flood the zone

This was originally an American sports expression used in football and meaning that a team filled a particular area of the field with players, either to draw the opposition into that zone and leave other areas open, or to defend with numbers.

But Trump and his political strategists took it to a new level in his first presidential campaign.  Steve Bannon is credited with using the term in relation to the bombardment of the opposition and the media with announcements and a fair dose of misinformation and fake news.  Bannon commented then that the way to deal with the media was ‘to flood the zone  with shit’ because ‘they’re dumb and they’re lazy— they can only focus on one thing at a time’. In the first campaign a lot of these announcements fell by the wayside, having served their purpose to create a flurry of excitement in the media.

Now Dutton is being described as taking a leaf out of Trump’s book and flooding our zone.  Unfortunately his campaign is not as swift and efficient as Trump’s and he is giving the media time to stop and think, and decide that these announcements don’t add up.  Flooding the zone is a strategy that has to be decisive and constantly maintained with discipline in the ranks.