Eric Boehlert: Trump plots martial law from White House -- the press shrugs

[babylonsister]

https://pressrun.media/p/trump-plots-martial-law-from-the

Trump plots martial law from White House — the press shrugs
The Normalizing Olympics
Eric Boehlert

snip//

"Trump Discussed Naming Sidney Powell as Special Counsel on Election Fraud," read the botched headline. Fact: There was no "election fraud" in 2020, so it's irresponsible for the Times to treat the debunked claim as fact in its headline by reporting Trump might appoint a special counsel for the phony topic.

The Times didn't think discussing a military coup warranted front-page coverage, but on Sunday the Times did run a big, page-one story about how Joe Biden's emerging cabinet isn't liberal enough for certain Democratic activists. It was the third time in seven days the Times ran essentially the same Dems in Disarray story about Biden's unfolding administration. (Alliances have been "strained," his choices are "vexing" "frustrated" and " increasingly skeptical" supporters.) This time, the paper gave that redundant story higher billing than the stunning report about Trump's advisers urging martial law to protect this reign of power.

It's like the Normalizing Olympics — the press has spent four years turning often-seditious Trump behavior into 800-word stories that run on page 28.

The Times was not alone in basically shrugging a White House meeting that has likely never taken place in American history before. On Sunday morning, the Washington Post homepage included no mention of Trump considering the idea of imposing martial law. I couldn’t find a single major newspaper that ran the story on the front page over the weekend.

snip//

All through Trump's unprecedented crusade against democratic elections the press, time and again, has refused to acknowledge the severity of his actions and the deep Republican support he enjoys when he attacks the democratic process. It’s sadly fitting that after four years of failing to call out Trump, much of the press downplayed the White House talk of martial law. The normalizing never stops.

[Cha]

1. This is On the Fucking "Press"..

trump is a Fucking Psychotic Despot.. it's their Fucking job to write about it.. Inform the Public.. Not "shrug" their GD shoulders.

[Magoo48]

15. The media is corporate owned. The media and its employees are not free to report.

There is free and credible Independent media available, like Democracy Now, but it’s almost extinct. Personally, I think Amy Goodman is the best and hardest working of the few honest journalists left. Courageous, detective voices are hard to find, but I keep looking.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. They are free to report. They don't write the headlines or edit or allocate space & position. . . nt

[Evolve Dammit]

34. Couldn't agree more.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

45. You got that right. But, hey, if they tell the truth, Pissolini might

call them "enemy of the people" again or RWers all over would screech about the unicorn called "the Liberal Media" and then the press peeps would have to go nurse their feeling boo-boos some more, so better to just play the "both sides" BS game.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[badboy67]

2. MSM is expert on missing the forest for the trees.

They do what their owners dictate, and nothing more.

[gab13by13]

14. Bingo

[kentuck]

3. And we wonder how deep Russia is embedded in the US Government?

They have everything invested in Donald Trump.

They truly believed they had taken over our country, in my opinion.

And perhaps they have? The people that supported Trump will still be there after he is gone. It is a problem that is not going away.

[Iliyah]

4. From what I've seen, the corporate media has been spot on .....

the shrugging has been from the republican party, ie senate and house. They are Russian assets as well and damn the USA's national security. Years of republicans staking claim they are the party of National Security and the only party that will protect us was and still is totally bullshit and another LIE.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. Tend To Agree

CNN covered this as the main story, even ahead of COVID, on 3 straight shows the next day,band on 2 shows I watched over the weekend.
It is far more Rs shrugging and muttering "it's just trump being trump, nothing will come of it."

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. So far this morning, CNN has given it extensive coverage.

And have covered it all along. They're not mincing words, either. And that's why CNN is my go-to station.

[MoonRiver]

28. MSNBC too

[BainsBane]

5. the press are complicit

in Trump's crimes.

[BlueJac]

6. The press has helped Trump all along!

They are shameless

[Mr. Ected]

8. The First Amendment means nada if the press is motivated solely by revenues and profit

We get the news they want us to hear. A diluted version of OAN or Newsmax or FOX. Light propaganda with a bit of pretend skepticism folded in to achieve just the right level of "balance".

Does the word "capitalism" even appear in the Constitution?

[louis-t]

9. This week, the story will be: Joe Biden's niece.

She allegedly had an accident after drinking. The horror.

[Atticus]

10. Our hair is on fire. Why aren't we SCREAMING? nt

[Trueblue Texan]

11. Yeah, the Dems are always in disarray, right?

And yet, Ossof and Warnock have raked in MILLIONS more donations from the Democratic base than those thugs Lloeffle and Purdue. Funny, that.

[Evolve Dammit]

35. totally not true. GOP has way more cash

[Trueblue Texan]

38. Dems have outraised Rethugs in Georgia 2 to 1 according to Bloomberg:

[link:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-16/georgia-senate-runoffs-fueled-mostly-by-out-of-state-donors|

Money from around the U.S. is flooding into Georgia as both of the state’s Senate seats are up for grabs in a Jan. 5 runoff election and with them, control of the U.S. Senate.

Between Nov. 4 and Nov. 23, the Democratic Senate candidates drew 96% of their online donations from out of the state while the two incumbents got 92% of their online contributions outside of Georgia, a Bloomberg analysis found.

Democrat Jon Ossoff raised $55.8 million over that period, while Raphael Warnock hauled in $58.2 million, taking in an average of $3 million a day via ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising platform. The two Republican incumbents raised 92% of their post-election online donations from out of state using WinRed, the party’s tool, with David Perdue taking in $29.1 million and Kelly Loeffler $27.2 million.

For a party in disarray, we are really kicking butt in contributions.

[Evolve Dammit]

39. Thanks for that. That is not what I have heard on "cable news." Don't know what is true anymore,

and that is their intent. So much dis-information, co-opted governmental agencies and alternative facts that it is difficult to know what is accurate.

[cstanleytech]

12. I do not think its a problem to be honest as its not that the media isnt reporting it rather

that they know Trump is largely old news now and he is grasping at straws because a coup like he was discussing would essentially force the military to step in and help remove him if need be as he would be violating the Constitution they are sworn to uphold.

[UpInArms]

16. This is CORPORATE media

We lost our last DJ

"The Last DJ"

Well you can't turn him into a company man
You can't turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don't understand anymore
Well the top brass don't like him talking so much
And he won't play what they say to play
And he don't want to change what don't need to change
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Well some folks say they're gonna hang him so high
Because you just can't do what he did
There's some things you just can't put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ

[Instrumental break]

Well he got him a station down in Mexico
And sometimes it will kinda come in
And I'll bust a move and remember how it was back then
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ

[KG]

17. he's just a squeeky little mouse now.

[niyad]

19. And yet, we are told that the media is liberal.

[dlk]

42. Spiro Agnew (the bagman) started that lie in the 1970's

When the press began reporting his crimes. Savvy Republican operatives propagandized it to where it became “the truth” from repetition. It’s the zombie lie that won’t die.

[Dr. T]

20. When Trump ran in 2016

the MSM were totally complicit. Trump said something stupid and they were all over it. Trump, Trump, Trump. It was as if Hillary wasn't running at all. She got nearly zero coverage.

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Real martial law would be real martial law, not a fantasy floated in the press

Flynn's Fake Martial Law is a career growth tactic. It will give him something to grift upon post Jan 20.

[dalton99a]

22. They made him a celebrity, they gave him constant uncritical coverage, they made him president.

[Johnny2X2X]

23. I'm glad they're ignoring it

Giving it coverage would make it more possible. Talking heads would start playing both sides and say, "Well, we've declared martial law before in this country, it's not unprecedented." That would quickly warp into, he absolutely has the authority to do it.

Sometimes not covering something is best.

[BarbD]

26. I'm with you on this.

Ignoring Trump, I believe, is the best thing to do now.

He is just floundering and becoming insignificant. Why give his actions credence?

[Johnny2X2X]

29. And right now, he knows he's leaving

He's a troll at heart, he's making noise in an attempt to rile people up and to spoil the enjoyment of Biden's victory.

Trump needs to be ignored, when he leaves office though, the entire Republican Party needs to be taken to task for their anti-American authoritarian flirtations.

Trump will hold rallies when he's not President, the press needs to ignore them, if they do he'll lash out for a while and then fade away. His lashing out will be dangerous, he's going to say things worse than he's ever said in an effort for attention. The worst thing for a narcissist is to be ignored.

[hay rick]

24. The two sides to the sedition issue: discuss.

[Blue Owl]

27. I've boycotted every M$M outlet except for the PBS NewsHour on occasion

Fuck ABCNNBCBS and of course FOX

[Johnny2X2X]

30. I've boycotted MSNBC

I cannot watch them anymore, everything is alarmist.

I remember years ago, trying to watch FOX News to understand better where people on the right are coming from, my conclusion was that you could not watch FOX News and not be angry and outraged, it is a 24 hours a day outrage machine. MSNBC has warped into the same thing, you cannot watch MSNBC and not be outraged. Sure, there's plenty to be outraged about, but they take the most unlikely scenarios these days. MSNBC makes people less happy, I try to let my wife know too, that MSNBC is not healthy.

I am not saying MSNBC is equal to FOX News at all, MSNBC doesn't lie, they report facts, but they've tapped into that formula FOX used to come to prominence of telling their audience that everything is outrageous over and over.

[Evolve Dammit]

36. "alarmist"? You're kidding right? You should be outraged based on the factual reporting.

[BlueLucy]

43. I agree with you about MSNBC

I stopped watching a long time ago. Too much spin on the facts.

[LymphocyteLover]

31. How does treason and sedition help corporate America exactly, if the reason for this is

corporate control of the media???

[Irish_Dem]

32. If I were Putin I would have bought off the press too.

He is a diabolical evil genius, he doesn't miss a trick.

[BobTheSubgenius]

33. There is no excuse for either side of the media's coin - none..

Heads, Drumpf wins. Tails, Biden loses.

And there is no excuse for anyone with a functioning brain who is anywhere near 1600 giving this "idea" more than a millisecond of thought. The only thing that can be said about this whole situation that isn't vilifying it is that there has been such a vast torrent of lies, fanciful dreams spoken as fact and bizarre musings that, in some ways, it is Business As Usual for the last 4 or 5 years. I suppose you could make a case that this sounded like one more shaggy dog story.

[Kid Berwyn]

37. Enemies of the People.

Rather than fulfill their responsibilities as the only business named in the Constitution, our Free Press serves the Almighty Dollar and the rich keep getting richer.

[Shoonra]

40. Dissonance

Oddly enough, the same people who support the idea of Trump staging a coup, an autogolfe - using martial law, are the same ones who complain that having to wear a mask outside their home is violative of their rights.

[C Moon]

41. I'll never forgive the Times for making Trump look like a legitimate candidate against Hillary.

It was disgusting.
I guess they felt they had to give Trump fair play for some reason.

[BlueLucy]

44. They could not stop airing a train wreck.

$$ and ratings.

[Tommymac]

46. Don't subscribe to print or paywall editions.

Don't click on links to free newspaper sites that twist and obscure facts, or play the both sides game.

Circulation matters - hit them where they will be really hurt.

Fuck the Editors and owners of MSM - they are tools of the 1%...

Where the fuck was everyone a few years ago during Occupy?? Didn't we learn this lesson then?

Those that did not are just as much to blame no matter their political social or intellectual stances.

The 1% wants to KILL US ALL.