The reaction of the editors of the Wall Street Journal to President Trump’s loss in the civil suit about which I commented yesterday resembles mine:
Does it matter politically now that a jury has found Donald Trump liable for battery and defamation against a woman who said he assaulted her sometime in the 1990s? In a better world it would matter, but in the debased and polarized American politics of 2023, it may not.
[…l
Yet it’s no small matter that the jury sorted the testimony and found against Mr. Trump on the preponderance of evidence standard that applies in civil litigation. (The criminal statute of limitations that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt has long expired.) The jury rejected Ms. Carroll’s claim that Mr. Trump raped her. But they found it more likely than not that he sexually assaulted her and lied about it. The jury awarded her a more than token civil penalty of $5 million.
They go on to observe that Mr. Trump’s deposition did him little good:
A modicum of restraint, or twinge of regret about the accusation against him, might have put some doubt in the jury’s mind. Yet even when it’s in his legal interest, Mr. Trump can’t stop from justifying his crude behavior. This is the Donald Trump whose words and actions so often subverted his own Presidency.
Here’s the crux of the editorial:
Yet if most Republicans dismiss the verdict as one more political assault, Mr. Trump’s opponents and the press have themselves to blame. They also show no restraint. This lawsuit, like the two impeachments and the recent Alvin Bragg indictment that stretches the law, seems less an attempt to get at the truth than to find some way, any way, to disqualify him from ever becoming President again. Voters don’t like being told that a man they elected should be disqualified by members of the opposite party or the press.
Character matters in a President, however, and Republicans will want their presidential nominee to win in 2024 and then to govern successfully. The Carroll lawsuit, compounded by the liability judgment, is the kind of tempest that is Mr. Trump’s constant companion.
From what I’m seeing at this point it makes little difference.
People generally receive information visually — seeing or reading about an event. Yesterday’s verdict, awarding Ms. Carroll $5 million for something that was weighed and measured primarily by her uncertain facts and memory, was sensationally splashed over most media outlets. Many recipients of such a media blitz will judge the defendant and plaintiff based solely on how they were painted in these stories. Consequently, there will be at least some negative blow-back on Trump. However, if there had been little to no coverage of this civil suit, and it’s outcome, such a trial and it’s findings would have been like throwing a small pebble in a small pond —having little effect in the larger political landscape around the pond..
That’s how influential the media is, in it’s arbitrary sorting of what it chooses to report or ignore.
This morning the media chose to ignore the findings of Congressman Comer’s investigation into the financial escapades of Biden and his extended family. There was evidence indicating Biden was involved in multiple pay-for-play schemes, setting up LLCs and shill companies, while serving as VP in the Obama Administration. Somehow, most media did not deem this important enough to report on, and was aired by relatively few stations this morning, creating a vacuum where when there is no coverage, there is no story.
https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-reveals-new-evidence-in-biden-familys-influence-peddling-schemes%EF%BF%BC/
Also today, on the southern border, thousands of illegals are crossing our border. Tomorrow, with the lifting of Title 42 it will be far worse. But, again, there is virtually no media covering this massive migration – historic in its numbers – except for a handful of independent journalists. This reminds me of a close friend’s comments, when asked about the onslaught crossing our borders the last few years ——>. “There’s nothing being reported going on at the border!†So, in his mind there was no chaos at the border.