Trump is pushing a dangerous, false spin on coronavirus — and the media is helping him spread it

The corporate press has not done it’s job from the very beginning. They should be exposing this conman and thug, not repeating his propaganda. They should be driving a hard bargain by demanding Trump and his brownshirts answer questions and not spew talking points. If they don’t take away the cameras. But they don’t do that because they are afraid of losing access. And that means profits for the media. So they won’t do it. Afterall, the mainstream press is owned by large corporations. And they don’t mind Trump’s lies as long as they make money:

Trump and his chosen spokespeople are attempting to dramatically play down the seriousness of the coronavirus and to blame the legitimate news media for doing their jobs of informing the public.

In reporting what Trump has to say, the news media has a huge responsibility not to repeat and amplify his misleading spin — a spin that may serve his political interests but is not in the public interest.

It’s not always easy, though, for mainstream journalists to put his claims in the proper context.

After all, it had always been normal to let a president have his say — to let his statements top the news while letting the fact-checks follow.

That has changed somewhat during the lie-ridden Trump administration but not nearly enough. The reflexive media urge, deep in our DNA, is still to quote the president without offering an immediate challenge.

Wall St. Journal
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The Press Covered Right-Wing Militia Rally in Virginia; The MLKjr Rallys, Women’s March not so Much.

It almost seems the corporate press is hoping for violence. Afterall, the Charlottesville tragedy was a major news event in 2017. Now these right-wingers decided to hold a hate rally on MLKjr’s birthday. This day should be about the life of a great man of peace, freedom, and democracy.

Continue reading “The Press Covered Right-Wing Militia Rally in Virginia; The MLKjr Rallys, Women’s March not so Much.”

Canadian Cartoonist Fired After His Trump Cartoon Goes Viral

I’ve used ‘fired’ in the headline, but more accurately de Adder had his contract terminated with the Brunswick News, a privately-held publishing company that operates in New Brunswick, Canada. The sole owner, James K. Irving is one of the wealthiest people in Canada and he and his family have a vast array of interests and holdings, many of them dependent on access to the United States. So, when their little newspapers published a political cartoon that went viral completely excoriating the vile and hateful border practices of Trump something had to give.

Source: Daily Cartoonist

Source: Source

MSNBC beats Fox in key ratings for first time in 17 years

That’s very bad news for Donald Trump. FOX News has been riding the president’s coat tails for sometime now. They might decide to dump the Trump and look elsewhere for ratings. MSNBC attacks The Donald non-stop and it’s obviously means great ratings for them. FOX might decide to do the same:

MSNBC beat out Fox News last week in key ratings for first time in 17 years, topping its competitor in total viewers for the first time since 2000, according to a news release from MSNBC.

MSNBC averaged 1,558,000 total viewers during the “sales day” (6 a.m. to 2 a.m.) between Dec. 17-21, making it the top cable news network in the key 25-54 age demographic.

TV news is as much to Blame for Democracy’s Decline as Trump is 

In a sense, Trump is right about the media/press when he calls them the “enemy of the people.” The media puts profit before democracy, thus the American people, by covering the liar-in-chief no matter what he does. They regurgitate his every utterance. And in the process give his insane rants legitimacy. All because sensationalism comes before exposing his corruption. If they had done their jobs he would not have become president in the first place:

Much is being made of the president’s targeting of CNN’s Jim Acosta, but TV news bears as much blame as anyone for our democracy’s dystopian decline, culminating in the presidency of an ignoramus with a personality disorder.

With Congress supine and the courts packed by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., readily consumable news stands as the last guardrail of American democracy. Yet rather than fulfilling that vital role, TV news unwittingly amplified Donald Trump’s propaganda during the 2016 presidential election and now perpetuates it with such blind reliability that it must surprise even him.