Wednesday, May 03, 2017

Good News, Bad News


Good news: President Trump is no longer crazy! Bad news: He seems now to be suffering from dementia! This is the latest "thinking" by many in the fake-news media ... see: NewsMax Story ... as a way of explaining Trumps recent candid comments about North Korea's Kim Jong Un: "I would be honored to have him come to the White House". And also his take on the Civil War, "Why was there a Civil War? Why could that not have been worked out?" Both comments, to me, seem within one sigma of normal. But not to much of the media which now has him entering his dotage.

The liberal media is quite good at such innuendo. They have a bag of semantic tricks with which to smear or embarass their enemies on the Right. And their number one enemy is Donald Trump. They, being knee-jerk liberals, disliked him instinctively. But, when he started calling them out for their fake news stories, dislike turned to loathing. They are now so twisted in their attempts at revenge, that many have abandoned any attempt at objectivity.

It is getting so bad that much of the media is looking silly to anyone who is not an anti-Trump partisan. Can we label it "white spittle time" as this foam forms at the corners of their mouths when his name comes up ... and many of their subtle semantic slights are now abandoned in favor of brickbats like this calling him senile. "Crazy" was silly, but "senile" is obviously vindictive.

Is such rhetoric protected by the First Amendment and even our current libel laws? Sure, but with freedom comes responsibility. Perhaps, as Trump has suggested, our libel laws should at least be re-examined and brought more in line with England's ... because so much fake news today does seem to be motivated by "malice and reckless disregard for the truth" -- a good definition of libel.

Afterward: For a reasoned discussion of why Trump is unreasoned see: CNBC Editorial. All good points ... and a view held by many. However, it is not the view of a great many other Americans (like myself) who like what Trump has been doing but are ignoring much of what he has been saying ... often the same people who liked what Obama was saying but hated what he was doing.

10 comments:

DEN said...

this post represents a new high in hypocrisy. You suggest that libel laws should be re-examined NOW? After you and other haters have reviled Obama and Clinton (and Kennedy) with steaming piles of unproven innuendo and outright slander. Talk about looking silly! It is the Trump apologists who need to have their heads examined.

George W. Potts said...

That's because I didn't graduate from Columbia's School of Journalism ...

George W. Potts said...

A little more on this issue. The bright line on the libel issue (slander is spoken untruths) is writing what you think is true vs. what you know to be untrue. Yes, I am guilty of the former. The MSM is too often guilty of the later. Such distinctions make a difference.

ChillFin said...

You have to see what in the journalist's hearts, not in what they say. Just 'cause they say it, don't mean that they mean it.

ChillFin said...

Inviting Kim to the White House is a reasonable response to a state-sponsored video showing a nuke annihilating it. Maybe a piece of that really good chocolate cake will make Kim give up his weapons.

George W. Potts said...

Until proven otherwise, I am willing to trust Trump's instincts in these matters. Maybe if Dennis Rodman was there too?

George W. Potts said...

All are vying to take down a president like Woodward and Bernstein ... unless, of course, it were Obama.

DEN said...

GWP, hasn't every day of new tweets proven to you that Trumps instincts are churlish and his knowledge of world history is --at best -- lite? You are on a wrong-way bandwagon.

George W. Potts said...

But I do believe that Trump does know we have only 50 states ... and, yes, he is often churlish ... however somewhat less so since his election.

George W. Potts said...

See also: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/05/trump-threatens-press-freedom-ridiculous.php
for a god lawyer's take n things.