MSM Steps On A Rake. Again.

Here is what Trump said:

"Here's the bottom line, we've got to keep our country safe," Trump said at his rally Saturday. "You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible."

So, what did the MSM do with this?

What they did was focus like a laser on the phrase "what's happening last night in Sweden" and ran with it. In their blind zeal to come up with a "gotcha" moment, they looked for one specific incident that happened the night before in Sweden, couldn't find anything, and then started crowing about how Trump doesn't know what he's talking about, is making stuff up, and is a idiot.

Normal people with normal language comprehension skills don't do this. Normal people would figure that if nothing specific happened in Sweden, then Trump probably meant something different, something a bit more general, and in any event, I shouldn't let my expectations dictate how Trump's words should be understood.

This is how normal people behave. But we're not talking about normal people, we're talking about the MSM, which consists of "27-year olds who know nothing" (according to Obama advisor Ben Rhodes).

As it turned out, Trump did have something specific in mind:

My statement as to what's happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017

Here's the clip he's referring to:

The MSM would do a better job with Trump if they took a cue from voters who took him seriously but not literally, instead of literally but not seriously, which is how the MSM insists on playing it:

The public -- also known as "customers" of for-profit news outlets -- sees Trump's words differently than journalists do. They, or at least the members of his winning electoral coalition, see Trump not as a politician but as a businessman. They know, and even value, the fact that his words have not passed through a gauntlet of spinners, prose smoothers, and fact-checkers.

They may have met other real estate professionals in their own lives and they know better than to take the words of ad hoc marketing seriously. These supporters are not giving Trump a benefit of the doubt. They recognize his professional DNA,and journalists are overdue to recognize this discernment by their own audiences.

Which is why they continue stepping on the rake.

So, the result of the latest brouhaha is more winning:

1. The massive problems caused by immigrants in Sweden is now being talked about openly, whereas in the past, the MSM were sympatico with the preferences of the Swedish government, i.e. ignore it.

2. In their rush to find something to hit Trump with, the MSM have kind of boxed themselves in having to defend the proposition that everything in Sweden is just peachy-keen, ducky, and smells like roses. Because if they don't take that line, then they're in effect agreeing with what he said at the Florida rally, which destroys the whole "gotcha" moment they were trying to trap him with.

3. Once again, everyone can see what a pathetic bunch of clowns the MSM are.

And again I wonder if this somehow PDT is doing this on purpose.

posted by OregonMuse at 07:25 PM

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