2016 elections - because it's never too early

[Berkut]

Meh.  I hope that one of Trump's legacies won't be the idea that he was a clown who managed to shove aside respectable politicians and turned a dignified affair into a circus.  Fearmongering, intolerance, utter disregard for facts, engineered disasters presented as policy, all that was still going to be there better than ever.  When the insults stopped at the last debate, there wasn't much substance to take their place.

I was talking about Trump with a friend, and the spat with Fox News came up. I thought I came up with a good analogy, which was:

"If you make your living selling sheets and gasoline, don't act shocked when a crowd of people wearing sheets and burning crosses shows up".

[derspiess]

Very apt.  We should put all linen-selling gas stations on notice.

[Berkut]

Very apt.  We should put all linen-selling gas stations on notice.

There is only one in the "media" realm I am aware of, but I am with you on the desire to get rid of them.

But hey, free speech and all that. Fox News has the right to profit from fear mongering and hate.

[Martinus]

Meh.  I hope that one of Trump's legacies won't be the idea that he was a clown who managed to shove aside respectable politicians and turned a dignified affair into a circus.  Fearmongering, intolerance, utter disregard for facts, engineered disasters presented as policy, all that was still going to be there better than ever.  When the insults stopped at the last debate, there wasn't much substance to take their place.

I was talking about Trump with a friend, and the spat with Fox News came up. I thought I came up with a good analogy, which was:

"If you make your living selling sheets and gasoline, don't act shocked when a crowd of people wearing sheets and burning crosses shows up".

Wow, that's a shitty analogy even by my standards.

[Berkut]

Meh.  I hope that one of Trump's legacies won't be the idea that he was a clown who managed to shove aside respectable politicians and turned a dignified affair into a circus.  Fearmongering, intolerance, utter disregard for facts, engineered disasters presented as policy, all that was still going to be there better than ever.  When the insults stopped at the last debate, there wasn't much substance to take their place.

I was talking about Trump with a friend, and the spat with Fox News came up. I thought I came up with a good analogy, which was:

"If you make your living selling sheets and gasoline, don't act shocked when a crowd of people wearing sheets and burning crosses shows up".

Wow, that's a shitty analogy even by my standards.

I don't think so - I think it exactly describes what Fox News has done for the last decade and a half.

They identified a lowest common denominator market where they could make a lot of money telling people what they wanted to hear, and what they wanted to hear was coded racism, bigotry, intolerance, and an embrace of ignorance and crass populism.

[derspiess]

Very apt.  We should put all linen-selling gas stations on notice.

There is only one in the "media" realm I am aware of, but I am with you on the desire to get rid of them.

But hey, free speech and all that. Fox News has the right to profit from fear mongering and hate.

Oh.  I thought we were talking about MSNBC

[Berkut]

Very apt.  We should put all linen-selling gas stations on notice.

There is only one in the "media" realm I am aware of, but I am with you on the desire to get rid of them.

But hey, free speech and all that. Fox News has the right to profit from fear mongering and hate.

Oh.  I thought we were talking about MSNBC

Weak.

[Legbiter]

Actual news story from CNN:

John Legend Calls Donald Trump 'Racist'

Will Meghan Trainor stand by her duet partner, or will this tear them apart?  I  hope CNN keeps us up to date on this crucial story.

Trump has gotten....2 billion dollars in free media according to the New York Times. 

Over the course of the campaign, he has earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention, about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history. It is also twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton, the next best at earning media, took in. Senator Bernie Sanders has earned more media than any of the Republicans except Mr. Trump

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1

Apparently everyone wants to read about Trump. If you're a journalist or pundit who wants readers, you must write about Trump. You don't have a choice.

[alfred russel]

Berkut, from legbiter's post, it seems like the problem is more general than fox news.

[derspiess]

Very apt.  We should put all linen-selling gas stations on notice.

There is only one in the "media" realm I am aware of, but I am with you on the desire to get rid of them.

But hey, free speech and all that. Fox News has the right to profit from fear mongering and hate.

Oh.  I thought we were talking about MSNBC

Weak.

Yep. 

[Legbiter]

Also it's not just about money. The Republican donor class geniuses sank a 100 million into Jeb! for 2.8% in Iowa.

[Capetan Mihali]

Meh.  I hope that one of Trump's legacies won't be the idea that he was a clown who managed to shove aside respectable politicians and turned a dignified affair into a circus.  Fearmongering, intolerance, utter disregard for facts, engineered disasters presented as policy, all that was still going to be there better than ever.  When the insults stopped at the last debate, there wasn't much substance to take their place.

The pre-Trump quadrennial political circus was far from a dignified affair.

[Norgy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tXv_PJPycA&feature=youtu.be

Trump neglects his yandere girlfriend at his peril.

I think something broke inside me. 

[Berkut]

Berkut, from legbiter's post, it seems like the problem is more general than fox news.

Now it is, sure.

But we are at the current end result of years of Fox and the right wing media telling white, "traditional" Americans that they are under constant and unremitting attacks on their precious bodily fluids.

It is not the entirety of the Trump phenomenon of course.

[Savonarola]

Trump has gotten....2 billion dollars in free media according to the New York Times. 

Over the course of the campaign, he has earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention, about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history. It is also twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton, the next best at earning media, took in. Senator Bernie Sanders has earned more media than any of the Republicans except Mr. Trump

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donald-trumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1

Apparently everyone wants to read about Trump. If you're a journalist or pundit who wants readers, you must write about Trump. You don't have a choice.

This is why I thought the Trump campaign would fall apart.  Eventually we'd hit the point of Trump saturation and people would move on to something else; but since we're reading about a Twitter spat between Donald Trump Jr. and an R&B singer in a respectable-ish news site that obviously hasn't happened yet and may not happen.