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The Third Debate: When Trump Goes Low, the Media Go Lower
http://billmoyers.com/story/debate-defining-deviancy-competence-media-trump/The Third Debate: When Trump Goes Low, the Media Go Lower
We've had unqualified and extremist candidates for president before, but we have never had anything like Donald Trump. And it's clear that our media are not equipped to handle him.
By Eric Alterman | October 20, 2016
It’s hard to put one’s finger on what has been most depressing about the presidential election campaign we’ve witnessed. Obviously, the central problem is that Republicans somehow nominated Donald Trump, a man who:
a) Has no relevant qualifications to be president;
b) Is ignorant about most significant policy issues;
c) Is a raging narcissist;
d) Purposely stokes prejudice;
e) Purposely stokes violence;
f) Purposely stokes sexism;
g) Purposely stokes anti-Semitism;
h) Is himself a sexual predator;
i) Is a dishonest business person;
j) Wants to give additional tax breaks to the wealthy;
k) Encourages assassination threats to his opponent;
l) Encourages a foreign power to spy on Americans and interfere with our election process;
m) Refuses to release the most basic information about his finances and his health;
n) Is a pathological liar;
o) Refuses to renounce the support of neo-nazis and other hate groups;
p) Does not understand how a bill becomes law;
q) Does not understand how the US alliance system works;
r) Does not understand how international trade works;
s) Thinks a “fence” can keep out undocumented workers;
t) Thinks Mexico would pay for such a fence;
u) Does not know that the largest number of immigrants come from India and China, not Mexico;
v) Makes wild, outlandish charges against his opponents without evidence and then denies having made them;
w) Pays no taxes;
x) Makes fun of disabled people;
y) Attacks the parents of dead US soldiers; and
z) Threatens to jail his political opponents and refuses to accept the legitimacy of the US democratic process.
b) Is ignorant about most significant policy issues;
c) Is a raging narcissist;
d) Purposely stokes prejudice;
e) Purposely stokes violence;
f) Purposely stokes sexism;
g) Purposely stokes anti-Semitism;
h) Is himself a sexual predator;
i) Is a dishonest business person;
j) Wants to give additional tax breaks to the wealthy;
k) Encourages assassination threats to his opponent;
l) Encourages a foreign power to spy on Americans and interfere with our election process;
m) Refuses to release the most basic information about his finances and his health;
n) Is a pathological liar;
o) Refuses to renounce the support of neo-nazis and other hate groups;
p) Does not understand how a bill becomes law;
q) Does not understand how the US alliance system works;
r) Does not understand how international trade works;
s) Thinks a “fence” can keep out undocumented workers;
t) Thinks Mexico would pay for such a fence;
u) Does not know that the largest number of immigrants come from India and China, not Mexico;
v) Makes wild, outlandish charges against his opponents without evidence and then denies having made them;
w) Pays no taxes;
x) Makes fun of disabled people;
y) Attacks the parents of dead US soldiers; and
z) Threatens to jail his political opponents and refuses to accept the legitimacy of the US democratic process.
My computer tells me that I have run out of letters of the alphabet, but I promise I could go on and on. I did not mention for instance, that he thinks global warming is a Chinese conspiracy to undermine US manufacturing; or that he violates the privacy of women’s changing rooms; or brags about wanting to date 10-year-olds; or sexually ogles his own daughter; or threatens to sue the media over unfavorable stories; or believes Saturday Night Live is part of a global conspiracy with the Clinton administration, the news media, the banks, George Soros and Sidney Blumenthal to steal the election for his opponent. And again, I could go on — I promise.
snip//
And finally, consider this: Yes, Donald Trump will not be president. But according to any number of reliable reports, he is likely to begin a new media corporation that will ensure that the virus (viruses?) he has unleashed into our body politic remain and grow stronger. Indeed, he already may have begun it. We will soon be living in a world where the craziness on display at Fox News will become the new center as craven media executives like CNN’s Jeff Zucker seek to placate Trump’s audience with more Jeffrey Lord and Corey Lewandowski — that latter of whom was being paid by Trump at the same time CNN was treating him as a honest political analyst.
I believe, with the great Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci in “optimism of the will, pessimism of the intellect,” but given the state of our democracy and the role our media have played in degrading it, one has to work harder every day merely to remember what is at stake and why we must continue the struggle to prevent Trump’s new normal from further sickening our country, no matter what the outcome of the election.
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