Social media is exhausting. It seemed like a great idea when it all started coming around. People could connect with each other and with the world so much faster than they could before.
Now, however, it’s become the stomping ground for politicians and President Trump. The Clarion is just a weekly paper and so here we are, tiring ourselves out while we try to keep on top of all the breaking news the Donald has decided to give us.
If our paper ever seems behind the times, well, now you know why. If Trump was just tweeting out a good morning to all of his followers, it wouldn’t be a big deal. It wouldn’t even get any news coverage, hopefully. I could totally see CNN doing a giant projection of that.
Instead, Trump has decided to tweet irrationalities and lead reporters on a wild goose chase that never ends. One week it was the immigration ban, then it was the SCOTUS nominee and now it’s Flynn and Russia.
Thursday, February 16, Trump held a press conference that looked a lot like what he did on the campaign trail. And he left a lot of red herrings for the media to chase after.
Right now, the big story is Flynn and Russia, but with Trump standing in front of press for over an hour, seemingly just ranting, he was able to detract from the situation.
For those who think that Trump isn’t smart, think again. He knows just what gets the media riled up, namely, attacking them and calling them fake news and then making false claims about his electoral win.
As Twitter lights up with angry and frustrated journalists, we stop talking about Russia, Michael Flynn and any Trump involvement with the story. Instead, the media focuses on the twenty other “breaking news” stories coming out of this.
At this point, it looks like Trump dictates what is news and what is not. With his hailstorm of false facts and self-righteousness, Trump distracts reporters and leads them around the circle of who lied and who didn’t about Trump’s electoral win.
Do you think that Trump isn’t breathing a sigh of relief as the media dissects whether he made a potentially racist remark to a black reporter? He doesn’t care if people don’t like him, if anything, he welcomes the controversy and the tension.
He just wants to make sure that no one can bring damaging information about him to the forefront. So, he leads a group of reporters down a trail of nothingness.
Meanwhile, he’ll keep tweeting again and again only to detract from the real stories of the day. The Clarion will keep on chugging, but you won’t find us continually arguing about electoral numbers. We hope that you’ll find us reporting political news with accuracy and objectivity. At the end of the day, it’s not our job to tell you how to think and feel and hopefully some of the other media out there will realize that too.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor