The Problem Isn't Incivility. It's Trump's Belief the Media Can't Criticize Him.

[DonViejo]

9:22 A.M.

By Jonathan Chait@jonathanchait

The news of a wave of mail bombs sent to various critics of President Trump was a genuinely frightening moment, and in such moments modern Americans instinctively turn to the president to perform the office’s role of ceremonial head of state. Much of the cable-news chatter focused on whether, or for how many minutes, Trump could stick to the dignified script of denouncing violence and advocating civility. The unsurprising answer was: not very long. But the important issue here is not Trump’s inability to convincingly advocate civility for an entire news cycle. Indeed, civility is not really the question at all. The issue is Trump’s conviction that he should not be subjected to any scrutiny or criticism.

That view came through despite Trump’s attempt to deliver a scripted denunciation of political violence. “The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks,” Trump announced last night. A morning tweet completed the thought:

Link to tweet

The president is developing what is a long-standing belief among conservatives: that the mainstream news is irredeemably biased, and should be ignored altogether in favor of an alternate ecosystem of party-controlled media. While Trump was raised on the mainstream media and has never fully relinquished his desire for its approval, he has found his way toward the right-wing critique over the last couple decades.

But what has given Trump’s version of it unusual virulence is his belief that the media should be an uncritical conduit for his lies. This is the true through line of his entire career. Media manipulation, along with fraud and secret money infusions from his father, is the secret sauce of his career. The New York Times’ account of Trump’s tax fraud incidentally explains how the Times itself was recruited to create a myth of Trump’s success — in 1976, a credulous reporter went on a tour of Trump’s purported empire, and breathlessly recounted his triumphs:

In the chauffeured Cadillac, Donald Trump took The Times’s reporter on a tour of what he called his “jobs.” He told her about the Manhattan hotel he planned to convert into a Grand Hyatt (his father guaranteed the construction loan), and the Hudson River railroad yards he planned to develop (the rights were purchased by his father’s company). He showed her “our philanthropic endeavor,” the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange (bankrolled by his father), and an apartment complex on Staten Island (owned by his father), and their “flagship,” Trump Village, in Brooklyn (owned by his father), and finally Beach Haven Apartments (owned by his father). Even the Cadillac was leased by his father.

more
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/trumps-pipe-bombs-mainstream-media-clean-up-act.html

[SWBTATTReg]

1. rump doesn't know the history of this country...every president in history has been ...

criticized by the media since day 1. Idiot.

Always been part of this country's history and is a sacred one, being that IMHO, provides one backstop to the excesses of the president and cabinet, as well as other bodies of government.

[BeckyDem]

2. Trump is who he is, a self corrupted man who is NEVER GOING TO CHANGE. His base doesn't care.

Please MSM, focus more on his HORRID EPA policies, his HORRID econ policies. WHO is benefiting? Not those who need it.

There are millions of people who didn't vote in 2016, lets remind them to vote with us b/c TRUMP IS A TRAIN WRECK!!!!

The American Economy Is Rigged

And what we can do about it

By Joseph E. Stiglitz | Scientific American November 2018 Issue
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-american-economy-is-rigged/