Trump’s media bashing getting stale
Base more interested in what prez can achieve
WASHINGTON — When it comes to his anti-media rants, President Trump should start using the old comedy line, “Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.”
Trump, who prides himself on his ability to draw big crowds and get good television ratings, is forgetting a key rule of entertainment: If an act gets repetitive, the audience gets bored and tunes out. And his favorite bit — railing against the media — is about ready for the hook.
Using the press as a punching bag is still a mainstay of every Trump show.
“The media deserves a very, very big, fat failing grade,” Trump told rally-goers Saturday night in Harrisburg, Pa., an event Trump held to thumb his nose at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington. He called journalists, possibly for the umpteen-thousandth time, “very dishonest people.”
Sure, the lines drew big cheers from the “MAGA” trucker-hat-clad audience. But at a time when the president needs to grow his support beyond his core base if he wants to help keep Congress in GOP control or win re-election, it’s time to test some new material.
First of all, history shows that blasting the press rarely changes anything. Contentious relationships between the press and the White House are nothing new. They’ve been a mainstay of modern American politics ever since Vice President Spiro Agnew called the media “nattering nabobs of negativism,” and said they “have formed their own 4-H Club — the ‘hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.’ ”
Others have followed suit, albeit without the nifty alliteration. During the Watergate scandal President Nixon called the press the “enemy.” President Clinton called conservative talk show hosts “purveyors of hatred and division.” President Obama’s press staffers sent reporters angry emails — which they dubbed “nastygrams” — when they ran unfavorable stories. It’s typical stuff.
But Trump’s situation isn’t typical, and his barbs could backfire against him. First of all, 60 percent of voters believe Trump is dishonest, according to a Quinnipiac poll. The fact that Trump embraces the news, granting interviews with The New York Times, Washington Post and CBS as frequently as he calls them “fake news” peddlers, only underscores his problem.
And most Americans, even supporters of Trump who dislike the press as much as he says he does, are more interested in what Trump will actually do instead of who he battles against. They also trust their own preferred news sources, and unless he has some tangible accomplishments to report on, all the press bashing in the world won’t help him please the crowds that head to the polls on Election Day.