Trump intesifies assault on the US press
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump escalated his attacks on the press on Tuesday, with individual journalists and media owners entering the firing line.
After a yearlong assault on socalled “fake news”, Trump sharpened his attacks to target nonpartisan individuals and firms in an apparent bid to hurt their business interests.
After days of lashing out at Amazon – whose founder Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post – sent the company’s share price tumbling, Trump redoubled his efforts as the market opened on Tuesday.
“I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy,” Trump claimed a half hour after the opening bell in New York.
“Amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne [sic] by the American Taxpayer. Many billions of dollars. P.O. leaders don’t have a clue (or do they?)!”
Amazon has lost several billion dollars’ worth of market value as a result of Trump’s attacks and the tech-heavy NASDAQ index sank 2.7 percent on Monday.
Trump also trained his sights on CNN President Jeff Zucker.
“Little Jeff Zuker [sic], whose job is in jeopardy, is not having much fun lately. They should clean up and strengthen CNN and get back to honest reporting!” Trump said.
“Check out the fact that you can’t get a job at ratings challenged @CNN unless you state that you are totally anti-Trump?” he tweeted.
Several journalists who work for CNN said categorically that claim was false. In a statement, the firm also described the accusations as “once again, false”.
“The personal political beliefs of CNN’s employees are of no interest to us. Their pursuit of the truth is our only concern. Also, Jeff’s last name is spelled Z-U-CK-E-R. Those are the facts.”
Sources working on a pro- posed mega-merger involving CNN parent company Time Warner and telecoms giant AT&T have repeatedly expressed concern that Trump is trying to put his finger on the scale because of CNN’s impartial coverage.
Trump has publicly attacked the $85 billion merger and his administration has sued to stop it. A ruling is expected sometime this month.
Throughout his business and political career Trump has taken a pugilistic approach to criticism, and has often created a foil as a means to boost ratings of The Apprentice or other shows.
A recent Knight-Gallup Poll showed 43 percent of Americans have a negative view of the news media, but more importantly for Trump, that figure is 68 percent for Republicans.
Since taking up the presidency, Trump has strongly favoured news outlets that provide glowing coverage such as Fox News, the Daily Caller, Newsmax and Sinclair, a group of almost 200 local TV stations.
Sinclair sparked controversy by recently forcing reporters to read a script about “fake stories” in the mainstream media.
Trump on Tuesday defended the company.
“The Fake News Networks, those that knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA, are worried about the competition and WashingtonPost quality of Sinclair Broadcast,” he claimed.
As Trump has worked hard to create a parallel news ecosystem for supporters, he has largely avoided answering substantive questions from mainstream journalists.
His first and only solo press conference was in February 2017.