Their Master’s Voice

A taxpayer-funded commercial, a Senate hearing, and the week gaslighting stopped being a buzzword

If you grew up around old record players, you know the picture. A small white terrier sits beside a gramophone, head cocked toward the horn, listening intently. The painting was called “His Master’s Voice,” and for most of the twentieth century it sold records for RCA Victor and the Gramophone Company. The idea was simple and a little touching: the dog hears his owner’s voice coming out of the machine and believes it completely. He doesn’t wonder whether the recording is accurate. He doesn’t ask where it came from. He just listens, and he trusts.

I’ve thought about that dog a lot this week.

In the span of three days, Americans watched a president buy airtime with their money to tell them who he is, and then watched two United States senators repeat his version of reality to the man who once tried to hold him accountable. The commercial and the hearing were separate events. They were the same performance.

The Commercial You Paid For

On Sunday, September 27, during NFL broadcasts, a 30-second spot aired featuring Donald Trump striding through a hallway in stark black and white while his own voice echoed over the footage. “This is the final battle,” he says. “We will cast out the communists…