Pavlov's Press Corps: Trump Once Again Got Journalists to Willingly Serve as His Incitement Mules

[Nevilledog]

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/03/19/pavlovs-press-corps-trump-once-again-got-journalists-to-willingly-serve-as-his-incitement-mules/

When we left the mainstream Trump press corps on Friday afternoon, they were all focused on the decision by Beryl Howell to rule that some of Evan Corcoran’s testimony in the stolen document case was crime-fraud excepted. Sure, there were journalists using wildly exaggerated descriptions for the uniqueness or surprise of the development. But, on Friday, reporters covering Trump’s legal woes were providing factual descriptions of actual newsworthy developments.

At the time, there was a general awareness that an indictment from Alvin Bragg may come next week, but the focus was the stolen documents investigation, in part because some journalists appear to believe that the crime-fraud ruling was some new sign that Jack Smith believed a crime had been committed.

Then, on Saturday morning, on his failing social media platform, the former President tweeted out incitement that included the following, in all caps:

* An unsubstantiated claim about illegal leaks probably based on Fox News reporting about efforts to prepare for potential violence as a response to a Trump indictment next week
* An attack on Alvin Bragg’s record on crime
* A claim Bragg is funded by George Soros, the kind of coded antisemitism Trump is including in virtually all his communications these days
* An assertion that he would be charged on something that “numerous other prosecutors!” had debunked as a fairy tale
* An overstatement of the degree to which he is leading in polls and an admission that he is the “former” President
* A day, Tuesday, when he would be “arrested”
* A call to “protest,” invoking one of the same cries used to incite a coup attempt on January 6, “take our country back”

*snip*

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. Absolutely!