We all remember the old joke when someone comes up and asks, “How do you keep an idiot in suspense?” And then they walk away.
This is a column about our need for attention. And also our unnatural attraction to all things Donald Trump—whether we’re interested in driving him from office or seeing him stay.
We’re addicted to President Trump. And all of the blame for this rests with the media.
He’s the President, yet they just refer to him as “Trump” (not that the media can be expected to respect anything these days). I’ve already addressed him with his proper title, and now he will be just “Trump” to me as well for the purposes of the rest of this article’s content.
If they want him to resign or to be impeached, they just need to chill. Finding something to report on anyone, let alone the president, each and every single day, is not something that can be done without losing effect over time; it’s called unsustainable reporting (I just made that up by the way, but somehow I think it works).
I know we have short attention spans. That is part of the reason Ringling Bros. just had their last circus performance.
Time is a competitor of everything—Ringling Bros., Baseball and all things Trump.
Everything has a news cycle. But can Trump’s be 24/7?
I think if the media doesn’t let up, they will continue to look less credible and more ridiculous than ever. Besides, even those most vehemently anti-Trump will eventually tire of the latest gossip that substitutes for news:
“Melania swatted his hand while they were walking on his recent Middle Eastern trip!”
What!? The hell you say!
“Trump goes back to leaving his jacket unbuttoned!”
Can you say bombshell? Not!
Every news outlet is foaming at the mouth about Trump and his every move or non-move.
I’ve always thought Trump should take a hiatus from his Twitter count.
And now I think the media should take a hiatus from Trump.
Freeze him out
Just think of the possibilities. I hope Trump doesn’t see the next part of this piece before the rest of the mainstream media does.
What I’m suggesting is whoever refrains from talking or reporting about the other first, and for the longest time, mind you, will win this weird psychological war.
This will be difficult as collectively, the media’s ego is about the size of Trump’s.
That’s why they feel the need to bombard us with stories that are about poll results (still):
“Latest polls show most Americans disapprove of Trump”
Man, glad they let me know this otherwise I’d have to google “latest presidential approval rating polls” to find out.
Stories like this are not fake news as much as just stuff that shouldn’t make it to press, on or over the air.
Trump vs. the Media or the Media vs. Trump—however you’d like to see it listed, will end once one or the other decides to shut up. That’s right, all that either the media or Trump will have to do to stop the madness is just shut up.
The media has made it easy for Trump to stay in the public eye. Forget that he’s president. He WANTS to be in the news each and every day. It doesn’t necessarily have to be good news for him, either. Just as long as he is in the news at all is the main, well, only thing.
Some would say it’s one of the marks of an insecure person to have to regularly draw attention to themselves. Does that make the media an insecure institution? You say it’s different? It’s really not any different since the media has made themselves part of the story.
Back in the day when Trump was first criticizing the media they should have just taken the high road and froze him out. Just think of how things might have turned out if they’d only chosen this tactic?
The bad news is they blew it back then. He would have imploded from lack of attention.
The good news is due to Trump’s Twitter addiction, it’s still not too late to successfully deploy the strategy.