07-14-2017, 07:57 AM
(07-13-2017, 12:19 PM)Dill Wrote: I think Hannity, Rush, Levin and a few others on the job 24/7 countering MSM stories. The WH then follows the counters. There may be some direct communication between staff as well. But I was not describing the WH as the source of the strategy necessarily.
Also, part of my point is that, despite the few commentators who say Trump and Republicans should "own up" to what is happening, prominent individuals and programs continue to react to the news like a White House news team. That is, they are not behaving like journalists, but rather WH's own press team, always in damage control mode.
I don't recall the degree of whataboutery in previous administrations that we are seeing with Trump's. That's one reason why I think it has become a conscious, deliberate tactic. Also it works for the Trumpsters in a way that it does not for those outside that bubble.
News is now part of the entertainment division. Journalistic standards are near zero at some television outlets. The corporate owners have a clear agenda. All this feeds into the phenomenon you're describing, and I agree it is a new phenomenon. It isn't how Nixon fought Watergate or Reagan fought Iran-Contra.
The funny thing - well really tragic - is that you have pretty solid news sources like BBC and NPR that people dismiss because "they all lie." It is like the whataboutery you are talking about gets turned around on the media - i.e someone in the bubble finally has to concede Fox "reporting" is 90% bullshit and Limbaugh wouldn't know a fact if it bit him on his bulbous cheek, and their response is, 'well I can't believe anyone then because Rachel Maddow has a show on MSNBC and therefore the BBC lies...if you can't trust one you can't trust all...' Really convoluted and just ends up meaning people should just turn off their TV and radio and make up their own headlines complete with the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy if it helps them sleep at night and believe they will wake up with a million dollars under their pillows.
JOHN ROBERTS: From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly so that you will come to know the value of justice... I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
