In a culture that believes “time is money,” excessive time spent reading, pondering, discussing, is money wasted, I suppose.   That’s an arch way to put it.  There is nothing inherent in reading, thinking or discussing that puts any premium on the development of humanity, decency, correct action.   Humanity, decency and correct action are all matters of opinion that people of good will can discuss; things angry people, who are always certain of everything, can tell you to fuck off about.  

People read Mein Kampf, for example, ponder it, discuss its arguments, arguments that speak directly to their rage and sense of injustice, find inspiration in its author’s passion.  Humans, as a group, are famously challenged by the gentler and more difficult messages of people like Jesus and Buddha.  Killing, torture and persecution done in the name of Jesus have been, sadly, arguably as common as the merciful acts he exhorted his followers to perform.  Jesus weeps.

Let’s skip the philosophical argle-bargle, and talk about tabloids and the real world.  Back in the day, you could buy a newspaper, like the New York Times, page after page of fine print, with news and analysis of world events.   That newspaper cost a nickel, more than the other papers.  Whatever its limitations and hidden biases, reading it was a commitment of time that required some concentration.  After reading an article in the always measured New York Times you had something to think about– even if for a critical mug like me it was often about the things the otherwise nuanced article had neglected to make mention of.  

Next to the Times on the newsstand were more compact papers, only folded once, not twice like the fancier publications, with blunt, colorful headlines like Nazi Kills at Klan Rally.  These tabloids cost maybe two cents.  The headline was a teaser designed to grab your attention, make you buy the paper, there was usually a dramatic photo under the headline.  The tabloid delivered selected highlights dramatically and entertainingly.

Readers of the tabloids would get the unapologetically opinionated news delivered to them in short, digestible chunks.  There were plenty of pictures, often catching the subjects in undignified moments, many ads, comics, a word puzzle, a colorful and detailed sports section and, on good days, a picture of a pretty, scantily clad young woman on page six.  The tabloids were the newspapers of the masses, as today FaceBook and shit like that are the news sources for most Americans.  The publications eggheads read were full of complexity and nuance, the tabloids were bold and simple.  You want a complicated non-answer, or a simple, convincing, actual answer?  Hmmmm? 

During the start of the Cold War, which extended from the end of World War Two until the Age of Reagan, an angry demagogue named Joseph McCarthy, senator from Wisconsin, aided by a pugnacious, closeted gay lawyer named Roy Cohn, bullied and prosecuted suspected Communists in a Senate Committee often confused with the similarly anti-Communist House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).  The always-above-reproach Richard Nixon was a member of HUAC during McCarthy’s time.  

McCarthy’s ruthless tactics, often victimizing innocent people with little or no evidence, outside of suspicion and personal rancor, gave rise to the term McCarthyism.   He was eventually discredited, after pissing Eisenhower off when he turned his red-baiting on the U.S. Army and the Army fought back in nationally televised hearings.  He was censured by a large bipartisan majority of his Senate colleagues.  He died during his second term in the Senate, of liver disease at 48, in 1957.   Before his downfall Joseph McCarthy wielded enormous power, harnessing the fear and hatred of Communism to advance his own career.  

While he was the nation’s chief red-baiter, McCarthy was urged by the young Roy Cohn, his legal aid (later fierce defender of Carlo Gambino, George Steinbrenner and other notorious luminaries), to use the Court of Public Opinion to level his charges and prosecute his cases against suspected Commies.   The lesson was the same one demonstrated in previous decades by other totalitarian regimes:  the truth is what people believe is happening, not what may be actually happening.  Control the perception of the masses, you control “reality”.  If the cover of every tabloid said so-and-so denies being Red, with a picture of him looking like a guilty goddamn Commie — well, that was most of the battle right there.  Cohn later became good friends with tabloid king Rupert Murdoch, a man he could rely on for an inflammatory series of tactical headlines.

Fast forward to 1973 and Fred Trump’s legal battle to defend his good name against federal charges of racial discrimination, systematic violations of the Fair Housing Act in the rental of his apartments.   Roy Cohn was the Trumps’ lawyer, and young co-defendant Donald Trump learned a lot at his knee.   You can read about the lawsuit here.  It was brutally fought by Cohn, who countersued the government for $100,000,000, comparing their persecution of his clients to tactics used by the Nazis.  The judge threw out his countersuit but the case dragged on for twenty months.  

“Trump and his father settled the case in 1975 without admitting wrongdoing, but they were required to take out advertisements saying they welcomed renters of all races.”  (source)  

More importantly, Trump learned, from his mentor Roy Cohn (not a very nice man, by most accounts) how to use the tabloids to advance his case, his fame, his fabulous career.    Keep it short, spicy, bold, don’t fuss about if it’s true or not.  When attacked — hit back harder — brutal’s fine, make it work for you. Those lessons would come in handy, as history has brought us, truly, our first tabloid president.