Manipulating the media

Last week Rudy Giuliani, just hired as the nasty guy’s personal lawyer, gave a big interview – on Fox no less – saying the nasty guy had indeed reimbursed that other personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130K given to porn star Stormy Daniels. This seemed like an incredible statement, especially since the nasty guy denied knowing about any such payment – and later claimed Giuliani didn’t yet know all the facts.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville, long skeptical of the antics of both the administration and Giuliani (who has accumulated his own reasons to be called a nasty guy), thought this didn’t smell right.

Confirmation of her suspicions didn’t take long in coming. First, was the series of tweets supporting Giuliani from the nasty guy that were obviously (even I could tell) not written by the nasty guy. Then came a confirmation from Giuliani himself.

McEwan thinks that Giuliani suspects (or knows about) something in the files taken from Cohen’s office. Giuliani is spinning an interpretation of what might be revealed to get his version out there and shape public opinion. And to give the press a chance to say “both sides” have done it. Which they did. McEwan wrote:

So here's where we are: Once again, the Trump administration is manipulating the media, and delivering talking points to their base ahead of a disclosure that would be scandalous under normal circumstances.

Here, however, many members of the media spent the entirety of last night and much of the morning publicly laughing at what a dipshit Rudy Giuliani is. So now they have a strong incentive to pretend it's not a strategy, even when it becomes obvious that it is, because to backtrack and take it seriously would necessitate admitting that they were totally fucking wrong, missed the strategy, and got played.

And they certainly won’t admit to that. So they will abet the nasty guy again. And again.

One more question: Why isn’t a president’s lawyer paying off a porn star a scandal?