Sheep Blitzer Cozies Up To Donald Trump

The corporate media propelled Donald Trump into the White House in 2016 and are keen to do so again. The media is addicted to ratings and instead of researching the issues related to the welfare of the American people they have turned their journalism into click bait gossip. Wolf Blitzer had on Nancy Pelosi just to push Trump’s big package. That is his big coronavirus stimulus package. And his package isn’t that big.

The corporate media will happily elect Donald Trump and once again they will blame the “working class” for his “populism”. Wolf Blitzer never was interested in anything but the “bigness” of Trump’s phony bill. Details involved journalism and CNN wants Trump the cash cow, not the facts, science or democracy. We knew this would happen. As soon as Trump got COVID and went down in the polls the media would start to humanize a fascist again. Blitzer accuses Nancy Pelosi of politicizing the stimulus package but the question is why doesn’t the same standard apply to Donald Trump?

The leftish Ro Khanna is only a figure to be admired for the corporatist Wolf Blitzer when he needs to use him to promote Trumpism. On all other occasions Khanna would be an extreme leftist undermining the party line. Why Khanna and other leftists want to compromise with Trump now is puzzling. It’s just more of what passes for the left: disagree with Pelosi and it’s left-wing. But the left was right to challenge Pelosi when she compromises with Trump and wrong to flip when Pelosi stands up to him.

As Pelosi tried to explain to the dense Wolf Blitzer the Democrats already went down quite a bit from their 3.4 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Wolf tries to counter several times with something like: But Madam, I respect you so much I like numbers.  1.8 trillion is coming from “the President”. That’s not so far from 2.2 trillion, which you want. Blitzer doesn’t care what the money goes to. He likes those big juicy numbers. Reminds him of his paychecks “exposing” the Trump years.

So what are the differences between the trimmed down Democratic bill and Trump’s bill? The Democrats would refund payroll protections which will directly help small businesses keep their workers on their payroll. The Democrats would put through 600$ a week for unemployment benefits compared to 400$ a week for Trump. The Democrats would give money to state and local governments to pay essential workers. The Democrats also include housing assistance for both renters and homeowners. The amount of aid to states is also in contention. Donald Trump wants to punish states for supporting Democrats and keep the state support at 250 billion$ while Democrats want 400$ billion.

The media likes that Trump is “going bigger” than the Democrats but will this relief package be just another way to funnel money upwards? Will it be just another bailout for the ruling class that the working poor will have to pay for in generations to come? Will it include funding for states, workers and the unemployed? Will it include protections for housing the evicted and food for the hungry? Will it include environmental deregulation that endangers our air and water? Will it include funding for tracing, testing and protective gear? The important number isn’t the total spending but rather the distribution of the spending. Will the bill go to help Americans who can’t feed themselves or will it be another way to bury loans to Wall St.?

Democrats and Republicans alike have too often sold out to the ruling class but compromise before the election is just playing into Trump’s hands. Wolf Blitzer seemed to be personally offended when Pelosi admitted the Democrats didn’t want to give Trump this stimulus gift. Wolf cynically used the “American people” as a crutch when he soon will be scapegoating these same people when Blitzer elects Trump again. For once the Democrats are playing smarter. They know they have Trump in a corner with the election coming up and they would be smart to run out the clock barring not only a change of heart from Trump but from the Senate.

All these corporate media hacks on a voting shaming frenzy don’t seem to like the idea of  challenging Trump. Somehow Blitzer blames Pelosi for not compromising to the Republican’s garbage plan when he should be blaming the Republicans for not spending more and Pelosi for not sticking to 3.4 trillion or something far higher. Suddenly Trump is a reasonable actor. What a bait and switch by the corporate media.

The corporate media adores being the victim of Trump tweets because when he moves his fingers it is news. That’s what counts for news these days. No matter how much Trump threatens the corporate press they come down on his side because while he impedes the ability to do journalism he also boosts ratings. Based on the amount of research Wolf Blitzer did on Trump’s stimulus package this approach is a win-win for CNN.

Trump is getting smashed in the polls. For the second time, the American people, when left to their own devices are rejecting the corporate fascist. It’s up to the media to win it for Trump. Anyone who dares to challenge Trump’s political supremacy in 2020 will be silenced and punished. All resistance within his administration or his fascist party has been fired and replaced with corporate executives to dismantle the very departments they oversee. Trivial aesthetic resistance to Trump will be welcomed for it will further the illusion that he’s a countercultural underdog. CNN will wash their hands of Trump’s fascist regime but the rest of us will be washing our hands, covering our faces and avoiding seeing our loved ones just to survive.

Nick Pemberton writes and works from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He loves to receive feedback at pemberton.nick@gmail.com