Written by Thomas Williams, posted by Mr. Silton
Yes. The title is correct. This 9/11, former President Trump brought Laura Loomer, a woman famous for spreading the myth that 9/11 was an inside job, to the 9/11 memorial on its anniversary. The one question I have is, what was he thinking?
Trump has met with Loomer before, in 2023. He met her at a golf course in which upon seeing her called his assistant to immediately pay for all of her purchases, along with bringing her to his private suite for a day. This action was criticized even in 2023, because while Loomer received a whole day with Trump, Iowa voters received just one hour.
Laura Loomer has repeatedly spread racist comments about muslims and made appaling remarks about others who aren’t white. She has used her platform to spread racist myths about a tragedy that has killed 100s. She has taken refuge in a racist circle that has tried to overthrow the very government itself, and yet gets free golf trips and a private suite. Loomer, by all accounts, is not a good person.
Now, why 9/11 of all days to bring a conspiracy theorist to the very memorial she conspiracizes? Trump’s advisor of course only stated that this memorial wasn’t about Loomer, and instead only about those who died in the tragedy, but Trump himself said nothing. Well personally? I don’t think the why matters. It’s just a slap in the face, and an action that should be condemned.
His action is ridiculous, and represents a very important thing to take notice of - what news is not covering it. CNN, the progressive media giant, of course took this chance to cover a politician their viewers don’t like. Fox, on the other hand, had no reporting at all. Narrowcasting, polarization, poison in our society. How so? When our very media is covering for the insults their idol is acting on, it only further divides the country. Now, only left-wing viewers even know that this happened. If a left viewer gets into a discussion with a right viewer about this situation, the right isn’t even going to know about it! How can we, as a democracy built off of educated and civil commentary to discuss issues, discuss an issue half of us don’t even know about?
We need to hear from both sides, because people should not be able to do things like this without criticism.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/12/politics/laura-loomer-donald-trump-influence/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-fawns-very-special-laura-loomer-new-video
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-laura-loomer-loomered/
Written by Thomas Williams, posted by Mr. Silton
4 comments:
Looking at this situation, I can't say that I am surprised. Time and time again, Trump continues to do things that are morally questionable or downright unacceptable and yet they keep getting swept under the rug by Fox news and every other ultra right wing media outlet. 9/11 is an event that is considered a enormous tragedy by citizens and politicians on both sides of the aisle and Trump's actions are in blatant disrespect of the lives lost on that day. The worst part is, he won't lose supporters for involving Loomer, since anyone who agrees with him, will have no idea he brought her to the memorial anyway. This is the main problem that I have with this, because exactly as you said, Thomas, both sides need to be aware of actions like this. One of the most important parts of democracy is that the voters are informed, and if only half of the news outlets are reporting on issues, how are citizens expected to know them? According to the media, they shouldn't. This just goes to show that people high up in the republican party and those in charge of the media know that Trump is wrong for engaging with people such as Loomer, but they are so dedicated to a single man, that they fail to actually do their job and report on the news. The divide of the country is widening, and unless the media changes the way they report, I don't know if there is a way to bridge this divide.
This is a perfect example of the power of the media's narrowcasting. An action like this should be a scandal, as Donald Trump disrespected a tragic event worthy of consideration, especially because the people who were directly affected by it live around us. This situation should have been heard of and discussed by all, but most people never knew it had happened. It shows the lack of common sense in Donald Trump's character, which should not be a surprise to most people. Above all, it reflects the scorekeeping, watchdog, and gatekeeping aspects of the Media. This situation did not largely affect the former president's reputation, it was not exposed to a nearly large enough magnitude as the gravity of his actions should have been, and finally, it did not become an important subject to the public because of the latter.
While I do agree with you that the right-wing media should cover it to stay informed, if one only gets there news from Fox or other heavily right-wing sources the chances of a story claiming their favorite former president supports anti-patriotic people many will either deny it or it won't sway their opinion to the much more liberal candidate of Kamala Harris. The fact is the only people who did see this story are those who would care, whether they be moderates of liberals, whom, as you said, will take any chance to rip on trump.
I feel like most politicians try to only do things that could be supported by at least one side, but this is one of many examples how Trump does not seem to care about that, and does actions that just look bad from basically any side. Do you think he has an actual strategic reason for this? Perhaps he wants people to view him as careless to somehow make him seem stronger, in the sense that he doesn't care what the public thinks and doesn't base his actions off of what he is told by some adviser, which I imagine most politicians do. I don't really understand it, but I think there is a possibility that his seemingly stupid actions could be part of some crazy political strategy that actually helps him.
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