General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"The President lied again today about his..."
That is the type of straight news coverage needed with this President. When Trump says millions of farmers and small businesses will benefit from the elimination of the estate tax, but the true number is 80 annually, that's not inaccurate, that's not misleading, that's not misinformed, that's a lie. When Trump says that his new tax plan won't help him personally, that's a lie. When he said he couldn't release his taxes because of IRS audits, Trump was lying. The President is a liar.
The American public knows Trump can't tell the truth, polls show that. But media coverage of Trump usually defaults to the traditional norms used when covering the Commander in Chief. Because the President of the United States historically is such an important figure, and so much ultimately rests on his (or hopefully soon her) word, the media is usually deferential toward the office, if not the person holding it. Politicians may lie but Presidents are said to tell untruths. That generosity is shown towards Presidents in order to protect the institution of the presidency.
But Donald Trump is the gravest threat the institution of the presidency has ever faced. Trump is normalizing blatant serial presidential lies, and there is little ultimately more toxic to our democracy than that. Nothing the President of the United States says can be trusted. Trump has made the American President the ethical equivalent of Joseph Stalin or Saddam Hussein in the realm of veracity.
Until Donald Trump leaves office, one way or another, he remains the President. That won't change until it happens, but that doesn't mean that sane people must pretend that Trump hasn't demeaned the office he holds, by being among other things a compulsive obsessive liar. Someone has to be honest, or honesty as a concept is fatally corrupted. Our President lies, let the media tell the truth.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)Don't hold your breath.
Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)stability. Trump is dangerously destabilizing.