120 Barron’s – Everyone Is Lying To You

Overview

  • What will happen to the White House press briefing room in Trump Administration?
  • Trump’s last press conference was in July
  • Favors addressing public directly, through Twitter and YouTube
  • Not obligated to hold press conferences
    • FDR preferred radio
    • JFK preferred television
  • No recent President has been as openly derisive of press as Trump
    • Has called press: scum, lowlifes, the lowest form of life
  • Will corporate America co-opt the press tactics of Trump?
  • Wouldn’t most CEOs rather avoid “facing the press” in the wake of a bad quarter?
  • Why not just Tweet an explanation directly
  • 2016 word of the year: “post-truth”
    • World where objective facts matter less in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief
  • Apparently, those in corporate PR are fielding questions from clients about how to adapt their communication style for the “age of Trump.”
  • Change is in the air and big corporations know it
  • Pew survey in October:
    • 5% of people have “great deal of trust” in media
    • 33% in military
    • 24% in medical scientists
    • 4% in business leaders
    • 3% in elected officials
  • Trump did not invent this scenario, the internet did
    • Push for 24 hours news
    • Growing illiteracy
    • Shortening attention spans
    • Ease of social media
    • Click bait headlines
    • Customizable newsfeeds
    • What you want to know trumps what you ought to know
    • Shrinking civil discourse
    • Shrinking common ground among Americans
  • Trump knew the media could not afford to NOT cover him
  • Welcome to a post-truth era where facts matter less
  • Think for a moment what the world can do with that
  • Stocks took a breather last week but rotation toward domestic growth is intact
  • Brent crude has surged in price
  • Expectation of rising inflation lifted 10-yr treasuries to 17 month high
  • Rising inflation must be accompanied by rising growth
  • All eyes are on 2017 to see whether that growth comes
  • Meanwhile, China has been outperforming the US markets
  • An inward looking US is good for China looking for an opportunity for a power grab