Control Freaky

The fastest way to get your name in the paper is to try to keep it out. -- Pug Mahoney

   The candidate has often criticized his opponents for using a teleprompter and prepared speeches at campaign rallies, preferring his free-ranging style of speaking off the cuff.
   Today, Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, used a teleprompter at a rally, and his aides asked the TV pool cameraman to make sure the teleprompter was not visible when the candidate was speaking.
   This effort to control news coverage prompted the MSNBC reporter at the rally to describe at some length how and why the candidate's staff tried to influence how the news media do their jobs. Specifically, the camera operators are employed by a news media cooperative partnership, not by the Trump campaign.
   
   Separately, the candidate's lawyer threatened to sue the New York Times for printing details of Trump's tax return for 1996 and describing the likelihood of paying no federal income tax for nearly 18 years.
   In turn, the newspaper assigned its resident law reporter to write up the story. Trump's lawyer cited a federal law prohibiting the publication of tax return information acquired by inducing an informant to give up the paperwork.
   However, the newspaper report was based only on a state tax return document, not federal, and it was delivered to the newspaper via the Postal Service. After authenticating the document, The Times ran the story on Sunday's Page One, despite the challenge by Trump's lawyer.
   Moreover, publication of such information is protected by the First Amendment guarantee of Freedom of the Press, especially for matters of great public interest.
   In short, as to the threat of a lawsuit, the response in effect was, bring it on, bro' and see how far you get.

   Here's another element peculiar to this year's presidential race: The candidate has not denied his use of the tax code to avoid paying nearly $1 billion in taxes in a single year, but rather proclaimed his genius in being able to do so. And this, he insisted, was proof that he is the only one who could reform a tax code that favors the ultra-wealthy. Question: Why would he do that, since he himself is one of the code's beneficiaries?
   Yet another Trump defense is that he had a "fiduciary duty" to his investors, employees and family to reduce financial obligations. However, as several experts have pointed out, there's no such thing as a fiduciary duty to yourself. That's called greed. "Fiduciary duty" is defined as a responsibility for someone else's financial interest.
   It has been documented many times that this real estate/reality TV mogul acts only for his own benefit, at the expense of others. 
   
   The moral to be gleaned from these examples is this: Don't try to control a free press. You only annoy them and they dig even further to expose your failings. And most of the time, reporters don't even get annoyed. They just shrug off the demands and continue digging.