Episode
The Would-Be Massacre That Was a Wake-Up Call for the Press
- Published
- May 1, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2064
- Processing state
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- https://www.sashastone.com/p/the-would-be-massacre-that-was-a
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Summary
Chuck Todd is terrified for his life. He announced he won’t attend any events with Donald Trump anymore. He doesn’t feel safe. It’s too dangerous. Trump, he insists, will throw everyone else under the bus to protect himself. That’s awfully convenient, considering the media is largely responsible for the collective mental health crisis in this country regarding Donald Trump. How do I know? I used to exist inside that insulated Doomsday Cult, and most of the people I know in real life still do. I can see what it’s done to them. Ten years of worry, fear, hysteria, and hatred have consumed them. When I talk to my mother, I know she exists in that world defined by hate, as she spends the last few years of what’s left of her life as part of this “all of society” effort to bring down the enemy of the Democrats, of Barack Obama. That’s all it is. But she has no idea because she takes them at their word, and her perception of reality is limited to the confines of the Doomsday cult. My mother is like I used to be, a committed soldier to believing everything that was pumped into my nervous system from my social media feed, to the headlines at the New York Times, to the opening monologues on Morning Joe, The Daily Show, and MS-Now. Like her, I trusted them. Like her, I couldn’t believe they would lie about something so serious. It had to be true, all of it. It’s just that it wasn’t true, and it was easy to figure it out. All it took was watching Trump’s rallies, listening to him talk, getting to know his supporters, seeing things from their point of view, and humanizing them. And yet, even suggesting such a thing, and you watch them flip out. I’ve always known all it would take is a little bit of courage from the legacy press to help people like my mom, and millions of Americans w…