A common refrain from U.S. President Mr. Donald J. Trump is that the media is dishonest and their product, particularly the details within, is fake news. On Thursday at a press conference, Mr. Trump repeated that assertion during the more than hour-long spectacle to belittle journalists who were chosen by him to pose a question.
Delegitimizing the media, which NBC News’s Mr. Chuck Todd tweeted is un-American, has become a routine and cruel exercise for the free-spirited president. One which serves to diminish the credibility of the news media so Mr. Trump’s rapid-fire statements have a greater probability of being accepted as truth in the court of public opinion, and so reports on his behavior can be dismissed by news consumers.
While Twitter serves as a great direct-to-consumer communication tool, it can’t fully replace the news media. Which means Mr. Trump needs them both to effectively communicate with Americans. A less hostile relationship with Russia might make life easier for a U.S. President, but so would civil dealings with the news media, yet Mr. Trump who ascended the American social ladder in large part due to journalism institutions appears over-concerned with the former and uninterested in the latter.
Mr. Trump can neither manage to say a bad thing about Russia’s Mr. Vladimir Putin nor a good thing about the American news media. The apparent regard for Mr. Putin juxtaposed with the loathing of journalists paints the portrait of a leader who would likely trample over the U.S. Constitution in order to be affirmed by a much more devilish counterpart.
The intense dislike Mr. Trump has for the news media – which to be fair is sometimes dishonest, other times completely wrong, but remains necessary – stems from, at least in part, the fact that their existence is meant to be a check on powers and the president believes his are sovereign. For a man who, like a broken record, repeats “America first,” he surely shows a complete disregard for the sustainability and longevity of one of the country’s most protected professions.
Silent and indifferent observers of Mr. Trump, particularly other politically-neutered Republicans who in the past were so concerned about anti-police language being shouted at protests, are complicit in the attempted destruction of the Fourth Estate. History will not remember these people well; history will remember their pseudo-patriotism; and history is unforgiving.
The attacks on the news media must stop. The cozying up, and flattery to, Russia must stop. For the good of the country, it must all stop now!
Thanks for reading. Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® & I’m Drumming for JUSTICE!™
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Photo Credit: Getty Images
If Bernie had gotten a fair shake from the liberal/left wing press, Trump wouldn’t be the Preezy right now. So there is some real karmic justice going on right now. It’s kind of like how the Bible tells the story of God using some real bad heathen to punish his wayward chosen people. The wayward press is being punished by Trump right now, and it’s a beating that is long overdue. The press has been, hands down, the most despised American institution for many, many years now. Trump is merely vocalizing what most Americans feel, and have felt, for a… Read more »
Maybe he should call the tech support guys. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
Why reset the press? They have and will continue to do what they want … their egos are way too large to even consider that there needs to be a reset.
Perhaps the media should work to clean up its own house before whining about being picked on.
I mean it might as well have been the Clinton News Network for all that it really mattered.
Interestingly enough, the percentage of Americans who feel trust in the media is about the same as Trump’s current approval rating.
“I mean it might as well have been the Clinton News Network”
I get the feeling that a lot of the media hate for Trump is that Trump deflated the nwsia’s over blown opinion of itself. We’re the experts. We’re the king makers. People listen to us and respect our decisions (ummm, opinions).
What our candidate lost? But we used our bully pulpit to get her elected. We even gave her the debate questions ahead of time so she could run it through her focus groups and tell America what they wanted to hear.