# I pit the Mainstream Media Normalization of Donald Trump's Presidency
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 27, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784 "2018-12-27T14:28:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/21 "2018-12-28T15:16:51Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#):
>
> There’s also [What The Fuck Just Happened Today?](https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/) whose founder explains at the “About” link:
Thanks for sharing that. It’s an interesting blog-like account. He seems to pick his sources from mainstream media. Progressive and right-wing media are pretty scant, from what I can tell from a quick glance. I wonder how he goes about determining what’s important that day.
---
### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/22 "2018-12-28T15:43:14Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> The OP is right: even if the article has some critiques of Trump, the cliches about Trump as “changing Washington” only buy into the bullshit narrative he wants to project. Trump hasn’t changed Washington–he’s just made it swampier.
Thank you.
---
### Author:  [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/23 "2018-12-28T15:44:20Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#):
>
> People don’t read past the headline, first of all.
>
> Second of all, it did point out some negatives… But look how it couched them!
>
> The lede: “Mr. Trump went to Washington. And he changed it.”
>
> Well, mission accomplished then? For MAGAts that’s a feature, not a bug. “Changed” it? Quite a charitable way to say what he has actually done. Would they say a murderer “changed” hi victim? I mean, he did - the victim went from alive to dead. That is a change! But maybe there are more useful, less ambiguous words to use.
>
> “In his first two years in office, President Donald Trump has rewritten the rules of the presidency and the norms of the nation’s capital, casting aside codes of conduct and traditions that have held for generations.”
>
> That sure makes it all seem so noble, doesn’t it?
>
> “Taking a wrecking ball to decorum and institutions, Trump has changed, in ways both subtle and profound, how Washington works and how it is viewed by the rest of the nation and world.”
>
> Again, how is this critical? This is that bullshit “balance” at work.
>
> “Trump himself believes his unpredictability is what holds Americans’ attention and fuels his success.”
>
> Etcetera, ad nauseum.
>
> And it says “fact-challenged” and “inaccuracies” when it should just say “lies” and “more lies.” The media just can’t say the president lies, a really small word that perfectly encapsulates Trump. They can’t call him a liar. No idea why.
>
> Imagine if they wrote similar articles about Hitler (yeah, yeah, Godwin, bite me).
>
> “He rose from earlier failures as an artist to become a powerful speaker… His methods were unconventional… He changed the way people view the world… And how about that cute mustache of his!”
>
> Seriously, none of you read these things? Maybe your browser is broken or something? Maybe you’re numb to it all by now?
Like I was sayin’ …
They still suck his crank, even when they are pretending not to.
---
### Author:  [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/24 "2018-12-28T15:46:36Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> btw, there are places where people are trying to keep track of all the egregious stuff that’s going on. But it’s a monumental task in every direction.
Yes, the strategy is to just throw out SO much bullshit on a daily constant basis that NO one can keep up or fact check or debunk it all.
---
### Author:  [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/25 "2018-12-28T15:50:09Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> They started by normalizing his idiotic campaign. They gave him the biggest platforms to speak from, not because he was a worthy candidate, but because he generated views for their networks, websites and newspapers.
and in addition to being “fair an balanced” or trying to create the illusion of a “close horse race”, or just “sticking it to the Libs” like Faux News …
unlke other candidates, he played them in certain ways, to get FREE air time, where as other candidates have to pay for their political ads.
They sold themselves out, they sold us out, and then Trump sold us ALL out to Russia.
“But her emails” and other bullshit, while he and the GOP was conspiring to betray the country.
---
### Author:  [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/26 "2018-12-28T15:51:32Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#):
>
> Hey guess what - [THEY DID](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/09/you-know-who-else-was-always-displaying-newfound-pragmatism.html)!!! Click the link above to read the media quotes that normalized Hitler. My personal favorite is this one:That was from the Washington Post in 1939. Honestly, how fucking different is that from how the media falls over itself to praise those moments when Trump clumsily does the bare minimum of what could be expected of a president?
>
> Hitler was only a little racist. Trump “read from a teleprompter and wore a nice suit” so [he’s presidential](https://newrepublic.com/minutes/141034/donald-trump-read-teleprompter-wore-nice-suit-suddenly-hes-presidential).
>
> I mean, the [journalism school at NYU](http://pressthink.org/2017/09/normalizing-trump-incredibly-brief-explainer) seems to get it. This isn’t overly complicated.
and the same WaPo is STILL normalizing and defending Trump.
---
### Author:  [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/27 "2018-12-28T16:00:59Z")
The most frustrating thing about the way the media has handled Trump can be summed up by [this brilliant Clickhole article](https://news.clickhole.com/government-in-chaos-donald-trump-signed-an-executive-o-1825122365). Trump will make some outrageous claim, say, about voter fraud, and everyone is sort of forced to try and make sense of it. Journalists write and run stories about voter fraud, government agencies spur into action to respond, pundits spend whole news cycles prognosticating on voter fraud, and we have 30 page threads here on the SDMB. Maybe it has to be that way because he’s the president of the frickin’ USA, but I so wish we could all just collectively ignore this nonsense and continue trying to run a country like adults.
---
### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/28 "2018-12-28T16:32:32Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#):
>
> Hilarious (or infuriating, depending on your view) [review](https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RMN0ZWOAA43UJ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1454932074) on that book at Amazon.
>
> The reviewer claims to have bought the book on a $5 sale to perhaps leave out on the table for their Trump hating friends and relatives. But the person claims to be a harcore MAGA supporter and says the President is the “greatest”. He gives the book 5 stars. Interesting juxtaposition.
Poe’s Law in action. Can’t tell if it’s a real example of the cognitive dissonance so endemic in the Trumpeteers or non-supporter put-on.
---
### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/29 "2018-12-29T00:02:27Z")
The media might have “normalized” Trump without intending to.
I’d say that ordinary Americans have normalized Trump as much as the media. In fact, let’s start with Oliver Stone movies, which sensationalize and fictionalize pretty much every topic he ever addresses in his movies. But because it’s in a movie, it becomes reality. An entire generation of people believe that JFK was murdered by the CIA, despite no evidence at all that it was anything other than a mentally unstable crank who happened to be at the right place at the right time.
A generation or two of Americans now find themselves led by the conspiracy president. This should be no real surprise.
As H. L. Mencken put it:
> [@](#):
>
> As democracy is perfected, the office [of president] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move towards a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron
Hello Chickens!!! Roosting time!!!
---
### Author:  [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784/30 "2018-12-29T02:56:03Z")
> [@asahi](#):
>
> I’d say that ordinary Americans have normalized Trump as much as the media.
Your cause and effect seems misplaced to me. Where do you think ordinary Americans are getting the idea? Where do you think they got the idea to begin with? Whose job is it to point out to ordinary Americans all the things about this administration that are not in any way normal?
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-mainstream-media-normalization-of-donald-trumps-presidency/826784.md?page=1)