On June 30th, MSNBC morning show hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, alleged that they were blackmailed by the Trump administration. Joe recounted what a Trump official told him:
“…if you call the President up and you apologize for your coverage then he [Trump] will pick up the phone and basically spike the [negative National Enquirer] story. I had three people at the very top of the administration calling me…”
The aftermath of this revelation was predictable, the media went into a hysterical frenzy. “Unprecedented,” “Nixonion,” “impeach,” and then the routine steps of the media’s con-job on their audience, a con that lost its potency forty performances ago. The pundits were shocked, the politicians feigned outrage and the anchors asked if democracy was dead.
However, immediately after the allegation was leveled, Joe went on to say he had proof of his claim. He had saved the damning text messages from the administration officials . The President responded by saying Joe was lying. The next logical act of this soap opera should have been Joe revealing the text messages, thereby proving both the blackmail claim and that the POTUS was the liar. It never happened. Instead, the story was forgotten in a day and not heard from since. How is an allegation of this magnitude consigned to oblivion? How dare the media let this journalist announce he is holding a royal flush and not force him to show his cards.
The past year has seen story after story blow up the news cycle and then dissipate. A story emerged about Russian money in Trump golf courses. Where is the follow-up, is it true? I remember a story about Trump Tower’s computer servers communicating with Russia. Did the FBI seize them? What about the ex-spy who put the secret dossier together, did he disappear from Earth? Is there any follow-up to last years stories alleging infighting between Bannon and Priebus and the upcoming firings? Stories are never followed up because even the people reporting them don’t believe them. They are as reliable as a friend-of-a-friend’s Facebook post. Manufactured nonsense that is easier to originate than to investigate or follow-up.
Joe knew he could tell a tall-tale to the entire media and face no consequence. He knew this because he is a performer in that circus masquerading as news. There is no responsibility attached to reporting a story anymore.