The Media Isn’t Obsessed With Trump’s Tweets — It’s His Lack of Discipline That Fascinates Us
On Monday, White House surrogates — namely Kellyanne Conway and Dr. Seb Gorka — went to the cable news airwaves and criticized the media’s “obsession” with the President’s social media in what clearly looked like a coordinated effort. President Donald Trump put the cherry on top this morning when he himself tweeted about his Twitter habits, and the attention it receives:
The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media. They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2017
President Trump brought a fair amount of negative attention upon himself by tweeting out comments that many saw as either inappropriate or insensitive. While the most vocal criticism came from the left, there was “friendly fire” from conservative voices who typically bite their tongue when it comes to such matters. Conservative pundit Laura Ingraham, Senator Tom Cotton and GOP consultant Karl Rove have all recently criticized the President for the lack of discipline he has showed on Twitter.
Here’s the thing. No one that I know in mainstream media (fake or otherwise) are “trying to get” President Trump to “not use social media.” In fact, Trump’s Tweets are great fodder for attention deficient news editors and reporters. Nature abhors a vacuum, and there is nothing that news desks abhor more than a slow news day. There is no greater tonic for a slow news day than whatever the President says via Twitter.
Now there is reasonable criticism for how journalists get so easily distracted by the shiny thing also known as @realdonaldtrump. In fact, a cursory glance at today’s cable news coverage suggests that the discussion of Trump’s tweets has taken a much higher priority than an investigation into Russian election interference, the instability of the Korean peninsula, or even tax cuts and health care reform. Also, didn’t the White House plan for this to be infrastructure week?
It’s almost as though Trump tweets about his tweets so that we will talk about his tweets instead of news that might be viewed as negative towards the White House. Wait a second.
The truth is this. If Trump were tweeting comments that were, at the very least, consistent with what White House Press deputies were saying publicly, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion. It’s not the President’s tweets that bring attention. It’s his remarkable lack of discipline.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
