Trump 1, Media 0
I couldn’t help from thinking, “that’s one up for Trump”, as I watched bulldog media star and Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway, dismantle CNN’s soft pillow Brian Stelter on his Sunday morning gossip program. I mean, she really took him apart.
I never cared for Conway or Trump, but they won that round pitted against their carefully selected prey, and easy mark, Stelter.
Conway was interviewed by Stelter, split screen, for over half an hour on his ‘Reliable Sources‘ program. She was prepared and came out swinging. Stelter wasn’t prepared and was relying on the “credibility” of CNN, whatever little it has and no thanks to him. Stelter is one of those journalism school graduates who has somehow managed to find a big-time TV news job as a commentator, but has no idea where is is on the court of public opinion or within the profession he considers himself a credible force, or reliable source. Journalism is 10% media school and 90% instinct and observation.
Conway’s sharp stick offensive was based on her wits and skills. Stelter’s pudgy marshmallow defense had him on the ropes almost immediately. His problem, aside from his waggishly irritating demeanor, is that he confuses and mixes “facts” with gossip and sells it as the truth as he sees and believes it. He comes off weak, not credible. Conway left him speechless and on his heels for most of the interview.
Conway may have been lying through her teeth, but she did it sure-footed and with conviction. She had me agreeing with her on most of her talking points which consisted on a focussed account of Trumps policy ideas and successes regarding the economy and crime and not on the speculation and gossip-coated “breaking news” spectacle of CNN. She did a good job for her boss, silencing Stelter for the most part and making him look like a putz junior executive trying to hold the company line for his boss.
Conway didn’t give Stelter a moment’s breathing room with her staccato offensive diatribe as she portrayed Trump as the victim of media assassination and the underdog. Everyone roots for the underdog. Conway gave me some things to think about, while Stelter had me feeling sorry for him, before my pitty quickly turned int distain.
Trump’s shell game presidency has everyone baffled, and it looks like Robert Mueller is the most flummoxed. Trump is a moving target while everyone else if focussed on “collusion” with the Russians in 2016. It’s 2018 now and fast turning into 2020 and a second term Trump presidency! “Collusion” ...what exactly does that mean?
(Collusion: the secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to deceive others.)
The word has become the catalytic cue phrase of the decade, and the legacy of President Donald Trump. The “C” word. “Complicity” and “treachery” may be stronger, more well defined words if you’re trying to say something definite. Collusion is as vague as the assumed definition of the term UFO. It simply means an Unidentified Flying Object, it doesn’t mean little green men from outer space, but that is the mass media, and America’s assumption.
Collusion sounds to much like “illusion” and that’s what this whole thing is starting to look like as the Mueller investigation moves forward toward a semi-non-conclusive determination, much like the infamous Warren Report regarding the single shooter conclusion and assassination of JFK, of which a conspiracy theory is widely believed.
Brian Stelter was relying on his illusion of collusion in Sunday morning’s interview with Conway, while both Conway and Trump were playing in real time and for keeps. They were miles ahead of Stelter’s stagnant position and reasoning. They were playing a smarter, sharper game while Stelter is waiting, hoping, for Mueller to save him with a conclusion and that he finds ...“collusion”.
Meanwhile, while Stelter, CNN, congress and the rest of the country are lazily navel-gazing and being entertained with cake, circuses and hopeful speculation, Trump, Conway and their team are strategizing, fighting for their lives, trying to come up with another distraction and deterrent, buying time, for what could be disaster for Trump and the final nail in his coffin, so to speak. A successful meeting with Kim Jong-un next month will take the heat off for a while but not relieve the continued pressure.
Coming up with the idea that the FBI planted a “mole” in the Trump 2016 campaign and having Trump “demand” this be investigated, is nothing but a demonically brilliant strategy. The media, congress, the FBI all took this seriously and are now distracted with this wild goose chase as Trump, Conway and gang catch their breath and get ready for the next round while hiding behind this incredibly discreditable revelation.
It’s starting to look like our country is being run by idiots, reported on by idiots, and that Trump is the smartest, sharpest, and outwitting them all.
Just think, if we could turn that cunning, that savvy street smarts, that chutzpah, into a presidential administration that looks after Americans and America first, what a great country this would be!
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
http://newsbout.com/a/John+Kushma
