I make an effort to listen to right-wing talk radio for at least a few minutes every day. Between unending commercials for guns, survival kits and Viagra, torrents of hate are unleashed on nearly half of the country. This vitriol is aimed mostly at Democrats, who are vilified and dehumanized ad nauseum. These right-wing radio broadcasts, which are corporate-run and owned, also do their best to savage mainstream news outlets, also corporate-owned and run, as "fake news." And they've succeeded. Public confidence has been undermined in any institution that fails to slant to the right. Now President Donald Trump has taken what really is a war against reality to a whole new level. Instead of killing the message, he is killing the messenger.
In the wake of a negative jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump has fired Erika McEntarfer, who headed that agency. He claims that she "rigged" the numbers "to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad... .” Her immediate predecessor, a Trump appointee, called Trump's accusation "groundless." Trump offered no evidence to back up his claim.
When the sky is cloudy and gray, but you insist it is blue and sunny, it fails to change reality. Trump and his right-wing media influencers are not only trying to control the message but are making sure they control the messengers as well.
Whoever replace McEntarfer will have to make sure the next jobs report is shaded to say the sky is sunny and blue.
Trump is doing what authoritarians do. But it fails to change reality, as some are beginning to notive.
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