When America’s most powerful media outlets demonstrated their understanding of participatory democracy by actually participating in the 2016 presidential election campaign, it backfired on them, big time.
For example, when President Trump came to the CIA and received the type of ovation he usually gets at rallies of his supporters, his appearance blew away yet another media narrative several weeks in the making about his alleged war on the intelligence community. “It was clear to any objective observer with a set of eyes and ears that Trump’s speech at CIA headquarters was a tremendous success. He was interrupted by applause 11 times,” Cliff Kincaid, Director of the Accuracy in Media Center for Investigative Journalism, pointed out. Cliff counted, because he can, unlike many of the “best and the brightest” in the media, as we shall see.
