You know the rules of political journalism in America ever since the summer of 2015: Everything Donald Trump does is fascinating. Every pronouncement. Every tweet. Every feud. Every threat. Whatever Trump does drowns out everything else. There are rare exceptions -- during the 2016 campaign, reporters also liked to focus on Hillary Clinton, but only to tell us how awful they think she is. Apart from that, Trump has monopolized the media ever since he announced his candidacy.
That was beneficial to him when he was a candidate, and to some extent it's been beneficial to him as president. (Much of the coverage of Trump has been negative, but there's always an undercurrent of "Yes, but he's the most compelling political figure of our era, isn't he?")
However, what he wants to do right now is make us stop talking about him and start talking about the alleged crimes of Joe and Hunter Biden -- but he can't get us to do it. He can't because his instinct is to devote every waking our to planning and then carrying out the most audacious, mediagenic, can't-look-away acts. Every day he wants to tweet the most provocative tweets, throw the most outrageous fits in front of the assembled media, sign off on the most unprecedented policies.
So the media can't be bothered asking questions about Joe and Hunter Biden because it's too busy paying attention to Donald Trump. The media can't look away.
Trump can't break his old habits. He can't cede the spotlight, even when it would benefit him to do so. He can't get out of his own way.
Keep it up, Donnie. The narcissism that got you here is what's going to take you down, either now or on Election Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment