Dr. Frankenstein's Media Marvel

   With all the hand-wringing among the pundits over the roaring popularity of Donald Trump, one wonders whether the news media still have the influence on public opinion they used to have. If they ever did.
   Increasingly, columnists are bemoaning the concept that the GOP front-runner is a product of the party's own subtle bigotry, shown over more than a decade, of weaving danger signals through its tapestry of policies and programs. The difference now, of course, is that Trump is not subtle about it, which is embarrassing to the party establishment because he's not one of them and can't be controlled. He's not part of their program. He's running his own show, and that's what appeals to many voters in his base.
   Meanwhile, television and print media were a prime showcase, theater and stage for the message that so many Trumpsters find appealing. It was entertaining, of course, until the message became increasingly vitriolic and both the party establishment and journalists recognized the danger, comparing the candidate to demagogues and dictators of the past.
   But the question is this: Do party leaders and media folk now recognize their role in enabling the rise of the media marvel, and are now unable to take him down?
   The Republican establishment dealt the race and xenophobia cards from below the deck, burying them in the hands of someone skilled at dealing. Now the wheeler-dealer is playing those cards openly, and winning the game, to the embarrassment of those who thought they had stacked the deck in their own favor.
   All the while, the media covered the game, watching and hoping that the sharpie they had helped create would soon lose.
   It hasn't happened, and now they worry that the joker they helped create holds all the aces.

   However, it is also true that news media have a responsibility to report on the progress of the game, even from the beginning, no matter how they may feel about any of the players.
   When a candidate for the nation's top public office attracts thousands to his rallies and wins many preliminary voting contests, journalism has a responsibility to report that, even at the risk of enabling the rise to continue.
   This is what happens when a master media manipulator deals himself in. And it's not that he's stacking the deck, either. Casino owners have long known that there are some who are skilled at playing the game, so they try to ban them from the playing floor.
   This didn't happen in the casino that is American politics today. The Republican Party invented the Fear of Foreigners game, as long ago as the mid-19th Century and the Know-Nothing Party's ploy against Irish Catholic immigrants.
   Now that game is being played again, and a master deal-maker is winning.
   Is it possible to stack the deck against him? That question will be answered come convention time in Cleveland next summer.
   Meanwhile, the news media have a responsibility to keep the public informed.