Classic line from Shakespeare: “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” The tragedy is that the evil, and evil doer, will be immortalized, while the victims, the innocents, will be forgotten. The Roman empire (before it was divided into two parts) had 71 emperors and co-regents, but the only ones normally remembered, except for Augustus who was the first, are Caligula and Nero (Tiberius might be mentioned, but only because it’s Capt. James T. Kirk’s middle name). Centuries of quality governance will be recalled only by history majors.
Face it, our great-grandchildren will be debating the hell that was Donald Trump when Barak Obama is fondly recalled, but no longer a subject for argument.
More than most, Donald Trump is concerned with his place in history, not only providing his own record via Twitter, but choosing which sources and records he approves of. On Aug. 26, the New York Times reported, “Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House.” The Times, of course, is “The Failing New York Times” as per Trump, and is one of the “enemies of the people.” Others are Fake News CNN (sometimes called the Clinton News Network) and the Amazon Washington Post. The respectable mainstream media are “lamestream media.” collectively.
President Trump has given his endorsement to Fox News, or had until Fox reported on a poll that showed a majority of those who responded favored not only the impeachment investigation, but also the president’s removal from office. Later, the network chose to interview Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic Party. President Trump tweeted “@Fox News doesn’t deliver for US anymore,” A later tweet was more outraged: … are all in for the Open Border Socialists (or beyond). Fox hires “give Hillary the questions” @donnabrazile, Juan Williams and low ratings Shep Smith. HOPELESS & CLUELESS! They should go all the way LEFT and I will still find a way to Win - That’s what I do, Win. Too Bad!….”
Shepherd (Shep) Smith subsequently resigned, although this appears to have been due to an upset over the bias of the network’s prime time broadcasts rather than the influence of President Trump. Mr. Smith, and the daytime hosts, tried to maintain Fox as a legitimate news source, with a clear division between news and opinion. CNN Business explained, “With President Trump actively distorting the truth and many of his own colleagues helping him do it, the Fox News star prided himself on anchoring a newscast that countered the network’s pro-Trump opinion shows.
The way Smith saw it, he was making sure that accurate information was getting on Fox’s air’
This level of quality news broadcasting has been too much or President Trump, so he has considering switching his loyalty to One America News, which, according to the Guardian, “The obscure One America News Network (OAN) makes up for its lack of clout or viewers by covering every Trump utterance, recycling conspiracy theories, downplaying Russian threats, bashing the mainstream media and championing the “Make America Great Again” agenda.”
Although OAN is not widely broadcast, you can see its channel on Facebook, or on KlowdTV.com ($9.95/month, although OAN is free to military personnel serving overseas). The network reported, “In March 2019, Comscore data shows that of the networks categorized exclusively as Cable, News/Business/Info networks, OAN ranked as the fourth-highest service in that genre, behind Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN. OAN outperformed CNN Headline News, Fox Business Channel, CNBC, BBC World News, Fusion, Bloomberg and others, per the same March 2019 data.” OAN estimates apparently are for total viewership, including Facebook and YouTube, while other network rating are for television only.
Although OAN has limited viewership, its reporters have been called on during Presidential news conferences and mentioned in tweets. Even so, OAN complains that it’s not getting enough support, as in this tweet “President Trump recently gave a speech thanking his supporters in the media. Not a single one of One America News – one of his GREATEST supporters … @OANN calls (BS)
So far, its not clear whether Fox can get along without support from President Trump, or Trump without Fox. According to Forbes (10/1/19) “Fox News Channel swept up its 71st consecutive quarterly win in the third quarter, finishing the period with an average prime time audience of 2.431 million viewers, far ahead of its competition, MSNBC (1.532 million) and CNN (1.037 million).” Still, according to the latest polls, showing President Trump’s approval ratings stuck in the low 40s and his disapproval ratings growing rapidly, with polls showing President Trump loing to Biden, Warren and Sanders, and pretty much tied with Buttigieg, only a supreme egotist would consider deserting the network with the greatest number of viewers. Oh wait …
Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in Louisville, Ky. Email sdu01@outlook.com.
From The Progressive Populist, November 15, 2019
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