The Associated Press is doing a great job of giving voice to the fever dreams. It’s only been five days since the attack on the Republican candidate and former President of the United States, and already the exaggerated predictions are being made. While this is entirely to be expected on social media, it’s disturbing how quickly we’ve seen news outlets shift in the wake of the shooting, scrambling to reconcile the left-wing violence with their previous intolerant MAGA narratives.
Anonymous accounts screaming about a solution are one thing, but what makes it worse is that the mainstream press is fueling their fanfiction. The AP is criticizing Donald Trump for not posting his hospitalization records prominently on his social media platform or elsewhere. It’s been less than a week and the Republican National Convention is in full swing, but this is supposedly a problem.
Trump has not given any official information about his medical care for days since an assassination attempt https://t.co/P4qyPiEA91
— Associated Press (@AP) July 18, 2024
As the media elaborate in this country continues to unravel before our eyes, developments surrounding Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump continue to plague the press. What is notable is the rise of voices among journalists who – despite years of complaining about misinformation – now harbor the idea that the attempt on Trump’s life was either a conspiracy or at least being falsely dramatized by his campaign team.
One of the latest theories some in the press is that Trump was not directly hit by a gunman, but suffered the effects of the shattering glass of the teleprompter. First, how does that in any way diminish the point that there was an attempt on his life?! If he wasn’t actually hit by a sniper’s bullet, then he was hit by glass from the shattered teleprompter – by a sniper’s bullet!
But the second point is more telling. There are people in the journalism community who are spreading this conspiracy without actually doing — hey premise — journalism. If you were even considering this crazy premise, wouldn’t you at least consider it as a possibility before you start blathering?! Just look at the footage from July 13th, and what do you think it shows? The teleprompters were intact after the incident. You might expect this to be something a journalism professor like Jeff Jarvis would have in his repertoire, but by all appearances, this is not the case.
Professor of “Journalism” https://t.co/vg52gBp33m pic.twitter.com/e9OEh99Zcf
— Brad Slager – Scrubbing in a Bloodbath (@MartiniShark) July 17, 2024
MSNBC’s Michael Steele has also been a leader in this rabbit hole. This mentally influenced approach is all the more gratifying: just a few weeks ago, Steele was one of those on television denouncing stories about Joe Biden’s mental decline as imitation news. Now he’s looking at verifiable images of Trump’s ear being severed by a bullet and questioning the reality.
Add to that the current demand to reveal more hospital details, as if this were a secret that must be revealed, and the AP is stoking the embers of overthinking, understimulated minds on the internet.
Four days after a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, the public still does not know the severity of Trump’s injuries, how the Republican presidential candidate was treated in the hospital, and whether there may have been any long-term consequences for his health.
The “extent”? His upper ear was pierced by the bullet. This is clearly apparent in the photographs from that day, and it doesn’t take much to conclude that it was a largely superficial, non-threatening injury. What long-term consequences would one expect other than infection? But there is a desire to weave this supposed silence into a disturbing episode of hidden medical detail.
This is despite the fact that, by all accounts, the wound was not stern and Trump has been making public appearances all week. The actual President of the United States, on the other hand, is a perennial issue of physical and mental health issues, and the same press has shown remarkable disinterest in his medical records. The AP report on the importance of transparency in health matters mentions Joe Biden and the speculation currently circulating about his condition exactly once.
For months, the press had instead fought against those who dared to investigate the president’s condition, leading to the exposure of the press industry when all speculation during Biden’s horrific performance at the presidential debate turned out to be true. In the days that followed, there were some occasional challenges from the White House correspondents when it was revealed that Karine Jean-Pierre had lied about Biden’s medical visits.
Even after these controversial exchanges, there were few calls for medical updates on Biden. Let us also remember that the same journalist elaborate was actually upset when Robert Hur’s report came out suggesting that Biden had demonstrated an incapacitating state. Although conservative media have called for the release of the actual tapes of the Hur interviews, we again see little energy from the media pushing for the release of these recordings.
But Trump’s apparent ear trauma requires a more extensive medical investigation to be made public. That’s what happens when there is an unbalanced approach to candidates and parties in the press. A clear injury that has minimal impact MUST have more hidden details, but the obvious deterioration of President Biden’s health must be covered up. It would all be so ridiculous if the negative narratives and the severe impact on press credibility weren’t so bad. OK… we admit that a lot of this is actually pretty amusing.
