Beware the Talkers
Published in Marietta Daily Journal Feb. 5, 2017
Talkers are all around us;
professional talkers, I mean. It’s wise to consider just how much influence and
power they have.
Professional talkers have the power
to woo and impress the uninformed and unthinking. Spiffy looking and seemingly
educated, they can lead low information voters into whatever opinion or
perspective they wish.
And just who are they? They are America’s television “news” media,
the chattering class of “reporters” and commentators who are blending news and
opinion so thoroughly that reliable, non-print news is almost non-existent.
For
instance, can anyone who watches network or cable television news deny that the
majority of the news anchors and commentators are all out to get President
Trump’s head? Were they equally engaged
in having President Obama’s head?
Chuck Todd of NBC, George Stephanopoulos
of ABC (a former Bill Clinton operative), Chris Cuomo of CNN (son of former New
York Democratic governor Mario Cuomo), and Chris Matthews of MSNBC (former
staff member of Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neil) are but a scant few of the many
whose bile is poured out daily on the person – not just the policies – of
President Trump.
Their loathing for the President is writ large
on their faces. They view him as an
unsavory interloper who is threatening their kingdom and who needs to be told
how to do his job.
However, for the first time in my
life we have a president who ain’t gonna take it. Donald Trump got into the game of politics
knowing from prior business experience that he had better beware of the
talkers. His tact (and his nature) has
been to give as good as he gets. Trump
has “shuffled America’s ideological deck,” as the Wall Street Journal recently
put it, thereby confusing the chattering class.
How do you figure out a guy whose vice-president is a traditional,
ideological conservative and whose Secretary of State has shown he knows how to
take advantage, legally, of big government for the good of his business?
President Trump is jerking the media
around and they hardly realize it. They
characterize him as moving from one crisis to another while he’s actually
distracting them by moving from one action to another, actions which he promised
during his race that he would take.
Claiming that Mr. Trump’s presidency is in chaos, it is they who are in
chaos.
The most ironic thing about the
situation is that America’s left, for whom the media are heralds, helped create
Donald Trump. How could the left and
their heralds not be aware of the populist movements around the world? How could populism go mainstream without
their seeing it? How could the American media be so out of tune
to Europe’s growing opposition to immigration and globalism?
Populism’s motto is “a pox on both
your houses,” and both houses (national parties) are fast catching on. The media, however, is slow. Fast talking, but slow to see and understand
the rising tide of the working class so ignored by Hillary Clinton.
The
chattering class is still in shock. They
didn’t even know Joe Lunchbox was alive and kicking, much less voting. It slipped them that “borders” and “America
First” are not considered ugly words by the working class, that the upper
Midwest was up for grabs, and that the West’s Judeo-Christian ethic is not a relic
of the Dark Ages after all.
Because of the chattering class’
anger, President Trump will have to be and will be on his toes. He is the target of people who are losing
their power. They will resort to smear.
They are being dominated at every turn, however, by a President who is always
on offense. The media has never before
had to play defense.
In a much neglected 1972 case
(Branzburg vs. Hayes), the Supreme Court rejected the argument of special
privilege for the media. The brilliant Justice
Byron White, writing for the majority, argued that newsmen do not have
privileges that other citizens do not enjoy. Enter bloggers, independent
(meaning unknown) news organizations, and of course tweeters of which the
President is one. Now we see why media
elites are mad. At press conferences,
the President’s press secretary seats little guys and gals along with the
mainstream big shots.
The President is effectively driving
a wedge between the talkers and their viewers. Portrayed as the bringer of
darkness, he is actually shedding light on who and what the talkers really are:
media stars bedazzled by their own self-importance.
Roger
Hines
2/1/17
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