It Could Get Dangerous

I am trying desperately to ignore the “Trump transition” just to have a brief period of peace, but it is getting so, so hard to do. Restricting my news consumption to NPR didn’t help. One of the latest news blurbs violently tipped me from my lotus position.

Trump decided to have a “summit” meeting with television news executives and on-air news personalities (TV news anchors and reporters with high exposure).  He demanded that the meeting be off-the- record, and, for reasons I cannot fathom, they agreed to it. When I heard this I felt foundation cracking beneath my feet.

There are exactly two things that comprise the bedrock of American Government as a successful long term social design, at least if success is defined within the context of world history. They are (1) the making of open and free speech sacrosanct, and (2) the establishment of and faith in an independent Judiciary.  I don’t know how many legs hold up the American “stool”, but either one of those two go and the whole thing falls into something else.

The meeting was unprecedented and rightfully so. It had never happened before because it should never have happened in the first place. For a President or President-Elect to hold such a private meeting is, literally by definition, intimidation of a free press, even if all they talked about was Thanksgiving recipes.

As it happened (as leaked) they didn’t talk recipes, instead the news people were lectured to by both Trump the bad cop then Trump the good cop. He first expressed his displeasures with the news media singling out specific people , then showed them how fair he was (it was leaked that he said he “likes Obama”….please). It all had shades of The Apprentice.

That Trump would want to do something like that is no surprise. It is quite consistent with his modus operandi and reality TV mentality. What is so surprising is why these news media people agreed to the terms this government mogul set. Why, why, why would any of them agree to an off-the-record meeting?  

For God-Sakes…these are news people! They, if anyone, should know the importance of the public not being shielded from how it (the public) is to receive information. In case anyone noticed, some television news networks didn’t even report on the meeting, nor commented on it when someone else brought it up in an interview.

This all harkens back to my previous post that the Trump Administration is on track to become the most opaque in history, possibly run by someone who is isolated and mentally unstable. If Trump goes to war with free speech (hell, he’s already attacking Saturday Night Live and Broadway) then the uncertainty of what is making our Government tick could become a cancer.

How could this create havoc? Economically it could hurt, but the reality is the President has limited power over the Economy directly, except for his inability to successful react to crises and thwarting progressive change.  It is internationally where Trump’s isolation could make this world a different place.

The goal of Terrorists is simple. There are no conquering Armies in the extreme Islamic world to march over nations like 12^th century Mongols. They seek through individual actions the disruption of Western society. They don’t care how or what it leads to, just that it happens. Their end game is irrational because their ideology is irrational. They have to love the idea of an American President that has the potential of being so malleable.

How do you think they (terrorists) might deal with an unstable American President who has his name in huge letters on 33 buildings around the world? How would Trump react to an assault on him personally?  How are the American people going to know about how they are being led when the press and news media are shut off from the President’s administration? When his primary concern is his own financial empire, how would he act in response? Who would pay the price?

The news media cannot abandon the American people. They should overtly back the First Amendment to the Constitution by publically and aggressively demanding transparency of the Trump Administration, and attacking disinformation. Not enter into his Tower with their tails between their legs. If, God-forbid, Trump and his Republican Senate can pack the judiciary with beholding individuals, it could blind the American people for decades.