If you believe McClatchy, baiting the media as Pres. Trump does “is now a deliberate strategy to help GOP candidates win elections fueled by public hatred of reporters.” Why? “The conservative base needed more of an enemy than the Democratic candidate to become engaged.”
I noted last week that Trump’s own support is deteriorating, while strong opposition is growing, which suggests that Trump is: (a) being beaten in his fight against the media; (b) turning people off independent of the media; or (c) some combination of (a) and (b). No matter how low your opinion of the media is, none of these answers recommends a media-baiting as a strategy. It might energize the base voters most likely to turn out for the midterm elections…or it could be very stale beyond a narrow segment of that base 17 months from now.
Another risk in the strategy has to do with Trump himself. Whatever else one might think about the man, Donald Trump comes by his love/hate relationship with the media honestly. Their condescension and derision has fueled him for decades.
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