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Donald Trump doesn’t understand that words matter. Words have consequences.
People are affected by words. Some may even be inspired by words to mail explosive devices to political opponents or lash out at desperate people fleeing abject poverty and violence in the hope of better lives for their children.
The president doesn't get it. Or at least I hope he doesn't get it.
He appealed for unity and civility last night as if unity and civility can be flipped on and off like a light switch.
It took a series of bombs for Trump to be forced to say, “Those engaged into political arena must stop treating political opponents as morally defective.”
And of course, he expected fulsome praise. “Do you see how nice I am behaving tonight?” he said.
Pathetic. He can't even fake acting presidential.
In true Trumpian fashion, the president made no mention in Wisconsin of the explosive devices; rather he bemoaned the treatment of Republican politicos, who have had their dinners disturbed by fellow restaurant patrons and activists.
And of course, Trump could not overcome the temptation to criticize the media or as he calls them, the enemy of the people.
“As part of the larger national effort to bridge our divide and bring people together, the media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and stop the endless hostility and constant negative and often times, fake attacks and stories,” said Trump.
That’s the ultimate false equivalency.
And Trump today apparently ditched his pitch for peace, love and understanding.
He fired off this tweet:
“A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!.”
Trump also ginned up fear-mongering of the so-called caravan. The tweeter-in-chief is sending 800 American soldiers to the Mexico border to stop the 7,000 bedraggled men, women and children heading north to turn themselves over to US officials at the border.
His bid to create fear of a Hispanic hoard may be delicious red meat for his political supporters, but it goes against the core of what this nation hopefully still stands for.
The president hasn’t dispatched any troops to the newsrooms of the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and NBC.
Let’s see how the midterm election plays out.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
