Legalectric

A couple of past lives ago, I was part of KFAI, Community Radio in South Minneapolis, as programmer, live tech, and on the Board of Directors.  I got into it with zero experience, and no idea what to expect, and between that “on the job” training and seat-of-pants learning, and some journalism and production courses, and the ongoing four or five years of more than “full time” work in radio, I got a good feel for the role of the press, and the importance of broad coverage of events.  More importantly, I learned how much important info was not reported on, was not covered, utterly ignored by “mainstream media,” and I saw what an important role Community and Public radio played, TV too, particularly public and public access TV, is coverage of this neglected news (though I’m biased against TV, don’t own one, haven’t for decades, due to onslaught of commercialism and cost of cable, obscene!).  That’s one of the reasons Reagan cut federal public media funding, that was during my time at KFAI.  This public radio and TV coverae is why tRump is planning to slash budgets and eliminate Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, devasting impacts for a teensy .016% of the federal budget:

Report: Trump Administration Plans to Privatize CPB, Cut NEA

tRump’s attack on corporate mainstream media and public media is shamefully transparent because his targets are the ones exposing truth, fact checking him and reporting on his constant lies, challenging his delusional rants.  He’s branding mainstream media, trying them in the court of public opinion using the “if you say it often enough, people will believe it” theory, because he can’t prevail legally because he’d have to prove that what they’re reporting is wrong, and he’d have to prove it was reported with “actual malice.”  He can’t prove it’s false because it’s true — they’re reporting his lies, exposing his incompetence, his tantrums, which all the world can see him displaying with wild abandon and arrogance in videos across the internet.  What’s so odd about tRump’s “enemy of the people” framing is that these are mainstream media, by tRump’s own admission,.  These are not leftist propaganda organs in any sense. Fake news?  CNN?  New York Times?  ABC?  CBS?  NBC?  LA Times?  WTF?

Look at tRump’s “survey” about “mainstream media” to see his agenda:

Trump “questionnaire” bizarre and revealing

This morning I listened to much of tRump’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) speech, it was packed full of lies, twisted logic (lack of logic) and projection of his actions and agenda outward on others — that’s in addition to his usual narcissistic rants.  Observers were quick to point that out, with specifics.

Here’s the CPAC speech, listen in bits and pieces, because it’s too much to stand all at once:

Full Speech: President Trump at CPAC – Video – NYTimes.com

And here are a couple fact checks of tRump’s CPAC speech:

Fact-checking President Trump’s CPAC speech – The Washington Post

Fact-checking Donald Trump at CPAC | PolitiFact

Fact-checking Donald Trump’s CPAC speech | Miami Herald

Fact-Check: Trump Blasts ‘Fake News’ and Repeats Inaccurate Claims

CPAC: Donald Trump Hits Media in Speech | Time.com

This particular one was hilarious, because he claimed the lines to get in went back six blocks, but no, they didn’t, and the venue’s city isn’t even six blocks long!

Trump falsely claims lines ‘go back 6 blocks’ for CPACspeech

Not much later, Spicer chose to specifically prohibit attendance at his “gaggle” today:

AP, Time boycott WH briefing after other news outlets excluded

White House Blocks Major News Outlets From Press Briefing | KTLA

CNN, New York Times, Other Outlets Excluded From White House

The White House just blocked The New York Times, Politico, and CNN

White House blocks news organizations from press briefing

White House Excludes Selected Outlets From Press Gaggle

Despite this prior pledge not to ban news outlets from White House — but of course, the White House mouthpieces are documented liars, particularly, or should I say spectacularly, Spicer:

Spicer: Trump admin won’t ban any news outlets from White House

tRump, get a grip, and have someone read the Constitution to you and explain it.

Stop shutting out the press, stop trying to shut down the press.