[View here as a Twitter thread]
@ezraklein explains what he sees as the media’s lose-lose situation: They can’t ignore POTUS’s lies and outrageous behavior. The public needs to know. But when they respond, they play into Trump’s hands.
1/ @ezraklein understands Trump has deliberately turned the media into his enemy and attacks them relentlessly. The media loses whatever they do—and he’s right. Trump’s techniques Trump are effective & easy to use: He controls the national conversation by manufacturing crises.
2/ Like Putin, he keeps everyone reeling by telling outrageous lies. Anytime he wants to hijack the national conversation, he does or threatens to do something outrageous. Or he tosses out something like “I can pardon anyone I want,” or “I can rewrite the 14th amendment.”
3/ It’s not just the media. I see lots of people get extremely upset and focus completely on whatever Trump is threatening to do. When lawyers say, “He cannot do these things legally,” everyone cries: “What if he does it anyway! What if he gets away with it?”
4/ Well, of course he CAN do these things. Why? Because it’s in the realm of possibilities that he makes himself dictator. He wants to be like Putin. His followers want America to be like Russia.
5/ To create an American Russia in which Trump can do anything he wants, he simply uses Putin’s techniques of keeping everyone reeling. One way to stop him is to vote out a Congress that shields him. How? Don’t let him control what we talk about in the days before the election.
6/ We have to pull together and not play Trump’s game. I agree that we can’t ignore outrageous behavior. So how about briefly pointing out the lie or provoking behavior, explain the truth or how he’s manipulating us, and then move on and talk about something else.
7/ Then go back to what matters. Talk about the latest shooting, and GOP ties to the NRA. Talk about Russia. Talk about Jamal Khashoggi. Perhaps talk about WHY he lies and why his followers believe whatever he says.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/trump-lies-kavanaugh-khashoggi.html
8/ If a child threatens to break into the cookie jar, you don’t spend weeks discussing whether he can get away with it, or what you’ll do if he does. You take steps to stop him. As long as the press reports the truth & things Trump doesn’t want to talk about, he’ll attack.
9/ The press has a choice: Act like Fox and incur Trump’s approval, or speak the truth and incur his wrath. It’s factuality v. Trump. I think the solution is to acknowledge his antics, and then talk about the things he’s trying to distract us from.
