How the Media Plays the GOP's Game

Back at the height of the birther craziness, which the GOP aided and abetted, Donald Trump supposedly sent a team of investigators to Hawaii. Have you heard a single reporter or debate moderator in this election cycle ask Trump about what his investigators found?
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Donald Trump, a possible 2012 presidential candidate, talks to reporters after arriving at the Pease International Tradeport Wednesday, April 27, 2011 in Portsmouth, N.H. Trump said he was "very proud" to have forced the White House's decision to release President Barack Obama's birth certificate. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Donald Trump, a possible 2012 presidential candidate, talks to reporters after arriving at the Pease International Tradeport Wednesday, April 27, 2011 in Portsmouth, N.H. Trump said he was "very proud" to have forced the White House's decision to release President Barack Obama's birth certificate. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Back at the height of the birther craziness, which the GOP aided and abetted, Donald Trump supposedly sent a team of investigators to Hawaii. This is what he reported:

"I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding."

What did they uncover?

Have you heard a single reporter or debate moderator in this election cycle ask Trump about what his investigators found?

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The press slavishly reported all of his blather about the president's supposed foreign birth but has never bothered to follow up during the primaries on what Trump promised to reveal to the nation.

Why hasn't he been pushed to explain himself? Why is the press so feckless? Isn't a story like this worth a follow-up?

Meanwhile, Republican after Republican keeps referring to the opposition as "the Democrat party." I don't hear any reporters correct them. It's not just a question of language, of using the wrong adjective.

There's political intent behind the usage. As NPR has reported:

"Why Republicans asked for years, should we allow the Democrats to get away with the adjective 'democratic'?" wrote New York Times language maven William Safire in 1984. "As a result, partisan Republicans, especially those who had been head of the Republican National Committee, called the opposition 'the Democrat party.'"

Notorious Senator Joe McCarthy used it, ditto Newt Gingrich and other right wingers -- it has the extra benefit of sounding harsh and there's the subliminal association with "rat."

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But TV reporters and talking heads (aside from Fox) sometimes say "Democrat Party" themselves, and always let it slip by when GOP interviewees say "Democrat Party" -- which does not exist. Unless there's also a "Publican Party."

Liberal media? Lazy media is more like it.

Lev Raphael is the author of 24 books in genres from mystery to memoir, available on Amazon.

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