Supreme Court and Interview

¶ … interview with President-elect Donald Trump shows how televised media creates negotiated codes within a hegemonic framework. In an attempt to convey objectivity, the interviewer, along with the editor as well as television producer, create a narrative that conveys hegemonic meaning or a "metacode," (Hall 3). The result is what Hall calls "systematically distorted communication," (Hall 3). The interviewer fails to acknowledge, recognize, or bring to the viewer's attention the discrepancies and logical fallacies in the substantive content of Trump's discourse. By refraining from reframing Trump's message, the interviewer perpetuates misinformation.

For example, Trump discusses his desired appointment to the Supreme Court of a conservative judge who will be decisively "pro-life" and affirms that overturning Roe v. Wade is an embedded goal of his presidency. He later claims that the LGBTQ community has nothing to fear because "It's law. It was settled...it's done...these cases have gone to the Supreme Court." Roe v. Wade was settled over three decades ago. If the same-sex marriage ruling is "settled," and "done," then why isn't Roe v.

Wade also presented as "settled"? The interviewer neglects to challenge Trump on the discrepancy, or challenge the dominant conservative code against rhetoric of "activist" judges when in fact an "activist" judge is precisely what Trump is calling for in the anti-choice stance.

At the onset of the interview, when Lesley Stahl introduces her interview subject, she states that Trump is claiming that a lot of what he said during the campaign was "not meant to be taken seriously." This statement is almost a means to appease a frightened audience who was rightfully appalled by the vehement and even violent content of the Trump campaign.

Trump's continued assertion that he wants to "make America great again" implies that America is not great now, and that he wants to revert to some previous time in American history. Because of Trump's failure to disavow support by the KKK and other neo-Nazi and hate groups, it is difficult not to read into the layers beneath the slogan "Make America Great Again." America is barely out of the Jim Crow era.

Trump even goes so far as to admit, "sometimes you need a certain rhetoric to get people motivated," in direct response to a question related to his xenophobic, isolationist policies. The "rhetoric" Trump refers to is hate-filled and racist. Trump has avowed to build an actual wall -- a physical as well as psychological, social, economic, and political barrier between the United States and Mexico. Trump continues to believe in the wall metaphor in spite of the impossibility of restricting global trade; global trade is a fact of life.

Additionally, Trump claims that it is politicians that are to blame for Americans crumbling and outdated infrastructure. He does not blame businessmen like himself who systematically exploit low-wage workers and who also derive their workforce and materials from foreign countries. When he says that he is "very good at this" because it is in the realm of real estate and construction, it is clear that Trump has a direct conflict of interest between his role as public servant and his business partners in the United States and elsewhere.