Welcome to Gaia! ::

I don't think Trump actually knows what he is talking about when he says that the media is fake. He's not wrong. He's far from wrong. But I don't think he understands the intricacies of how fake it really is.

I'm currently reading a book called The Smear by Sharyl Attkisson, a former reporter for CNN, CBS, and PBS. She released the book this year in 2017, coming out about the gossip network that is the mainstream media. So far, she has explained about how media networks will do something called a "smear" where, if a journalist goes against the media's agenda, they will do a high-school-maturity routine and insult them and spread lies about them until they are no longer taken seriously and get fired from their position.

She outlines this process as the following:

Let's suppose someone made a racist joke about black people that really nobody cared about because it wasn't really that offensive.

Step One: Launch
First, they begin by attracting people to a specific opinion about the joke with a catchy headline that will cause people to click on it and become engaged to spread the "news story" as quickly as possible. Clickbait.

Step Two: Distribution
They spread the story by email to hundred of reporters on an email list to build public pressure on their target and spread the story like a wildfire. Their opinion seems more believable when it is reported by multiple "offended" news outlets.

Step Three: Outreach
This is when they would contact as many black journalists and like-minded organizations as possible in an attempt to rile up hatred so it can be properly delivered to be as hate-fueling as possible.

Step Four: Escalation
They try to bring to attention all the person's previous "misdeeds" and will get websites like Slate.com to post a comprehensive list of all the offensive things that person has said.

Step Five: Demands
The attacking group demands an apology, which usually ends up the case, and the victim is suspended from work for two weeks in this example. However, the attacking group isn't actually looking for an apology. As soon as the apology is made, the attackers contact the victim's station and convince them to remove them completely, which is often the case.

Step Six: Pressure
The news station will talk about the story nonstop, regardless if there was a significant murder the day before, and convince advertisers to threaten to pull advertisements from the victim's station. And in about eight days the process is over and, badabing badaboom, the victim is fired from their station.

Please note, there is case-after-case of politicians and reporters making racist remarks, but they weren't on the radar as being against the agenda, so they were ignored. Double standards.

Why go through the hassle? Because he made derogatory remarks about Hillary Clinton.

The book isn't a very good book for generalizations. I had to do the generalizing myself. The book gives case after case of the media using "the smear" as retaliation for people going against the agenda.

There is so much fear in the journalism community. Whenever someone gets attacked by the media, everyone knows they have something on him. This is the world we live in, folks.

I seriously doubt that Trump knows all of the details of the media's corruption. I didn't even go through half of the chaos the media is involved in. This doesn't include what I'm learning in my Sociology class about how the media's purpose is to strike fear and hatred for one-another in its viewers to keep us separated, distracted, and easy to conquer. I already knew that, but I'm about to get some greasy details.

<< Does not watch, read or listen to 'news'. It's horrible. >>