Why the media blitz on Trump isn't working

[Mme. Defarge]

"To be sure, there has been too much media puffery about Trump, whether unfiltered live coverage of his rallies by cable networks or Jimmy Fallon’s sickeningly friendly tousling of the Republican candidate’s hair on “The Tonight Show.” Journalists were slow to take him seriously at the beginning of the Republican primaries.

The fact remains, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted in an interview with the Times published Sunday: “Nobody is confused about the differences between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. . . . Is she perfect? Of course not. But you’ve got enough information to make the choice.”

What must be going on is that people — an alarmingly large number of people, it seems — back Trump even though they know, or could easily learn, that he is a charlatan, clueless about policy, bizarrely sympathetic to Russia’s dictator, disturbingly prone to offending women and minorities, and a serial liar to boot.

Trump is benefiting from the political equivalent of jury nullification. This is the well-known phenomenon whereby a jury returns a “not guilty” verdict despite its awareness that the prosecution has proved its case."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-media-blitz-on-trump-isnt-working/2016/09/21/9ef6cf26-8039-11e6-8327-f141a7beb626_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.c305df381cb1

[minoan]

1. I think a lot of people are stupid

And a lot of people just are not paying attention; they just hear snippets and those snippets have been "Hillary, lie, email...Hillary crooked lie."

[liberalla]

2. the "political equivalent of jury nullification"

for the highest office in the land, the presidency of the United States? wow...

"Like nullifying jurors, they (trump voters) sense a secret-vote opportunity to vent their grievance about this at little or no immediate risk."

I think that's where they have miscalculated... the 'little or no immediate risk' guesstimate.

[Maeve]

5. Some of the Brexit people thought the same thing

only to wake up appalled at having 'won'.

There is an old warning they are forgetting: Be careful what you wish for; you might get it.

[liberalla]

6. you're so right - Brexit is a good comparison

let's shoot ourselves in the foot to make this protest vote... ( just for starters-more injury and harm to come later)

[vlyons]

3. I think people who support Trump are deeply indifferent to his cons and criminality.

They are very vengeful people, who want to punish the status quo, the government, political correctness, and uppity people of color and women, who they believe are the causes of their unhappy and miserable lives. They delight in a mean-spirited Trump, who disregards commonly accepted rules of civility, compassion, fair play, and compassion. Very sad. Trump supporters are the stuff from which Fascism thrives.

[LiberalLoner]

10. +1 you hit the nail on the head.

[DLevine]

14. You make a great point. nt

[yallerdawg]

4. The media is also responsible for three decades of unfounded demonization...

of Hillary Clinton. They won't mention that.

A consistent feature of pro-Trump polling is the majority of his supporters say their vote is not for Trump, but against Hillary.

Hillary wins the debates hands-down if viewers finally understand "in her words and demeanor" she is not nearly as 'demonic' as the press has made her out to be.

If Trump comes off as the "crazier" choice, Hillary wins. That should be a low bar!

[KittyWampus]

7. The author's whole premise starts from "The Media Have Been Very Tough On Trump"

Quote: "This is silly. The media have been very tough on Trump, relentlessly so."

This is absolutely GARBAGE and a flat out lie. By any objective measure the media was give Trump a free ride, free press and zero accountability for his daily lies.

All it's done is play the false equivalency and allowed him to spew lies with no fact checking.

[world wide wally]

8. If people saw these two characters portrayed in a 90 minute movie, there is no doubt

who 100% of them would know who is the good guy, and who is the lying deceitful bad guy. (I don't think anyone cheers for Mr. Potter in "it's A Wonderful Life).
But after 25 years of Clinton bashing on Fox "news", RW radio, and a Republican Congress we are seeing the result. In a rational world, it would be Hillary in a landslide.

Moral of the story? Never underestimate the abilitiy of the media to brainwash people. Just make sure that YOU aren't one of them.

[ffr]

9. Just peeked at 538's forecast from yesterday.

Their lead story today is about Hillary's rebound being overly exaggerated. Why is this odd? Because after the media has been falling all over itself the past mouth to help tRump at every possible opportunity, their efforts have fallen on deaf ears. American's just to trust Putin loving tRump.

Day by day, Hillary's projected chances of winning keep inching up, inexorably.
THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF REBOUNDING.

http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo

I'm a volunteer for HRC. And the road to victory begins now. Don't wait until it's too late, volunteer too. A few hours here. A few hours there. The blue democratic wave doesn't happen on its own, it happens as a result of hard work.

Sign up to volunteer

Whether you’ve got a half hour to help enter some voter data or an entire day to spend knocking on doors, we need you!
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/forms/signup-to-vol/

[uponit7771]

11. I disagree with the authors account, not only is the media NOT TOUGH on tRump but they've normalized

... him because they're not making his team answer questions that sane voters want to know.

[Mme. Defarge]

12. While I have read many, many well researched,

well reasoned and well written articles in the NYT and WP condemning Trump's business dealings, his outrageous campaign rhetoric, and dangerous authoritian appeal, it's the lopsided coverage giving all of the attention to Trump that seems to be validating the old adage that any publicity is good publicity.

[uponit7771]

13. Yes, and it should be negative not normalizing too