The more I follow the RNC election coverage on MSNBC, CNN, Charlie Rose, etc. the more it seems that if one were a complete political neophyte caught up in an over the top political conquest as Trump is… what an excellent source of free, daily guidance he could glean from certain media advice givers. What a perfect opportunity to gain an up-to-the-minute, ready-made, ongoing flow of political and media management direction/advice, ever present on daily TV tailored to salvage a grossly mismanaged, clueless political campaign. A virtual “how to” wagon to jump on that, were it not so available, would assure the Trump campaign an outcome of yet more strategic miscalculations and public relations disasters.
Trump’s off-the-cuff, day-to-day rants and ramblings clearly suggest a campaign not based upon principal but upon media manipulation. Trump appears to follow a strategy of studying, then usurping other’s business models, e.g. the Fox News “Fear & Division” model Ailes pioneered, and then, not surprisingly, reaping a mostly white, uneducated and angry base. And employing an inane, repetitive, hypnotic vernacular of a three year old, Trump proceeds to expand his campaign reach by intently monitoring the media who, in answering to a much broader base, reveal how he might expand his. In this regard, Trump has clearly tapped into and is reactive to any trending, or up-to-the-minute commentary, most of which is about him. The daily stream is rich with useful implication and outright direct advice on how he might approach each and every move. We see the media not only so supporting Trump’s entire campaign with millions in free airtime and attention but also actively empowering the campaign by feeding it this constant and collective stream of insight which he utterly lacks. For example, immediately after the Melania speech plagiarism story broke, Chris Mathews called for the speechwriter to come forth and “fall upon his/her sword for the sake of the party”. But notwithstanding this excellent advice, it was only after the Trump operatives spent the next day foolishly denying any plagiarizing had occurred, and some 36 hours later in a complete about face the campaign advanced a letter a letter of resignation ostensibly from a speech writer who claimed she was responsible for the plagiarizing of Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech. But it was too late and this only made the matter worse as the letter clearly suggests Melania lifted the passages herself and asked the speechwriter to make use of them, which of course she did almost verbatim. It no surprise Trump didn’t follow Matthew’s good advice or fired anyone (i.e. his wife) and extended such an uncharacteristically forgiving tone in his rejection of the writer’s resignation letter.
Perhaps some pundits are not as wise as they think or as immune from a kind of narcissism they might assume exclusive to Trump. After all, in their appetite to be on TV, to pontificate and advise rather than demand hard answers, to entertain rather than challenge, or question how their advice might empower those that should not be.. are they (and their corporate handlers) not somewhat culpable for the rise of such an unqualified, dangerous candidate?
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Is the "Liberal Media" Coaching/Empowering Trump?
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