Poor beleaguered President Trump, Joan Swirsky laments; a victim of “ Fake News!” seriatim.
A few facts are in order: The media did not stamp, declare and proclaim that Hillary Clinton won the election at 8 PM on Nov. 6.
Yes, they were laboring under faulty polling, ineptly developed models and smugness that nothing could possibly see this country elect a charlatan, fake, dissembler and incompetent. But, they did.
Yes: Much of the mass media of the late 1990s covered for the sexual acts of Bill Clinton. That was wrong and truly sorrowful.
Yes, the then extant mass media such as it was of the 1960s ignored the serious philandering and sexual risks frequently taken by President Kennedy.
But at the same time, you had a virulent right-wing media through talk radio and local television ownership calling Kennedy a Communist and other names, daily.
This 1960s Fake News! climate led to a dangerous, poisonous environment that gave rise to Oswald.
In the ’90s through 2016, you had a daily cavalcade of lies, falsehoods and journalistically unverified, unprofessional reporting on Hillary’s health, Bill’s acts, and other assaults, daily. And as for the media covering up FDR’s paralysis? Yep. They did.
But at the same time, you had the originators of right-wing hate calling him “Rosenfeld” because they pandered to anti-Semitic prejudices that FDR was secretly a Jew.
LBJ using the N-word? Yeah, he did. Plenty. Indefensible.
But he also did something that Trump is trying to undo: he substantially protected, advanced, solidified and codified the rights of minorities in the most far-reaching ways since 1866.
But the defender of Trump laments the assault of this allegedly victimized, innocent President by so-called Fake News!
This administration is both the creator of institutionalized Fake News!
As well as the greatest beneficiary of it cooked up by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, the late Roger Ailes, and assorted vile, bigoted, inept but dangerous right-wing crypto-fascist types like Steve Bannon, etc.
More than any other presidency in history —literally from the get-go with that puerile spectacle about the Inauguration drawing the biggest crowds ever seen — Trump, Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders aid, abet and create the lies, distortions and outright rewrites of history emanating from Trump himself and his supporters.
Poor victims of Fake News! They are not. They are the inheritors and progenitors alike of the phenomenon.
Ms. Swirsky, I would argue that the left-leaning media — yes, CNN and MSNBC are in that corner — and others are increasingly less powerful and omnipresent than the pro-Trump media.
You have a vast, national local television network owned by Sinclair that unabashedly and unapologetic ally stumps for all things Trump.
Fewer read newspapers anymore — especially the more liberal urban dailies.
More people watch Fox News than the other two cable news nets combined. More people read pro-Trump websites than they do HuffPost or The Atlantic, etc.
You have Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Salem Radio, etc. etc. etc. etc. Your side is winning the media war.
But truth is not going down without a fight.
Jon F. Weinstein
Port Washington
