Trump’s “running war” with the media
The “reign of King Trump” has begun, said Robert Reich on Salon. com – and journalists had better watch out. America’s new president made no secret of his contempt for the “disgusting” media during his campaign. He cancelled campaign credentials for news organisations that criticised him, vilified individual reporters, and promised to expand libel laws. Moving into the White House has clearly done nothing to soften Trump’s attitude. In a speech at the CIA headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, last weekend, he talked of having a “running war” with the media. His press secretary Sean Spicer, meanwhile, lashed out at the press, accusing it, with no supporting evidence, of underestimating the size of the crowd at Friday’s inauguration. And Trump’s staff recently drew up plans to relocate the 50 journalists of the White House press corps from their office in the West Wing to a larger venue. There, Trump would have been able to dilute their presence with dozens of fringe reporters and right-wing bloggers, who could cheer him on at press conferences. After an outcry, Trump dropped that plan last week, but you can be sure he’ll look for other ways to neuter the mainstream media, avoid scrutiny, and distort the facts. Make no mistake, said Jay Rosen on Pressthink.org: for the press, “winter is coming”.
The press brought this on itself, said George Neumayr in the Washington Examiner. During the campaign, biased reporters did everything they could to prevent Trump from winning. Since the election, they’ve been working to delegitimise him, an effort that culminated in Buzzfeed’s disgraceful decision to publish the lurid dossier of unverified claims against the new president. Sorry, but when you violate basic journalistic standards, you have no “sacred right to be called upon at press conferences”.
We journalists must stop being “crybabies”, said Josh Marshall on Talkingpointsmemo.com. Of course Trump is a “would-be authoritarian and a bully” who will do all he can to shut us up, but “unless and until we see publications shut down and journalists arrested or disappeared”, there’s no call for panic. You don’t need a desk in the White House to dig for proof that Trump is lying, or corruptly using his position to boost his business interests. Official access isn’t everything. “The answer to attacks on journalism is always more journalism.”
It will actually be rather a good thing if the relationship between the White House and the Washington media becomes less cosy and “transactional”, said Jack Shafer on Politico. Reporters will have to find new ways of getting stories. There’s sure to be no lack of material. Federal agencies and the intelligence community are likely to leak like a sieve, and so will Trump’s many enemies in the Republican Party. And the media will find an eager audience for their stories: witness all the publications today selling subscriptions by promising to “hold Trump accountable”. It may feel like winter at the moment, but it will soon turn into “journalistic spring”.