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Dan Gillmor

The entire journalism industry adopted the "hush money trial" framing, thereby downplaying Trump's corruption -- financial fraud aimed at tampering with an election -- to something that the Trump cult has used to convince itself that it could all be discounted.

@dangillmor oligarch-controlled media gonna invent reality

@dangillmor yes, that angered me for weeks. It was a fraud and falsifying records trial. Totally legal to pay hush money. If you record it as such.

@carstenfranke - Well, it's been noted for some years, at least by some of us, that the vast majority of US media outlets are corporate owned and corporatist controlled.

The true tragedy is that so damned FEW people gave, and give, a rat's arse. If democracy dies, it will die by people's own apathy.

I'd say that the same holds true for the whole human species - too many apathetic narcissists, too few who care *at all*, even a little bit, about anything other than their own petty BS..

@dangillmor

Sorry to be a bore about this, but that is partisan reporting. I enjoy calling it by the proper name.

@dangillmor I also wish that when publishing things like Mike Johnson’s comments about this being some sort of sham, that some journalist somewhere would ask him exactly what he thinks makes it a sham, and what is different about this trial than others like it.

What political motivation translated into incorrect action?

If he can’t answer that, his statements shouldn’t be broadcast in the press.

@dangillmor All 6 of America's media companies agreed to it.

@dangillmor

Trump has multiple business fraud cases.

Trump has multiple election interference cases.

There is only one hush money case, which is why it's the descriptor that most clearly specifies which trial is being discussed.

@jasonbeets @dangillmor
It's not a hush money case.
Even in New York, in most instances, it is not a crime to pay someone to keep their mouth shut.
NDAs, even for criminal acts, are a thing.
The media has framed it as a so-called hush money case because it benefits them to shift the focus from fraud & election interference to something more salacious, like cheating on his wife with a porn star.
Sex sells...
Even if it sells out our democracy.
How do you think he got elected the first time?

@dangillmor I expect this will be rectified at sentencing. The judge will write a whole book about how serious this crime was.

@dangillmor I’m grateful Bragg summed it up in a quotable form. I’m seeing and hearing it repeated verbatim.