The Hamilton Kerfuffle

This week I smelled ozone coming from the internet. When I checked it appeared to be lit up because VP Elect Mike Pence, attending Hamilton the musical, was booed by the audience and then lectured by a cast member. With this kindling almost everyone seemed to have a match at the ready. Trump, sensing an opportunity, tweeted his displeasure and demanded an apology.

So what does it mean for people of color artists to lecture the incoming VP on civility and the importance of diversity. How did Trump use or react to the hubbub?

Trump's Play

One media take that seems to be gaining steam is that Trump once again used his mad media skills to suck all the oxygen out of the media landscape, diverting people from his 25 million dollar settlement in the Trump University class action civil suit. To that the Muse says "meh".

A settlement is an end game for the story - a wrap up. Yes, it looks bad for trump, but not as bad as having the suit hanging around. I don't think the story had legs. Did Trump intentionally leverage the Hamilton kerfuffle to take the wind out of the sails of the Civil suit story? I doubt it. He's not the High Sparrow. He's more of a joffrey - A petulant, inwardly focused neophyte with a shallow, un-nuanced view of the world.

I think the media is constantly giving Trump more Machiavellian credit than he deserves. He is a media savant in that he can find an audience, cater to it, and wield it as leverage. But these are intuitions not over acts of planning and discipline. What happens most often is that he stumbles into tiffs, then plays them well.

It is not the media that determines salience. People want to talk about Hamilton and they don't seem to want to talk about the civil suit - which seems old news. Trump, better than those who decry the oxygen sucking ploy, seems to know how people respond better than much of the media. Social media plays the role of alternative platform. The result, hard core, nuanced stories are left out in the cold while everyone is in a tizzy over Hamilton.