Framing Trump on Sports Betting

Sunday, April 8, 2018

I love reading Charlie Style, because it’s like looking at a broken watch and knowing it will always say exactly the same thing, except for twice a day.

Style is a front man for a brand of journalism that insists on spreading anti-Trump propaganda.

Sometimes, he’s right, but most often his is simply framing stories to support hate mongering that disguises itself as political correctness.

This isn’t too bad when is stories only appear locally in Northern New Jersey. But because he is riding a mean-media bandwagon, a national outlet has given him a platform.

So now, no matter where we are, we can know the wrong time of day.

Style’s job apparently is to maintain the anti-Trump media drum beat so that nobody forgets what kind of bad guy America elected in 2016 – although if you believe Style, America really didn’t elect Trump, the Russians stole the election for him, or Hillary got cheated by a system we ought to change because Style didn’t like the outcome.

Style along with some of his fellow reporters seem determined to tie GOP candidates in New Jersey to Trump so as to allow Democrats to take back the House and the Senate later this year.

It is unclear who is giving Style his marching orders. Maybe nobody – which is the problem with self-appointed arbitrators of truth in media these days, and their need to sway people into a specific way of thinking.

Style is more columnist than journalist. So, there is no need for him to be “objective.” And since media today is not objective at all, he barely stands out against the crowd.

But Style has certainly learned modern-media’s ability to frame a story to imply something about Trump that may not actually be true.

In his latest diatribe against Trump, Style is trying to show how Trump – back in the day when Trump was the kind of Atlantic City gambling – tried to bully the GOP into pushing for sports gambling in Atlantic City.

Style takes his literary style (pardon the pun) from The New York Times in which his excessive descriptive rhetoric is sprinkled with loaded negative adjectives. This is a type reporting where facts are not enough, and reporters such as those in The Times, arrogantly believe readers are too stupid to judge for themselves and must be hit over their heads with a brick load of negativity for them to get the point.

This, unfortunately, is the fate of journalism today where we desperately need to tell people what to think about politicians rather than give people the facts and let them judge for themselves – even if we are selling them a broken watch, recalling past incidents the way Style does that have little or no relationship to what is going on today – this need to beat the anti-Trump drum like we are beating a dead horse.

Style’s slant involves the current Supreme Court case where New Jersey is trying to establish sports gambling, something Style claims Trump championed in the early 1990s after then Sen Bill Bradley passed the Bradley Bill opposing it.

Style even quotes Bradley in saying how sports betting is bad.

But as with all good spin doctors setting up a deceptive frame, Style leaves out a significant number of relevant facts.

Trump, who then had a significant investment in Atlantic City, was proposing that New Jersey take advantage of a loop hole that would allow casinos to host sports betting in the way Las Vegas already did.

Like many people at the time, Trump saw the handwriting on the wall concerning the slow decay of Atlantic City gambling and saw the loop hole as a way to bring more venue to the city before it fell into complete ruin.

He was pushing GOP legislators at the time to take advantage of the loop hole while they could.

The state failed to act in time. So, casinos closed, and Atlantic City edged towards bankruptcy.

Anti-sports betting advocates are trying to prevent sports betting to expand beyond Las Vegas, including sports franchises fear a repeat of the Black Sox scandal that would risk the integrity of sporting.

Oddly enough New Jersey politicians Democrats and Republicans have been seeking for decades to expand gambling including sports betting throughout the state. Over the last few years, under Democrat and Republican governors, The Meadowlands and others have quietly created a kind of off track betting centers throughout the state in anticipation of legalized sports gambling.

Indeed, the current Democratic governor has assigned a strong advocate for gambling expansion to head the Sports and Exposition Authority.

Style, of course, frames his story as if Trump is the big proponent of this move, when in fact, Trump’s motivation two decades ago was to only expand sports betting to Atlantic City.

One of the facts that Style left out of his account is the fact as president, Trump actually opposes expansion of sports gambling the way current New Jersey legislators propose.

Style implied a lot of dirty dealing behind the scenes, but clearly frames his story to imply one thing about Trump, when facts show a different story.

This sleight of hand comes via a quote from Bill Bradley about how bad sports betting would be for sports, when an attorney Neil Francisco, representing the Trump Administration, has submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the Bradley Bill’s restrictions.