There Will Be Blood, But No Headlines
At his weekend rally, Donald Trump yet again threatened violence and promised his draconian immigration plan, which includes mass deportation, would be a "bloody story." Why isn't this headline news?
The old media trope goes, “if it bleeds, it leads,” reflecting society’s insatiable desire to consume news stories about crime, death, and destruction. It’s the most reliable clickbait. Sensationalism and ultra-violence in one seductive package gives us a short-term adrenaline hit, feeds our morbid curiosities and fears, and keeps the algorithm Gods happy.
Let’s do a thought experiment and explore this a bit further.
Imagine if Kamala Harris held a rally in Wisconsin and unveiled details of her immigration policy. She introduced a deranged and dangerous proposal to deport millions of immigrants and warned that the draconian measure would be a “bloody story.” She added, “[They] should have never been allowed to come into our country. Nobody checked them.” This was said in addition to her previous statements where she said she’d establish “camps” for immigrants and would cancel the visas of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestine rallies.
Since this country really doesn’t care too much about undocumented immigrants who keep the economy afloat by doing all the manual labor nobody else wants to do, I don’t imagine corporate media would care too much. However, just for shits and giggles, let’s say at the same rally she pledged to use the Department of Justice as her own Gestapo to prosecute and attack her numerous critics. Not to be outdone, she reiterates her desire to create public military tribunals against Republican elected officials. Now we’re cooking, baby! This would definitely have wall-to-wall coverage, right?
Fortunately, Kamala Harris did not say any of those things because she’s not an unhinged, vindictive narcissist. Unfortunately, Donald Trump, who is also running for President, did say all of those things in Wisconsin adding to his illustrious embrace of “the old ultra-violence” which includes inciting a violent insurrection, promising to be a dictator for a day, threatening to terminate the Constitution, encouraging stochastic terrorism and predicting “a bloodbath” if he loses the 2024 election.
As I’ve written before, our corporate media is completely broken. They are not made for this moment, and they are not built for this fight. When Trump, a convicted criminal, promises bloodshed, we should take him literally and seriously. Yet, corporate media simply ignores it because there’s a dangerous and absurd double standard for MAGA due to a nihilistic fidelity to a performative “both sides” bullshit neutrality. Americans now live in the upside down thanks to our corporate institutional failures and deliberate normalization of Donald Trump’s dangerous and anti-democratic behavior. This is utter complicity and paves the road to corporate media’s self-annihilation for the sake of profit, power, access and ratings.
As of the writing of this article, the Orlando Sentinel is the only newspaper that still understands the assignment. Here’s their headline:
This is how it's supposed to be done. Old-school, effective, no frills journalism. This should have been the headline across the major papers, but instead they’re too busy engaging in horse race politics about the upcoming debate.
A quick aside on the debate: Kamala Harris will have to pole-vault over the bar and be near perfect for her to “win,” meanwhile Donald Trump will have to basically not drool or pass out. This is how “both sides” creates an unfair and unbalanced symmetry between the two Presidential candidates.
But simply accepting mass shootings, stochastic terrorism, and threats of MAGA violence doesn’t have to be “a fact of life.” We must resist this. If our corporate institutions refuse to warn us, then we can do our part to sound the alarm and inform our citizens. At the very least, I hope you can count on The Left Hook to name and shame them and force them to do better.
At the very least, we’ll give it a headline.
I was at my grandson's birthday party last Sunday, which is really an excuse for my son and all his Republican friends and family to have an adult party. I tried to correct a person's blame for inflation on 'Bidenomics', but because my daughter-in-law's mother responded and I didn't have the where-with-all to redirect my correction to the person who made the statement, I ended up losing my temper to my 'out-law'. Long story short, I've decided I cannot argue coherently without losing my control. So I will no longer continue the tradition of going to her house for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I will not attend these parties for the sake of my own mental health and for the sake of not breaking apart in anger around them. I feel like I am in a house on fire, I am yelling, "fire, fire!" and everyone is just dismissing me as the village idiot who needs to not be given any attention. I cannot believe this presidential race is even close. It reminds me of a time in history when a citizen's moral bankruptcy was on full display. Rome in Cesar's time, and the drawing of the crowds to their morbid gladiator performances to the death and/or execution by animal mauling. Replace that crowd with the MAGA crowd and it would be exactly the same. It was very telling that 'professional wrestling' was the RNC's choice of entertainment at their convention. It all indicates to me just how sick more than 1/3 of our country has become. I believe Trump has revealed to Americans just exactly how deranged our country is. The fight for 'good vs. evil' will never be completed when the voters cannot see the difference between the two. It is all so despairing, and yet, as Harris says, 'it does not have to be this way'. Thank you Waj, for all your hard work. For fighting for morality. For pointing out the sheer lunacy of the Republicans and their party. I know there have been groups of anarchist movements in world history, whose only goal is to create chaos, confusion, hate and violence. I have never understood how such groups get followers for their violent goals, yet I am witnessing this happening in real time with the Republican party and their constituents. This is how it happens as my family treats me like the village idiot. I won't do this part of my family anymore. My values won't allow for it.
The media attitude is a travesty. What I don’t understand is how Trump’s threats of lethal force can be covered as mere free speech? Are we afraid of him? Why doesn’t the justice system work on this? I understand political candidates have extra latitude to speak, but this is absurd. It is very dangerous and it is treasonous .