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Theodora30's avatar

Today the WaPo’s Greg Sargent criticizes the media for falling for the Trump administration’s pretense of mending fences with Fauci:

“ Don’t get snowed by this new scam.

What’s really going on here is a kind of two-step, a double game. Trump and his advisers want him to reap the political benefits of appearing to harbor general respect for Fauci’s expertise, while simultaneously continuing to undermine Fauci’s actual claims about the threat the novel coronavirus will continue to pose — because those claims badly undermine Trump’s reelection message.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/16/dont-get-fooled-by-trumps-cynical-new-scam-coronavirus/

We need many more journalists refusing to play along with Trump’s PR and willing to point out the deliberate deceptions Trump is trying to sell.

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dbtheonly's avatar

Mr. Boehlert,

I suggest we are in a zone where the previous norms simply don't apply.

We have the President of the United States selling beans from the Oval Office.

We have Republican Senators demanding the Federal Government occupy States that do not pay sufficient deference to the President. (And yes, the similarities to the Civil War do not escape me, despite the radical differences in causes)

We have major Presidential Advisors attacking career Civil servants.

We have the White House seizing control of reports on deaths by disease that normally would go to the CDC.

What is the role of the Press here?

Should they refuse to cover statements by the President of the United States?

What about Presidential "infomercials"?

What about when the President veers into an "infomercial"?

Fact check presidential statements in real time?

Then there's the issue that the Republicans and the President actively are creating and/or supporting an alternative "Press" that encourages all their behaviour.

What is the answer?

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