I am puzzled and, indeed, quite angry at the way the news media keep falling into the traps Trump sets for them. It is, I think, clear that Trump’s principal tactic is to drive attention away from one outrage by committing another outrage that will be snapped up by the media and fill the news until Trump’s next offense. These maneuvers of Trump’s are the real “fake news,” and the media should be ashamed that they are treating them as something real.

How about a boycott of Trump’s lies and stunts? He needn’t be excluded from the news altogether, but reports might be limited to, e.g., “President Trump Twittered three times this weekend,” and the curious or naive sent off to hunt up Trump’s tweets for themselves.

Most of what Trump does and says is calculated to deceive, is demonstrably in one way or another a lie. By reporting Trump so assiduously the media are complicit in distributing “fake news,” are enabling deceit.