(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Might MSNBC's "Excessive" Focus on Trump Be the Right Political Strategy? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-07-19 Under the title “MSNBC’s primetime shows are failing us in a major way,” the Daily Kos contributor JunglelandDan complains that “the obsessive focus on Donald Trump now — two and a half years out of office — is grotesquely excessive and way, way beyond any journalistic value.” As a regular watcher of those MSNBC programs, I too have had feelings of impatience with this play-by-play analysis, going into every new sign that the Rule of Law will finally be holding Donald Trump accountable. “Who needs this?,” I ask, as we are way past any wondering whether Donald Trump committed crimes with guilt provable well beyond any “reasonable doubt.” It’s true that MSNBC does show a lot of other dramas that make up the current political battle, and I agree that a better way of maximizing people’s understanding of what’s going on would be to devote less time to the unfolding drama of the Defendant Trump story and more on other parts of the picture of America’s current political crisis. That’s looking at it in terms of the “journalistic value,” of maximizing people’s understanding. But actually, journalistic value — and understanding — is only part of what’s required in these times. We are also — and most importantly -- engaged in a battle, with the stakes about as high as they could be. Starting with the survival of American democracy under attack from a Force of Fascism. The most urgent task is to win the battle. And when I consider the issue of focus on Trump from the perspective of optimal strategy for winning that battle, I hesitate to assert that this “obsessive” coverage” is “excessive” coverage. I can imagine that this focus on the very concrete drama of “The Battle between Donald Trump embattled and the Force of the Rule of Law” just might make sense as a strategy for fortifying the Democracy side against the Fascist side. I expect that what governs MSNBC’s choices is maximizing its ratings, and hence profits. Giving the audience what it wants – ratings – makes money and accepts people (and their preferences) as they are rather than trying to make them more what they should be. Maybe people want the Trump drama, and giving it to them is how MSNBC maximizes profits. But, whatever the network’s motives, I think a case can be made that what they are doing would also make sense even if the only concern were: “How can this network best maximize the chance that American Democracy will survive?” Here’ s why the Trump Fixation might be a good strategy: Trump being investigated, indicted, tried, convicted is a human-sized drama. We follow the latest developments because it is a compelling drama, whether this powerful and awful man, who has gotten away with everything, and who continues to act as a wrecking ball on the American body politic, will at last be held accountable, and made to pay a price for the terrible way he conducts himself. I think it would be good for MSNBC to continually tie the Trump saga into the wider picture – Trump vs. Rule of Law as a piece of Fascism vs. Democracy. But the way people’s minds are put together makes them more deeply engaged when the drama is at the level of a single vivid human being than when it is about the larger forces that all the specific dramas are part of. (Larger forces like the Force of Law vs. the Force of Lawlessness, the Force of Power wielded by the people versus the fascistic force wielded against the people, the Force of Truth versus the Force of the Lie, ultimately the Force of the Good (makes the human world better) versus the Force of Evil (makes the human world more broken). But the Fixation on Trump might be a good way of keeping the viewership engaged in the battle. And the near-term goal needs to be to maximize the electoral strength of the Democratic Party to take power away from this Fascistic Republican Party in the 2024 elections (for President and for both Houses of Congress). (That’s the next big place where this battle will be waged, and people must know that it is essential that – as in 2020 – power be kept in the hands of people who will protect American democracy and will attempt to accomplish good things for America.) Not only is Donald Trump as dramatic a figure as has appeared in the American national story – no one alive today will ever forget Donald Trump – but he is also a vivid representation of the larger battle against Fascism. Trump brings to vivid life the evils of fascism, as we see him show such profound ugliness at every turn. And the fact that the Republicans now are really the Trump Party – acquitting the most criminal President almost unimaginably impeachable, supporting Trump’s obvious Big Lie, using the House to defend Trump against the Rule of Law – could mean that a network’s keeping people’s eyes trained on Trump’s ugliness will also facilitate their seeing the ugliness that pervades today’s Republican Party. To despise Trump and want to see him go down is to despise today’s Republican Party, which has enslaved itself to Trump to the point where it is so utterly morally bankrupt that it can hardly sink lower. Crazy, corrupt, utterly lacking in integrity. Everything that’s blatantly wrong with Trump is wrong also about this Republican Party. Perhaps the fires kept stoked against Trump can be spread to make a conflagration to consume the Republican Party. (Which means that part of the job — politically, as well as journalistically -- must be to continually stress how the same reasons for voting against Trump for President are simultaneously also reasons for people to vote against today’s Republicans up and down the line.) But judging whether this “maybe” is valid — i.e. whether this focus on Trump is the best political strategy — requires assessments that are way over my head: like judging how messages from MSNBC produce effects that impact the Election of 2024. What are the effects of, for example, the good work that Lawrence O’Donnell does regularly on the Trump drama? Effects in terms of who will turn out, and how will they vote? What are the effects on the viewers’ thoughts, feelings, actions? And how do those effects, in turn, affect others in the world? The high-stakes task of saving Democracy – and much else that’s good in the world – is one that requires us to make guesses about how the world will process our actions. And, if I ran MSNBC, I can imagine guessing either way: [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/19/2181960/-Might-MSNBC-s-Excessive-Focus-on-Trump-Be-the-Right-Political-Strategy Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/