What the Hell Just Happened?

The media failures are getting worse

This pretty much sums it up.

Let me say this as simply as I can: The man who launched a violent attack on the United States Capitol because he couldn’t handle losing an election does not actually give a damn about unity.

Donald Trump is no more capable of unifying this country than he was of being presidential. And yet, far too many people in the corporate media keep waiting for it to happen. Indeed, they cynically keep assuring us it’s going to happen.

Why? Why do they ignore his words, his threats, and his record in order to present him as a man who simply does not exist: a man who is reasonable and measured, humbled and godly? 

At his convention on Thursday night, Donald broke a record for the longest (and most mind-numbingly boring) convention speech in history. He said he would never let losing an election happen again; he attacked “Crazy Nancy” Pelosi while mimicking a hammer swing; and he accused President Joe Biden of destroying the country.

Even after the grotesque spectacle of WWE and UFA domestic abusers, racists, and misogynists; even after that rambling, self-aggrandizing, delusional speech; newspapers this morning portrayed Donald as if he were a new person, the kind of guy who wants to bury hatchets and do what’s best for all Americans.

The subject line of The Washington Post’s “Morning Brief” read “Republicans wrap up an energized, focused convention.” The headline was worse: “Republicans stuck to winning issues in Milwaukee.” If you think focusing on the mass deportation of millions of immigrants and nominating a convicted felon are “winning issues,” then by all means. But as journalist Parker Molloy noted on Twitter, “lots of papers clearly printed today’s front pages based on the prepared, not the delivered, remarks.”

Based on other headlines I’ve seen, I think he’s right.

The Boston Globe went with “In departure, Trump calls for unity, healing in America.”

The Dallas Morning News claimed, “Trump emphasizes unity.”

The Pioneer Press chose “Trump takes a unity tone.”

And USA Today asked credulously: “After attempt on life, can Trump unite US?”

What convention were they watching? What Donald did they see? And how do they all manage to forget that this convicted felon, adjudicated fraud and rapist, is still out on bail in three jurisdictions. 

The cruel man I saw last Thursday night was the same cruel man I have always known. He is the man who got 173 police officers injured when he sent an army of violent insurrectionists to attack the Capitol. He is the man who, after rigging the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, claims that refusing to allow women carrying non-viable fetuses to get an abortion and forcing 10-year-old rape victims to carry their pregnancies to term is “a beautiful thing." He is the same man who sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. He is the same man who hates anyone who doesn’t worship him. He has sold out our country to his fellow authoritarians, and he sides with our enemies over our allies. He is the same man who wants to use the military to deport millions of people and crush dissent in our cities. And that is a very short list of all the horrible things he’s done and is capable of doing.

The corporate media would have us forget all of this, just as they would have us forget the reason Donald needed to pick a new running mate or that he was preceded onstage by a man who uses the n-word and introduced by another who hits his wife. And we’re supposed to trust this media to steer us through the increasingly dangerous waters of this election? Seriously?

The corporate media seems largely to have given up on covering my uncle like a real candidate, opting instead to act like he’s still on a reality show. They’re so focused on creating a narrative that will run Joe Biden out of the race that they haven’t even bothered doing basic journalism about last weekend’s assassination attempt. The fact that we know more about Biden’s COVID diagnosis than we do about the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate is such a damning indictment of the current state of journalism I’m not sure how they can possibly begin to regain the public trust. Worse, I doubt they have any interest in trying.

Hard questions about multiple accusations against Donald for sexual assault and harassment, as well as his actually having been adjudicated a rapist, or what he was doing during the attack on the Capitol just don’t get asked, as if they’re ancient history and have no bearing on the upcoming election. Or perhaps it’s simply that they care more about access.

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Our corporate media bends towards money. It’s not simply that they want Donald to win: they are trying to create the conditions in which that is most likely to happen. They have no interest in leaving it up to us lowly voters to decided (something they have in common with the rich donor class). They don’t care what will happen if Donald gets a second term—unlike the rest of us, they think they’re immune. 

But they’re not. And we’re not idiots. Nobody will be safe in the coming years, but a handful of mind-bogglingly wealthy oligarchs think they can ride out any storm. Their arrogance blinds them to the fact that nobody will be safe from the catastrophic climate change they are hastening with their greed.

We know who Donald is; we won’t forget what he’s done. And since the media seems to have abdicated all responsibility for keeping the American people informed, it’s up to us to keep repeating everything Donald and his grotesque band of enablers are promising to do—starting with Project 2025.  

So please continue to spread the word. Remind everybody you know that over three thousand Americans were dying every day at the height of COVID; remind them that Donald ordered peaceful protestors to be teargassed because he didn’t believe in their cause . Show them pictures of the gallows built for the purpose of hanging Mike Pence. And never let people forget January 6^th or the insurrectionists who used the American flag to beat Capitol police officers.

Unlike the Jake Tappers and Kristen Welkers of the world, we don’t have the luxury of forgetting. And we shouldn’t want to—our future depends on our remembering.