BREAKING: The Washington Post brings the experts out!

TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2018

The body language experts, that is: What do we mean when we say it's all anthropology now?

We mean it's clear that our floundering species just isn't built for this game. We aren't bright enough, or sufficiently disciplined, to deal with a world drenched in corporate entertainment posing as news.

How foolish does the foolishness get? Consider what the Washington Post has now done in the wake of Donald J. Trump's "historic" summit.

On the Post web site, even as we type, the Post is highlighting an "Analysis" piece. The piece is prominently positioned, and it a very large headline. Sadly, though, its pair of headlines say this:

What body language experts saw when Trump and Kim Jong Un met
The two leaders began their summit in Singapore with a historic handshake.

The silly, sad "analysis" piece was written by Monica Ulmanu and Kevin Uhrmacher. Sadly, they start like this:

ULMANU AND UHRMACHER (6/12/1): In front of a backdrop of alternating American and North Korean flags, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un approached from opposite sides of a stage and shook hands in the middle.

While the leaders spoke little in their appearances Tuesday, experts in body language pointed out notable nonverbal cues that could provide insight into their demeanors during the meeting.

We're so old that we can remember when Chris Matthews, then Bill O'Reilly,would burn up time on cable news by clowning with their body language experts.

The silly approach was so inane that even Chris and Bill abandoned it. Today, there it is, getting big play from the Washington Post in the face of the latest burst of reality TV from our bizarre head of state.

According to the Post, "experts in body language pointed out notable nonverbal cues that could provide insight into t[Trump and Kim's] demeanors during the meeting."

Notable cues that could provide such such insight—or then again, that maybe could not!

What we saw last night from Singapore was reality TV. Then again, vast amounts of our journalism in the past thirty years have been reality TV as well. As a species, we rather plainly don't have the tools to see through such presentations.

(One example: "Al Gore said he invented the Internet!" That was twenty months of reality TV performed by the New York Times, the Washington Post and the major cable and broadcast networks. It was designed as punishment in the wake of the Clinton impeachment. Our liberal tribe wasn't sharp enough to see it for what it was.)

That "Analysis" piece on the Post's web site is pure entertainment-as-news. That said, entertainment product of this type is widely sold today, all across the various realms of silly sad corporate news.

On the whole, we liberals simply aren't sharp enough to see these events for what they are. More on that failure tomorrow. The Washington Post's Outlook section and the Sunday Review were deeply revealing this week. (Also, deeply depressing.)

It's all anthropology now! Simply put, we Homo sapiens simply weren't built for the game we're now asked to play.

Corporate orgs are selling entertainment packaged as news. A lot of it is aimed at us liberals. On the whole, as a tribe, we're happy to gulp it right down.

We can't see that we're getting played. We simply weren't built for that work.

Meanwhile, good God: Meanwhile, good God! There was Greta, interviewing The Donald last night, on tape for The Voice of America!

During the roughly four years of Trump's aggressive birtherism, Greta served as his leading enabler on the Fox News Channel. He came on her show again and again. Concerning his endless birtherism, she sat there and just let him talk.

Early last year, MSNBC hired Greta and put her on the air. Rachel swore that Greta is great. "My drinking buddy," she said.

Rachel's so skillful at selling the car that we didn't ask why in the world she would do something like that. Last night, there was Greta on the TV, interviewing The Donald again!

(At least it wasn't Diane Sawyer! She would have asked him if sex with Kim was the best he's ever had!)

Full disclosure! We did a few shows with Greta, years back. Nicest person on earth!

Her enabling of Trump, like Rachel's endorsement, was simply part of the corporate game. Dearest darlings, use your heads! This is the (extremely lucrative) business these highly-skilled experts have chosen!