Michael Harris writes that there is a volcano set to explode in the United States. And journalists are in the path of the lava flow. The latest warning of what is about to come came last week:
Watching CNN reporter Jim Acosta the other day was a harbinger of what might lie ahead. The usually suave chief White House correspondent for the cable news channel lost his cool in a public exchange with President Trump’s press secretary.
Acosta reached the end of his rope when Sarah Sanders refused to say in an open press conference that the media was not the “enemy of the people” — the coinage and dangerous refrain of her boss, President Donald Trump.
“I’m tired of it, I’m tired of it,” Acosta said later when reporting on his showdown with Sanders for the evening news.
Acosta asked the question based on personal experience:
This past week, the CNN reporter was verbally assaulted by supporters of the president at a campaign-style rally he was covering in Tampa, Florida. As Acosta reported, he was called a “liar” and told that “CNN sucks.” The abuse came from Trumpers who know all about the Second Amendment, but haven’t got the foggiest clue about the First.
Humorist Bill Maher calls these events Trump's "Nuremberg Hillbilly Rallies." On several occasions, Trump has incited his crowds to violence:
Candidate Trump was the one who incited violence at his own rallies, expressing nostalgia for the days when protesters like the ones who occasionally heckled him were carried out on stretchers.
Trump is the president who told police to rough up suspects they arrest.
It was Trump who separated children from their families at the border, locked them up and neglected to keep tabs on who and where their parents were.
Trump is the commander-in-chief who bragged about the size of his nuclear button, twice threatening to vaporize other countries.
When the crowds eventually crack reporters' heads, Trump will be responsible.
And there will be a reckoning.
Image: Huffington Post
8 comments:
And it was Trump who openly bragged about his treatment of women, both sexually and otherwise.
He is some piece of work, isn't he
He really is a piece of work, Lulymay. And he's rotten to the core.
Despite his incendiary, even criminal incitements, Owen, no one in authority will hold him to account. And therein lies the real problem with the U.S. today.
He has insisted throughout his whole life, Lorne, that he is above the law. And he'll continue to act that way until -- and unless -- someone holds him to account.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2018/08/05/brian-stelter-journalists-receiving-death-threats-vpx.cnn
As we watch Trump continue his Triumph-of-the Will tour, when will we realize the folly of encouraging the close-minded who aren't interested in voting, let alone in expending the effort to evaluate any cause-and-effect relationship, to become politically engaged? There are many more with those qualifications out there whose instincts haven't yet been triggered. Once they've been hooked by a slogan, invested themselves in an unintelligible rant or even just bought a hat or a tee-shirt, there's usually no going back.
I think this other idiot over here likes the same slogan that I like. Club membership is so appealing. Ford Nation, anyone? How about a lifetime membership in the Deplorables Club? You'll need a hat.
"Blood on the newsroom floor will be blood on the president's hands." Exactly, Mound.
It's the Cult of Personality, John. Anyone who subscribes to it can be dangerous. And that's what's deplorable.
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