Posted on 03/25/2019 2:02:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Consider this the pounciest of the media’s constant “conservatives/Republicans pounce!” spin on bad news for their opponents. After having been reviled by Democrats and the media as a traitor for the past two years, Politico apparently expected Donald Trump and his allies to react to his exoneration by, um, pretending it never happened. The big takeaway from the outlet’s perspective is that Trump & Co. should have showed more “interest in healing or national unity” rather than point out that their opponents had engaged in paranoid conspiracy theories:
But after the nearly two-year investigation found no collusion or clear obstruction of justice, Trump and his aides showed little interest in healing or national unity https://t.co/ua4Nv9dUMO
— POLITICO (@politico) March 25, 2019
The article itself rings the same pouncy bell:
“There’s a rare moment here for Donald Trump to get a bit of a reset,” said Matt Schlapp, a Trump ally and chairman of the American Conservative Union. “He’s got a chance to reconnect with more Americans than he even did previously.”
But after the nearly two-year investigation found no collusion or clear obstruction of justice, Trump and his aides showed little interest in healing or national unity. They quickly launched a fierce counterattack against both Democrats and the media, claiming that Trump had survived what amounted to an extralegal coup — and implying that other charges of wrongdoing against him should also be discounted.
“Democrats simply can’t be trusted,” former Trump White House official Steven Cheung said.
“Democrats lied to the American people continually, hoping to undo the legitimate election of President Trump,” a Sunday statement from Trump’s re-election campaign declared.
Sooooo … the big story is that Trump and his allies aren’t accepting the avalanche of apologies offered by Democrats and the media for pushing a false narrative over the past two years. That is awful — or it would be if the avalanche existed in the first place. However, all we have heard from Democratic leadership over the past 48 hours is that they plan to double down on Russia-collusion hypotheses and step up their investigations into Trump and his family and associates. Jerrold Nadler, Adam Schiff, and others have gotten big media coverage to push their narrative that Robert Mueller might not have been a reliable investigator and/or William Barr a reliable supervisor.
As for the media, a few people have called for introspection. This, however, from Margaret Sullivan more broadly characterizes the media’s response to getting depantsed:
It was strange, for example, to see Scott Pelley’s lead-in to CBS’s “60 Minutes” erroneously describe the Mueller report’s findings in a way that Trump might have scripted: He flatly stated that the report, as described by Attorney General William P. Barr, exonerated the president.
In fact, Mueller came to no such conclusion on obstruction of justice, and on the contrary stated clearly that his investigation did not exonerate him.
Perhaps cowed by the criticism — which came from the left as well as the right, most notably from author Matt Taibbi — some news organizations may back down from aggressive coverage of Trump.
That would be a serious mistake. With some regrettable and damaging exceptions — individual stories that seemingly went too far — reality-based news outlets have done quite well on this story.
Sullivan never bothers to note that Mueller did in fact go the extra step in exonerating Trump and his campaign over the Russia-collusion charge, which was the core of Mueller’s mandate. Mueller punted on obstruction, but it’s very difficult to charge someone with obstruction when no underlying crime exists in the first place — and when the investigation concluded without any attempts to impede it. Prosecutors rarely “exonerate” people; they just decline to charge them and keep their mouths shut otherwise. The only reason for the public exoneration on collusion is because the public airing of the investigation resulted in the special counsel and requires public closure.
No one wants the media to stop being assertive in covering this or any other administration. What they want is for the media to report on the facts rather than create and push the narratives they want, or in this case the narratives that the Hillary Clinton campaign wanted as an explanation for her loss. We want the media to stop grandstanding about their own victimhood and start dealing with reality rather than paranoid fantasies that never made much sense in the first place. “Democracy dies in darkness,” indeed. So does the media.
Small wonder, then, that Trump et al aren’t seeking national unity from Democrats and the media. They still haven’t learned their lesson from Russiagate, and at this rate they never will. Under those circumstances, it’s laughable to spin this as a problem when the slandered doesn’t kiss and make up with those who slandered them.
I guess the Left is that stupid.
Right; Trump tried to be that guy and the media/leftist/communist/dem machine stepped all over him.
Fool me once...
If they all resigned their positions from Congress, the State and Justice Departments and the courts, I think there would be room for some forgiveness. For the sake of healing.
Well, why are the Democrats continuing with their investigations and not promoting national unity?
Because what they did was illegal and unethical at every level??????
Cuz that sure as hell is what George W. would have done.
The left’s definition of national unity:
1. They’re in charge of everything.
2. We’re dead.
...becasue Trump doesn’t have battered wife syndrome like the rest of the GOP?
Because if he doesn’t make them pay a price for what they have done, there is nothing keeping them from repeating a similar fiasco. There has to be a down-side for the Rats for this kind of irresponsible, evil behavior. They need to pay a very, very heavy price for what they have done.
You mean like the “unity” the Democrats have pursued these past two+ years?
Ed’s a Nimrod. We finally have a fighter in the WH.
They saddled US with an ineligible usurper who acted like an enemy agent for eight long years, culminating in trying to change the outcome of the election to replace said usurper.
The gallows would be appropriate, but I don’t expect to see them used.
Reminds me of a true mob story where an assassin shot another gangster in the head but the bullet didn’t penetrate the skull and kind of slid along his skull.
The would be assassin tried to play it off as a joke.
It didn’t work.
WOW this would be like a rapist telling his victim “Hey come on, cant you just move on from this Im suffering in jail cant you just forgive and forget” so let me get this straight Politico, your hired goons accused this President for over TWO YEARS now of colluding with a foreign Govt to steal the 2016 election, called him every single disgusting name in the book but hey, its Trump’s responsibility to break bread with the bastards who wanted him taken out of the White House and hung
Because there ar a lot of criminal Democrats that need to be jailed.
[Consider this the pounciest of the media’s constant “conservatives/Republicans pounce!” spin on bad news for their opponents. After having been reviled by Democrats and the media as a traitor for the past two years, Politico apparently expected Donald Trump and his allies to react to his exoneration by, um, pretending it never happened. The big takeaway from the outlet’s perspective is that Trump & Co. should have showed more “interest in healing or national unity” rather than point out that their opponents had engaged in paranoid conspiracy theories:]
Yep
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Investigation s have consequences. Margaret Sullivan sounds like the person from MSNBC who was reading the Bush-gore decision in 2000. After they kept reading out loud and realized that Bush won, the reaction looked like a pantload. Dirty diapers must have hit an all time high when dirty bobs report came out
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