What The Hell Is NBC Doing Inside Attackers' Apartment?

I didn't have my TV on, but I saw my Twitter timeline explode: NBC, live on TV, rifling through the possessions of the San Bernardino attackers in their home? Is this not a crime scene? There they go, flipping through the pages of their books, rifling through baby toys and family pictures. WTF? So many ethical…