CNN hall monitor Brian Stelter said yesterday that the word “narcissist” wasn’t used enough by the media over the last four years:
Looking back at the news coverage of the past four years, one word that probably wasn't used enough is narcissist. pic.twitter.com/n8OnSukVbB
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 28, 2020
His point, of course, was that Donald Trump is a narcissist.
But the expression “It takes one to know one” exists for a reason. And for our purposes here today, that reason is to point out that Brian Stelter is pretty damn narcissistic himself.
No matter what’s happening in the world, Brian can’t seem to resist the urge to make firefighters like himself the story:
If someone managed to sleep through the Trump years, and asked me what they'd missed, I'd start with "enemy of the people." Why? Because Trump's demonization of the media explains almost everything… https://t.co/MvN7998Iug
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 29, 2020
Explains almost everything!
Here, let Brian explain:
Trump convinced his fans that the people covering him were lying. He told them to trust Fox and reject other info sources. On his very first weekend in office, he said he was in a "running war with the media." There were no "winners" in this "war…" https://t.co/J1Ze2dMfAo
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 29, 2020
Many times, in many influential corners of the media, there was an impulse to ignore Trump's anti-media attacks. But the poison seeped in anyway. It's what caused some of the fractures in America and exacerbated so many of the others. And the poison was advertised as an antidote!
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 29, 2020
Whataboutism, cherry-picking, cover-ups of Trump's corruption – all of it flowed 24/7 from a parallel universe of info, a universe full of criticism of legacy outlets. It all tied back to Trump's endless campaign against the people who report the news, who he labeled the "enemy."
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 29, 2020
Distrust of the media glued Trump's base together. That's why "enemy of the people" is the #1 thing to understand about the past 4 years. It's a factor in every story about governmental action and inaction, every analysis of American politics. It's the ?. https://t.co/SRmKxqdtt0
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 29, 2020
It’s the key emoji that really drives Brian’s point home.
Area man tasked with navel gazing gazes at navel https://t.co/owXa1MXCwK
— Aelfred The Great (@aelfred_D) December 29, 2020
There must be quite a buildup of lint in there. Brian needed someplace to store all the news he couldn’t report on because he was too busy being upset about Trump refusing to play footsie with the media that played footsie with him before he was elected.
Shouldn't the relationship between the media and politicians always be adversarial?
— AmishDude (@TheAmishDude) December 29, 2020
It definitely shouldn’t be warm and fuzzy.
Your inability to understand why this line resonates is the true story.
— Phil (@philllosoraptor) December 29, 2020
The media demonized itself, asshat.
— Bud Rogers (@Bud_Rogers) December 29, 2020
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