New Trump Tweet - Sad

Regarding the latest Trump parody on Saturday Night Live, Trump tweeted -- before the bit had even ended:

Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.

Alec Baldwin tweeted in reply:

Release your tax returns and I’ll stop. Ha.

Even Trump's frivolous tweets get heavy media play. I read recently (no source; sorry) that when the news broke that Trump had settled, for $25 million, a lawsuit accusing Trump University of fraud, and a couple of hours later he initiated a tweet fight about Mike Pence and the cast of Hamilton, the coverage (news, tweets, Facebook, et cetera) of the Hamilton nonsense got 20 times that of the fraud settlement. Sad.

A growing number of Trump critics are expressing seeing Trump's SNL attacks as something more threatening. Click here for an article at The Wrap, by Meriah Doty, entitled "Why Alec Baldwin Thinks Trump Tweets Signal Something Sinister." The article says:

But the actor also retweeted a link to an August article from The Atlantic that compared Trump to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, highlighting a quote from the piece:

“Mussolini’s rise to power also exemplifies another authoritarian trait America has seen during this campaign: The charismatic leader who tests the limits of what the public, press, and political class will tolerate. This exploration begins early and is accomplished through controversial actions and threatening or humiliating remarks toward groups or individuals. It’s designed to gauge the collective appetite and permission for verbal and physical violence and the use of extralegal methods in policing and other realms.”

Further:

An article published by Salon on Sunday said that the president-elect’s public scorn of satire like that employed by Baldwin is part of a strategy to control the media. “Democracy depends on a free and independent press, which is why all tyrants try to squelch it,” wrote Robert Reich, one of the country’s leading experts on work and the economy, and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “They use seven techniques that, worryingly, President-elect Donald Trump already employs,” he said, outlining them as:

1. Berate the media 2. Blacklist critical media 3. Turn the public against the media 4. Condemn satirical or critical comments 5. Threaten the media directly 6. Limit media access 7. Bypass the media and communicate with the public directly.

At the Reagan National Defense Forum recently, disgraced (or at least disgraceful) ex-vice-president Dick Cheney commented on Trump's tweets and role of the media:

“I think one of the reasons people get so concerned about the tweets is it’s sort of a way around the press,” he said. “It’s modern era, modern technology. He’s at the point where we don’t need you guys anymore.”

Pausing a moment for audience laughter, Cheney added: “I apologize.”