TWGB: Credibility Gaps

 

Imagine being Fox News, in the midst of trying to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit while still retaining some credibility as a news organization, even to the extent of running a full-page ad in the New York Times trying to bolster their reputation (which is bullshit, actually) while the ratings cash cow they fraudulently supported keeps mooing at them to go and lie some more.

Their bum steer has them on the horns of a dilemma, one might say? 

Probably not. I've been saying this regarding the GOP and Fox alike--your Trump problem is you made him, but you also can destroy him. He's a Golem--rub out the magic words that got him moving and fear him no more. The GOP has stuck themselves to him such that other potential 2024 primary candidates are disadvantaged in trying to challenge him (an imaginary box created by the delusion he can't be criticized or called on his bullshit in any way) and so has right-wing media. 

And yet, Trump exists because of attention--he's trying to have all his trials be made in the court of public opinion. This isn't how anything works--for example, his bid to have his defamation/sexual assault case delayed because of all the unwanted attention following his Manhattan indictment has been rebuffed for the simple reason that he is the one who keeps calling attention to all his trials, and also, there are so many trials he's got going on a delay isn't doing him or the courts any favors. 

It's actually kind of hilarious because it's so true. Witness:

He left out Mimi Rocha (Westchester DA) who is investigating Seven Springs tax fraud, and Damian Williams - the US Attorney in the SDNY who is investigating Truth Social. pic.twitter.com/e5dIBwQEzB

— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) April 16, 2023

There's a lot to be said for how he insultingly depicts the various prosecutors he's facing. He can't handle any of this pressure with confident grace but has to lash out--I do not see how his fans haven't drawn the necessary inferences about why that is. He also tried to sue Leticia James and gotten sanctioned for it, and I hope the same kind of sanctions come from the obvious witness intimidation tactic of suing Michael Cohen. 

Or his continued bids to get around the decision to have jury anonymity in the E. Jean Carroll case. 

Trump, like Fox with their full-page ad, is projecting bravado in the hopes that people will forget his credibility gaps. But with so much as stake, it should be impossible to ignore them. His delaying ,bullying, histrionic appeals referencing imagined unfairness and rigging, are personal complaints having nothing to do with the process of accountability he's undergoing. He's lashing out, not as an innocent man, but a man counting on others to mistake his umbrage for innocence. 

But by now, people are more aware of his various credibility gaps. And to use Trump's sort of assertions: I am hearing good things.