Will the Media be blamed for Trump

The answer is yes. What remains to be seen is whether it will be partly responsible for getting him elected or simply destroying the Republican party.

Media executives themselves have gone on record as say confirming they give Donald Trump special access.

CBS CEO Les Moonves said, “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” He said it was a “good thing.”

The “good thing,” was that the network’s ad revenue was driven up by the increased viewership resulting from the controversy created by Trump's insults.

CBS

The pro-Hillary Clinton site Media Matters said tv networks were letting Trump take over their news shows, letting him call in and get on at a moment’s notice.

Media Matters sent a letter to CBS: “Through the course of this election, time and time again your network allows Donald Trump call in to shows. We fully recognize that sometimes phone interviews are necessary. But Trump’s reliance on phone interviews is completely unprecedented and far exceeds what any other candidate has been allowed to do. By letting Trump phone it in, you’re just enabling media manipulation and reinforcing the idea that the more he takes, the more you'll give in. It's time for that to end.”

Media Matters

We’ve all seen this. Switch from one news channel to another and find Trump, even if he is not on the dais yet. Clinton was not shown after winning the Mississippi primary before everyone was focused on Trump.

Trump’s success may seem unprecedented, but war criminal Charles Taylor outdid him.

Taylor, who had fled charges in the U.S. and was trained by Muammar Gaddafi, led an invasion of his native Liberia.

He brought with him a satellite phone. He would daily be interviewed by the BBC and others, warning the Monrovia government that his forces were headed their way.

In many cases the government forces threw down their rifles and took off their uniforms believing Taylor was coming.

Supported by money made from blood diamonds and sales of guns to rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone, Taylor captured Liberia. He won the presidency campaigning on a slogan: "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him."

He began a reign of terror that only ended after several civil wars and the intervention of 2,300 U.S. Marines.

After escapes and captures ultimately Taylor was convicted of bloody crimes and imprisoned in a British prison.

This raises two questions. Is the media responsible for what follows its decisions to publicize controversial characters. Is regime change necessary sometimes.

During the latest Democratic debate, references to Gaddafi came and went without mentioning how he had killed hundreds of Americans and others bombing planes outside of Libya.

President Ronald Reagan tried to have Gaddafi assassinated but barely missed.

As a long-time journalist I am disturbed by the concept that we have to show the people what we want.

Often in news rooms I heard we had to report copycat killers because if we did not someone else will. My feeling was we do not have to do anything we don’t want to do. Certainly just not for ratings.

We know, as was written in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday:

 “American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class. During the past half-century of economic growth, virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class. The economists can supply caveats and refinements to that statement, but the bottom line is stark: The real family income of people in the bottom half of the income distribution hasn't increased since the late 1960s. ... During the same half-century, American corporations exported millions of manufacturing jobs (and) the federal government allowed the immigration, legal and illegal, of tens of millions of competitors for the remaining working-class jobs."

Chicago Tribune

Republican candidate Ted Cruz, who I rarely quote, said Trump has been deeply involved in the ripping off the working class, cooperating with people for sale in government and using bankruptcy laws to his benefit.

The reporting of events on the cables’ shows consistently favors Trump, at the least leaving out the most negative details.

On Thursday, March, 10, CNN reported on assault and battery charges being filed after a protestor was dragged from a Trump rally. They did not mention it was a Trump supporter who punched the victim.

Why is America so angry?

Kevin Spacey points out that imagination is the strongest form of energy. He created the equivalent of Donald Trump in House of Cards.

If you get all your news from cable you might believe that Donald Trump has tapped into a vast reservoir of anger.

And there is plenty of anger. But there are multiple possible reasons. Despite what news networks report over and over it is not just anger that people have to get by on less money, assuming they have jobs at all.

Network polls don’t ask about many of the other issues driving anger.

Some of the people attracted to Trump may be angry that the Supreme Court has protected abortion and gay rights.

Polls show a majority support these rulings, but plenty of people are very angry. They would support reversing these decisions if their candidate got into the White House.

People also are angry that local governments have to pull people over and give them tickets because tax cuts have governments with too little money to provide services expected by these same citizens.

Parking tickets are eagerly issued, and cars towed. Owners sometimes have to pay $100 or $200 retrieve them.

Though it is not related to income, widely publicized killings of unarmed civilians by heavily armed police has angered some people, and not just the black community that is so often the victim.

Governments at all levels caved in to pressure from the Tea Party to reduce taxes at the same time we were fighting wars and expected to provide health care for wounded veterans. Many of these veterans are still waiting.

And Trump is not the only one benefiting from anger. Bernie Sanders is getting thousands of donations from people angered by what Wall Street did to America’s economy and neighborhoods. There is a widespread feeling they largely got away with it without being punished.

Sanders has been able to win some support by linking Hillary Clinton to the banks.

Usually being considered a socialist is enough to turn off American voters. Not this time.

Sanders won a surprise victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday, at least partly because independents chose to vote in the Democratic primary and because some Democrats were detected voting in the Republican primary, for reasons that can only be guessed.

The Atlantic

That Trump, who has ripped so many people off with his private businesses, some of which then declared  bankruptcy, is ironic. 

“The central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class. During the past half-century of economic growth, virtually none of the rewards have gone to the working class. The economists can supply caveats and refinements to that statement, but the bottom line is stark: The real family income of people in the bottom half of the income distribution hasn't increased since the late 1960s. ... During the same half-century, American corporations exported millions of manufacturing jobs (and) the federal government allowed the immigration, legal and illegal, of tens of millions of competitors for the remaining working-class jobs."

http://trib.in/2238mGh

Funny, journalists are often taught not to use that word. Never in my lifetime has it seemed so appropriate.

There is an expression in America, often used in song lyrics and movies: be careful what you wish for you may get it.

For followers of the Netflix series “House of Cards” everything Trump has done has already been done by Kevin Spacey.

Comparing Bernie to Eugene McCarthy

I still vividly recall being harassed by fellow college seniors for volunteering to work for Bobby Kennedy. They strongly supported Eugene McCarthy because he confronted President Lyndon Johnson months before RFK.

What is happening today, at least in my eyes, is similar to 1968.

McCarthy’s troops, led by students, hated Bobby for waiting so long. The fact that politicians would hate him for challenging LBJ did not matter to these students.

To a certain degree Hillary Clinton is in a similar fix.

And so is the country. If Sanders’ cadres drop her it could elect Donald Trump. In 1968, after Bobby was killed, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Hubert Humphrey. Richard Nixon was elected. No more need be said.

So should Bernie back off, or even consider running as Hillary’s vice president? That is what it looks like to me.

The Daily Beast suggested Sanders is not a candidate suited for minorities because he does not understand them. It’s not just about poverty. Some minorities are middle class are doing even better. But they face constant insults and in some cases, are targets for police.

The Daily Beast

This raises the philosophical question can individual can only answer for herself or himself.

Should I vote for the lesser of all the evils or not vote and take what happens. At least then the voter can not be blamed. Or can he/she.

Then there is the question of whether citizens should abandon the ballot box or if that is a sort of treason.

It is unreasonable to say this is not the same issue because we do not have 500,000 mostly drafted soldiers in Vietnam.

Trump and most of the leading Republicans are ready to carpetbomb the Middle East and any other area they fear.

More bombs were dropped on Laos alone than the U.S. dumped in World War 2.

Legacies of War

Though it is not being mentioned much, if at all, by the mainstream media. The declining living standards may not be the only thing angering people.

Some of these people willing to ignore outrageous statements by Trump may be so angry because they are upset with court decisions allowing gays to marry and continuing to allow women to have abortions and many other issues that are not being decided they way they would prefer.