Donald J. Trump loves media attention. And, even though he is out of office and a private citizen, he still gets lot of press.
I could kind of understand it when he was president — the TV and print news were more or less bound to cover his statements and misstatements. While a lot of media coverage was devoted to “fact checking” and found that many of his statements were just flat-out lies (The Washington Post counted over 30,000 in his four years in office), it seemed not to matter to him, although he occasionally criticized The Washington Post and The New York Times (“failing,” according to Trump, even though the list of its subscribers went up).
Apparently, the broadcast and cable networks were below his level. So, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and other cable news pretty much escaped his wrath. His preferred networks were Fox News, Breitbart, Newsmax and other right-wing media.
But, he seemed to lust after media attention. Even bad news was, to him, good news on the basis that bad publicity is better than no publicity. That is an old axiom by the advertising industry: any publicity is better than nothing.
Even when he was president, all policy decisions were based on how he would benefit.
And benefit he did. He withdrew from the Paris Agreements about climate change, he called COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” his best friends on the world stage were dictators and autocratic leaders. Rather than berating communism, he befriended the world’s leading Communist. Whatever Trump did, it was all about him.
Now, he is engaged in the biggest of big lies. He claims, without any evidence whatsoever, that he really won the election and the only reason he lost was because the election was rigged. Now elected Republicans in Arizona have contracted with Cyber Ninja — led by a QAnon conspirator — to go over the ballots of the largest county in that state. They have apparently believed Trump’s “Big Lie” and are out to prove it with his laughable, clown-car like “Fraudit.”
The Justice Department has warned Cyber Ninja that its activities are illegal, but Cyber Ninja keeps examining ballots and voting machines, and the Justice Department has done nothing to stop it.
While Trump is promoting himself, the GOP is supporting his Big Lie and is going down the drain. From “Fraudit” in Arizona to voter suppression in various states such as Alabama, Florida and Texas, to name a few, the Republican Party is not the Trump party.
Most other ex-presidents — George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, etc. — have mostly avoided the media spotlight and have been queitly going about their personal interests.
Not Trump. Rather than going quietly into that long night, he has refused to concede that he lost — by millions of votes — the presidential election to Joe Biden. And almost daily, the news media gives him what he wants: publicity.
While the media can be forgiven for reporting on Trump’s ill-advised action and lying declarations while he was president, the media has no such incentive now. Yet every day, the media report on Trump’s latest moves and lies as if he is worthy of their attention.
But, he is not. He is a loser. Please stop reporting on him — he wants publicity, and the media are giving him what he wants.
Ken Midkiff, formerly the director of the Sierra Club Clean Water Campaign, is now chair of the city’s Environment and Energy Commission and serves on the board of directors of the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center.
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June 15, 2021
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Media keeps driving Trumps need for publicity, national spotlight - Columbia Missourian
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