Politico's war with reality and The Donald

Natalie Allison won enough awards working for Gannett at the Tennessean in Nashville to merit a callup to DC and Politico. Fresh blood, however, brought no fresh ideas or approaches to covering national politics. She offers the same old throw-the-kitchen-sink-at-him coverage of President Trump.

Over the weekend, she went over-the-top. As Muslims took over the streets of Paris with the intent of burning it down, Allison was reporting that Donald Trump had taken over Pickens, S.C.

She wrote, “PICKENS, S.C. — Donald Trump built his 2016 campaign on the ability to pack supporters into arenas and fields. In his first early-state rally of 2024, he commandeered a small city.

“Taking over the movie-set-like Main Street of a town of 3,300 in the hills of South Carolina on Saturday, Trump put on a show of force not only in his stronghold of rural America, but in an early primary state where he remains dominant.”

Her implication was the past and future president led a military seizure and occupation of a helpless Southern town. It’s a Putsch!

Hers was not the worst story of the weekend. The Medical Press reported, “New study: Much of what we’re told about gym exercises and resistance training is from studies of males, by men.”

Much of what we know about electricity is from studies by men. Much of what we know about locomotives, automobiles and rocketry is from studies by men. Much of what we know about telegraphs, telephones and computers is from studies by men.

The ladies in the womyn’s studies brigade need to stop counting how many studies are by men, get off their fat, credentialed asses, and invent something useful. Women hold most of the college degrees now but have attained only 19% of the patents. It is time for women to pull their own weight.

I could note that the botched Politico story on Trump in Pickens is by a woman, but decades of experience taught me male journalists are just as expert in missing the real story. Equal opportunity has led to equal mediocrity.

Pickens is in the northwestern corner of South Carolina. The town was named for Revolutionary War General Andrew Pickens, a local boy and a hero of the pivotal Battle of Cowpens. He had his militia fire two rounds and retreated, which drew Banastre Tarleton and the British to blindly charge into General Daniel Morgan’s trap. Bwa ha ha.

The Cherokee, who had sided with the British in that war, ceded the land to the Americans after the war. To the victors go the spoils. Not only did South Carolina honor the general by naming the town after him, but it named the county Pickens, as well.

Allison’s story was unworthy of Pickens — the town, the county or the man.

Her story was a reminder of how gormless press coverage of President Trump is. A reporting class that ignored Biden pocketing millions in bribes from Red China and Ukraine through his family members pretended that Trump International Hotel in DC charging guests somehow or other violated the emoluments clause in the Constitution.

This is not new. The press went on and on about the Bush twins and their underage drinking but have portrayed Hunter’s felonious cocaine habits as something he heroically overcame. But he's a spoiled senator's second son who always called daddy to get out of trouble. What should we expect?

The press is unable to hold anyone accountable because it has no moral compass. I also recall the grief the press gave Trump’s campaign manager for pushing back behind the rope line a reporter who was screaming questions as he walked by. She filed a police report and charged the campaign manager with assault.

The happy ending came when Breitbart canned the reporter and Never Trumper Ben Shapiro. Every dad who ever took kids on a road trip heard her and knew she was saying: He touched me!

The damsel-in-distress reporter wrote, “Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.

“The Washington Post's Ben Terris immediately remarked that it was Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who aggressively tried to pull me to the ground. I quickly turned around and saw Lewandowski and Trump exiting the building together. No apology. No explanation for why he did this.”

She went to work for HuffPo and got married. Shapiro is still elf-sized.

The legacy of covering President Trump’s campaigns with no regard to any standard of journalism continues. But after her first two paragraphs, Allison’s story about the bloodless Siege of Pickens wasn’t so bad. She mentioned 50,000 people sweated in line to see the man who will return to the Oval Office.

She mentioned people charged $50 to park in their yards.

It took her 11 paragraphs to get to the lead: People booed Little Lindsay Graham. Members of his own party in his home county booed the senior senator from South Carolina.

Paragraph 11 said, “Around 11 a.m., when Trump’s branded plane flew overhead, the street erupted in cheers. The school choir from Greenville that was recently stopped from singing the national anthem inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda performed. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has endorsed Trump, was repeatedly drowned out in boos.”

She did better than Meg Kinnard of AP who filed 15 paragraphs on the rally and not only didn’t mention the boos but she failed to mention Graham. Perhaps she was protecting him. After all, he is a favorite of reporters who seek Republican-bashing quotes from a RINO who isn’t named Romney. Graham likely showed up so he can become a former Trump supporter a month before the next election.

Kinnard said 15,000 showed up. Allison said 50,000. The Greenville newspaper said 50,000. Maybe someone misheard the number the police gave.

The Greenville paper did a separate story on the boos. It began, “The crowd booed Senator Lindsey Graham and drowned out his remarks as he rallied for Donald Trump in downtown Pickens, South Carolina on Saturday, July 1.

“Graham, who grew up in Central in Pickens County, said he was going to help Trump win the 2024 general election and even pointed out that he was part of the Senate Judiciary Committee that helped bolster the Supreme Court’s conservative sheen.

“Despite that, the large crowd remained unmoved and the booing continued for just over six minutes of Graham's remarks.

“Graham was voted to Washington, first, as a member of the House of Representatives (1995-2003) for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district. He has been a US Senator since 2003. He's a Daniel High School graduate and earned both his bachelor's and law degree from the University of South Carolina.

“Easley resident Michael Propes, 60, said Graham was trying to side with Trump to give his own political career a new lease of life.

“‘I voted for him years ago, I voted for him last year, but we need to vote him out,’ Propes said.”

Journalism is not that hard. Just watch what is going on and tell readers what you saw. When you treat a political rally as if it were a military occupation, you lose credibility with readers above the age of 10.

And when you barely mention that a senior senator was booed relentlessly in his home county by his own party, you look like the fool you are.

But then again, her mission was to make a well-attended rally seem like an insurrection with Trump taking over a town as a show of force.

For Politico and Miss Allison, it was a show of farce.