Think about it. If Jones had never had that billion dollar judgement against him, the mainstream media could very easily pretend this assassination attempt was staged and never really happened.
But, Alex Jones's case sets precedent. If you lie about an event being a false flag, the victims of the families who died can sue for damages and destroy you. Trump would absolutely have the money to work with the victim's families from this week's shooting, and using that legal precedent they could absolutely demolish any mainstream media outlet that dared claim it was false.
They can try and downplay it or distract from it, but they can't simply pretend it didn't exist or that it was a publicity stunt.
Basically, if any media outlet claims that the shooting was fake, Trump will use the full weight of his assets to partner with the victims to destroy that media outlet in a lawsuit, using the Alex Jones case as legal precedent. Either they'll have to throw out the entire precedent to not let Trump get a win, or they'll have to put blatant hypocrisy on display and lose all credibility, or they'll have to burn a media asset to the ground.
Yes. A lovely gameplay.
“lose all credibility” — I’m afraid that proverbial ship has already sailed.
But your post is a good observation, brings up a connection I’d never considered. 5D chess — on so many levels.