Media Trump mania

 Brad Slager:

Consider for a moment all of the therapy couch musing seen from the press in the days after the Donald Trump election victory. Despite years of demonizing the man, somehow, the general public supported him at the polls at a level that defies interpretational spin; he won cleanly, took the popular vote, won all the crucial swing states, saw increased voter support from 2020 in 49 states, has the GOP running the Senate and House, and returns to 1600 Penn with a clear mandate.

As a result, many in the media are contemplating what it all means that so much of this country ignored their constant bleating about what a threat a new Trump term presents, and they are struggling. We have heard two intertwined themes coming out – that the truth and accuracy are losing out to misinformation, and that too many people these days spurn the conventional press and get their news from other media sources.

The real amusement is that this reality has not led most of those in the news industry to contemplate where they went astray; instead, they blame the general public. We see them castigating voters for following these “fraudulent” news sources, calling them mostly uneducated and thus incapable of divining the “true news” delivered by the media elites. It is a classic delusion on a grand scale: “Could we be the cause for this? No – no, it is those ignorant voters who are to blame!”

Which brings us to Thursday, and the completely baseless hysteria that was ginned up regarding Trump and a supposed health crisis. Currently, the group involving the president-elect has not established a formal press pool as they are working on the transition, but this has not deterred the media from forming a herd at Mar-a-Lago, and this was the source of Thursday’s manic coverage. A clutch of official black SUVs was seen gathered on the property, as well as a helicopter hovering over the grounds, and then as the convoy left, an ambulance was spotted in the clutch of vehicles in the convoy.

This led to wild speculation in the press gaggle that there was a health problem involving Trump, and then this took on a life with the assembled journalists. Soon, reporters were detailing this “event” transpiring on social media, with all the implications that a health crisis involving Donald Trump may be unfolding. Andrew Feinberg, White House correspondent for The Independent, was one of the “pool” members who broadcast this baseless report.

Word of Trump’s possible health condition spread like wildfire across the social media platforms, with some sending up thoughts and prayers, while many in the neo-resistance movement displayed varying signs of hopeful malady reports to follow. It was all fact-free speculation and unneeded excitement.

Trump was just fine. What was witnessed was the motorcade of VP-elect J.D. Vance leaving the Mar-A-Lago property. He has long traveled on the campaign with an ambulance as part of the fleet of support vehicles. Donald Trump was inside the property at a meeting, in fine condition.
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I feel pretty certain that if Trump had a health condition the staff would have notified the media that he was getting treatment.  The media needs to get over their Trump derangement syndrome.