I don’t think President Trump should tweet so much. I also don’t think his tweeting is worth throwing a fit about. I neither worship him nor loathe him with every fibre of my being, which makes me a minority in 2017. Or, to coin a term, a meh-nority.
This means I’m annoyed by a lot of things both sides do, but I’m also amused by a lot of things they do. Such as the following, which actually appeared in the Newspaper of Record yesterday. Michael M. Grynbaum, NYT:
President Trump posted a short video to his Twitter account on Sunday in which he is portrayed wrestling and punching a figure whose head has been replaced by the logo for CNN…
The wrestling video, which was also posted to the official @POTUS Twitter account, stirred criticism, disbelief and dumbfoundedness. Some journalists denounced its portrayal of violence as dangerous, saying it could incite attacks or threats against news media employees.
“I think it is unseemly that the president would attack journalists for doing their jobs, and encourage such anger at the media,” said Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times.
Someone fetch the smelling salts! Dean Baquet is having a spell.
That’s right: Rep. Steve Scalise is still in the hospital after an outspoken Democrat named James T. Hodgkinson specifically targeted Republicans for death, but Trump is the real problem here.
If you haven’t seen his highly dangerous tweet, here it is. TRIGGER WARNING: This is a warning that you may be triggered.
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2017
Look, when I saw this, I winced. It’s dumb. It’s neither presidential nor “MODERN-DAY PRESIDENTIAL.” I don’t like it when he does this stuff, and I wish he’d knock it off.
But he’s not “encouraging anger at the media.” The media encourages anger at the media. Trump is just taking advantage of it. It’s the same thing he’s been doing for the past couple of years. It’s one of the biggest reasons he won. And our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters haven’t learned anything from it.
CNN is getting stomped in the ratings, to indulge in yet another violent metaphor. The NYT is laying off employees left and right (but mostly left). Their formula isn’t working. Their worldview isn’t realistic. Their biases are undisguised. That’s why they’re failing bigly.
Fine by me.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯