First everyone should watch this video by New York Times opinion columnist, Ezra Klein, called “Don’t Believe Him”. You should watch it because I’m basically going to reiterate everything he says. And yes, watch the full 13 minutes long thing.
In summary, the video states that Trump works off of the illusion of power. He doesn’t want to be President, he wants to be king. He is working solely through executive orders because the Republicans only have a three seat majority in Congress and he knows that if he goes to Congress to cement these bills into legislation, they will be rejected and he will look weak.
Trump is the Wizard of Oz. Everything is a facade behind the big green curtain and behind it is a small tiny pathological liar. His executive order to do away with birthright citizenship is unequivocally unconstitutional and I would be very surprised if all the originalists (people who believe we should interpret the constitution as it is written and not evolve it to modern day contexts) on the Supreme Court deemed it as anything but. But, I’m not a political science girly, at heart I am a communications girly and what I want to talk about is the media.
Throughout the piece, Klein reiterates that Trump is focused on “muzzle velocity”. It’s about blitzing the media with so much shit at once to “flood the zone” and do so so rapidly that we’re all paralyzed by headlines. The media can only focus on one thing at a time, and the goal is to destabilize us and keep us there.
There is a lot of fear-mongering and misinformation going around, especially by way of social media. Y’all know that tweet that’s like Black people will believe anything written in shaderoom font? Well, whoever tweeted that was spitting. My mom just sent me an IG post stating that Trump is implementing limits for people who live in public housing (we live in public housing). I immediately texted her, “what’s the source for this?”. The post was on some random IG account and just had black bold font dispelling the news. A two-second Google search immediately revealed an article from News 12 Connecticut that debunked this exact meme as false and criticized it for inciting fear in public housing residents. It’s not her fault though! And nobody better talk about my mom. We all see shit online and never question it because we should live in a society where information is regulated and fact-checked. But we do not live in that society. So what I’m telling you is, we have to question and fact-check everything. This boils down to individual media literacy, but also as journalists not adding in this doom-cycle. We cannot believe everything we see with Trump’s face next to it or even coming out of his own mouth.
So, I wonder, who is going to do the critical thinking in the media? Yes, the news’ job is to keep us all informed about everything that’s going on, but in times like this, when do we stop to take into consideration the psychological effects this is having on the average American? I don’t know about you, but I don’t tell people bad news and tell them to deal with it.
Because I’m into journalism as a concept, I check out the Nieman Lab’s annual gathering of journalists to write short articles on what they see for the future of journalism--or simply put Nieman Lab’s Prediction for Journalism, insert year here. Some of my favorites have talked about focusing on local journalism, having journalists actually go out into communities rather than telling stories from a desk, and for journalism to evolve and adapt to where we are currently and not be this grandfathered standstill thing.
There is this desire to go back to the old days of news and recreate the way news organizations worked in the past. While there is some merit to the fact that we don’t have to recreate the wheel, I think that journalism organizations need to adapt to the way news flows on social media, but do so in a smart way. They’re just throwing information at people via all platforms just to say they have the dish. Word to Beyoncè people don't make albums anymore, and it is rare that journalists take time to research and create a good story. Everything is headlines to get people to click sent straight to our inbox.
Someone has to do the critical thinking! Lord knows the government won’t fund the schools so that we can all do so for ourselves, so in the meantime it is up to the media not to participate in this rapid firing of stupidity, but to help guide people to hope and to the people out there who are picking up the pieces of our crumbling “democracy”.
I hope that you’ve realized that I have no thoughts on Trump. Quickest way to piss off a narcissist is to ignore the fuck out of them (*source: anyone who has dealt with a leo man). Again, word to Beyoncè, whoever controls the media controls the mind. Stop letting motherfuckers control your mind. (I sound like Dr. Umar, oh God.)
The poli sci girlies can tell you all the ways that we can bother the fuck out of current sitting Congress members, who honestly should be our focus. I’m not a political journalist so I can’t really tell you all that, sorry! What I can say is that Ezra Klein’s video gave lots of people in the comments a chance to finally take a deep breath, and I respect that. Though it falls under opinion, this kind of journalism should be viewed and produced more. Lay everything out for people, do some critical thinking/analysis, and let people choose where to go from there.
One scroll on Instagram shows me tons of people fighting back against ICE. It shows me community reporting from mutuals sharing date, times, and locations of ICE spotting. It taught me what a proper warrant to enter someone’s house looks like signed by a judge vs. a bullshit ICE warrant that doesn’t give them permission to enter. Trump is the Wizard of Oz and the current media landscape is the land of Oz. The media blitzing of all these horrible, inhumane deportations hides the ways communities are stepping up to protect one another. It’s supposed to make us think that we’re hopeless and that no one can do anything. I’ve seen exactly one video from a major news organization interviewing a woman who successfully turned away ICE from entering her family’s home. One video showing the difference in warrants I discussed before.
So I ask, what is the job of the media right now? Are they doing their job? Is the media landscape something we’re looking to ‘control’? We have to find a balance between being tuned into the news and stepping away. But the media needs to re-figure out what responsibility they have to citizens of the world, and maybe that’s something we need to work out on the remix.
I just attended a talk by Ta-Nehisi Coates, critically acclaimed author of Between the World and Me, and his newest book, The Message. The Message follows Coates as he travels to three sites of racial and social injustice with a heightened focus on apartheid Palestine as the Israeli orchestrated and US funded genocide against Palestine unfolds. A key message from The Message is that the Western world and its proxy states are founded on a lie that they must protect via money and weapons, as such, writers have a responsibility to dispel this lie and reveal the truth. This couldn’t have been more timely as I’d spent the morning writing all about how Trump’s power is a lie and how he is a liar.
Coates said that “the lie” requires so much money, it requires dehumanizing the subjugated because it blinds us, or rather keeps us in denial, of the amorality of the consequences of “the lie”. On the contrary, the truth is simple. It doesn’t require the wealth, theatrics, and manufactured glamour of Emerald City because it is the truth and can never be dispelled.
Like I tell you all the time, we are not doomed. They are liars! Lying by omission is a lie. Word to my mother and your mother and her grandmother, “the devil is a liar”. Don’t believe him!
I am working on a list of journalism organizations I think are producing great journalism. Off the top of my head, Capital B produces great, free, journalism on Black stories that are always omitted from the record, especially on environmental justice. Tune in to them.
Racism is a distraction (Toni Morrison). Media “muzzle velocity” is a distraction. Debates over shit that isn’t up for debate is a distraction. Do not engage with distraction (Ta-Nehisi Coates). As someone that doesn’t know how to not have the last word without being seriously peeved off, I know this will be extremely hard for me. But I’m tired of you bitches distracting me so…
Alright, auntie signing out.
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