Blast #154

 
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                                                   “In Trump/Bannon We Trust?”
 
             In case you hadn’t noticed, the First Amendment is facing a full frontal assault from the denizens of the White House.  After Trump declared the free press “the enemy of the people,” Sean Spicer held an “off-camera gaggle” meeting of reporters in which CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, and Politico reporters were not invited.  This followed Steve Bannon’s CPAC speech which denounced the free press as “globalist” and “corporatist” and personae non grata as far as the Trump administration was concerned.  As the days pass, we are being given a clearer and clearer view of the Trump/Bannon strategy for dissembling our democracy.  As Bannon noted, Cabinet members were chosen as part of a strategy to “deconstruct the administrative state.”  In short, the system that is in place (aided and abetted by “globalists” and the “opposition party” media) is “adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump has,” according to Bannon. (Washington Post, Feb 23rd).  This extreme nationalism has obviously struck a responsive chord among many Americans (stop shaking your heads, East and West Coast liberals/progressives --- it’s a big country!) --- combining that with the current distrust of the media makes this a particularly dangerous cocktail being served to the American people.

            Conflicting polls were released late this week about “trust.”  At odds were Emerson College and Quinnipiac University polls about how “trusted” the media is, as compared to Trump/the Trump Administration (an important word-choice distinction, as people might answer questions differently if it is focused on "President Trump" as opposed to his “Administration”).  The Quinnipiac poll found: A majority of Americans, 52%, said they trust the news media over Donald Trump to tell the truth about important issues. Only 37% said they trusted Trump more.” (Note that the Quinnipiac poll asked if people trusted “Trump,” not the “Trump Administration.”)  Emerson, on the other hand found: “The Trump administration is more trusted than the news media among voters, according to a new Emerson College poll.  The administration is considered truthful by 49 percent of registered voters and untruthful by 48 percent. But the news media is less trusted than the administration, with 53 percent calling it untruthful and just 39 percent finding it honest.”  In both polls the answers cleaved to party lines with Republicans/conservatives trusting the President and his Administration far more than believing the media was “honest” and Democrats/liberals finding the President and his Administration “untruthful” and the media quite reliable.  That the press is found un-credible is, to me, incredible!  To not know the media is biased is to be naïve --- but to think it is not reporting the truth is to be ignorant.  As a former teacher, I am reminded every day that we (educators) do not do a good enough job teaching students critical reading skills.  Of course we now have a President who does not (or cannot) read (and I do believe that, at best, this man has some serious Learning Disabilities that probably require short-bus transportation) but insists that those who actually do read, should not --- because the material is critical of him!  Nonetheless, that only 39% to 53% of the public (according to Emerson & Quinnipiac)  trust the media is a serious, serious problem.
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         If people do not trust the “mainstream media” where are they getting their information?  The Washington’s Birthday BLAST (#150 in Blast/Archive) presented the Pew Research about where people are getting their news and “screens”(television/online) is the answer.  Yet, when people say they get their “news” online we don’t know, exactly, what that means.  Are they reading The NY Times or Wall Street Journal online or are they going to a YouTube of Alex Jones and InfoWars?  Are they simply on Facebook and reading posts from their “friends” (who probably share their views) reinforcing their ideas?  We know that people will naturally “flock together” and exist in a bubble of like-minded thinkers (?) but does that mean a biased newspaper (as the New York Times is) is not printing  the TRUTH? 

             This is Trump’s and Bannon’s “Big Lie” and it is a highly dangerous one.  In their desire to roll back history (and I highly recommend Sunday’s NYTimes Sunday Review front page story on “What Does Steve Bannon Want?" by conservative writer Christopher Caldwell) and promote their “economic nationalist agenda” there is a strong undercurrent of xenophobia with vilification of anyone or anything not white, male, hetero-, and Judeo-Christian.  We can count on Trump thumping the press throughout his time in the White House and we should turn back his assaults on the First Amendment every chance we get.  But we must also be wary of how the uber-nationalism of Bannon infects the policies of this administration.  Tuesday’s Joint Session of Congress speech (not exactly a State of the Union address) will reveal much of the “chief strategist’s” thinking as we head further into 2017.  All citizens who value living in a democracy need to be paying careful attention.