Remember how 8 years ago the news and media were constantly attacking Trump for anything that he did that could be considered to be a bit mean? Often these things were exaugurated or just outright made up and the one I reference frequently is the time that Trump was in Japan and the media accused him of being disrespectful by dumping his entire bowl of fish food into the Koi pond.
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The media went absolutely wild with this story and even though it was a IDGAF sort of situation, it wasn't long before it was revealed that the media's take on this was absolute BS because just moments before the Japanese Prime Minister had done the exact same thing and was inviting Trump to do the same. Of course they omitted that part of their story and a lot of these hit pieces, although they were debunked almost immediately, are still up on the internet. Here's one where they talk about how this disrespectful act "outraged fish lovers all over the world!" and they even refer to "fish experts" who said that fish cannot absorb that much food at once and how Trump was killing the prized fish. Just par for the course with the dishonest media and hopefully no matter what your political affiliation is you realize that this is the case.
I am sure we are in for another 4 years of hit-pieces being directed at everything that the man does including how he drinks water, orders KFC and enjoys a steak well-done. Just anything they can possibly think of that has absolutely zero bearing on politics or just life in general. However, we are already seeing how the conservative media is putting stories out at the same time or even first to kind of break the ice on these topics before the liberal media can get a hold of it and spin it.
Of course this is equally full of shit but I think that this is a sign that the next 4 years are going to be a different kind of circus with a whole lot of clowns involved.
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Jill Biden and DJT were at the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris recently and they were sat next to one another with Macron in between. This is one of those situations that depending on when the picture was taken and by whom, the interpretation can be changed entirely.
Forbes on the other hand, displayed a very different sort of expression on Jill's face from the opposite angle.
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Now I want to make one thing very clear: This story is f**king stupid no matter what the conclusion is. Who cares? However, I do think that something is happening in conservative media where they know that liberal media is going to present everything as negative so there seems to be a real effort on the part of the conservative outlets to get the "word" out there first and make it go viral before the fake negativity can be spread. To me the fact that this is going on at all is both disappointing and very amusing. I'm disappointed because the idiot population of the world must be affected by BS stories like this and I am amused because well, both sides are playing the same silly game now. The media conversation, if we can even call it that anymore, is going to become who can get the crap out there first and who can make it stick fastest. Bring on the social media bots!
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Here's another IDGAF story from the same crap news outlet, Conservative Brief. It as if they knew that the liberal media was going to call the handshake situation "inappropriate" or something along those lines so they pre-empt it to celebrate it as a power-move. I don't know if you have ever met someone that shakes hands like this but it's not a power move, it is a frat-boy dickhead move. I get that Trump is a dickhead in a lot of ways but honestly, is this something that needs to take up a full 1000 word article?
Trump himself is pre-empting the media attacks that we all know are coming for literally anything that he does so when rumors spread that in a meeting with Justin Trudeau that Trump stated that Canada could become the 51st state and Trudeau could be the governor, rather than confirm or deny that it was said at all he posted this to TRUTH social media - which by the way, I am not a member of.
The man, or his PR team or whoever is running his social media are embracing treating the Twitter/TRUTH/whatever-other-bullshit-app-like-them audience are going to consume and has decided to not fight it but instead to go ahead and play into it. This would be considered out of sorts in the past but honestly, American politics and especially American media has become so insane that we may as well just abandon any hope that anyone is going to bring us actual news.
It's not a very fun game anymore because it's too easy but there was a time when I would see a vague headline, then look at the network/author and try to guess the conclusion they come to. In the past this was a tough game but these days, anyone who isn't completely blinded by party-allegiance can get this game correct nearly 100% of the time. We are at the point that if an outlet says something even remotely complementary about the "other" party it is a genuine surprise and the person or people that said those things is likely going to be forcibly retired in the near future.
Media is a joke in the United States as well as most of the world and as long as we know that this is the case, I suppose it is only appropriate that the news outlets are competing to see who can be first to report the most absurd things possible. The next 4 years are going to be wild.