“McConnell, in Private, Doubts if Trump Can Save Presidency”

This is the end
My only friend
The end

Only amateurs believe the paper prints the news.

Professionals MAKE the news. They control the narrative. They provide access, tidbits, the papers just do their dirty work.

And it is the papers, because the video outlets have no reporters. Oh, if there’s a war or a tornado or a murder they’ll send a well-coiffed person with a camera to make pictures. But the less glamorous stuff? Fuggedaboutit on cable, and network can be dismissed when it comes to news. The newspapers set the agenda, and there are only three, “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post” and “The Wall Street Journal.”

And “The Wall Street Journal” ain’t breaking much news, they’re stretched too thin. Trying to be everything to everybody they’re failing. But “The Washington Post” got an infusion from Bezos and they’re competing with the “Times” on breaking stories.

And together they’re controlling the national dialogue.

How do I know this?

Talk radio takes cues from the “Times” and flipping amongst the three major cable news outlets today who was deepest into the McConnell story? Fox. That’s right, Murdoch’s empire is reacting to the “Times.”

Anyway, we’re in uncharted territory.

Or are we not?

Credit Frank Rich with pointing out it was a matter of time. That Nixon was impeached long after the break-in.

“Just Wait, Watergate didn’t become Watergate overnight, either.”

But then there was that opinion piece in the “Times,” postulating that Trump would not go until Fox News turned against him.

“Want to Get Rid of Trump? Only Fox News Can Do It”

We’re getting to that point.

If you believe the “Times” reporters dug and came up with this story, you’re wrong. They were TOLD! By people who wanted to get back at Trump, people who worked for McConnell. Deny, deny, deny, have no quotes, but put the land mines out there.

This is how war is fought today, certainly in D.C., in the media.

You use the media to your advantage.

Trump thought he was winning, with his direct access to the public via Twitter. But reporting on those musings was like reciting the baseball scores. Interesting to a few, but not many. The problem is there’s little amplification. Anybody online knows that news comes and goes, and unless it’s everywhere, it’s nowhere. So Trump keeps tweeting to a smaller and smaller audience. We’ve seen the train wreck, we no longer care. And today Trump got schooled by the old school.

That’s what I hate about the prognosticators, they miss the memo, always get it wrong. Traditional media is challenged FINANCIALLY, but not in IMPACT! The more news outlets there are, the more we gravitate to a few.

Trump got ahead of himself. He thought the revolution was complete, but it’s still being televised, it’s still being printed, turns out the old media companies are still the most powerful.

Come on, how many of the online news outlets have reporters. They have meme-thinker-uppers and typists, but no one out there digging, no one who knows how the game is played. They think it’s about clicks and ads and maybe that leads to money, but ad rates are going through the floor and just like you’re paying for music, soon you’ll be paying for news. Yup, that’s the story of the imminent future, the old wave companies are getting the new ones to capitulate. Both Facebook and Google are talking about being gatekeepers who pay fealty to news outlets.

So, just when we thought Trump was forever, at least four years, the dam broke. And how do you lose a Presidency? Just like you lose a fortune, very slowly and then all at once.

Could be Charlottesville was the breaking point. All the built-up frustration came home to roost. The Republicans in Congress are afraid to stand up in public, but put the shiv in you off camera? They’re all for that, watch a season of “House of Cards,” especially the first, you’ll understand.

If Trump goes, it’ll be because the Republicans say so.

And now they’re starting to.

When the music’s over, TURN OUT THE LIGHTS!