Let me start this by saying, very clearly, that the things Donald Trump has done and likely will continue to do are the fault and responsibility of him, and him alone. He is a vile, heinous, repulsive excuse for a human being that has done things to this country that he will never be able to repay.
However… The fact of the matter is, the one-term, twice-impeached, coup-happy ex-president can only get so far on his own. When it comes down to it, to get his unhinged messages out there, he has to have a platform. Even more so now, being that he no longer has access to his beloved social media accounts that he used to rely so heavily on, nor does he have the powerful platform of the presidency behind him.
Now more than ever, he relies on the various, prominent networks in the US to carry his message far and wide. Trump truly seems to operate on the ages-old notion that “all publicity is good publicity,” and, frankly, he’s not wrong.
Trump depends on networks to air his ramblings, even if they’re doing so in an unflattering way towards the former guy because at least it’s still getting his message out there. Especially when we’re talking about live coverage that’s almost impossible to fact-check or combat misinformation or dangerous information in real-time. He knows good and well that live coverage is all but a free for all for his conspiracy theories and lies, and networks will be left doing damage control in their next segment, while he rages against the very same networks that aired him.
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To be brutally frank, it’s time for that to stop. It’s time for the networks in this country to stop giving Donald Trump somewhere to speak.
And I’m not alone in my opinion on this matter.
As we recently reported, the former president — the very same one who held the infamous “Stop the Steal” rally just outside the Capitol building that went on to ignite his supporters to riot, the very same one who watched the insurrection on TV from the White House dining room while his daughter begged him to make it stop, the very same one who waited hours to even tell his supporters he loved them, but they needed to stand down — has very real plans to hold a press conference on the upcoming first anniversary of the fateful, violent January 6th Capitol siege.
It’s high time the media refuse to air it.
The President of Media Matters for America, Angelo Carusone, reportedly provided a statement to PoliticusUSA, calling on networks across the nation to “do the right thing” and refuse to air live coverage of Donald’s upcoming anniversary presser:
Donald Trump’s January 6 press event should be recognized for what it is: an opportunity for Trump to lie to downplay the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and set up his 2024 presidential campaign. It is critical that news networks do the right thing — refuse to carry it live, so they do not uncritically promote the lies and disinformation that is generated from Trump’s speech in real time.”
We understand that it’s the media’s job to report on what’s happening in this country; good, bad, or otherwise. Hell, we are the media. We get it. But it’s high time networks stop giving this man unfettered access to a free for all platform that allows him to spread more hate, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and dangerous lies.
It’s high time we cut Donald Trump’s water off.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
