It's Too Late to Turn Off Trump - Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone

[flamingdem]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/its-too-late-to-turn-off-trump-20151209

Some people in the news business are having second thoughts this week about their campaign strategy. They're wondering if they created a monster in Donald Trump.

The LA Times published a piece about how the tone of Trump's TV appearances has changed, now that's he's fully out of the closet as an aspiring dictator, with his plans to ban all Muslims and close the Internet and whatever else he's come up with in the last ten minutes.

The paper noted that the candidate had unusual trouble on Morning Joe, a show that usually doubles as Trump's weekly spa treatment:

"Typically, the billionaire TV personality is able to bluster his way through morning talk shows. But Trump had an unusually contentious appearance Tuesday morning on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' where co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski grilled him on his proposals to keep Muslims out of the U.S....

pull quote: Essentially, TV news producers are wondering: "How do we keep getting the great ratings without helping elect the Fourth Reich?"

[onecaliberal]

1. Maybe the news should STOP thinking about profit first and do their damn job of informing

the electorate.

[2naSalit]

2. Indeed. eom

[callous taoboy]

3. +1,000

[Dustlawyer]

13. It's not just about their profit! GE for example, makes more money using their network

as a propaganda machine and a tool to influence politicians (access to airwaves) than they do off of advertising. All of them do to one extent or another.

These are OUR AIRWAVES they use under license from US! Publicly Funded Elections (PFEs) would take away the billions in campaign ads, not an insignificant amount, but more importantly, it would severely curtail their ability to buy our politicians. Funny, only one Presidential candidate is backing PFEs, Bernie Sanders.

PFEs attack the root cause of most of our problems and would be the biggest step in returning Representative Democracy. It would allow us to bust up the oligarchies in banking and the media, stopping most of the propaganda. It would allow for a total reallocation of our tax dollars to things we need, education, environment, infrastructure, etc.

Feel the Bern!!!

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

14. We should have the ability to "like" individual comments....eom

Like!

[KamaAina]

22. NBC's airwaves are "OUR AIRWAVES they use under license from US!"

MSNBC and other cable channels (*cough*Fux*cough*) do not have federal broadcast licenses.

[hifiguy]

26. All I can say is

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[hifiguy]

27. If you think today's media propagandists will do that

I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you cheap.

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. and to think that so many people pay good money to connect their tvs to the "news"

when an actual range of good informative news is available online thru many more options than cable will ever allow.

[longship]

4. Well, Trump sure has had quite a week or so.

His blabber is so ill informed that he is his own worst enemy.

As Snagglepuss once said, "Self-inflicted Bar-B-Que; he cooked his own goose. Exit stage left."

(Which just goes to show that all intelligence comes from either Looney Toons or Hannah Barbera. Either that or Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift. Pick your own weapon.)

[flamingdem]

5. Trump might survive the bar-b-que

What are the 'pubs going to do? The convention will be interesting if they can't eject him beforehand.

I agree about the toons an Twain, should read more Swift.

[longship]

6. My best regards, FD. nt

[corkhead]

9. but he is a living breathing hero to the "proud to be stupid" crowd.

Possibly a mash-up of the movies Brewster's Millions and Idiocracy.

[GusBob]

7. Mr Taibbi discusses what I have felt about people who watch too much TV

The lack of perspective and short attention span. The internet had made things marginally better with great written resources, but now the video blurbs are even shorter. And of course if you read the "comments" sections anywhere your IQ can drop off a cliff

Mr Trump is most definitely a reality TV creation. Paging Dr Frankenstein

[SHRED]

8. HUGE K&R!!

The best analysis of what's happening I've read so far.

[Voice for Peace]

30. My same feeling.

Love Matt Taibbi in general and it's such a simple insight, but truly gave me an "aha!" moment.

[phantom power]

10. Taibbi nails it again

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. You know they actually WANT a Fourth Reich....

AND a Dictatorship.

It's good for profits.

[Nitram]

15. No, fascicm is most definitely not good for profits.

Industry and other business is subordinate t the needs of the state. Business does best in a free society.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. State aligns with *some* companies. Very bad business for media companies. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. Except these media companies are owned by corporations with massive government contracts....

Example: NBC is owned by General Electric who's biggest moneymaker is war toys.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. Actually, business does best under fascism because the government and business are the same....

Hitler did things like put the owner of the largest coal company in charge of the nation's coal and allowed him to charge whatever he wanted.

[Nitram]

19. I think you misunderstand my point.

Yes, a favored CEO might make obscene profits, but as a business it will stagnate and production will go down over the long run under any totalitarian government where workers and middle level managers are expendable and have no incentive to do good work or innovate. But fascism has even less than communism to offer in the realm of good management and worker morale.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. The party loyalists are promoted under fascism....

When the death camps were liberated they forced the citizens in nearby towns to see what was happening and those citizens were wearing really nice clothes to reflect their middle class lifestyle.

[hifiguy]

25. The oligarchs are already loyal fascists who act in concert.

They will all be rewarded.

"The more proper name for fascism would be corporatism, because it reflects a fusion of corporate and governmental power." Giovanni Gentile (claimed and misattributed to Benito Mussolini).

[NoMoreRepugs]

12. TV/Radio/Print are looking at up to $5billion being spent this election cycle

those are dollar colored glasses they are squinting thru - integrity be damned.

[Blue_Tires]

17. Good stuff...

This is another home run from Taibbi that he *never* would have been allowed to write at the Intercept...

[spanone]

23. 'they're wondering if they created a monster' bwahahahahahaha

what the fuck? wonder no longer you idiots.

[hifiguy]

24. Fascism is the final state of decaying capitalism.

- V. I. Lenin

Profits will control the media's actions, which means all Trumpolini all the time.

Fascism also is the form of social organization most-beloved by oligarchs and plutocrats the world over.

Win-win for them.

[grntuscarora]

29. Maybe they should just say "Screw the ratings"

and present the news honestly. In the long term, maybe their ratings would go up.

AlJazeeraAm is the only tv news I watch anymore for national and international info.

[Utopian Leftist]

31. What will it take to make them see propaganda for what it is?

All sane people admit by now that Fox is not "news." Nor is it news.

Can we therefore agree that the rest of the mainstream media consists mostly of corporate-spun, oligarchy-approved pablum, which doesn't represent actual news much more than Fox?

Advertisements don't sell products: they aren't intended to. They sell a lifestyle of mindless consumerism. As do most of the "shows" that so captivate our attention! It doesn't matter so much to the oligarchy whether you purchase the Chevy or the Dodge. Just that you purchase. Routinely, wastefully and greedily.

[Proserpina]

32. So, NOW the M$M are getting ethical?

Give me a break. I hope the first thing President Trump does is throw their sorry asses into a SuperMax prison for profit.