From the Left

/

Politics

How to control the overwhelming fire hose of news

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Having trouble keeping up with news that seems to be flowing out of Washington with even more fire-hose ferocity than usual? If so, you're not alone.

Almost seven in 10 Americans (68 percent) feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days, according to a Pew Research Center poll in June.

That was notably higher than the 59 percent who reported feeling exhausted by the high amount of election coverage, compared with 39 percent who said they liked having so much news.

That's not surprising, considering how much news President Donald Trump and his administration have produced, much of which they would rather not have made.

Just think, for example, of some of the recent fleeting stories that, in the pre-Trump era, would have dominated headlines for days.

In the past week, for example, The New York Times reported that, shortly after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the bureau launched an investigation to see if the president was working on behalf of the Russian government. He angrily denounced the report and the Times ("Fake news!").

 

Yet, considering this was about a president who, among other questionable episodes, once cheerfully shared classified documents with Russia's ambassador during a closed-door Oval Office meeting, news of the FBI background probe left me feeling more relieved than shocked.

But that news barely sank in before The Washington Post two days later reported that Trump had gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The measures included his taking possession of his translator's notes.

Meanwhile, the longest-running government shutdown in history was closing some offices and holding up thousands of paychecks in an impasse between the president and congressional Democrats over funding of a wall on the Mexican border.

It is worth remembering that Trump had agreed to a bipartisan funding plan but then reneged after he was ridiculed by Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and some other conservative commentators for breaking his campaign promise of a wall. Sensing his base was crumbling, Trump demanded a wall or nothing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, burned once already, refused to send anything to the Senate floor without Trump's promise to sign it, if it passed.

...continued

swipe to next page

(c) 2019 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

Comics

Tim Campbell Steve Kelley Michael Ramirez Bill Day Andy Marlette Joey Weatherford