Gaslighting Gets More Complicated as Media Gets More Desperate
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For almost 3 years now the media has been trying to ‘get’ Donald Trump. Even more if you consider his presidential campaign year. Every day for 3-4 years, supposed scandal after supposed scandal, without success. The media can usually ‘get’ whomever they want. So they ‘get’ more desperate every day.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, in a tone and physical presence which can only be described as the perfect example of media bias, started his show, The LEAD with “White House in Crisis” and discussed “damning texts” confirming Trump’s quid pro quo with Ukraine. In the piece he criticized the President for telling people to ignore what they are seeing and hearing, that what they are seeing and hearing is all untrue. Tapper then refers to text messages that refute Trump denials.
Gaslighting is the concept where you are told not to believe you eyes, ears or common sense, and, instead to only believe whoever is telling you to ignore your senses. After the Mueller investigation, the media was rightfully accused of gaslighting. Nothing new, something they have been doing for 50 years, but painfully obvious here. The media then immediately starting using the concept against its enemies, saying no, we are not gaslighting, they are, which further confuses the facts for the viewer/reader. Tapper uses this slight of hand to perfection in this piece.
Curiously, other reports come out saying Testimony From Ukraine Envoy Kurt Volker Directly Contradicts Democrats’ Impeachment Narrative.
This report specifically says Volker provided text messages and said, “As you will see from the extensive text messages I am providing, which convey a sense of real-time dialogue with several different actors, Vice President Biden was never a topic of discussion” during negotiations with Ukraine”, Volker testified. Cherry-picked snippets of those texts were released by the office of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., late Thursday evening. “[A]t no time was I aware of or took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden,” Volker told lawmakers.
So, which is it? Was Volker experimenting with his own gaslighting, the texts say one thing, but I’m going to tell you they don’t? Did the texts incriminate or exonerate Trump on Ukraine? Not sure from our media. Seems very easy to determine if you read the text messages. Why then do two media outlets perceive totally different meaning in those words? That also is easy to see. One is a left wing media outlet (CNN) and the other is a right wing media outlet (The Federalist). They both have obvious bias.
CNN’s spin is outrageous in that regard. “White House in Crisis”, no, not really, that is CNN wishful thinking. “Stop Lies Before Its Too Late”, “facts being trampled upon”, yes, but that goes both ways doesn’t it CNN. They say a Republican senator, Ron Johnson, says he heard from an ambassador to the EU who told him that military aid was tied to the investigation. That same ambassador then told another top diplomat that there was actually no quid pro quo, a point which is convenient ignored by Tapper from that point on.
Trump’s language is easily used for spin against him because he does not speak in a cautious or ‘politically correct’ manner. In the same interview he will say he did not tell Ukraine to investigate Biden, then he will say that China should investigate Biden. He means the ‘corruption’ that Biden may have been involved in tied to an ongoing investigation, but he just gives it shorthand reference, and the media has a field day with his language. They use this technique to ‘prove’ he is racist, etc.
That same honesty frustrates the media. At the press scrum outside the White House yesterday, they think they’re going to entrap him. You can tell by their questions that they think they’re talking to an idiot. Like this question: “Would you be more willing to do a trade deal with the Chinese if they investigate Biden?” They really think that he’s gonna fall for that? “Oh, yeah, yeah! If the Chinese help me investigate Biden, I’ll be more inclined.” They really think that he’s gonna say that. Instead he says, “no, one has nothing to do with the other”, and the media is frustrated at not ‘getting’ him again.
Gaslighting by the media is a real problem in our country today. Gaslghting into a mirror (where you blame your opponent for what you are doing), false gaslighting (where you identify gaslighting sounding statements, isolate and hype them even though they are not gaslighting and opposite gaslighting (where you claim facts of one are gaslighting of another).
Today ‘facts’ are opinion. Debunked or discredited political narratives are called conspiracy theories to reduce the credibility of those holding opinions opposite from the person or media outlet speaking. There is no debunking or discrediting evidence to ignore the corruption being investigated, only the opinion of a preferred source. For example, Biden says he didn’t do it. His personally selected Ukrainian prosecutor dismissed the case. So, the media is happy with these being the only pertinent facts. Didn’t work for Mannafort. They went to Ukraine to get evidence on him. They resurrected a case that the NY state’s attorney had already decided to ignore. Why? Needed to ‘get’ something on Trump. Mannafort would not be in jail if he did not work for Trump in 2016! Doesn’t work for Trump. He said the Russia thing was a hoax. No evidence to prove it wasn’t. Then Mueller says same thing and yet they still call Trump a traitor on CNN.
What’s the difference? One is a Democrat denial and the other a Republican denial. The Democrat denial is considered fact.
Why does the matter of the Hillary Clinton campaign paying a Russian agent to develop the Trump Dossier, which is all lies, considered by the left wing media to be a non-issue? Same answer.
Welcome to gaslighting 2020. You mean that Republicans don’t participate in gaslighting? No, they don’t. But, I’m not saying Republicans are politically pure, they are not. What they are is incompetent at this type of sophisticated messaging. The Media & the Democrats are genius at it!
The only way to see through this media smoke screen is to vary your news sources.