There are people who mock real Americans for electing the star of a reality show as president. But many of those same people seem to hang on to really bizarre illusions in the face of reality. For those who have eyes to see, many illusions have been shattered by Donald Trump's presidency. Does anybody here feel the same way about the bureaucracy in Washington D.C. as they did before Trump took office?
Recently, more illusions about the nature of the long war have been destroyed. Doesn't mean the media can't make up some new ones:
If anything may be gleaned from the recent hyperbolic reporting about Iran, it is that our media betters, particularly those reporting on national security issues, are deeply and inexorably challenged at providing reasonable and thoughtful analysis due to a blinding animus towards President Trump.
Nothing evinces this phenomenon more succinctly than the recent days in which supposedly serious national security reporters waxed poetic about the likelihood of World War III, while sharing unverified reports about tens of killings of Americans from Iranian state media. . . .
The level of breathless misinformation and disinformation spread after Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani's killing by the individuals we rely on supposedly to report facts and offer analysis in a responsible and undramatized manner was stunning. But this isn't their first rodeo.
No, such grossly hyperbolic reporting for the sake of convincing people that Trump may have created an epically destructive policy quagmire has become the new calling card of the media. The media has shown that they cannot eviscerate Trump with factual, state-of-affairs reporting because those affairs are never quite dire enough for the media. Similarly, for the sake of avoiding flat-out lying entirely (although it is entertaining to watch the "mistakes" go in one direction), the media is forced to cabin their criticism in fantastic projections.
Trump almost started World War III. Trump almost catalyzed the entire destruction of the Kurds. Trump almost started war with North Korea. Trump almost started a full-blown war between the Palestinian-Arabs and the Israelis. Trump almost devastated the economy by slapping tariffs on Chinese goods. See how much heavy-lifting the word "almost" is doing? It's utterly bizarre, because these predictions never happen. . . .
How did this situation come to be?
Well, for one thing, the press has been allowing itself to be fooled for a long time.
Correction: the press was in cahoots with the mythmakers who wanted to fool the American people.
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