Real Endgame For The President's Focus On 'Fake News' Is The Mueller Investigation

'Sarah Kendzior, a writer on politics who has a Ph.D. and is an expert on authoritarian regimes, offers insightful perspective on how this issue may well play out. Aggressively attacking the press and other perceived threats, she often points out, is a classic authoritarian tactic.



The president and his allies, she said to MSNBC in a recent interview, are now focused not just on undermining the Mueller investigation but in sowing the seeds for “how are Americans going to receive this information. Who are they going to consider trustworthy?” The president and allies are taking steps, Kendzior noted, “to make Americans think this is inaccurate information, or information we shouldn’t care about, or information we shouldn’t trust. They’ve been trying to put that groundwork in play for a long time, so that when Mueller does reveal more information, people simply won’t accept it as accurate or important.”

Yep, sounds like an entirely plausible endgame strategy of disinformation. It’s management of the most manipulative kind. If there does come a day when there is, say, an existential threat to the president from a major finding from the Mueller investigation implicating him, Mr. Trump can try to dismiss it with Ah, this is just another phony installment in a long line of fake news!

No matter that Mr. Mueller is a lifelong Republican. Or that he was appointed by a Republican. Or that he’s investigating a substantive threat to the democratic process from a powerful foreign adversary. Amid the constant attacks on the investigation’s credibility, what I personally find most disturbing is the lack of forceful condemnation (with the notable exception of a few independent-minded Senators like Flake, Corker and McCain) from the vast majority of Republicans in Congress.

They’re placing party over country, or perhaps more accurately, self over country."



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2018/01/21/the-real-endgame-for-the-presidents-focus-on-fake-news-is-the-mueller-investigation/amp/


This is not business as usual.

And continuing to live in denial and pretend that it is only makes it easier for them.