A Conspiracy Theory's Journey From Talk Radio to Trump's Twitter
By PETER BAKER and MAGGIE HABERMANMARCH 5, 2017
WASHINGTON It began at 6 p.m. Thursday as a conspiratorial rant on conservative talk radio: President Barack Obama had used the instrumentalities of the federal government to wiretap the Republican seeking to succeed him. This is the big scandal, Mark Levin, the host, told his listeners.
By Friday morning, the unsubstantiated allegation had been picked up by Breitbart News, the site once headed by President Trumps chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon. Less than 24 hours later, the president embraced the conspiracy in a series of Twitter posts accusing his predecessor of spying on him, setting in motion the latest head-spinning, did-he-really-say-that furor of Mr. Trumps six-week-old presidency.
Previous presidents usually measured their words to avoid a media feeding frenzy, but Mr. Trump showed again over the weekend that he feeds off the frenzy. Uninhibited by the traditional protocols of his office, he makes the most incendiary assertions based on shreds of suspicion. He does so without consulting some of his most senior aides, or even agencies of his own government that might have contrary information. After setting off a public firestorm with no proof, he then calls for an investigation to find the missing evidence.
To his adversaries, Mr. Trumps bomb-throwing seems like a calculated strategy to distract from another story he wants to avoid. In this case, they said Sunday, he clearly wanted to turn the conversation away from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself last week from any federal investigation into the Trump campaigns links with Russia in response to reports that he had met with Russias ambassador during the presidential race. Instead of what Mr. Sessions did or did not do, the Sunday talk shows were dominated by discussion about what Mr. Obama did or did not do.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/05/us/politics/trump-twitter-talk-radio-conspiracy-theory.html?emc=edit_th_20170306&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284&_r=0
Initech
(100,108 posts)We have an actual conspiracy and a huge cover up unfolding before our eyes, and they'd rather make shit up that didn't happen just out of spite for Obama. It's fucked up.
no_hypocrisy
(46,232 posts)In a competition of "Can you top this"?
Levin may not have anticipated his rhetorical hyperbole would run away like it did. Or worse, he did.