Yellow Journalism and Trump Derangement Syndrome

By Jerry Kroth

September 19, 2018 "Information Clearing House" -  This piece is not written by any hog-wild Trump minion, but it is an attempt to set the record straight against the backdrop of an unprecedented anti-Trump journalistic hysteria that has infected the media and, in turn, the American population.

There indeed have been episodes of yellow journalism in our history. The Hearst newspapers whipped up collective hysteria to such intensity it led to he Spanish American War. The New York Times, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Reports and the Weekly Standard preached endlessly that said Saddam Hussein was involved with 9/11, was actively developing nuclear weapons—or both. Their cannonade of falsehood tipped the scales sufficiently to dupe the U.S. population into violating the UN charter, attacking a country that had never attacked us, and murdering more than 100,000 of its citizens—some say 500,000.ⁱ

Today’s warped journalism has reached a level of bias and one-sidedness that outdistances anything that preceded it. The storied New York Times published over 200 negative hit-pieces on Trump since his taking office, approximating a ratio of 40:1 negative to positive commentary, a level of imbalance unprecedented in modern times or for this newspaper.

Perhaps Donald Trump is indeed a crook, a liar, a Putin puppet, an adulterer, whoremonger, narcissist, sociopath, thief, racist, fascist, and a tax-cheating, emollient-plotting criminal whose ‘flock of felons’ are perched on the cusp of imprisonment and impeachment, but here instead is a compilation of facts rarely seen, easily disregarded, and generally denied which keep America’s collective Trump derangement syndrome primed, fueled, and fully alive.

Buckle up for some objectivity and balance:

• Only three Presidents in American history declined to receive their salary. Donald Trump is one. ^{ii iii}

• Trump donated $1 million to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, the largest single private charitable contribution of any sitting President in American history.^{iv v}

• Since Trump’s election, the stock market soared 34 percent and the wealth of America’s pensioners and holders of 401Ks increased $6 trillion in value.^vi

• While the scourge of ISIS was occurring, from video beheadings to the genocidal rape and enslavement of whole populations like the Yazidis, Trump played a very large role in destroying this malignancy.

• The US holds the record for the largest trade deficit of any nation in the world, $566 billion in 2017, ^vii and while the media decries the evil’s of Trumpian protectionism, it rarely opines against the protectionism of China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan or Germany. Each of these countries boast trade surpluses every year. Trump is the first president to attempt a reversal of this pathological trend by using tariffs to restore a balance in egregious American deficits that have been going on since 1973.

• A Harvard-Gallup reveals that Americans overwhelmingly wish to see an end to illegal immigration with 76 percent wanting more secure borders and 70 percent stricter enforcement.^viii Despite the hyperbolic criticism showering Trump for separating families and for his “racist” actions against migrants, his zero tolerance policy and attempts to criminalize illegal migration resulted in an increase of detentions by 25 percent since Obama, ^ix and a June decline in illegal immigration by 18 percent. ^x

• Donald Trump is the only President in the last 60 years to sit down and talk with North Korea’s leader, something Obama promised to do but never did. Neither the left nor the right is prepared to applaud or recognize this move toward peace and security in the world.

• While Trump has been obsessively accused of colluding with Russia to “steal” the election from Hillary Clinton, despite 15 months of investigation, and the expenditure of $16 million, no charges against Trump specifically support that allegation to date. ^{xi xii}

• Trump’s travel ban from 7 so-called terrorist countries was labeled a Muslim ban, unconstitutional, unworkable, racist, illegal, discriminatory, and Trump himself fascistic, ^xiii but it was upheld by the Supreme Court and went into effect with virtually no media fanfare.^xiv

• Most Americans, caught up in the anti-Trump-Putin propaganda frenzy, remain woefully ignorant that Crimea was part of Russia for 200 years, that the majority of its citizens speak Russian, not Ukrainian, and that during the referendum of 2014, exit polls revealed that upwards of 90 percent of Crimean’s favored Crimea’s return to Russia.^{xv xvi}

• While the media endlessly asserts Russia interfered in the U.S. election, it conspicuously ignores American interference in the elections of other countries, most particularly the US overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014. State Department official Victoria Nuland was recorded conspiring with U.S. ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt to actually choose the next President of the Ukraine. ^xvii Indeed, she admitted the voice on the YouTube video which surreptitiously recorded her telephone call, was hers, and the individual she and Pyatt plotted to ascend to the Presidency, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, actually did. ^xviii

So perhaps our narcissistic, sociopathic, treasonous, adulterous, fascistic, demagogic Putin-puppet will be impeached shortly, but in the interim, let us recognize that a large segment of the American citizenry is suffering under the yoke of an oppressive media propaganda fusillade that distorts its sense of balance, objectivity, fairness, and clarity.

Yes, it is estimated Donald Trump lied or made misleading statements over 4,000 times,^xix but it is equally important to recognize the Trump Derangement Syndrome in the media has led us to an almost hysterical frenzy that has left the American population living in a fugue state of distortion and surrealistic misperception.

Stormy Daniels, a putative prostitute and porn actress, ^xx along with her attorney made over 147 televised appearances, 77 on CNN alone. ^xxi First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, by comparison, only appeared 15 times in the same period. ^xxii

Sixty two percent of the American people believe the media is biased, ^xxiii and with such ignominious statistics as these, one can only agree their perceptions are spot on.

Our collective loss of contact reality is corroborated by the Vanderbilt Television Archives which carefully monitors every prime time news broadcast. There were 38 broadcasts about Trump’s pre-presidential affairs, and 23 prime time stories on Stormy Daniels—a total of 61 broadcasts on prime time news.

However, the half-million people suffering from cholera in Yemen garnered only 1 slot, while one million Uighurs in China who have been placed in concentration camps only saw 2 stories appearing on mainstream media in the last 8 years! ^xxiv

From the Vanderbilt data alone, and with just these 4 stories, it shows that 96 percent of the consciousness of the American people appears obsessed with titillating, salacious gossip while the half a million Yemenis suffering cholera, and a million Uighurs in captivity received only 4 percent of their attention.
 

If we are so bold as to generalize from this data, it would imply that there is a severe and pathological distortion of reality happening inside American collective consciousness, and it falls largely at the feet of corporate journalism’s need to garner more eye balls and higher ratings, so they can sell cars, toys, watches, and laxatives to their couch potato consumers. A porn star and a playboy model get more attention and sell more cars than an epidemic of cholera or the incarceration of a million people far far far away. . . . and so it goes.

Jerry Kroth, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor Emeritus (ret) from Santa Clara University and may be contacted through his website, collectivepsych.com

Notes

==See Also==

Note To ICH Community

We ask that you assist us in dissemination of the article published by ICH to your social media accounts and post links to the article from other websites.

Thank you for your support.

Peace and joy