Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: What a journalist from a friendly foreign country makes of Trump

  1. #1 | Top
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
    Posts
    6,180
    Thanks
    2,837
    Thanked 4,318 Times in 2,772 Posts
    Groans
    65
    Groaned 215 Times in 209 Posts

    Default What a journalist from a friendly foreign country makes of Trump

    As a foreign reporter visiting the US, I was stunned by Trump's press conference

    As a regular news reader I thought I was across the eccentricities of the US president. Most mornings in Australia begin with news from America – the bid to buy Greenland, adjustments to a weather map hand-drawn with a Sharpie, or another self-aggrandising tweet.

    But watching a full presidential Trump press conference while visiting the US this week, I realised how much the reporting of Trump necessarily edits and parses his words, to force it into sequential paragraphs or impose meaning where it is difficult to detect.

    The press conference I tuned into by chance from my New York hotel room was held in Otay Mesa, California, and concerned a renovated section of the wall on the Mexican border.

    I joined as the president was explaining at length how powerful the concrete was. Very powerful, it turns out. It was unlike any wall ever built, incorporating the most advanced “concrete technology”. It was so exceptional that would-be wall-builders from three unnamed countries had visited to learn from it.

    The wall was “amazing”, “world class”, “virtually impenetrable” and also “a good, strong rust colour” that could later be painted. It was designed to absorb heat, so it was “hot enough to fry an egg on”. There were no eggs to hand, but the president did sign his name on it and spoke for so long the TV feed eventually cut away, promising to return if news was ever made.

    He did, at one point, concede that would-be immigrants, unable to scale, burrow, blow torch or risk being burned, could always walk around the incomplete structure, but that would require them walking a long way. This seemed to me to be an important point, but the monologue quickly returned to the concrete.

    In most circumstances, presenting information in as intelligible a form as possible is what we are trained for. But the shock I felt hearing half an hour of unfiltered meanderings from the president of the United States made me wonder whether the editing does our readers a disservice.

    I’ve read so many stories about his bluster and boasting and ill-founded attacks, I’ve listened to speeches and hours of analysis, and yet I was still taken back by just how disjointed and meandering the unedited president could sound.

    I’d understood the dilemma of normalising Trump’s ideas and policies – the racism, misogyny and demonisation of the free press. But watching just one press conference from Otay Mesa helped me understand how the process of reporting about this president can mask and normalise his full and alarming incoherence.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ess-conference


    Since Trump bad-mouths the press for purveying "fake news", I think they should try something different.
    Report literally, word for word, in black and white, exactly what he says. See how he likes that.

  2. #2 | Top
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Posts
    26,116
    Thanks
    694
    Thanked 5,043 Times in 3,907 Posts
    Groans
    85
    Groaned 1,697 Times in 1,555 Posts

    Default

    When Trump was running for president, he said that people won't be laughing at America anymore. This may be the wrongest anyone has ever been.

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to StoneByStone For This Post:

    Tranquillus in Exile (12-01-2019)

  4. #3 | Top
    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    6,560
    Thanks
    40
    Thanked 2,936 Times in 2,054 Posts
    Groans
    852
    Groaned 948 Times in 862 Posts

    Default

    If the press simply repeated what Trump says word for word, it would be unreadable. He meanders and repeats over and over. It is an embarrassment to listeners. You watch him and then think " here he goes again". Rightys see brilliance where there is none.
    Trump's prodigious talent is conning people by convincing them he is one of them and is looking out for them. The con man is good at that trade. Only that bthough. We who are resistent to cons laugh at the rightys buying his con totally. Trump University and all his other cons are erased in the minds of his voters.

  5. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Gonzomin For This Post:

    Guno צְבִי (12-02-2019), Tranquillus in Exile (12-01-2019)

  6. #4 | Top
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Posts
    53,527
    Thanks
    252
    Thanked 24,569 Times in 17,095 Posts
    Groans
    5,280
    Groaned 4,575 Times in 4,254 Posts

    Default

    Just publish all he says. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/x...er-video-vgtrn he is profoundly stupid.

Similar Threads

  1. who makes foreign policy? da Generals/NSC or POTUS?
    By dukkha in forum Current Events Forum
    Replies: 61
    Last Post: 10-30-2019, 02:05 PM
  2. Replies: 10
    Last Post: 07-15-2017, 02:20 PM
  3. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 12-19-2013, 07:50 PM
  4. Replies: 10
    Last Post: 08-27-2012, 07:42 AM
  5. Replies: 7
    Last Post: 06-18-2007, 05:28 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Rules

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •