Guest MINDSETTER™ Forleo: Jail Trump, Not Reporters
Thursday, May 18, 2017
In the recent, now famous, Comey memo, Donald Trump was alleged to have said that he wants to jail reporters for leaking classified information. Gee, what a surprise. Was he looking in the mirror?
Famous for Being Famous
This narcissistic political neophyte who made his living from inheriting daddy's apartment buildings, and became famous from nothing more than bombastic rhetoric, creating delusional self-importance, spreading outright lies and conspiracy theories, and begging to get on Page Six of The New York Post, now thinks he can thwart First Amendment Rights of a free press and jail anyone for leaking classified information?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHello, memo to funhouse brain. You, DT, used the free press to get where you are today. That, in itself, is frightening enough. The irony is dripping, thus melting into hypocrisy.
Why does Trump think he has autocratic power to arbitrarily throw reporters in jail? Does he think Judge Jeanine (or Judy) will allow him to play tinhorn dictator? I know he's a bad TV actor, but he can’t produce a remake of Moon Over Parador. (Sorry, my man, you can't pull off Method acting).
Trump's alleged uninformed remarks to Comey only serve to make a free press stronger, invigorated, and unified in investigating his every move, and tweet. His thuggish behavior, prompting sycophants to hate or belittle any reporter attempting to ask questions, even to the point of arresting a reporter for asking the HHS Secretary, Tom Price a question? The nerve…
Does Trump really think he can bully a free press into submission? Believe he can obfuscate and bluster his way into forcing reporters to give up? Think again, Don the Con. We are on to you.
Fake News Redux
But his insistence on calling reputable news organizations “fake” news only inspires those media outlets to dig deeper. Eventually the hole will deepen, the chasm will widen, and his reign of terror (and error) will be finished. This beautiful republic is much stronger than his Romanov leanings.
As much as I would like to say he's unique, he's just another hypocrite who wants to commandeer the ship of state, a wrangling pirate aboard a ship of fools.
The GOP deckhands appear complicit in his coup aspirations. This Congress is comfortably ensconced in silence while he attacks (unabated) any reporter within his cheap necktie’s length. I know why he loathes the press. Because he's always been afraid of two things; tax returns and facts. And I’m not sure the latter supersedes the former.
So if Trump can’t stand factual information, then he creates a false narrative, using his state-run twin propaganda outlets, Breitbart and Fixed News Network. Am I getting warm?
But I get why he has a penchant for control because he was never the cool kid from Manhattan. Look who he now surrounds himself with. Let’s see, Sessions, Flynn (oops, sorry), Spicey, Kellyanne, Bannon, Priebus, and McMaster. Oh, let’s not forget Jared & Ivanka, when they’re not hangin’ down the Jersey Shore with Snooki and The Situation.
Get the Story?
When a politician is insecure and uncertain, the easiest route to fueling the Id is to surround oneself with a coterie of flatterers. It's soothing to the inexperienced and bruised ego, right?
There you have it, Mr. Fake President. Yes, flattery, the organic opiate. Much better than fistfuls of chocolate.
However, a free press is not a bunch of rose petal throwers for you, #Sad. Nor is a responsible free press your personal punching bag. But never let a fact get in the way of a haymaker, correct?
Trump can say almost anything he wants about the press? In the press. And about others in our society? That’s how he was elected, remember? Of course, how could I forget, he never stops telling us. And telling us...
What separates us from those banana republics Trump so admires is a determined, vibrant free press. Jefferson taught us that a free press criticizing government is essential to our democracy. He always didn't like what was written but he respected the right to write.
A free press is adversarial, exposes political shennagins, holds public servents accountable, and should never stop speaking truth to power. And we all know how much Trump adores power.
So did the man behind the curtain.
Look what happened to him.
Steven F. Forleo is a professor at CCRI. He very much likes the First Amendment, and is a strong advocate for student journalism.
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