John,
Donald Trump will spend as much time in courtrooms as he will on the campaign trail in 2024.
So it's not surprising that Trump is turning his court appearances into campaign events. This strategy was on display last week when Trump showed up in a Manhattan courtroom for his civil fraud trial despite not addressing the court and being under no obligation to appear.
Trump knows what he's doing. Using his court appearances to seize media attention, Trump can continue to push the lie that he is the victim of a liberal political conspiracy to stop him from running again.
While many mainstream media outlets didn’t take Trump’s bait, right-wing media like Fox News went all-in on wall-to-wall coverage:
While Trump bloviated to a wall of cameras, hosts on networks like Fox News and Newsmax amplified Trump’s bogus claims that the trial was part of some vast liberal conspiracy to deny him a second presidential term.
The coverage was eerily similar to what we saw after the 2020 election when Trump and his surrogates used the right-wing media to push the “big lie” that Joe Biden stole the election.
If the last two presidential elections have taught us anything, it’s that lies and propaganda can penetrate far beyond the audiences of the right-wing media who spread it.
It can spread to every corner of the Internet and our communities. And that’s what makes Courier’s work right now so important.
We founded Courier to bring high-quality journalism (i.e. the truth!) to communities stuck in “news deserts” where right-wing misinformation spreads. Our local newsrooms in nine critical battleground states are taking on Trump and the right-wing media, and they need your help.
As always, thank you for your support!
Courier Newsroom