Will Trump’s War On The News Media Work?

With President Trump’s “fake news” crusade now turned up to eleven, we are left little choice but to assume it is part of a broader de-legitimizing strategy. And strategy is the job of Steve Bannon, Trump’s White House Chief Strategist. Bannon told the New York Times in January that the “media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.” Bannon was talking about how the media was wrong about the 2016 election, never mind that the polls were not all that far off from the popular vote tally. “The media here is the opposition party,” said Bannon in the Times interview. “They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.” If it is a blueprint, Trump’s anti-media bombast is a plan likely architected by Steve Bannon.

• • •

Fox News Seeded Trump’s ‘Fake News’ Paranoia

The Fox News and conservative talk radio war against the mainstream media seeded Donald Trump’s “fake news” paranoia. There is nothing new about politicians going after the news media, but Donald Trump takes this time-honored practice to an absurd level made possible by his uniquely narcissistic personality. When it comes to what people say about him, Trump has an uncontrollable obsession. And now he has a new tool for his bravado, anything less than flattery is “fake news.”

• • •

David Brooks On Income Inequality: There’s A Special Kind Of Guilt Reserved For The Poor

The latest piece by David Brooks in The New York Times is typical of conservative-think on issues of economic inequality. Because the free market is the most perfect system ever devised by man (yes, I’m laying the sarcasm on pretty thick), that means when we have an apparent failure of our revered capitalist system, that system is not to blame. Instead we should blame social issues. Oh, but only the social issues of the poor. Because the wealthy have reserved a special kind of guilt just for the poor.

• • •

Electric Car Range Anxiety In Perspective, A Response To Tesla’s Musk vs. NYT’s Broder

A war has erupted between Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and New York Times columnist John Broder. Musk takes issue with Broder’s review of the Tesla Model S, and backs it up with data recorded by the test car. I’m not concerned with parsing the details of the feud. I simply want to address the issue of range anxiety. “As I crossed into New Jersey some 15 miles later, I noticed that the estimated range was falling faster than miles were accumulating,” said Broder. “At 68 miles since recharging, the range had dropped by 85 miles, and a little mental math told me that reaching Milford would be a stretch.”

• • •