I would normally steer clear of criticizing the mainstream news media, because it sounds so dissonant and crazy when it comes from the Wacko-American community. But this time it is so jarring and discordant that it draws all eyes to the incompetence and indifference of the corporate news media.

 

Without the Washington Post and CNN cleaning up his act Trump is a cranky old man who makes no sense when he talks. Without the hands off coverage by ABC, NBC and CBS Trump’s “press conferences” would appear on TV as chaotic and disjoint as the events themselves. Trump meanders from topic to topic, taunting and teasing the news media to hold him to account for his lies, racist diatribes and general craziness. Can anyone explain his repeated references to “the late great Hannibal Lecter” or his assurance to the religious right that once he is elected they will never have to vote again, or the inability of a single journalist — of either gender, any country, any publication — to investigate the $10M bribe Trump took from Egypt before the 2016 election that went right into his campaign? Apparently Trump has told Netanyahu not to make peace because it would give a boost to the Biden campaign, a prima facie violation of the Logan Act. Trump ordered Republican Members of Congress not to pass a comprehensive, bi-partisan immigration bill because chaos at the border is Trump’s friend, giving him yet another issue to use to mobilize his stultifyingly brain dead followers.

 

In the normal functioning of a democracy the press plays a crucial role keeping elected officials honest. In Trumpworld, however, the news media works mightily to blast the former president’s crazy talk to the world at large. The most telling thing about Trump’s four indictments is what is not there, the dog that did not bark, the stories that do not appear in print or in the electronic media.  The criminal justice system has managed to indict Trump for attempting to overthrow the 2020 election, for stealing and hiding a massive amount of secret government documents, for attempting to strong arm Georgia election officials to give him a victory he did not earn at the ballot box, and for paying off Stormy Daniels because another sex scandal after the Hollywood Access tape would have ended his candidacy.

 

What did not happen is for the commercial news media to use its independence to investigate any of Trump’s transgressions. A small handful of very wealthy white men — Trump’s base if there ever was one — own and control the near totality of American media. Every one of these guys is David Pecker, the former publisher of a publication that publishes only lies, who are happy to help Donald keep his secrets hidden. The media let George Bush Senior escape responsibility for the illegal sale of weapons, and they let his son get away with lying about his military service. But now there aren’t even difficult topics being breached, much less investigated and revealed.

 

An unprecedented 1,219,487 Americans have died of COVID-19 so far.  The Trump administration’s response was dishonest, ineffective and lethal. You’d think that would be an issue the press would pick up on in this election, but no.  It is absolutely appalling job performance but it doesn’t figure into news coverage at all.  Just Trump being Trump.  Nothing to see, move along…

 

Trump lies, cheats, steals, tells untrue ridiculous crazy stories and engages in misleading or just factually incorrect excuses for why nothing has ever been his fault. The news media records it, writes it downs, regurgitates it into the mouths of their listeners and viewers like a mother robin feeding her young. In this target-rich environment for investigative reporting into Trump’s illegal acts instead they give us silence. The press seems to be acting on the entirely fatuous idea that if they were tough on Trump that would be unfair, since that might change the outcome of the election. I can’t think of a single serious attempt to uncover and explain Trump’s crimes — not the ones in the past nor the ones Trump and his minions appear to be planning for the future.

 

Jefferson famously said if he had to choose between a republican form of government or a free press he would choose a free press. A couple of centuries later our republican form of government is under extreme pressure and the free press is asleep at the wheel, merely watching Trump and covering his antics.