Media Still Have Learned Nothing

Vincent J. Curtis

14 Nov 2016

Media which got everything wrong will now tell you all the things that will happen as a result of the thing they said wouldn't happen.

Alan Dershwitz: “The One Thing Trump Will Do if He’s Smart.”

Bill Walen:  Four Takeaways from Trump’s Decision to Make Reince Priebus His Chief of Staff.

News Item: “Priebus’s first role is defending colleague Bannon from accusations of racism, hate.”

Howard Kurtz: Media Buzz: “Can President Trump deliver on his promises?”

News Item:  “President-Elect Trump Willing to Keep Parts of Obamacare”

News Item:  Trump Admits “There Could Be Some Fencing.”

News Item: “How Donald Trump Blew Up the Bond Market, and Changed Everyone’s Views on Interest Rates.”

News Item:  “Trump faces backlash over appointing Steve Bannon as top aide, a choice critics say will empower white nationalists.”

News Item:  “In first test, Trump makes big mistake”

News Item:  “Reid Plans to keep up anti-Trump barrage.”

Analysis:  “How Donald Trump won and almost all of us missed it.”  (Speak for yourself, ABC)

News Item: “Cracks are already starting to show between Donald Trump and Republicans.”

News Item: “Trump’s Transition Team is just now learning what a president does.”

The above is a selection of news items and opinion pieces I picked off the web this morning.  The opening statement says it all and, with it in mind, reading the headlines of the various stores and opinion pieces makes the authors seem ridiculous.  Why media would bother themselves with what critics say so soon after the election is not baffling.  It is a sign of desperation, an attempt to seem relevant, and effort to redeem themselves.

I don’t know why Donald Trump is giving the main stream media the time of day.  Yet, he did an interview for the Wall Street Journal and the CBS news program “60 Minutes.”  The media have advised Trump to hire Kelly Ayotte (of all people!) to run the Department of Defense, as a means of demonstrating an outreach to the disaffected parts of the Republican Party.  Stupid!  The media learned nothing.  Has it not occurred to them, that the outreach should start from the other side?  Let’s hear Kelly Ayotte grovel a bit and admit she’s the one who made the mistake concerning Trump.

The media commentariat have also been on Trump’s case concerning his renewed use of Twitter.

So far as Twitter is concerned, Trump praised its valuable use during the campaign, and said he planned to keep using it as president to get his message out directly to the people.  We would not have known of the congratulations offered Trump by Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney unless Trump had tweeted those facts, and media reported on the tweets not the underlying story.

The media have a vested interest in separating Trump from his followers.  I expect news stories fretting and worrying about Trump’s abandonment of the Special Prosecutor for Hillary, about the Wall, about repealing and replacing Obamacare, about his use of insiders for his transition team and cabinet when he promised to “drain the swamp” and so forth.

For my part, I am not going to pay attention to media reports that seem to create problems for Trump.  I’m going to let Trump take office, and hold any criticism for six months, giving the man time to get his feet under him and begin to move on his program.

The Affordable Care Act is going to get repealed.  Repeal is psychologically necessary for Republicans.  Critics will try to portray the replacement that keep some parts of Obamacare as a mean-spirited repeal in name only, like retaining the same bung-hole and replacing the drum around it.  I expect insurance for those with pre-existing conditions will find a place in the replacement, but the individual mandate will be gone.  Medicare is going to have to be fixed, and I hope to see tort-reform as part of the insurance package.

I expect that by March, 2017, Hillary’s fate will be determined, at least insofar as the emails are concerned.  The pay-for-play business of the Clinton Foundation is an entirely separate matter, and she is not cleared of that.  I pay no attention to Trump’s soothing words at the moment concerning Hillary.  He is committed to nothing, and there will be the problem of equal justice for all if he lets Hillary's known email crimes go uninvestigated.

I would like to see Trump nominate Ted Cruz as Justice Scalia’s replacement on the Supreme Court.  Cruz is not on Trump’s original list, but who would be a more Scalia-like justice?  Regardless, Trump is not going to let us down on that score.

When it gets around to the media covering Trump, I’m going to subscribe to his Twitter feed and ignore the failed main stream media.  I can judge for myself.

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