Translating the Crazy
Corporate media turns a blind eye
UPDATES: I got COVID sixteen days ago and, though I am substantially better, I’m still exhausted. I know every case is different, but is this normal? Anyway, with my book coming out on Tuesday, there will be no rest for the weary any time soon. More book news after today’s piece.
Also, I’m finally hosting “Ask Mary Anything within Reason” again tonight at 6:00 p.m. ET over at Mary Trump Media. Please put your questions here in the comments and I’ll get to as many of them as I can. See you there! Here’s the link:
Donald appeared at the Economic Club of New York last week, and spoke to a group of economists, business leaders and journalists today. He was asked the following question”
“If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make childcare affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?”
This was what he said (which was neither a response nor an answer):
Well, I would do that, and we're sitting down, I was somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue, but I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because look, childcare is childcare [emphasis mine]. There's something, you have to have it in this country, you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly, and it's not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we're talking about, including childcare, that it's going to take care.
I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with childcare. I want to stay with childcare. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about. We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as childcare is talked about as being expensive, it's relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in. We're going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we'll worry about the rest of the world. Let's help other people, but we're going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It's about make America great again. We have to do it because right now we're a failing nation, so we'll take care of.
I defy anybody who was actually trying to follow the thread of that gibberish to tell me what it means. Nobody can. The only phrase that has any logical consistency, “childcare is childcare,” also happens to be the only thing Donald said that’s true—childcare is, after all, childcare. The rest of it is just disjointed riffing coupled with his greatest hits and catch phrases.
The corporate media, however, have decided that it is no longer the job of its journalists and pundits to report and analyze information; rather they believe they must translate Donald’s nonsensical ramblings into a version of the English language we can all understand. That’s a huge problem because, on the one hand, they’re not really translating his words—they’re imbuing them with a meaning that is not there; on the other hand, they’re doing this without telling us they’re doing it.
So, according to Politico, Donald, “laid out a sweeping economic vision of lower taxes, higher tariffs, and light-touch regulation in a speech to top Wall Street execs.”
AP chimed in by claiming that Donald “suggests tariffs can help solve rising child care costs in a major economic speech.”
The New York Times, at the forefront when it comes to covering for Donald, ran the following headline and sub-head:
“Trump Praises Tariffs, and William McKinley, to Power Brokers
In an address about the kind of economy he hopes to build for the 21st century, the former president harked back to the end of another century: the 19th.”
The article that followed, which also referred to Donald’s stream-of-consciousness as a “speech,” claimed that he “tried to define how his stewardship of the economy would differ from that of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. He has tried to put the economy at the center of the election, hoping to seize on voters' dissatisfaction with inflation and the cost of living.” They, of course, failed to mention that Donald tries “to put the economy at the center of the election” by lying, making stuff up, and being generally incomprehensible.
Perhaps worst of all, when Donald’s nonsense is impossible to place in a context within which a generous person might render them somewhat coherent, certain news outlets simply ignore him, as they did when he recently ranted about the elusive relationship between bacon and wind:
“Some people don’t eat bacon anymore,” Donald said. “We are going to get the energy prices down. This was caused by their horrible energy. Wind. They want wind all over the place. But when it doesn’t blow, we have a little problem.”
Apparently (I say apparently because there is literally no way to make these statements coherent), he was trying to connect his lies about high bacon prices with his lies about wind energy. He keeps telling these easily debunked lies because, as Daniel Dale, chronicler of Donald’s mendacity, pointed out, “By virtue of shameless perseverance, [Donald] often manages to outlast most of the media’s willingness to correct any particular falsehood.” In other words, while Donald never gets tired of lying, the media gets tired of doing its job.
Meanwhile, Paul Krugman wrote recently, a normal candidate like Kamala Harris is pressed by reporters and commentators to
provide more detail about her policy proposals, but the truth is that we have a pretty good idea what she will do on most issues if she wins — which can’t be said about her opponent.
For Trump doesn’t have coherent policy views; he has prejudices, some of them based on sheer petulance, that are impervious to facts. And his childishness and lack of connection to reality, while present all along, seem to have grown worse as he approaches 80.
It’s deeply disturbing that somebody as unhinged and incoherent as Donald is allowed to run for the presidency in the first place (and that leaves aside all of the other disqualifying things about him), but the disturbance is compounded when you consider that corporate media can’t seem to muster any urgency in the face of Donald’s increasingly bizarre behavior. On any given day, he is demonstrably untethered from reality—and it often seems that the reason the warning lights aren’t constantly flashing red is because nobody covering him expects otherwise.
Surely a political press corps that spent months arguing that President Biden’s age rendered him mentally unfit, wouldn’t look the other way when the Republican candidate, the oldest person to run for president in American history, is not only old but decompensating before our very eyes. The difference of course is that Biden is aging while Donald is dementing.
It’s ok to wonder if you’re missing something when you see clips of Donald’s incomprehensible ranting and then The New York Times acts as if there is nothing out of the ordinary going on. Apparently, Donald’s treating a fictional cannibalistic serial killer as if he’s a real person—who also happens to be Donald’s good friend and who, according to Donald, wants to have his followers for dinner—falls within normal parameters for the leader of the Republican Party.
It's not new that corporate media applies a completely different standard to the Democratic candidate, but it should be news. While they clamor for Harris to outline how much her childcare plan will cost, for example, nobody seems to be asking about the economic impact of Donald’s plan to round up, imprison, and deport up to 15 million undocumented workers (let alone the horrific knock-on effects of such a breath-taking act of violence). As it is, I now know far more about Vice President Harris’ views on fracking than I do about Donald’s healthcare plan beyond the fact that he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, upon which 45 million Americans currently rely.
A former occupant of the Oval Office, a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who attempted a coup, is desperately flailing while his campaign is failing to gain any traction. Donald is a frightened, desperate man knowing, as he does, that his continued freedom might well depend on his ability to get back into the White House so he can make the still-pending federal cases against him disappear. His increasingly fantastical pronouncements and worsening psychiatric disorders strike me as being newsworthy.
As Daniel Dale said, Donald really does seem to have worn down the corporate media’s willingness to cover him properly. It’s too bad—they’re missing a story most people would be interested in.
American democracy depends upon a thriving fourth estate to function optimally. That’s not what we have right now. Not even close. Independent media is doing its best to step up, but there is still a void left by the failures of those traditional outlets people have been relying on for decades. They are failing us, settling for “both-sides” laziness at the expense of objective facts and, ultimately, democracy. The American people deserve to know what we’re up against. We deserve to be told that there’s a maniac on the loose.
As I mentioned, my book comes out in two days and I’m kicking things off with a one-on-one conversation with Anderson Cooper tomorrow night, and an appearance on Morning Joe Tuesday. I’ll also be at the 92nd Street Y with my good friend Judy Gold this Thursday at 8:00 for anybody in New York who might want to come by.
The book (hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook) are available here:
KAMALA SHOULD PREPARE FOR AND PUT PAID TO THE GISH GALLOP
When Vice President Kampala Harris meets with former President Donald Trump on the debate stage tomorrow, she must prepare herself for Trump's favorite debate trick honed over more than a decade, the Gish Gallop.
The Gish Gallop, a term named after Duane Gish, is a debate tactic characterized by overwhelming an opponent with a barrage of misleading or irrelevant arguments. The result is that it gets difficult for your opponent to address each point thoroughly.
This technique has been embraced by Trump and his team to the point where his former campaign manager Kellyanne Conway had to create the "Alternative facts" labeling to cover for the lies and irrelevant rants spewed by Trump.
With Trump's ascending to the GOP leadership, the Gish Gallop has transcended formal debate environments and permeated American political discourse, significantly impacting public opinion and discussion. The truth no longer has currency. How eloquently you can spew your lies, misleading information, and irrelevancies is the replacement.
Trump, being the compulsive liar that he is, will not be bothered with truth. He has his talking points and will rattle them out, one after the other.
If you revisit the debate with President Biden, you could see the expressions of incredulity on the face of Biden when Trump would go on one of his gallops. Biden in his descent into dottage, was so taken aback at times, that he seemed to be even doubting himself, as he was blindsided by one lie, followed by an inaccuracy laden Gallop followed by another lie. The sequence persisted throughout the debate, confusing the octegenarian Biden further. He had no counter to it, and as they say, the rest is history.
Kamala must be prepared to sidestep these gallops and allow for the moderators to fact check Trump in real time or simply state that she will not seek to embrace Trump's red herring strategy of alternative facts.
The Gish Gallop has fostered a polarized environment where individuals are more likely to accept arguments that align with their preexisting beliefs without critical examination. This has reinforced ideological divides and contributes to a less informed and more divided electorate.
Kamala cannot depend on Media organizations who have abdicted their role in countering the Gish Gallop by prioritizing in-depth reporting and analysis. The media will continue to focus on sensational headlines or rapid-response content.
Encouraging constructive debate practices, both in formal settings and public forums, should be the media role but Kamala will have to craft her own strategy on the debate stage.
She must sidestep the Trump strategy and counter with her own prosecutorial dismissal of his lies, inaccuracies, dog whistles and race baiting and focus on introducing to the American people a tried and tested leader, who will not shirk in her responsibilities to the American people.
Kamala must demonstrate in no uncertain terms that debaters should be held accountable for the quality of their arguments rather than the quantity.
She must destroy once and for all the Gish Gallop strategy and foster constructive debate based on facts and the vision for a better America. Trump's Gish Gallop strategy must be firmly placed in the sad history of MAGA America where it should die quietly. To do anything else would be to deny America truth and a way forward. “We are not going back”should not only be a platitude, but a vision for a greater America.
Dean Obadiah called this phenomenon ‘Sanewashing’. Trying to impose sense on nonsense. I find it intensely frustrating that the press continue to ignore the plain fact of Trump’s worsening dementia, superimposed on his personality disorder. Dangerous.