"The Fourth Estate is failing America": RNC showcases how Trump exploits an "incompetent" media

On Monday, Donald Trump made an appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. His face was bandaged from the injury he received from a failed assassination attempt last Saturday in Pennsylvania. The bandage is his badge of pride and courage, a symbol of the blood sacrifice he wants his MAGA people to believe that he is prepared to make to “protect” them as he becomes America’s first dictator.

Predictably, but no less disturbing, the delegates and other Republican-MAGA loyalists at the convention erupted with cheers when they saw Trump, their fists raised in the air, chanting “Fight, fight, fight!” These were the words that Trump said as he raised his fist on Saturday after being shot. “Fight, fight, fight!” is the new battle cry of the Republican Party and the MAGA movement and the other neofascists.

Sirius XM host (and regular "Salon Talks" contributor) Dean Obeidallah described the moment on Twitter in the following way: “Bone chilling to see at #RNCConvention people chanting ‘Fight’ in unison with one arm punching in the air. Instantly conjures up rallies from 1930s Germany. There is no other way to put it.”

In a post on Twitter, historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who is a leading scholar of fascism and authoritarianism, pushed back against the deceptive claim that Trump and the other Republicans want to tone down the violent political rhetoric and resulting danger in the aftermath of Saturday’s attempted assassination: "The pivot delusion/propaganda point has returned! Sorry but Trump’s idea of unity is everyone behind him or else….He tells his own supporters that if they vote for him and die ‘it will be worth it.’ No pivoting out of that.”

With the failed assassination attempt, Donald Trump is now fully viewed by his followers as someone on a divine mission, blessed and protected by God, a type of Lazurus figure who is above man’s law. Trump has repeatedly shown that he believes such things. He has compared himself to Jesus and shared a video online that claims “God gave us Trump.”

Fascism is a form of religious politics where the great leader is viewed as superhuman and perfect. Religious politics is anti-democratic because it is based on myths and emotions that facts and empirical reality cannot easily rebut. The sacralization and deification of Donald Trump by his MAGA followers and propagandists and other agents is a force that the Democrats, real small “c” conservatives, the news media, and others who believe in normal politics and democracy is a force that they have found few, if any, defenses against. The power of Donald Trump, MAGA, and the Age of Trump to endure long past what they believed would be an inevitable defeat (“The walls are closing in!”....until they are not) is largely explained by that failure of imagination.

When Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech on Thursday, the response from the crowd in Milwaukee may be deafening, the decibel level perhaps louder than a jet taking off from an aircraft carrier.

The word “historic” is often, quite correctly and not for good reasons, attached to Donald Trump. His Jan. 6 coup attempt and the lethal attack on the Capitol by his MAGA terrorists was “historic.” Trump’s criminal felony conviction and multiple trials (which will likely not take place given the illegitimate Supreme Court’s decision) are “historic.” Trump’s promise to be the country’s first dictator on “day one” is “historic” as well. The existential danger that Donald Trump and the Republican fascists and the larger antidemocracy movement represent to the United States is most certainly “historic” as well.

Donald Trump’s speech on Thursday and his de facto coronation and trajectory to be the country’s first dictator will be historic as well.

But at this point in the Age of Trump “historic” and “unprecedented” have lost most of their weight and meaning. They are just words now, used in a culture where malignant normality has taken hold, and the abnormal and the aberrant are accepted (and embraced) by tens of millions of people as the new reality.

What is the alternate, and competing story that President Biden and the Democrats are offering to the American people? I am unsure. Per the public opinion polls and other data—and those damn vibes that I mostly reject, but here feel painfully correct in what they are portending—Donald Trump is poised to become the next President of the United States. Whatever story President Biden and the Democrats are telling it is not compelling enough and they need to quickly rewrite it. Multiple emails a day begging for money lack emotional content, and in total are not very interesting or particularly moving.

In an attempt to better navigate these maelstrom-like last few weeks in the Age of Trump, I spoke with a range of experts about the country’s democracy crisis, where we are in this story, and what may happen next as matters become far worse.

Matthew Dallek teaches at George Washington University and is the author of “Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right.”

Last year, when President Joe Biden decided to seek re-election, he took a big gamble. His bet looks like it has backfired. His age and capacity have become the story, the sun around which all other campaign news revolves. In the past two weeks there’s been almost a collective forgetting about Trump’s status as a felon, his plotting to negate the results of the 2020 election, his authoritarianism, and his vows to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, weaponize the Justice Department to prosecute his enemies, and abolish the federal civil service, a backbone of democratic stability. Between Trump’s polling lead, Supreme Court decisions overturning Roe v. Wade and granting presidential immunity, and delayed criminal trials, the system of checks and balances is faltering. Trump is far savvier than his critics acknowledge, and based on polls and Biden’s political vulnerabilities Trump is in a stronger position to win the presidency than he was at any time in either 2016 or 2020.

But some countervailing forces provide hopeful glimmers. Deeply unpopular, Trump is patently unfit for any office. The anti-MAGA electoral majority in the United States remains intact. The ideas and attitudes that enabled Democratic Party victories in 2020 and 2022 haven’t disappeared. Moreover, job growth is strong, Inflation is down, and aid is flowing to Ukraine. The war in Gaza could be winding down. Most Americans want to preserve democracy and oppose the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which Trump would likely implement in a heartbeat. My guess is that a young, sane, commonsense alternative to Biden — Harris, Pritzker, Whitmer and Beshear are just four of the viable nominees but there are many others — could give voters the appearance of a safe harbor where they could dock, and this new nominee would have a chance to resurrect Biden’s fraying anti-MAGA coalition and prevail. It’s still possible that Biden decides that he needs to step aside. He could be a hero if he passed the torch to a younger generation of leaders. But the summer of 2024 is as perilous a time for the country as any since Trump announced his first White House run nine years ago.

Most politicians and pundits seem to be assuming that the assassination attempt on Donald Trump will be a boon to his election prospects, generating an outpouring of well-wishes and sealing his victory in November. But I’m not so sure that this is how we ought to think about its impact. The horrific attempt on Trump’s life – as well as the killing of one rally-goer—has generated sympathy for the former president, as it should. But this attack should also be seen in context. It is a stark reminder that in the Age of Trump, political violence has been on the rise. We saw it on Saturday, but we also experienced it in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, a baseball field with Republican members of Congress getting shot, Buffalo, El Paso, and Washington, D.C., on January 6.

Politically motivated violence often emanates from the extremes, left and right, and Trump, alone, is hardly the only person contributing to the increasing amount of political violence. But his dehumanizing rhetoric (“vermin”), his encouragement to his followers to “fight like hell” or “they won’t have a country anymore” (Jan. 6 rally speech), and his attacks on immigrants (“poisoning the blood of our country”) have been one of the more powerful rhetorical forces driving some individuals to spill blood on the streets of the United States.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters."

Did something newsworthy happen with the Supreme Court that I missed? Surely, these bought-off, right-wing radicals didn't rule that our presidents are now like kings, above it all in this country right?

I guess that's as much sarcasm as I can muster right now ... Instead of reporting on one of the most significant stories in American history, our corporate media has instead busied themselves trying to drive a dangerous narrative, and Joe Biden out of this race. Endless breathtaking coverage. Endless new cycles. Such drama! Imagine if they spent even half of this time sounding the alarms and reporting on the GOP's unrelenting attack on our freedoms and our Democracy. What in the hell is going on in these newsrooms? Republicans are literally telling us there will once again be violence if they don't get the results they want in November. Is there even one reason we shouldn't believe them? Why isn't our broken media taking this extraordinary threat seriously?

While Joe Biden was hosting NATO leaders this week, who, by the way, are in almost unanimous agreement that this man needs to remain as our president, Donald Trump was hosting the fascist prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban. And just what in the hell is going on here? You'd think a serious working press would be on top of that one to help explain it to us all, and the dangers of authoritarian rule.

This is what keeps me up at night. The Fourth Estate is failing America spectacularly right now.

What happens next?

I somehow remain modestly optimistic we will crawl out of this. Voters are smarter than we give them credit for. Assuming Biden and Trump square off again, truth will be on display verses dishonesty; Democracy vs fascism; women's rights vs patriarchy; clean air vs dirty air; fewer guns vs. more guns, etc. ... And by the way, the economy is in pretty damn good shape. Far better than it was four years ago. Can the Democrats message this properly? Probably not, and we know it will be like pulling teeth to get the incompetent media to do so. Still, there are jobs all over the place and rising wages are outpacing inflation. These are something called "facts." Is there still a place for them in America anymore?

David L. Altheide is the Regents' Professor Emeritus on the faculty of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University and author of the new book "Gonzo Governance: The Media Logic of Donald Trump."

Journalists and news organizations report and often contribute to crises. Collectively, they can act like a herd swarming around a major story, soon leaving it for the next one. I have studied the news media for over 50 years and, along with other scholars, have identified some major limitations of our public information system. Herd journalism is charging ahead with the latest news—an assassination attempt—and reveals its institutional weakness. Donald Trump’s triumphant photo after he was nicked by a would-be assassin’s bullet is legitimate big news. His coronation at the Republican Convention will celebrate his survival, strength, and emergence as a leader. And his anti-immigrant VP running mate, J. D. Vance, will garner cheers from supporters and important scrutiny from the press. The problem arises when major news organizations’ news routines propel questionable popular narratives.

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An example is the widely broadcast claim that hateful rhetoric motivated the person to shoot at Donald Trump. The call went out to “tone down the rhetoric,” with some politicians claiming that President Biden and Democrats were the main culprits for pointing to Trump’s statement and the Republican Party’s blueprint for the future, Project 25, as a major threat to democracy. The irony was not lost on Donald Trump who, after claiming that there would be a bloodbath if he did not win the election, was said to be rewriting his acceptance speech “as a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together.” 

Our social order and political future are being neglected by organizations that limit expansive information technology to a narrow focus.  This includes newspapers and television networks. News organizations continue to go after pinpoints of stories here and there while forgetting the bigger picture of many dots that must be connected for context, accuracy, and truth. The entertainment formats and competition for audiences reward narrow daily—even hourly—focus on the next big story, which often appears as something sensational, scary, scandalous, and fearful.  This means that ongoing highly significant stories/issues get put aside when the next headline appears. So, now it is the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, with mind-numbing minutia, repetitive details, replays of “what went wrong,” speculations on future safety protocols, etc. In the process, reality is distorted, constructed, and passed along. Donald Trump convinced millions to reject it all as fake news.

In another example of media malpractice, the MAGA Republicans' agenda, set forth in Project 2025, is not explained and presented in interesting ways to news audiences. Consistent news reporting is necessary to show the impact and relevance of the Trump agenda for American institutions. As the news-political process unfolds and news organizations clamor to not be left behind, it is instructive to note how other consequential issues are pushed aside. The coverage of what has not happened— President Biden’s would/should/must withdraw—overshadows important issues in the campaign including the Republican Party’s headlong descent into right-wing authoritarianism.

In pursuit of the next big story, news organizations’ formats and herd journalism’s priorities are trampling our democratic future. The upshot is that news routines and pursuit of the big story should not divert attention from informing news audiences about important issues.

Cheri Jacobus is a political strategist, writer, ex-Republican, and host of the podcast "Politics With Cheri Jacobus."

The debate was a disaster, but it did not carry the weight the pundit class and legacy media breathlessly claimed in their "hot takes".

The immediate and amateurish public calls by media, pundits, and a small handful of Democratic Congressmen for the best president in our lifetime by to step aside because of a bad debate performance, have done more harm to the Biden-Harris ticket than the debate ever could. 

The media tarts and elites preening for the camera, hungry for attention, (and perhaps a consulting gig with a new Democratic presidential campaign), may end up with egg on their collective faces, and careers as mere back benchers.

Why?

Because polls immediately after the debate showed the voting public doesn't put much stock in debates, particularly ones with no fact-checking.

Not a single person who has called for President Biden to step aside can point to a single thing in his job performance that has been negatively affected by age. 

Not. One.

In fact, the President's thorough, live, detailed Thursday night press conference illustrated his deep knowledge of foreign policy, how the world works, and the leadership role of the United States around the globe, and in particular with NATO (the latter of which Donald Trump said he didn't know what it was before becoming President).

Despite taking a pounding by the press dependent on Trump clicks and ratings and pleasing their MAGA corporate owners, President Biden inched up in the polls, and is in a dead heat with Trump. 

Five-thirty-eight, which uses polling, economic and demographic data to explore likely election outcomes, in their simulation models, shows Biden winning 50 times out of 100, and Trump winning 49 times out of 100. https://bit.ly/3St0IHl

There was no guarantee Biden would defeat Trump before the debate, nor is there a guarantee he will do so in November.  But the Democrats and NeverTrump pundits who knee-capped President Biden will bear a great deal of the blame (and shame) if Biden is defeated by Trump.  They will share that stain and guilt with a complicit media for whom Trump drama, chaos, violence, and crime is their bread and butter.

Ron Purser is the Lam-Larsen Distinguished Research Professor (2021-2023) in the Lam Family College of Business at San Francisco State University. His essays and cultural criticism have appeared in the Huffington Post, The Guardian, Current Affairs, Salon, Alternet, and elsewhere. He is the author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality. Purser is also co-host of The Mindful Cranks Podcast.

How have I been feeling these last few weeks? I know this might sound cynical, but I had low expectations for Biden, so I wasn’t at all surprise by Biden’s meltdown in the debate. Same goes for the Supreme Court and its ceremonial rubber stamping of Trump’s fascist rise to power. We are entering the third act, possibly the beginning of the end of representative democracy, but that too isn’t surprising to me given there has been a slow creep towards techno-feudalism and oligarchic capitalism. I think the resentment in this country is also building to the boiling point, and it’s hard to predict how this will all shake-out. 

I stay sane mainly by not consuming processed media food – the junk-food that the mainstream media packages as “news.” I think it’s important to have a healthy and lean media diet – being selective in the amount and quality of the media you consume. Otherwise, you can become infected by the toxic contagion of mass media – and fall prey to collective delusion. And, of course, I think it’s wise not to allow fear, anger and resignation to eat away at your soul.

 It’s important to engage in those activities or take time out in any way that you can, to nurture your soul and revitalize your energies. We need to make sure we devote time and energy to doing what we really care about.    

Seeing the Age of Trump as a type of story actually gives us some distance. As difficult as it may be, given the tribalistic pressures, I think we need to resist the “shock jock” mentality from authoring our narrative in the Age of Trump. While we have come to believe there are alternative realities, when push comes to shove, we really all live in the same reality – and the climate crisis is the wake-up call to this actual fact. The so-called Red States are suffering from the record heat just as much as the Blue States. We need to keep literally grounded in Earth reality as means of parsing all these narratives.

On the other hand, it’s clear that with a weakening of checks and balances, the fine threads of our procedural republic are unraveling. Will we allow his-story, Trump’s story to prevail?  The future is never cast in stone. We should never buy-in to the consensus view, “this is the way it has to be,” “or this is the way things really are, and you can’t change it,” - that is allowing the past to dictate our future.

It seems the mass media has a massive blind spot to say the least – an unconscious bias that skews their judgment.  It’s also a herd and pack mentality – that keeps reproducing the media bubble-echo chamber. The mainstream media’s business model is to find the next feeding frenzy than actual news investigations – so the story that Trump was toast took over the news cycle. Now it’s Biden’s downward spiral of decline – and that’s the next new fiasco they are capitalizing on. Media coverage on the real story – the existential threat to our democracy – there is no precedent for, and it’s too abstract, it won’t sell.

As I think about what comes next, Ronald Reagan comes to mind?  Remember all the quips and jokes about his senior moments?  Reagan had a terrible debate performance when he ran in 1984, but still won by a landslide. On the hand, the media pileup on Biden is severely damaging his public image. For the Democrats at this point, it is sort of a damned if you do (get Biden to step down) or damned if you don’t (Biden stays in the race).