Take a Memo
File this under the “who thought this was a good idea” category.
Republicans in the U.S. House will begin an impeachment inquiry tied to the president and his family. The White House, naturally, thinks it’s a bad idea, much ado about nothing, partisan gamesmanship, etc.
And so you would expect spokespersons from the White House to make themselves available to reporters and any camera or microphone they can find to rail about the lack of fairness of it all, the injustice, and so on.
That’s part of the game. What is not part of the game is a White House official sending an official memo to news organizations urging them to hold Republicans accountable and strongly question each of the GOP’s actions.
You’ve heard our national hosts rail against this already. One thing that is interesting to me about all this is the format…a memo to targeted media.
That seems odd…unless that’s the manner they’ve used in the past to help direct coverage. We already have a court saying the administration violated the First Amendment through strong-arming social media sites to stifle posts the administration didn’t like. Is it therefore too much to believe that the administration set up a pipeline with media organizations, sending what are in essence talking points memos to help steer the media conversation?
The fact that this one got leaked suggests just how much the formerly-mainstream media is abandoning the administration and this president. A key Washington Post columnist floats the idea of the Biden/Harris ticket stepping aside one day, the memo directing media coverage gets leaked the next.
Of course, it all could be a classic case of misdirection and part of a broader, deliberate plan. That’s the problem with things these days, we no longer know who we can trust…so we distrust everyone and everything.
Say what you will about our current times, but that along is a tragic outgrowth of it.
