I watch with some amusement as the broadcast media struggles to regain a shred of their former dignity and credibility. For 3 years the media has been the avant-garde of the Trump deference movement and now that Trump tells reporters to basically 'go fuck yourself' at press conferences those pigeons appear to have finally come home to roost. I wonder what deference tastes like?
Their shortsightedness saw Trump as a golden ticket for those willing to trade a respectable role in the evolution and maintenance of democracy for celebrity, wealth, and a cute sounding show title like "Flashback Friday, Keeping Them Honest, The Situation Room, and Don't Get Suckered." They have always known that the emperor had no clothes -- he has no intellectual clothes, rationality clothes, honesty clothes -- they knew he was butt naked in all regards except for his thousand dollar suits.
Nonetheless, they lined the roads and heaped respectability on him in the hopes that he would wave his hand and they would profit from his magnanimousness (and in some ways they have). But in addition to the short-term wealth they received, he also through shit on them. I foul shit that stains the soul, honor, and respectability and now all the water in the world doesn't seem to be enough to wash that shit off. As the saying goes "He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas," and all the celebrity anchors with their made-up faces and nice clothes are scratching the hell out of themselves off-camera.
They wanted to be entertainers and now they are! They wanted their 15 minutes of fame and they got it. They want us to see them as professional journalists -- nope, that ship has sailed. History I suspect will note emphatically the role of the media in America's flirtation with fascism, at which point they will wish their names were a bit less known and that stain a bit less permanent.
