The Windbag and the Yellow Journalist

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump, America biggest and most constant victim,  and a man who files lawsuits more frequently than most people do laundry, is at it again - and this time he has gone really, really big as he tries desperately to kill a story that has been eating away at his presidency over the last several news cycles.

For the past week Trump has been almost frantic in his attempts to change the national topic of conversation away from his administration's lack of transparency and possibly even subterfuge in the matter of its promise to release the files on Jeffrey Epstein, an alleged pedophile who also allegedly supplied the rich and famous with underage girls for sex.  Epstein died by supposed suicide while in federal custody during Trump's first administration.   Epstein and Trump were at least acquaintances, and there are quite a few pictures of the two men together at various sites on the internet indicating they were friends.

A certain very influential and noisy subset of Trump's MAGA base as well as many internet "influencers" have been vocal for years in their demands that the government's files on Jeffry Epstein be released so that they (the MAGA influencers and others) will be able to determine the extent of Epstein's criminality and trace it down into the ranks of Democratic politicians and Hollywood elites who supposedly wallowed in the depravity provided by the very rich pedophile pimp.  At times, Donald Trump, as a candidate for office, even  stirred the demands for the release of some of these records himself as he constantly worked at keeping his base fired up.

This year, now that he is safely back in office and no longer in danger of going to jail over his criminal conviction last year that contained 34 felony counts, Trump seems to have noticeably cooled on his desire to make an issue of the Epstein files.  If February of this year his US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, told Fox News, that she had the Epstein files on her desk awaiting her personal review, and that they would then be released to the press.    Minimal files were later released that contained little more than records which were already in the public domain.   Recently Bondi's Justice Department announced that Epstein died by suicide, there was no secret "client list," and that no further files would be released - and that set the Epstein conspiracy nuts on fire - and their white-hot rage continues.

On Thursday of this week, the day before yesterday, there was a report in the Wall Street Journal that focused on a birthday book that Epstein's personal assistant, Ghislaine Maxwell, put together for his fiftieth birthday in 2003.  It reportedly contained notes from fifty notable people that were suggestive in nature.   The journalists who covered the story chose to focus on what some publications referred to as a "bawdy" note supposedly written by Donald Trump.  They quoted the text of the note and said that it was typed within a drawing of a naked woman.

Trump erupted right on cue, and the following day - yesterday -  he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the two reporters, the newspaper's publisher, the DOW Company which is the owner-of-record of the paper, and Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch, the ultimate owner of News Corps which owns the DOW, which owns the Wall Street Journal.

Trump denied writing the note to Epstein.  Part of his denial was that he "never wrote a naked woman in my life."

Murdoch, a man who made his fortune off tabloids and yellow journalism, has dealt with bigger nuisances and does not, at this point anyway, appear too concerned.

That's where it stands as of this morning.  If threatening Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship and showcasing the cruelty of Alligator Alcatraz didn't pull the public attention away from Epstein, perhaps a story about an obscenely large and likely frivolous lawsuit will.  Trump can only hope!