Paul Waldman, specifically. He outright says that Trump is a crook.
One remarkable thing about the 2016 election is the way Trump’s business career was given such a superficial examination by the media as a whole. Again and again, some crazy story or unusual aspect of his financial life would be the topic of one or two investigative stories, but those stories wouldn’t get picked up by other outlets.
Making this more problematic, Trump isn’t someone who played close to the line a time or two, or once did a shady deal. He may well be the single most corrupt major business figure in the United States of America. He ran scams like Trump University to con struggling people out of their money. He lent his name to pyramid schemes. He bankrupted casinos and still somehow made millions while others were left holding the bag. He refused to pay vendors. He exploited foreign workers. He used illegal labor. He discriminated against African American renters. He violated Federal Trade Commission rules on stock purchases. He did business with the mob and with Eastern European kleptocrats. His properties became the go-to vehicle for Russian oligarchs and mobsters to launder their money.
So it was no accident that when he ran for president, the people who joined him in his quest were also a collection of grifters, liars, and crooks — people such as Paul Manafort. Those were the kind of operators Trump has attracted all his life. Honest, upright people with a deep respect for the law don’t go to work for Donald Trump.
That is remarkable. All throughout the election campaign, those horrible little stories about Trump’s sleazy business practices would trickle out — we all saw them — and then the press would shrug and move on to something else (Hillary’s emails!). Any one of those things would have scuttled an ordinary candidate: heck, Howard Dean made a loud yell and boom, it was all anyone talked about and it killed his presidential run. Trump wouldn’t even release his tax returns, which should have had everyone deeply suspicious.
We don’t just have a corrupt president, we have a corrupt media.
We have to destroy The Village, to save The Village.
Napalm away!
I have to look askance at all the people who are just figuring this out now. Trump has hardly made a secret of being a malignant narcissist, and he’s been a public figure for decades. We may not have known the specific details, but for the love of Glod, why is ANYBODY surprised that Trumplethinskin is and always has been a crook?
Commented some place else, if the “parade” dear Trump wants ever happens, instead of not showing up, everyone should show up with every music capable device they can manage, and the Star Wars Imperial March queued up, in preparation for when they see the tanks show up. lol
Not only would nobody with an ounce of honesty choose to work for Trump, it’s also clear that if he takes over a business (or a government) he will sack anyone who shows the faintest sign of integrity.
The entire system is corrupt.
That’s what you get when you allow the media to do whatever it wants, including ignore reality.
Maybe it’s about time the American Left realize that censorship and media control is a GOOD thing rather than cling to that 18th-century scrap of paper (i.e. “The Bill of Rights)? Time to renegotiate the whole “Freedom of Speech/Press/Religion/Assembly” thing. Time to understand that some groups in this civilization have absolutely NOTHING to say and shouldn’t be allowed to pollute society with their superstitious bullshit.
Only problem with that Akira is that you have to have semi-uncorrupted people in charge to start with, and a study progress towards restraining the right people. Right now… even if we got the “left” elected in the US, it wouldn’t be the bloody left that would make sensible decisions about who to restrict.
one off the problems that has led to the situation we find ourselves in is politics has become more of a spectator phenomena. It is covered like any other contest they even sometimes describe it as a horse race. we have each or favorite team to root for but the engagement with the issues and the day to day governing is left to the few. the understanding of the consequences of laws and policies enacted are rarely discussed without resorting to which “team” is winning. Ignorance reigns supreme posturing wins the day
off of sometimes i am too disgusted to notice what is typed
uncle frogy
Using censorship to silence bad ideas does not work.
The problem is advancing education and the capacity to think.
Watching the Trump fiasco from the UK, two things are clear. One, that US politics is 100% corrupted by money, and two, that there is no left wing party for balance. The Democrats are quite clearly a right wing party; the GOP further to the right. I see GOP congress members talking about Democrats as ‘far left’ and have to laugh. So along came Trump. The GOP had a field of 17 corrupt candidates, and picked a corrupt candidate? Well, ain’t that a surprise!
As to the media, we have broadcast standards here to which news stations are required to adhere, and broadcast licences can potentially be revoked. Robert Murdoch(barf!) can and does have TV stations here, but he can’t broadcast Fox News. They wouldn’t last a week.
The worst example I see of your press is during the White House press briefing. JFCOAPS, when is someone going to stand up and challenge Sandra H-S?. The word is ‘lie’, you invertebrates. Stop using your thesauruses, and call it what it is, to her lying face.
Akira,
What do you mean by “it’s about time” ;)
Yeah, let’s “renegotiate” freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly. And, while we’re all, let’s go whole hog and “renegotiate” democracy. Wait….
Says you exercising a right that you want to “renegotiate”.
Why do we keep blaming the media? Let’s be honest: it’s us; the media just holds up a mirror.
@13
This is the problem. The media shouldn’t be holding up a mirror, it should hold up a lense. It should be vicious to all institutions including itself.
The problem is just about all media is for profit. So like Facebook, the consumers are really the product, for advertisers. This doesn’t lead to good journalism. Instead it turns any ‘issue’ into a sporting event. Which team do you support? From print to 24 hour cable news there is no central push to inform, only to entertain so the viewers become products for sale. Corruption ensues.
That’s what Sinclair Broadcasting and FOX News is doing, is it? Not manipulating, misrepresenting, or propagating propaganda? Please, pull your finger out.
billyjoe,
If a physician’s license can be revoked for malpractice, why can’t a journalist’s? I do not consider that a limitation of the freedom of press at all. If you want to be a journalist, do the fucking job.
Yeah, Trump is the most crooked, compromised president in our history but, if he has done anything, he’s revealed how complicit the GOP and the religious right are with that. With a couple of well-known exceptions, I don’t think the traditional media is complicit but its clear that they stopped doing their jobs for some reason. Ratings? More clicks? I don’t know the real reasons but they’ve gone from investigators to trying to show unwarranted impartiality. What is absolutely tragic on all this is that it has become a perfect storm, all converging at the same time and providing for a high probability that, as a nation, we’re fucked.
@6
Yep, exactly. Sometimes you have to amputate a limb to save the body.
The NSW police (far from a law enforcement paragon of virtue) had Trump nailed 30 years ago:
Guardian Article
Corrected link:
Guardian Article
Akira MacKenzie @6: Hey, don’t forget the reeducation camps and the Department of Cultural Oversight! This sort of thing always works so well.
Step 1: Remove the newsroom from the P&L sheet. When it was added, the newsroom went to the “If if bleeds, it leads” and “Infotainment”. Ultimately, Faux Noise.
reitpluim,
I didn’t know you had to have a licence to practise journalism.
If so, I would agree that it should be revoked for malpractice.
I’m not sure how that effects my above comment though.
(In “proper English” – I know, I know – it’s “licence” and “practice” for the noun, and “license” and “practise” for the verb, not that I care if you use them interchangeably).
Porivil,
Sometimes quite literally.
My sister is obese, inactive, and has a really bad diet. She also has IHD, T2DM, highLDL, and PVD. A few years ago she developed a big toe infection which slowly spread up her leg requiring multiple hospital admissions for just over a year. She was sick and miserable for the whole twelve months and it was actually a relief for her to eventually have the leg amputated. The same thing happened other other leg a couple of years later, except that she gave the antibiotics only a few moths this time.
[BJ, FYI, American English makes no such distinction, yet it is not “improper” English]
The anger will never subside about 2016 for me. But it is mostly amusing to see how this kind of media scolding is now allowed by WaPo, NYT, etc. so long as they don’t name names. And it’s absolutely verboten to ever admit their own publication’s complicity in the both-siderist lie, or the never-ending, all-pervasive Clinton-derangement-syndrome (NYT motto: “But her emails!”). Also see: https://twitter.com/EricBoehlert/status/974838184742879235
Clinton was not my first choice. But the difference between her and Trump is the difference between holding your nose for 4 years, and uncontrollable vomiting for 4 years. The mainstream SCLM collectively chose vomiting. Apparently, it sells subs. I know more than one liberal who fell for the NYT’s post-election “help us keep Trump honest” pitch.
#11 Davem You are right but we used to have good media but I want to say 20 years ago our media changed to fricken Enquire style reporting and about sleaze. The decent reporting is still out there it is just not the main news anymore. Thank goodness for Corbert and the like or we would have nothing. I am sure the fact that Clear Channel owns most of the media has a huge impact. Guess what they love the loser in the WH. Corporate America sucks and is running this country. I may have to become an Expat in retirement as I cannot stomach this crap much longer.
“Trump wouldn’t even release his tax returns, which should have had everyone deeply suspicious.”
Trump wasn’t the only candidate who wouldn’t release his tax returns. I seem to recall you supporting the other one.
Khal Draugr #28
How do you know who margecullen supported.
JM, you must have missed where I said: In “proper English” – I know, I know…
billyjoe,
Not very long ago, doctors weren’t required to have a license either, but we fixed that too.
reitpluim,
So you are advocating the licensing of journalist. I would support that endeavor but I’m not sure I’d be totally confident of the result of doing so. There are many doctors raking in million spreading pseudoscience and medical quackery and, as you say, they already have to be licensed. I guess you also need regulating bodies with teeth.