Trump the Press: Don Surber's take on how the pundits blew the 2016 Republican race.
by
Don Surber
Paperback: 254 pagesPublisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 1, 2016)
ISBN-13: 978-1533360199
Kindle: 1346 KB
ASIN: B01IBSJYTK
Available on Amazon and CreateSpace.
Not Just For Trump Supporters
In Trump the Press: Don Surber's take on how the pundits blew the 2016 Republican race, internet blogger and former newspaper man Don Surber collects and analyzes the New York/DC media "Smart Set's" hilariously wrong predictions regarding Donald J. Trump's foray into the 2016 Republican primary. The genesis for this expose came when Surber, who served as an editorial writer and columnist for 30 years at the Charleston Daily Mail before retiring, became concerned about responsible media coverage during this current election cycle. Surber recognized early on Trump's shrewd political instincts when most others were writing his candidacy off as a long shot and concentrating on tabloid-style rumors about Trump rather than on his presidential qualities.
The book is written in a humorous and fast-paced style. Surber divides the subject matter, covering the entire 2016 primary process from Trump's announcement to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, into 47 short chapters each dealing with a specific theme the pundits deployed against Trump to predict his demise, with chapter titles such as "Peak Trump," "An Army of Vincent Canbys" and "Journalists Against News." Every "name" pundit makes an appearance, with one, Nate Silver, warranting his own chapter ("Nate Silver Tarnished"). Along the way Surber, like a Greek Chorus, offers his analysis on how the Smart Set failed so miserably in their assessment of Trump. For example, this a passage discussing The Washington Post's Jules Witcover's dismissal of Trump as a candidate:
"Only someone as entrenched in the federal government (as Witcover became after decades of covering Washington) would dismiss Trump's forty years as a chief executive officer as making him 'conspicuously unqualified' to become president, especially while a community organizer with less than a term in the Senate sat at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office."
As much as a the book is a fun vindication for Trump supporters, a person need not be one to appreciate it. It is a valuable record of how the so-called experts and opinion-makers stubbornly remained out of touch with the concerns of middle America, insisting on their "setting the narrative" even while Trump continued to prosper during the primary. It is also a good collection to have at hand as these same experts and opinion makers deploy the same tactics against Trump in the general election.
Currently, Surber is making a "sneak peak" of one of the best chapters in Trump the Press, "Peak Trump," available for free at his blog.
Reviewed by Angie on August 18, 2016
Angie is a The Crawdad Hole stalwart and the co-host of the new Blog Talk Radio Show Crawdad Crew. Follow her funny and fearless Twitter feed here.
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