A guest-post by Maddie Fitzgerald
I have always been against Trump. I consider him vulgar and unbefitting of the office of the presidency. But sorry, I just need to take a moment to tell everybody to get a grip. It’s not about defending him. I don’t like him. I just feel compelled to respond to and defend him from every single criticism from the media.
The media. Remember them? You should never forget that they hate not just Trump, but all Republicans. that’s why it’s extremely important that Republicans take a stand against media criticisms that are used against Trump today, but might be used against Trump tomorrow. I don’t want to defend Trump, believe me, but somebody has to keep the media in check.
The latest example is Trump’s comments about setting up internment camps for Mormons. Yes, this sounds bad. But the important thing to remember is that the internment camps were originally put in place by FDR, a Democrat. Yes, internment camps are wrong, but where were they then? Is this really an objection to internment camps, or is this just an objection to the fact that it’s Donald Trump, and not their icon, that is proposing it? Nobody is asking this question because everybody is too busy freaking out over what was really just Trump floating an idea. Compare this to Democrats, who have actually implemented policies that would put Mormons in prison if they refuse to bake wedding cakes for gay couples (and refuse to pay fines). I’m not at all in favor of Trump’s proposal, but let’s get real: Are we really supposed to believe that it’s Donald Trump who is against religious freedom here?
This is on the heels of Trump’s previous comments about dropping nuclear bombs on cities that vote against him. Once again, the elites and media are taking a legitimate criticism (that it would be had for a president to drop nuclear bombs on American cities) and blowing it completely out of proportion. Once again, the media is responding to Trump literally and unseriously. Obviously, Trump is not going to detonate a bomb on an American city. Hillary Clinton called tens of millions of Americans deplorable while everybody freaks out over an off-the-cuff hypothetical annihilation of Chicago.
More than anything, however, it was the story about taking CNN’s Leigh Horvit “behind the shed” and “having her shot” that caught the media’s attention. Lordy, lordy, is there anthing the media won’t try to make themselves the story of? First and foremost, the news cycle has to be about them as much as possible. Trump is threatening to kill a lot of people at any given time, and while the media panics every time, when it’s their lives that are threatened they take it to a whole new level of hysterics. Even while Hillary Clinton was refusing to grant press conferences, the media became positively fixated on loose chatter of putting newspapers out of business and having reporters shot.
Frankly, it has grown tiresome to watch conservatives fall into the liberal media narrative over and over again. They ask leading questions like “Are you concerned about your lack of Mormon support?” and get the answer they were hoping for. It may be Trump’s fault for failing to avoid the minefield, but the media are the ones laying the lines. Conservatives usually know better, but they are so wrapped up in their Trump-hatred that they can’t see the obvious.
I’m really not saying all of this to defend Trump. I am simply concerned over the degree of deference we’re giving to the press here. Right now a lot of you think it’s okay because it’s Trump, but what happens the next time a conservative talks about removing disfavored minorities from society? The media is going to use this as an example of why it’s wrong, because that’s their way, and conservatives are just handing it to them.
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15 Responses to Stop Playing The Media’s Game
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I’m curious: when you say…
…what “disfavored minority” will it be okay to discuss “removing… from society?” If the answer isn’t “properly convicted violent criminals,” I’m not going to be looking askance at the press for taking that politician to task.
I read this line:
The latest example is Trump’s comments about setting up internment camps for Mormons.
And then said “Wait. What?”
I can’t find anything in google or google news.
Wait. Then I read the part about bombs on American cities and googled Leigh Horvit.
I see what you did there.
Wouldn’t he have to nuke his own hometown of New York, including Trump Tower?
The funny thing is that after this was written, Pax Dickinson started making allusions to another Mormon genocide.
Several months ago he told an interviewer that while he wanted to ban Muslim immigration he was opposed to the idea of internment camps for Muslims already in the country. Not Mormons.
The problem with Mormons is that if you put a lot of them together, very soon you will have even more of them.
You need to take them and put them in dispersion camps.
This is a very good point!
Is this parody?
what happens the next time a conservative talks about removing disfavored minorities from society? The media is going to use this as an example of why it’s wrong, because that’s their way, and conservatives are just handing it to them.
Yes, it’s a parody.
The “literally not seriously” line has been used a lot about Trump. There is certainly some truth to it. But it is incredibly condescending to Trumpy and his followers. It’s a cheap excuse to ignore anything crazy he says. It’s the equivalent of a guy tripping then saying he meant to do that. You want to be prez you don’t get to say whatever you want. Same deal for being a big shot real estate developer, do you see him saying his casinos are pieces of crap or pooping on his own buildings. No of course not, that would be, you know , stupid.
“I’m really not saying all of this to defend Trump. I am simply concerned over the degree of deference we’re giving to the press here. Right now a lot of you think it’s okay because it’s Trump, but what happens the next time a conservative talks about removing disfavored minorities from society? The media is going to use this as an example of why it’s wrong, because that’s their way, and conservatives are just handing it to them.”
Um… then that would be a really good thing that we should applaud the press for doing?
I can’t tell if this was an error and that the author meant to say “liberals” rather than “conservatives,” or if this is a sign that even moderate conservatives have gone completely off the rails.
I guess it’s true… we live in a post-parody age!
Can I say that I got the parody pretty early, but I didn’t think this was that good? Sorry.
It may just that I’m not seeing this sort of argument in the wild. What I do see is media criticism because they treat Trump like any other Republican candidate, normalizing him, or media criticism that they treat Trump like any other Republican candidate *in the middle of an election*, vilifying him.
Or basically, Romney is so super cool now, but 4 years ago he was the worst of the worst – Russia, almost the opposite in that timeframe.
Well, I’m bummed, but I’ll get over it.
I don’t have a problem with the critique you describe, but that’s not what I’m seeing. Rather, I’m seeing attempts to deflect what Trump did straight to the media “overreacting” to whatever it is. It’s the conservative equivalent to “Republicans pounce!” The story isn’t the story, it’s the media’s freakout over it. Over and over again.
(I actually took the criticism seriously the first couple of times, but over time the pattern was noticed. To actually get upset about anything is to simply join the media’s freakout.)