Here's another POV on Trump and the media
President-elect Donald Trump floats the idea of Mitt Romney for Secretary of State, and the press goes student body left.
Then Kellyanne Conway tells the media how upset she is that her boss would betray his “loyalists” with his chief critic in such a high profile role.
Then MSNBC gets wind through “sources at the top” of how Trump is “furious” with Conway for her comments. Then Conway denied the reports in a statement: “It is all false. And it is sexist.”
I don’t think a better reality script could have been developed by Mark Burnett. (Oh, don’t you know that reality shows are micro-produced and basically scripted, although the “actors” can say what they want.*)
This entire sequence has the air of a set-piece, designed to throw the media off balance, keep the public guessing as to what Trump will do, and incite interest, trust, and belief in Trump’s team.
While the media is reporting that this is a circus, Trump goes on with his business. “Look, over there! A recount!”
“Wait! Over here, three million illegal votes!”
Now Trump is going to meet with Mitt Romney again. And Bob Corker. On Monday, Trump met with no less than four corporate chairmen/CEOs, an energy public policy wonk, Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta, and Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County.
Those of us who have been following Trump for 16-plus months get it, because we’ve seen this plot unfold before. It’s not a circus. It’s the Muppet Show, and the media is being controlled like Jim Hensen and Frank Oz controlled Kermit and Miss Piggy. He moves his hand, they open their mouths, and they speak his words.
Does anyone really think that Kellyanne Conway has gone rogue? Does anyone really believe that Stephen Bannon is twisting knives over Mitt Romney? Seriously? Bannon really was the sharpest tool in the shed at Harvard Business School, and he knows how to manipulate the media, almost as well as Trump himself.
Like all things in the Trump-universe, this is a hall of mirrors, where only a few people are inside on the entire illusion. The rest of us (and the media) get to see what they want us to see. And the media dutifully turn the cameras exactly where Trump directs. It’s a marvelous reality show unfolding right before our eyes.