America’s scary new media world

The television news anchors (not journalists, thank you) and network broadcast executives who trooped obediently upstairs at the Trump Tower last week deserved every bit of the scorn heaped upon them by host Donald Trump.

They earned it not for the trumped up reasons the president-elect voiced to them, but because it was their greedy and cynical coverage providing Trump with billions of dollars in free publicity that put him in office over the expressed wishes of a majority of American voters.

Set aside the considerable irony of the broadcasters agreeing to an off-the-record meeting to discuss the terms of the public’s access to the new administration. (But do think about that for a moment more: Secret talks about public access?)

Of course the news quickly leaked out that Trump gave those TV scoundrels not a discussion but a tongue-lashing. The leak was baked into the secrecy agreement; the only question was whether Trump’s people or the television glitterati would violate the agreement first.

TV people acquiescing to an off-the-record session was naïve and irresponsible. They should have figured out by Nov. 21 that with Trump there are no rules, no traditions, no conventions, no inviolate boundaries of intellectual honesty. But they were snookered once more by a prime-time con man at the top of his game.

The publisher and editors of the New York Times understood that, so the next day, when Trump went to their offices for a post-election discussion, it was on the record.

No tongue-lashing there, of course, but Trump nevertheless conned the Times. The reports of the meeting were packed with tidbits about Trump seeming to change his position on a number of issues, including prosecuting Hillary Clinton, using torture and dealing with climate change.

Naively, the reports took him seriously (“Hmmm, that’s a nuance of change in policy toward Israel, isn’t it?”).

But the next president is a man who believes fixed positions and convictions are for losers; everything is open for negotiation at all times, and only a fool takes any possibility off the table. To practice that, one must believe that truth is irrelevant, so it doesn’t matter to him whether he tells the truth. If it sometimes seems that he doesn’t know when he is lying, it’s because he doesn’t care if he does lie. Only the bottom line matters.

So if reporters choose to sniff out possible changes in policy and print them, it’s not Trump’s problem. And when he comes down the other way, he will have another cudgel to use against them. To a narcissist, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Because Trump lives in his own world and it’s totally centered on him, Americans can anticipate four years of such recklessness, dishonesty and gamesmanship instead of a presidency.

But don’t worry; he’ll tweet you the real news.

This story was originally published November 29, 2016 at 5:01 AM with the headline "America’s scary new media world."