Fake News is on everyone's lips. What should be equally noted is inflated news. I will give you an example. The current flap around the exit of a Trump staffer for alleged abuse of two spouses. Bear in mind that minus media pressure — akin to the way a school of fish swims toward alluring bait — we would have no news at all. Media are the appointed guardians of our sense of reality. Reality should be seen as everything. But in the inflated news environment distortion is endemic.
Endemic means pervasive, common, all around us. The subject of this morning's lesson is a man named Rob Porter who was the person closest to Trump in a physical sense.
He was the conduit for everything going to and from the chief executive. Today there are no less than thirteen stories being spun from the aftermath of Mr. Porter's departure. If that is not inflation, what is?
For perspective
If you saw a three line story on the front of your newspaper today noting that an average of 100 people is killed in the USA every day in vehicle-related crashes, you would not call that inflated. It happens to be an unending scandal that no one pays attention to. But that is just my inner editor coming out. Editors should ask the right questions. Very few do.
Abuse is the big story
Abuse of any sort, whether by vehicles or human beings, is a big deal. I see very few reports detailing how accidents actually occur and why.
And virtually no stories on the actual incidents that are said to be examples of abuse. They take place but the news is not really about them, it is about what he said, she said, or someone else said. I call that superficial, overkill, and lazy. If abuse is the story, then break out some stats. Rapes and other intimate abuses account for perhaps more than two million incidents annually.
But we spend our time on easy-to-report aftermath stories. What leaks accompanied the effort to deal with the story? That's surely a must-know bit of detective work. Then there is true inflation which leads to another related issue. First the inflation. Kelly! Yes, the President's Chief of Staff is mired in this because he defended Porter.Now people are lining up to defend Kelly who is now resignation bait.
Bait
I use the word bait advisedly, it rhymes with inflate. We have, in the White House, a president who may well be a security problem for all Americans. Inflated news of the sort I am discussing is just what the president needs to divert attention away from the manifest dangers he represents. This is the true genesis of this article. Most of Trump's actions since becoming president have served to inflate the news. Think about it. Then ask what someone with designs on staying in office and avoiding prosecution would do to defend himself. If you believe as I do that Trump may be a serious security risk, I ask what is the big story?
