Last May, after newly minted teevee lawyer Giuliani whoopsy daisy spilled the beans about the Stormy Daniels payoff coming from Trump, the media went haywire. He was “unhinged,” “not the man he once was,” “loosing it.”
Yet, Trump didn’t fire him. That got my attention.
The same thing has happened four or five times since then. The media, with its characteristic attention span of a mayfly, repeated the same chorus: “He’s crazy,” he’s lost it,” “he’s doing himself and Trump no favors.”
And yet Trump never fired him. Hmm.
Kevin Drum has written a nice piece, the first that I’ve seen that explains the problem as I see it:
it’s obvious what Giuliani has been doing ever since he started representing Trump last year: tossing out chaff so vigorously that nobody can tell from day to day what the current story is supposed to be. The point of this—and this is the important part—is not just to confuse everyone. It’s to make Giuliani the bearer of bad news so that eventually, when Trump is forced to admit something damaging, it’s “old news” that he’s been “saying all along.”
You can read the full post here.
Drum concludes:
This isn’t a foolproof hack of the media, but it’s pretty good. It shows a sophisticated understanding of how the modern media works and how to undermine it,
So, what to do? Hack Giuliani, of course.
If Giuliani's remarks are truthful, he’s just laying his trap. And if his remarks are lies, then he is a liar. Either way, it leads back to the conclusion that he's really not worth listening to anymore.
Easier said than done, Corporate Journalists want that scoop and gotta feed the beast. But we are often no better. Many of us are news junkies, and, again, looking for the Trump Russia fix. People also want to get on the rec list. I forgot myself and fell for it just two days ago. All of us are human, all too human.
But, please, we can stop freaking out every time he does this. He’s trying to play us. Don’t let him. He knows what he is doing. It’s not about messaging to the conservative base. It’s about controlling the news coverage of this Russia thing. It’s about it’s “old news” that Team Trump has been “saying all along.” It’s propaganda.
And the thing about propaganda is even when we don’t believe, our lizard brain does.
Tuesday, Jan 22, 2019 · 5:21:12 PM +00:00
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Leinad
Murka2005 concisely puts it:
[Giuliani’s] sole purpose is to come on these shows so he can lie, spread doubt, and keep moving the goalposts. He is more PR flack than an actual attorney.
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These shows should just refuse to have him on and give him the Kellyanne Conway treatment.
Yes!