Trump Punks the Media Again

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

06 March 17

bama “wiretapped” Trump Tower. Seriously? Here’s a bigger joke: Every major news media outlet in the U.S. ran with this as a feature.

For the record, “wiretapping” is decades-old technology. As the documents Edward Snowden entered into the public record clearly illustrate, telecommunication surveillance is, for better or worse, light years beyond the wiretapping stage. The surveillance techniques now in use could have been – and likely were – used to monitor Trump’s communications. But by federal law enforcement, not by Obama, who could just as easily have been monitored as well. All of which is beside the point because Trump, as the media did point out, cited no evidence.

Donald Trump did however prove once again totally capable of making the media dance to his tune. The Russia story and all its tentacles were creating too much havoc in Trump world, so he just turned the news cycle into an entertainment show with a few Twitter posts. Impressive, when you think about it. What if Nixon had possessed such skills? The mind reels.

The stories the media forgot while chasing the bone Trump tossed them are Russian influence at the highest levels of American government and the ongoing, rapidly accelerating mass deportation of Latinos. These are the biggest stories most active reporters in the U.S have ever covered and, at least at this stage, are proving too big for most of them.

Did a U.S. candidate for President ascend to the American presidency with the aid of a hostile foreign power, and are he and his entourage being guided by the influence of that power now? Every statement made by federal law enforcement addressing those questions would indicate “with high confidence” that the answer in both cases is yes.

What Donald Trump sold on the campaign trail as an effort to deport undocumented “gang members, terrorists, and individuals with felony convictions” has mission-leapt into the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, and a refugee crisis for Mexico.

Far from limiting the scope of the operation to gang members, terrorists, and individuals with felony convictions, the administration and its ICE enforcers have moved immediately to racially cleanse the U.S. of anyone and everyone they could find any justification whatsoever for rounding up. Grocery store clerks, restaurant workers, parents, business owners … it seems not to matter.

Worse, MSNBC reports that ICE agents are forcing parents to choose between being separated from their children or taking their children – many of them natural born U.S. citizens, some minors – to Mexico with them.

These are stories of immense social impact affecting the core of American democracy, with the potential for a lasting impact on life as we know it in this country and for people all around the world.

The Obama wiretapping story is a pure ruse intended solely to divert the public’s attention away from the Russian influence story and bait the media into disseminating the message.

The U.S. media must return its attention to the far bigger stories of Russian influence and mass deportation, and the American people must demand it.

Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.