Yes. I didn’t mean to seem to denigrate your link. I thought it was very interesting, and I’m glad you sent it. It’s good to have all the threads together in one place too concentrating on the academic arguments of what he’s doing. Unfortunately, not enough are aware of his tactics.

I think it was just yesterday I first heard about him moving the press briefings etc. I haven’t read the Reich piece yet, but I will definitely later today because I’ve become a bit of a fan of his voice regarding Trump.

Sorry about all the trouble you had (and sometimes have) re posting comments. I know nothing about such things so don’t know if the problems are on my end or not.

You’re correct, those weren’t necessarily novel insights, but different people express themselves in different ways and frequently, someone will express some thought or bring some things together in a way that elucidates the significance for me; and in a way, the people functioned somewhat like a chorus, each one singing a different part but dovetailing to make a whole (though I’m mixing metaphors). Lakoff, I thought became somewhat windy and enraptured with himself because a lot of what he said, to me, was more or less restating certain well-known fallacies but in a Trumpian context; nonetheless, he riffed on the fallacies and I liked what he had to say. Perhaps he thinks that people don’t know the formal names for fallacies these days.

In a related matter re the media and Trump, you probably know that in the time since his recent press conference, he and his flunkies have been floating trial balloons about plans to move the press out of the White House. Here’s Robert Reich’s take on it. http://www.salon.com/2017/01/16/robert-reich-donald-trumps-plan-to-neuter-the-white-house-press-corps-could-neuter-our-democracy_partner/.

Today I was listening to a comparison between Trump and Berlusconi, and one of the disucssants spoke about how Berlusconi manipulated the media and carefully controlled and choreographed his public appearances, such as never holding them outside so that he could control who entered the space, things like that. And what Reich speculated on early Monday a.m., re the kinds of attendees Trump wants at his press conferences if they’re moved out of the White House, seems from other reports I’ve heard to be right on the money, i.e., as Reich states: ” a larger room would allow the administration to fill seats with “alt-right” fringe journalists, rightwing social media, Trump supporters and paid staffers.”

I’m sorry about the wait. I dealt with them as soon as I saw them. All four were there, and I deleted the other three as requested. They went to the spam folder, so I didn’t know they were there automatically, and I was asleep in NZ when it was first posted anyway. There are also hours when even I can’t access the website to release spam, which is a security measure, and it was posted during one of those times.

I’ve listened to them all now and they are very good, and very interesting. They’re a variation on what some other people are saying and writing too. I think it will take time for journalists to work out how to deal with Trump and in the meantime others will fill the gap. Trump himself is working hard to de-legitimize proper journalists, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it all works out. It’s going to be really hard because there are plenty who are ready to take his side and ignore things like truth and reality.

I can see the few serious journalists at Fox News becoming the last bulwark against Trump. Journalists will need to stick together, but they also have to be careful not to come across as whiny or partisan. And they can’t make themselves the story. They have to be the adults in the room. Trump’s favourability ratings for a president-elect are historically low. The data show that even many who voted for him don’t approve of the way he’s acting. He won’t lose his base, but there are many who held their noses when they voted for him.

This took several hours to show up, no notice that it was awaiting review or moderation or anything, so I thought it had disappeared and resent several times. Now it’s posted. Please delete the other ones if they show up. Thanks.

This is off-topic but I want to alert you to this “On the Media” program I heard yesterday http://www.wnyc.org/story/on-the-media-2017-01-13 about Trump. Various segments, I found the first four segments especially valuable. Solnit’s good, but I’ve lost hope, whereas she hasn’t.