Throughout his campaign to the present day, Donald Trump has energized his base of supporters by consistently blaming and attacking the media generally as well as specific outlets. A very brief sampling includes:
“[Journalists are] among the most dishonest human beings on earth.” He continually calls them “liars” whenever they write stories unflattering to him and his administration.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
“The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know.”
Trump continues to describe the New York Times as “failing” even though subscriptions for this newspaper of note rose by 2.5 million alone since the November 2016 election.
Donald Trump apparently does not understand how his bombastic style of presentation affects his relationships with the media and with his constituents, but he accuses the press of creating a confrontational climate.
“And I’ll tell you what else I see [in the media]. I see tone. You know the word tone [he said sarcastically]. The tone is such hatred. I’m really not a bad person, by the way. No, but the tone is — I do get good ratings, you have to admit that — the tone is such hatred.”
Trump admitted that he actually likes and has been positively energized by his feud with the media.
“I will be honest. I sort of enjoy this back and forth, and I have all my life, but I have never seen more dishonest people than frankly the political media.”
Prior to and throughout his presidential run and into his administration, he has waged a frontal assault on the very democratic systems on which our country was founded. He called into question the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency, the “fairness” of the “rigged” electoral system, the freedom of the press, the reliability of the intelligence community, the intelligence of the electorate, and the independence of the judiciary.
Steven Miller, Trump’s senior White House policy advisor, accused judges of inappropriately interfering in the President’s executive orders, and he asserted that Trump’s national security decisions “will not be questioned” by the courts.
At press conferences, Trump tells reporters to “sit down” when they ask questions he doesn’t like, and he speaks of a “running war” with the media. He has even accused “freedom of the press” as the cause of terrorist bombings in the U.S.
His chief political strategist, former editor of the alt-right mouthpiece Breitbart News, Stephen K. Bannon, severely castigated the press by calling it “the opposition party”:
“The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while… The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”
In this contentious atmosphere in which Trump continually lambasts and attempts to delegitimize the media, just before the election in October 2016, a video went viral showing two Trump supporters shouting “Lügenpresse” (German for “lying press”).
The German author Reinhold Anton coined the term in 1914 primarily in a foreign context to refer to “enemy propaganda.” The Nazis later popularized Lügenpresse to silence opposition to the regime.
In this regard, Adolph Hitler said:
“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.” And, “The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”
Trump (encapsulated in his alt-right, alt-facts, alt-universe), like other authoritarians, uses “Machiavellian” tactics in his singlemindedness, cunning, plotting, and unscrupulous – sometimes vicious — actions in advancing his career, enacting his policies, and enhancing his power. To Trump, the ends certainly justify the means no matter who gets hurt.
Throughout his business career and into his presidency, while simultaneously vilifying the courts, Trump uses law suits as a means of intimidation to get his way and to vanquish his opposition. He continually threatens to employ libel laws to sue the “crooked and lying” media. We will most likely see more of these threats emerging from Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda (a.k.a. “White House Office of Communications”).
While the major wealthier media outlets have the privilege and ability to stand up to Trump’s coercion, some of the smaller organizations who run on very tight budgets and depend on volunteer labor have no such privileges. For many of these smaller outlets, even the treat of a harassing lawsuit has resulted in self-censoring.
Though before the election they may have included some articles dealing with political analysis among their otherwise primary specialized focuses, in my discussions with some leaders of these outlets, they told me under the guarantee of anonymity that they can no longer “risk” publishing articles that in any way criticize Trump or his administration.
While the United States Constitution created three independent governmental branches, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, and the First Amendment — supplemented and expanded by legislative actions and judicial decisions — granted “freedom of the press,” our “Fourth Estate” stands (or falls) more vulnerable and susceptible than the other three. Our very democracy, nonetheless, depends on a free and independent press. Without it, authoritarianism wins and democracy fails.
Unfortunately, Trump sees his “running war” with the media as a veritable “Game of Thrones” in which “to the victor goes the spoils.”
“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” Donald J. Trump
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Photo credit: Getty Images
This is directed to Mac: Wow, to use the words “progressive” and “voted for Reagan” is mindboggling, an oxymoron at best, but more in the category of not understanding the term “political progressive.” Also, though it was true that Reagan presided during a time when the Soviet Union was undertaking its own final meltdown and implosion, let’s not revise history to give Reagan the credit for this. He contributed, yes, but he was not the cause. The Ronald Reagan that I came to know was a man who increased the wealth gap between the very rich and the remainder of… Read more »
C-SPAN released a survey Friday that asked historians to rank past presidents and former-President Obama was voted the country’s 12th best. In that same survey, Reagan was ranked #9. http://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000015a-4d99-d5b6-a35f-ffff4eae0001 Warren, you are showing us all what is wrong with the excessive partisanship that is tearing America apart. Why not try to actually see things from the other side, rather than exclusively repeating your own views? Why not show some genuine curiosity about why a bunch of presidential historians, weighted carefully by C-Span for a balance of liberals and conservatives, would disagree with your own hyper-partisanship? Right now, by your… Read more »
Why is Trump in the White House today? Because the fix was in in the mainstream press and the democratic party during the dem primary. And Trump is fundamentally correct when he talks about the media: The media is the most despised and least trusted of all major American institutions. Americans have less regard and more distrust for the media than they do for the Congress – and that is saying a lot. But of course, Warren has an axe to grind – so here he is, grinding it again. As a lefty who is also a Buddhist, and who… Read more »
Here is Glenn Greenwald, proving exactly this point about the hypocrisy of those on the left. Warren Blumenfled and others here should take a step back and do some introspection:
http://www.mediaite.com/online/glenn-greenwald-democrats-suddenly-love-leaks-but-attacked-them-under-obama/
“Here is Glenn Greenwald, proving exactly this point about the hypocrisy of those on the left. Warren Blumenfled and others here should take a step back and do some introspection”
You mean how the right hate the leaks then, but love them now…oh but wait, only when they affected Hilary.
@ OirishM
There were leaks long before that. There was the Sony hack and Ashley Madison. How many people in boith camps felt those men got what they deserved for cheating? Some of those guys committed suicide. Progressives ;love Chelsea Manning and of course there was Snowden before that.
Both groups as a whole have loved leaks and hacks when it’s helped them and hated them when it hasn’t. This is not a new thing although some try to make it so.
There was the Sony hack and Ashley Madison. How many people in boith camps felt those men got what they deserved for cheating? Some of those guys committed suicide. Holy hell some of the guys exposed on Ashley Madison committed suicide? I never heard about that. But that doesn’t surprise me because unless it negatively affects women then it probably wont get talked about. This is totally not a new phenomenon though. Its a part of the nasty history of politics. Highlight stories that support your narrative and suppress the ones that don’t. That’s why Clinton supporters were all over… Read more »
“Two individuals associated with the leak of Ashley Madison customer details are reported to have taken their lives, according to police in Canada.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34044506
“San Antonio Police Captain Michael Gorhum took his own life last week after his official email address was linked to an Ashley Madison account”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3208907/The-Ashley-Madison-suicide-Texas-police-chief-takes-life-just-days-email-leaked-cheating-website-hack.html
“In his suicide note, Gibson chronicled his demons. He also mentioned Ashley Madison. ”
http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/08/technology/ashley-madison-suicide/
Pretty sure with 33 million names leaked that there are more.
The obvious solution here is for the single most powerful individual in the world to just tell you what is and isn’t accurate news.
I mean, just *think* about how dangerous this is for a second here.