How Come Trump Loves the Fake News?

One day in January 1964, myself and five or six college classmates spent an afternoon standing in Times Square and handing out a leaflet which called for the U.S. to get out of Viet Nam. We did this anti-war activity because President Johnson had just authorized the deployment of 50,000 troops to Nam and we believed that he was wrong.

The folks who walked by us and took a leaflet were polite but none of them had ever heard of a country called Viet Nam. They also had no idea or thoughts about how things over there would eventually wind up.

The first time that news organizations like CBS, NBC and ABC said anything negative about what we were doing in Southeast Asia was when the Tet offensive occurred in 1968. Once the Viet Cong started throwing mortar shells into our air bases and barracks, it was pretty difficult to promote or maintain the myth that American military power would triumph.

I’m beginning to think that the exact, same acquiescence by the media is happening today as regards the reportage surrounding the behavior of Donald Trump.

Last night I was watching NBC which led off its national news broadcast with coverage of the deportation of some alleged gang members who are being sent to El Salvador under a 1798 law which suspends habeas corpus and other legal guarantees when we are at war.