Body slams, the body politic and the U.S. media
WASHINGTON A reporter being slammed into the ground by a Republican politician, prompting criminal charges on the eve of his first congressional election, is putting a new spotlight on mounting hostility between the media and America’s governing party.
Reporters described it Thursday at polling stations in Montana’s U.S. congressional vote.
“You’re lucky someone doesn’t pop one of you,” a CNN journalist, Kyung Lah, tweeted after speaking with one Republican voter. She said another cheered at news of a journalist getting roughed up.
“I think reporters have it coming,” another voter told Garrett Haake of MSNBC, according to his Twitter feed. And a Republican-leaning New Yorker chatting with The Canadian Press fumed at recent New York Times coverage; said he’d be glad to see its headquarters burn to the ground.
A reporter for the Guardian newspaper felt that frustration first-hand.
Ben Jacobs was allegedly assaulted by rookie politician Greg Gianforte, a Californiaborn software entrepreneur running for a vacant congressional seat in Montana. Audio of the incident shows Jacobs asking Gianforte about a health bill that congressional analysts warned would deny health coverage to some 23 million people.
A colleague in the room described what happened next.
“Gianforte... grabbed him, from the upper part of the body, and slammed him to the ground,” Fox News’ Alicia Acuna reported on-air. “(He) kind of jumped on top of him, started punching him, saying, ‘I’m sick and tired of this.’”
She said the reporter scrambled away, his glasses broken, before contacting police. That led to the candidate being charged with misdemeanour assault just hours before he was expected to win election to Congress.
There is also ample statistical evidence of anger with the media — especially among Republicans.
It’s been buttressed by piles of new data this month alone.
A Harvard University survey of 2,006 voters found that 80 per cent of Republican respondents said the media produces fake news, with smaller majorities of Democrats and Independents feeling the same.
That same poll found 72 per cent of GOP respondents believe there is a conspiracy between the media and Obama administration officials to impeach President Donald Trump.
Another study for the Harvard Kennedy School found that Trump has received the worst press coverage of any recent president in his first 100 days. Media reports about Trump were 80 per cent negative, compared to 41 per cent for Barack Obama, 57 per cent for George W. Bush, and 60 per cent for Bill Clinton at the same stage in their presidencies, it concluded.
A Quinnipiac poll this month painted a more nuanced portrait. While respondents disapproved of the way the media cover Trump by a margin of 57 to 39 per cent, they also disapproved of the way Trump talks about the media (62-35).