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The practice of “killing the messenger,” doling out severe punishment to the person who simply delivers bad news, can be found as far back as the ancient Greeks. Donald Trump, that renowned classical scholar and close reader of Sophocles, is a high practitioner of the art. It doesn’t matter one bit whether you had any part in the circumstances behind the bad news, the Emperor Trump will have your head if you report unpleasant news to the throne.
And so we have the story of one Erika McEntarfer, headless—or at least jobless—after reporting that the national figures for hiring in July were far below what was expected. It doesn’t matter that she was the long-term commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, confirmed bilaterally by the Senate in 2024. It doesn’t matter that she was a respected labor economist who had served under both parties. What mattered is that the figures reflected negatively on the performance of the economy as of July, and that she was immediately out to pasture. “Incompetence,” yelled the Emperor. The statistics were “rigged,” quoth the Holy One. Just do the logic, according to Trump:
A) If I am infallible when it comes to matters economic, and
B) If the statistics show that my economy is failing,
C): Then the statistics must be wrong.
There’s only one problem with all this, however. Government bureaucrats, economists in particular, follow algorithms that are well-tested, wide open to universal scrutiny, and well-established over the years. The people in charge merely supervise the collection of the data, toss the numbers into the hopper, and announce the findings. The economy, no matter who is in charge, always has its up’s and down’s, and for God’s sake, nobody would have taken much notice of these figures had the Chosen One not made it news by exiling the messenger.
Tell me, the next time you hear good economic news coming from this, or any other federal agency, how will you react to it? Will you taken it as the God- honest truth, not to be doubted for a moment? Not doctored? Not biased? Not, shall we say, rigged?
The sad thing is that any organization that hides or quashes bad news, internally or externally, never learns from its mistakes. Bad news, as much as we don’t like hearing it, provides feedback. It encourages close consideration of the current state of affairs, and serves as the basis for change. If the Trumpster never receives any, and as of today the odds are that he will not be receiving such news from anyone who wants to remain around, will he and his cronies ever correct mistakes? Will they ever hear information that allows for thoughtful dialog and possible course corrections?
And if we as private citizens only hear only public pronouncements of good news, never bad, where does that leave our level of trust? Would it be a stretch of the imagination to assume that the only people left to report are fixing the books, hiding the missteps, praising the leader.
In passing, please remember that this good news/bad news thing works both ways. In the wake of the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, experts internationally noted that the extent of that attack was partial at best, limited at worst. But Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell is a wise man. He knows how to court favor, how to operate in this era of Trump. Parnell stood tall at the lectern and proudly announced, “The credibility of the Fake News Media is similar to that of the current state of the Iranian nuclear facilities: destroyed, in the dirt, and will take years to recover. President Trump was clear and the American people understand: Iran’s nuclear facilities in Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz were completely and totally obliterated.”
Note on the President’s desk: Parnell. Due for promotion.
