Monday 31 October 2016

Donald Trump's normalisation by the media transcends the election



Trump is going to win. It is nauseating to state this and there will be no comfort in being correct. Win or lose, hard-headedness now helps prepare for what is to come after the media's fetishisation of this box-office charlatan.


The are signs that this won't be a walk in the park for Hilary Clinton. Firstly, the polls and betting all predicted a loss for Brexit and look what happened. The parallels with June's EU referendum are evident with the so-called establishment status quo against the perceived outsider. Of course most people know a born-into-privilege son of millionaires is hardly an outsider. 

Michael Moore also puts forward a strong case for a Trump victory. Saying things that desperate people want to hear is a tactic especially as in their euphoria they probably never even consider it could be deception.




Moore mentions the role of the media who pandered to his chest-beating audience for ratings, clicks & profile. Trump, the extreme narcissist was an advertisers dream. An election in which not much over half the electorate vote has become a TV execs dream. Pandora's Box was torn open by gleeful corporate media and to hell with the long term as long as everyone got their payday. A mentality replicated in the 2008 banking crash that helped sow the seeds for



The fact is from the very beginning it was obvious he represented millions of racists, from the dangerously bigoted to far right psychopaths. His poll numbers jumped every time he vilified another group — never his own clique of course. The default male  dominated media failed to frame his extremism in a responsible manner. Yet we get coverage as cartoonish as its subject.

There was little scratching below the surface towards the causes that propels him. We shouldn’t be relying on a random brave Muslim woman  to part-expose this sad American reality. Serious news organisations with their massive reach and resources should be aching to provide further context into a massively popular global story. And so it has rarely been more apparent that the gaze of scrutiny belongs overwhelmingly to those unable to grasp the threat he represents, some of whom will probably be spluttering into their privilege right now.