PRESS STILL CHASING "PILLENWERFERS." RACHEL MADDOW DEMURS.

As it turns out, Donald Trump successfully borrowed a page from Sarah Palin’s playbook: utter some newsy but fraudulent claim sending the press scurrying down a rabbit hole, eager to debunk the latest “bright, shiny object,” while neglecting to expose glaring flaws and omissions in the candidate’s stand on the issues. 

In 2008 I chastised the liberal press, including Rachel Maddow, for chasing Palin's pillenwerfers — those devices released by German submarines under attack in WWII that produced large volumes of gas, creating a false sonar target. Allied destroyers would chase the gas while the German sub got away. Candidate Trump used this technique to great effect in 2016 — think “Mexican murderers and rapists,” “build a wall," “Bengazi,” “private e-mail server,” “lock her up,” “drain the swamp.” Such distractions crowded out serious discussion of the issues in the press while giving Trump countless hours of free media attention, resulting in the election of an erratic president with no experience in governing and threadbare explanations of dubious policies by which he proposes to “Make America Great Again,” let alone an explanation of why he thinks America isn’t great.

As President, Mr. Trump is reprising the formula, most recently falsely accusing the press of willfully neglecting to report terrorist attacks. As Mother Jones' Kevin Drum points out Trump has succeeded in manipulating the country to talk about terrorist attacks at a time when the courts are deciding the merits of his travel ban purporting to keep terrorists out. By this bit of political legerdemain, the President misdirects public and press attention away from the constitutional issues at the heart of the case while heightening the public’s anxiety about terrorism. Clever. Dishonest, but clever. 

Last night, Rachel Maddow acknowledged this shortcoming in her own and the press’ coverage of the Trump phenomenon. 

“I am starting to think that the best way to cover this administration may be to basically treat them like they are a silent movie. They’ve got a problem all the way up to the very top of saying stuff that isn’t true. And so that can be every day’s news story. But there’s also a responsibility to focus on what they are doing -- to not be so distracted by the things that they say, because that can send you down 40 rabbit holes a day trying to ferret out the connection or lack thereof between the statements of the administration and the reality of the lived world. It’s important to catch them on their misstatements and point them out. But if you spend all your time trying to nail down their words following every statement that they make as their next news story, not only do they get to lead you by the nose in terms of what you cover, but sometimes for all the attention to what they are saying, you miss what they are doing. So, this administration isn’t very old yet —we’re two-and-a-half weeks in — as each day goes by of this new administration, I feel like in terms of developing my understanding of what’s important, explaining what’s the real stuff is that’s happening, and not a distraction of what is really going on, I feel like I’m getting more and more focused in reporting about their behavior, rather than focusing on their comments or amplification of things that they’ve said.”

Bra-vo! It’s about time for the press to take note and follow suit.