As a card-carrying (and even lanyard-encasing) member of the Fourth Estate, I take more than professional umbrage at being part of a presidential-scapegoat, target strategy. For being a de facto “fake news” foot soldier in some Oval Office “witch hunt.”
This is beyond partisan politics; beyond anti-elite populism; beyond “House of Cards” perfidy.
This is an outrageous, democratic dagger. Much more is at stake than just the hurt feelings of those who don’t like it when they themselves are in the rhetorical cross hairs.
Having a proven pathological liar who belongs in tabloids–not mainstream media–casting aspersions on those who hold him accountable is not business as usual in a media-intense democracy. This is not thin-skinned over-reaction from a vain press that criticizes and satirizes for a living.
What we are living through now is a right-wing, press-demonizing threat with precedents that are typically associated with authoritarians and dictators. The Reich Stuff should not be an American presidential theme.
And how ironic that in the midst of presidential prevarication, there comes an acknowledgement from Trump himself as to why he actually does what he does. “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all,” he admitted. “So when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
Out of the mouths of knaves.