Eating Their Own Dog Food
by tristero
NY Times Washington Bureau Chief Elisabeth Bumiller today:
“It’s relentless, the unpredictability of it,” said Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington bureau chief. “I knew it would be really wild and different, but I expected him to be somewhat different than the candidate Trump, and he really hasn’t been.”
Think about this for a second. The Washington Bureau chief of the New York Times – not some hack at a hack online pseudo-news source – actually thought that Trump would somehow change, like grow into the job or something. I can’t think of a single thing Trump did or said during the campaign that would serve as the basis for such an utterly ridiculous expectation.
In fact I know at least three highly respected nationally known journalists who truly expected Trump to pivot and become statesmanlike. That his staff would contain him. Uh huh.
Sounds to me like a lot of respected reporters have been eating too much of their own dog food. They’ve actually come to believe believed all that nonsense about coming together and pivoting to the center they try to feed the rubes.
Of course, I’m shocked by what has happened over the past year. But surprised? Not for an instant.
What happened last year was exactly what I expected to happen. And I fear that the white supremacist sitting in the White House with the power to order a nuclear holocaust is just getting started. “Scared” doesn’t begin to describe it.
In 2016 and even for part of 2017, the press, too busy telling itself that Trump wasn’t…well, you know, everything Trump is… failed miserably. Their naivete was breathtaking. And people with authoritarian tendencies – like those who dominate American politics – thrive on naivete.
Here’s hoping Bumiller et al are seeing things a bit more clearly now. And that it’s not too late.