Show courage, journalists, in Trump tussle
President Trump and Steve Bannon aren’t the only ones who hate the media. That’s why these autocrats feel confident in pressing their attack on the “lying” press as “the enemy of the American people” — chilling rhetoric that recalls Stalin’s police state. The establishment media has long been the target of public scorn and distrust, and it’s often been richly deserved.
The New York Times and Washington Post helped pave the way to the endless nightmare in the Middle East by promoting the Bush-Cheney administration’s lies about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. During the presidential cam-
paign, Donald Trump’s rise was greased not just by Fox News, but also by TV executives like Leslie Moonves of CBS, who exulted over the ratings bonanza.
“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,” Moonves said of the presidential freak show during a media conference in San Francisco. “Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? The money’s rolling in and this is fun.” This is as blatant an expression of corporate cynicism and greed as you will ever see, and it goes far in explaining the widening gap between the media and the American people.
Ironically, however, the man who wants to crush the American press is now giving the Fourth Estate a chance to redeem itself. By declaring war on elite media institutions — including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and the others petulantly barred from Friday’s White House media briefing — Trump is forcing them to make a momentous decision. Is the establishment press going to aggressively investigate the Trump presidency and truly act as “the opposition party” that he brands it, or will it slide back into its normal role — as an occasionally contentious but generally collaborative partner of power?
You could see this push and pull in the MSNBC coverage of Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday evening. On the one hand, MSNBC anchors wallowed in the shallow spectacle of the occasion. At one point, the camera zoomed in on Trump in the back seat of his armored vehicle as he apparently practiced the kinder-gentler Caligula speech he would soon deliver. “Wow,” excitedly burbled Chris Matthews, “you never see this sort of thing” — as if we were being treated to Abe Lincoln’s run-through before the Gettysburg Address. But minutes later, as Trump’s Cabinet filed into the House chamber before the speech, Matthews wondered aloud about how many of them might face criminal charges before Trump’s term was over. You could get whiplash just listening to Matthews, as his commentary zigzagged wildly between the gushing and the prosecutorial.
The elite media has wailed loudly about being denied access to White House rituals such as the Friday press briefing. A New York Times article Wednesday suggested that the selective media ban enforced by Trump bully boy Sean Spicer was a violation of the First Amendment, which it probably was. On the other hand, it’s a rare opportunity for the establishment press to break once and for all from the “access journalism” that has constrained its courage and independence.
News institutions like the Times have been too cozy with Washington power for too long. When Times national security reporter James Risen dug up an explosive story on the warrantless wiretapping of the American public during the BushCheney re-election campaign, the newspaper caved to the administration and sat on the scoop, running it a year later when Risen threatened to break the story in a book. President Obama cracked down on government whistle-blowers — the lifeblood of investigative journalism — much harder than any other administration, but didn’t get the ferocious media counterattack he deserved. After Edward Snowden’s revelations about National Security Agency snooping, the government’s surveillance dome over government employees and journalists grew even more suffocating. And yet many press commentators attacked Snowden and not Obama’s tightening dragnet.
But now that Trump has openly declared war on the press, there are signs that even establishment journalists are locking and loading. Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said he is encouraged by the media’s more aggressive shift under Trump. Timm, whose group helps journalists protect their privacy with encryption tools, says the war between the Trump administration and the press will include an everescalating “technological arms race” between government surveillance agencies and a media that will be forced to take increasingly sophisticated countermeasures to ensure the privacy of its sources.
“The question is, will the press remain aggressive after Trump is removed and replaced by the more genial (Vice President) Pence?” Timm pondered earlier this week at a BookShop West Portal panel discussion that I moderated. The event was inspired by a new book of essays to which Timm contributed, “What We Do Now” — and judging by the feisty mood of the overflow crowd, which filled every nook and cranny of the bookstore, the press is expected to do much more in the age of Trump.
“All Governments Lie.” That’s a memorable quote from I. F. Stone, America’s leading muckraker in the last half of the 20th century. (Actually he said, “All governments are run by liars.”) It’s also the title of a new documentary about three independent journalists inspired by Stone — Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Amy Goodman — which will have its premiere at the Roxie Theater on Sunday. (And, yes, I’ll be on a panel after the screening — I’m everywhere these days.)
Journalists in Trump’s America need to channel Izzy Stone’s rebellious spirit. Stone had utter contempt for access journalism. He fearlessly plied his trade without ever going to Washington briefings or parties. “You can’t just sit on (officials’) laps and ask them to feed you secrets — then they’ll just give you a load of crap,” Stone declared. “Establishment reporters undoubtedly know a lot of things I don’t. But a lot of what they know isn’t true.”
This is an existential moment for American journalists and the First Amendment. Live free or die.