By Brigitte L. Nacos
None of his predecessors has peddled lies (and actually repeated them when proven false) as frequently as President Donald Trump. Part of the steady flow of lies (according to one count 103 in his first 10 months in office versus 18 during President Obama’s full 8 years in the White House) are first circulated via his Twitter account.
Some originate in the president’s head, others are borrowed from his propagandists at FOX NEWS and other Trump media, and still others are simply retweets of typically outrageous social media sound bites and video clips.
While Trump has more than 45 million followers, the mainstream media that he attacks day-in and day-out spreads and magnifies his tweet production.
Indeed, you do not have to read the president’s actual tweets in order to know the content of all or most of them—simply following one or more mainstream news sites will do.
As much as propaganda is the oxygen of populists, especially of the authoritarian variety, tweets provide the oxygen for President Trump. Not so much by being posted at his Twitter account but far more by being reported, analyzed, critiqued and rehashed by literally all major and not so major news organizations.
Whenever the president tweets, the news media report and thereby magnify what Mr. Trump spits out.
Imagine for a moment that the still free press would stop to report his tweets. To be sure, there would loyal followers accessing Trump’s account but certainly not all that signed up during the last several years.
Otherwise, Trump’s tweets would be like the tree in the forest that falls without the press being there. It would be as if it did not happen.
A non-event!
I know that this kind of media self-censorship will not happen.
Thus, the Liar King owes thanks to the news media for providing a mighty bullhorn for his tweeted propaganda.
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