Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

My first book fifty years ago was a study of television news, called Creating Reality. The title was intended to show the irony of how news reporting could distort things in order to make them more visually interesting and entertaining. Now, fifty years later, I realize how common massive distortions have become. President Trump routinely distorts reality and strives to create something new. I capture this process in my recent book, Gonzo Governance: The Media Logic of Donald Trump. Reality distortion occurs through omission and commission.

Through omission, his administration’s USDA has stopped reporting “Hunger in America,” stating that the report “failed to present anything........

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