Welcome back to the new school year kids. Seeing friends. Sharing stories about your summer. Fall football. Dodging bullets.
Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia on Wednesday became the latest school to suffer through a mass shooting. It was the 45th school shooting in America in 2024 and the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history.
It is such a common occurrence in this country that while the White House daily press briefing began with the news, the tragedy was soon drowned out by the continued divisive politics that has consumed us to the point that life-taking tragedies take a back seat to a former President whining about his potential criminal sentencing a mere two weeks from now.
“I can’t say it enough. Enough is enough. Enough,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre summed it up succinctly Wednesday afternoon.
That statement could be made about most of what passes for news these days – including the sophomoric nonsense in the Brady press briefing room. But it certainly covers Lara Trump’s recent release of a music video that garnered praise from the right, criticism from the left and incessant social media attention. The pithiest statement on that debacle came from former RNC chairman Michael Steele, who posted on X that while he was often criticized as the chairman, he at least kept his focus on winning elections. Lara Trump is more worried about her potential music career than the current campaign, I guess.
“Enough is Enough,” also certainly covers the daily gesticulation by politicians, pundits and the press regarding the latest polling figures, and trying to guess what the presidential debate will be like next week. Does anyone actually expect anything new out of Donald Trump? Apparently there’s wild speculation and even wilder speculation about how Vice President Kamala Harris will handle a “presidential showdown.” I refuse to get excited.
It has all of the trappings of a WWE match and has many in the press giddy with spreading their, ahem, insight. I’m not one of them. I will dutifully watch it. But I don’t expect much from Trump that I haven’t seen too much of already.
The press, we are often told, simply are failing to accurately inform American news consumers. That is reinforced when we watch reporters embarrass themselves in the White House briefing room; whether it’s asking about the vice president’s situational affectation of a Southern accent, or a “gotcha” question about free speech and satire riddled with racist comments. Often the questions have nothing to do with the president, White House policy or Joe Biden’s personal life – all questions often and appropriately asked in that environment. And when we do ask policy questions about the economy or international events, with the exception of a few solid professionals in the room, we sound like romper room kids soiling our shorts.
Most White House Press secretaries know this, and call on the silliest of us for a very particular reason. Years ago Mike McCurry – during the Clinton administration – made a point of calling on a defrocked minister who always asked questions about Bigfoot and space aliens. When asked why, his answer was simple enough: “Because he makes you guys look stupid.” Now you understand why the White House calls on reporters today who ask about the Vice President’s voice. Same principle. The reporters, their networks and newspapers who do this are either too stupid to understand their role or are eagerly doing so for the sake of attention and spreading disinformation.
Wednesday White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby addressed a key problem affecting our ability to understand and consume news; Russian disinformation. The Biden administration shut down 32 web domains and took actions against foreign corporations and individuals who want to “interfere in the 2024 election,” Kirby told us.
More importantly, he emphasized how Russian and other interests, including Iranian, have used media outlets millions of Americans trust to spread their disinformation – including, (in the case of Iran) spreading disinformation about Donald Trump. Yeah, we all know which companies he was talking about – even if he didn’t name them.
Meanwhile, I spoke to progressives and MAGA members who accuse us (in the media) of not reporting on this problem, “enough” when the disinformation is aimed at their candidate or, if it is aimed at their opponent, then we are “making too much about it.”
Either way, it’s the reason why many people are striking out on their own with live-streaming, blogs and podcasts while labeling themselves as “truth tellers” and “independent press” when they are really nothing more than opinion writers and performers, some allegedly on the Kremlin’s payroll. If you want to call yourself an “independent press” show me your copy editor first. Their arrogance is in telling us they are “reporting the truth.” There are more than 3000 religions on this planet – whose truth are they reporting?
My arrogance lies elsewhere. I arrogantly believe if I do my job, I’m not telling you the truth – I’m providing you with vetted facts. That remains the coin of the realm. That is what Donald Trump and others on the far ends of the spectrum want to destroy. That is also what many do not understand. The Russian, and other international, efforts to spread disinformation have a far deeper goal than just upending our elections. They want to sow the seeds of doubt about all information so that if someone tells you the sun rises in the east, you begin to doubt it. That is the soil made fertile for authoritarians.
Thus Kirby’s appearance in the Brady Briefing Room Wednesday was a warning shot across the bow for American news consumers.
That Donald Trump supports Putin, and has done so for years, shows his danger. That is a simple fact. We are accused of not reporting on it enough, but maybe the public isn’t repeating it enough. You can promote facts as much as you want, but they have to sink in. When Morgan Freeman was once asked why The Shawshank Redemption (now considered a classic) did so poorly at the box office when it was released, he said it was because the title threw people off, and there wasn’t enough “word of mouth” to overcome that. Politics, often called “Hollywood for ugly people,” by Democratic strategists Paul Begala and James Carville, suffers from the same problem.
That is why Trump keeps his slogans short and sweet. They are easily memorized and repeated by millions of people who never do more than read the first ten words in a newspaper headline – if that. So chants of “Lock Her Up” waft through the air without being tethered to facts or reality. He can shout that the Democrats are “Communists,” a claim so ludicrous as to be unworthy of comment, yet it sticks with those who never do anything more than knee-jerk react to a stimulus.
Meanwhile, the Democrats suffer from addiction to nuance. And it is a lot harder explaining economic and social nuance in an easily shoutable slogan.
The Democrats, and the Republicans for that matter often repeat each other’s lies – some to promote the lies and some to denounce them. But for the willing, and the true believers, it matters not that you denounce the lie – it’s that you repeat the lie as you denounce it. Many do not understand that very subtle distinction.
Many just hear what they want to hear. So, when a progressive says Trump is lying about his claims that he’s being unjustly persecuted by the Department of Justice, all the Trump supporters hear is the last part. When Trump supporters shout that Harris’s claims about maintaining her core values are insipid lies, all the progressives hear is the first part.
We’ve become experts at yelling at each other without once trying to understand each other.
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That is the function of disinformation and misinformation. That Kirby had to stand at the Brady Briefing room podium and urge the press and the public to take a second and check the facts is chilling in the implication that to some extent the masters of disinformation are succeeding.
One reporter asked Kirby why we didn’t just “shrug it off,” because everyone knows that’s what Russia does. His response hit the nail on the head. “We’re not taking it lightly. No one is shrugging about it here. We’re taking it seriously here.”
Kirby also said there is no doubt that Putin is personally aware of the efforts. Think of that the next time any political candidate says they are friendly with Putin.
But think about the other thing that was stated bluntly and obliquely. News consumers need to take more responsibility to check the facts. Don’t just listen. Don’t just read. Verify. Kirby spoke not only for the administration but on Wednesday gave a plea for all of us still trying to present vetted facts to a populace numb to them and increasingly only interested in screaming opinions at the top of our lungs; “Please take the time to figure out how you get your news and information.”
By Wednesday afternoon a 14-year-old high school student in Georgia was in custody after killing two students and two teachers 50 miles outside of Atlanta. For years we’ve suffered through mass shootings and we ignore that news on a daily basis. We don’t force Congress into acting – even though there are current members of Congress who were survivors of mass shootings. Some of us criticize President Biden for taking executive action.
We seem so concerned about the numbing effects of Donald Trump that we have ignored the numbing effects of ongoing mass shootings that continue to unnecessarily take the lives of our parents, our friends, our children, our grandchildren and other loved ones.
