Why the Media's Defense Against Trump Has Proven So Ineffective

Donald Trump has a knack for choosing weak adversaries. He recognized the potential in taking advantage of undocumented workers. He used the element of surprise to take out Vince McMahon. Then he cut through a field of supposedly formidable Republicans as though they were Lilliputians, setting himself up for a general-election match-up against Hillary Clinton—who, it turned out, was a notably weak Democratic nominee.

Now it’s the press’s turn. While he’s bashed the news media since early in his campaign, the president has recently elevated his feud, with attacks on Mika Brzezinski and CNN that shocked even benumbed observers. Reporters are, understandably, horrified, but the general reaction from the press seems likely to encourage Trump while failing to rally the public against his behavior.

Trump’s attack on Brzezinski, including bizarre (and seemingly invented) claims about a—an alteration of an old appearance with McMahon at a WWE event—can only be read as encouraging violence against the media; the best that can be said for it is that it might be, like professional wrestling, insincere, though what it would mean for someone to commit insincere physical violence against the press is anybody’s guess.