Over the past six months, my wife and I have both noticed — and repeatedly mentioned — something quite peculiar going on in the media: on a regular basis, almost like clockwork, two very different standards are applied to Trump and Biden. It’s gotten to the point that it almost seems like some kind of weird conspiracy.
Now, I don’t know if there’s an actual ‘conspiracy’ or not. But it’s clear that, somehow, there’s a bizarre ‘conspiracy of silence’ regarding all of Trump’s gaffes, lies, distortions, memory lapses, insults, and weird verbal meanderings — but meanwhile, every single statement, mistake, gaffe, or memory lapse made by Biden, no matter how tiny, is subjected to intense scrutiny and dissected to death.
This is no small matter. Rather, it’s huge.
One of the most consequential elections in modern U.S. history is fast approaching — and the media are once again falling down on the job, big time, just as they did in 2016. It’s truly weird — and inexplicable.
It almost seems that the media — even the ‘liberal’ media — want Biden’s accomplishments to be invisible, want Biden to fail, and want a known super-narcissist, sexual abuser, and vicious, vengeful demagogue to win the election.
But why? What the hell is going on?
Somehow, standards and rules don’t ever apply to Trump
IT (whatever ‘it’ is) has actually been going on for many years. Somehow, Donald Trump gets judged — or NOT judged — by entirely different standards than every other politician.
- Politicians are usually expected to be mainly honest and well-informed — but not Trump.
- Politicians are usually expected to have some relevant experience in public service or the military — but not Trump.
- In general, politicians are expected to behave maturely in public, and to show some empathy, restraint, and decorum — but not Trump.
- Politicians are expected to have a good working knowledge of our government and how it operates — but not Trump.
- Presidential candidates are expected to present a positive, pragmatic vision for the nation, and to adhere to an agreed-upon party ‘platform’ — but not Trump.
- All prior presidential candidates have personally praised and honored our military veterans — but not Trump.
- And in the past, any politician who didn’t follow these guidelines or fulfill these expectations would have been booted out of the race so fast their head would spin — but not Trump.
In fact, Donald Trump is the only politician and presidential candidate in American history who seems to have no standards at all applied to him. As in — NONE.
Again: What the hell is going on?
We’ve been ‘programmed’ to accept Trump’s BS, lies, and bravado
I can understand devoted Trump and MAGA followers lifting up ‘their guy,’ and not only giving him a pass on all sorts of bizarre, childish, and/or arrogant behaviors… but praising such behaviors, and totally loving him anyway. After all, he’s their ‘dear leader’ and (according to some) America’s ‘savior.’
But why the hell are the media also giving him a pass and a ‘free ride,’ most of the time? Is it for ratings? Is it just to sell more ad time, or get more and more sensational, juicy stories? What is it?
I suspect that these garden-variety capitalist motives can explain some of what’s happening — but not all of it. There’s an important ‘something else’ that’s having a huge impact — and I’m determined to sniff it out and get to the bottom of it.
Here’s my idea — or really, an interconnected series of ideas: Throughout his entire career, Trump has always led a ‘charmed’ life, and has always managed to avoid or evade accountability.
He has created an ‘aura of strength’ or an ‘aura of invincibility’ around himself — and this potent public image has seeped into our culture, and been branded into our brains by decades of Trumpian excess, bravado, sheer chutzpah — and by endless, breathless media coverage.
In that sense, I think Trump is a true master at manipulating the media, and has ‘branded himself’ so successfully that he has literally brainwashed most Americans to see him as he wishes to be seen, relate to him as he desires, and most importantly, accept all his lies, manipulations, and total BS — and let him get away with it.
Even worse, we’ve all been ‘programmed’ to adore his bad boy ways, and to actively embrace his devious, vengeful, or childish manipulations. “Boys will be boys”… ‘it’s all good’… no harm, no foul. (But it’s not good, and there IS harm — and plenty of it.)
A tremendous and terrible double standard
Unfortunately for the U.S. and our future, this repulsive social scenario includes the media; they seem no better off than the rest of us, in this regard.
That is, the media is just as brainwashed and enraptured with/befuddled by Trump as everyone else — despite the fact that they are supposed to be ‘objective,’ and are supposed to act as watchdogs of our semi-democracy.
Some of the media — the more ‘liberal’ outlets — do report on Trump’s lies, errors, insults, and vengeful promises… but somehow, none of this reporting ever goes anywhere, or leads to any deep investigations into Trump’s corruption and his growing malign influence. Again, why?
…
Once again, all paths seem to lead back to Trump’s decades-long self-promotion campaign and the media’s feckless, ridiculous embrace of his cocky bad boy image.
So, here’s what apparently happens, on the practical level: Trump’s effective ‘brainwashing’ of America and the media leads the media to gloss over or even ignore his terrible failings, foibles, dangerous impulses, and demagoguery. And simultaneously, the media homes in on every little fault, tic, faux pas, or mental lapse of other politicians — especially Joe Biden — and then latch on like ferocious pit bulls.
One presidential candidate — the deranged, manipulative, abusive, and overtly anti-democracy Donald Trump — gets pretty much a ‘free pass,’ while the other candidate — an aging, accomplished, but sometimes forgetful or vacuous Biden — gets raked over the coals and dissected ad nauseam.
Clearly, there’s a tremendous and terrible double standard at play here — and it is SO harmful and SO non-objective that our election and our future are now in grave danger directly because of this double standard.
A codependent, cozy ‘enabling’ relationship
Here’s another piece of this media puzzle: In an important sense, Donald Trump is a media creation. From his earliest days as a hot-shot real estate developer, Trump has been a media darling — even when they were purported to hate and despise him.
Trump has always, always ‘been there’ for the media, and supplies them with endless stories, gossip, and ‘news.’ And in return — the media has always ‘been there’ for him.
In a very real sense, there is no Donald Trump without the media — and the media seem only too glad to play their perverse part in supporting and expanding their Frankenstein ‘creation.’
It’s not much of a stretch, at all, to say that Trump and American media are in bed together, and together keep their highly codependent, cozy relationship going and growing. It may not be an actual conspiracy — but it’s close. It’s certainly a mutual enabling relationship.
Trump is always big news — and makes for big, big profits. So once again, our American capitalist system is actually working against us and failing us, miserably.
But with this fraught and highly consequential election approaching, we desperately need our American media to smell the coffee, wake up, man up (sorry, women), and do their friggin’ job!
Calling the ‘fourth estate’: goddammit, do your job!
Our print media used to function as the ‘fourth estate,’ keeping tabs on government and politicians, and (sometimes, at least) exposing what needed to be exposed. Our print media were deemed SO important that they were considered akin to a fourth branch of government — thus the title ‘fourth estate.’
But in recent decades, the media (print, TV, and others) have pretty much abandoned that role — and have stopped providing that essential service.
Sure, there’s the occasional heavily-reported scandal or piece of deep investigative reporting — but in general, the media has abandoned its watchdog role, and true investigative reporting is getting rarer and rarer.
However, in bizarre, crazy-making times like these, we desperately need the media to help educate and guide us — and we need them to adequately and objectively cover and investigate all presidential candidates.
Just because the media have a cozy, mutually-beneficial relationship with Trump is no excuse for giving him a pass and a ‘free ride’ most of the time.
The U.S. can’t afford to indulge the media’s one-sided, self-serving coverage any longer; things in today’s U.S. have gotten far too out of hand and far too dangerous.
U.S. media, it’s time to ‘put up or shut up.’ It’s way past time, already, to reclaim your once-proud mantle as our venerable and invaluable ‘fourth estate.’
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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Photo credit: The White House on Flickr
