Maeve Horna
Professor John Capo
FIT
Mass Comm, AC 171
“One Ring to Rule Them All”
There is constant controversy over the debate on whether or not our current president is fit, both reputable and intellectually, to be the leader of our country. He has a mouth that often gets him into trouble and a trait of impulsiveness that leaves the general public shocked. Whether it is offending millions of people or wrongfully decrediting individuals because he doesn’t agree with their notions or ideologies, President Trump undoubtedly acts equivalent to a spoiled, stubborn infant. But, with the media market now booming because of the constant Trump content and the general public dying to know what he does next, one can’t help but question: is media milking Trump’s antics for money? Are Trump and media an unconventional money-making partnership; and if media is exploiting Trump's idiocy for money, what does this mean for democracy?
In this essay, I will first establish the importance of freedom of press and freedom of speech for our country. After I will present President Trump’s relationship with media on the surface; which will allow me to delve deeper into the possible “phony war”(Yglesias, 2018) between Trump and media. I will explore the notion that Trump and media, in a way, feed on one another’s actions and insecurities. In addition to the exploration, I will question media’s main motive to giving Trump attention; which will allow me to bring in back full circle to what all this means for our democracy. To support my statements, I will be using articles from news sites, organizational sites and his own tweets.
In order to understand the gratification of the animosity between media and Trump, we must go all the way back to our country's founding fathers creation of the Constitution. The first amendment of the Constitution declares that congress must respect the following: the freedom of religion; the freedom of speech; the freedom of press; and the freedom to assemble (Facing History, 2017). The reason freedom of speech and freedom of press are significant is because together it grants people the ability to be exposed to information from an extensive range of sources that had not been influenced, altered or restricted by the government (Facing History, 2017). It is crucial that our news be unfiltered so that we can truthfully develop our ideologies, opinions and views on information that we are exposed to; which allows us to communicate our views with each other and the government in the forms of: voting, protesting, debates, etc (Facing History, 2017). Freedom of speech and freedom of press are essential for the general public to become informed and begin to process of participating in our democracy (Facing History, 2017). These freedoms give the general public the right to challenge people who have power, people who are abusing power, and ensure that people don’t get away with abusing power (Chavern, 2016). Too often do we take these freedoms for granted. It we do not have these freedoms, we do not have a democracy.
Moving on to what Trump’s hostile relationship with media is, which we are regularly reminded of due to his tweets. His tweets are riddled with immaturity and spelling mistakes, but he never fails to make an impact and “stick it where it hurts” on the individual or group he calls out. For example, he tweeted at Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, calling her a “Hillary flunky” and saying that she knows nothing about him and that she has no access; as well as, discrediting the New York Times. Here’s the following tweet: “The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job and…. (Account D.J, 2018)” By reading this tweet, one can see how angry and responsive Trump is to every negative comment or statement said about him. Peggy Noonan commented on Trump’s relationship with media on MSNBC, and she said: “If you’re mad at the press, as he so frequently is, then don’t make it clear that you’re dying for the press’ approval”. I thought that Noonan’s comment regarding Trump was so spot on. Trump cares so much about what the media has to say about him, but it’s not the first time in history that the media takes jabs at the president. If Trump were to care less about the media’s attention on him, I’m sure, that the media would care less about him too. This is the example of a toxic relationship, but never the less, a relationship where both subjects depend on each other to an extent.
Now, what we see on the surface is never what is truly rooted in the foundation, which I think applies to Trump’s relationship with media. We might just see them going back and forth developing a never ending cycle, but if we delve deeper into this relationship, what will we find? It is evident that media and Trump have an unusual “they said — he said” relationship, which makes peace unattainable, that is clear. But even though he hates media with a burning passion, it is very possible that Trump has helped earn money for the media that he criticizes most (Ember, 2017). For instance, Sydney Ember of the New York Times, reported on the rising digital profit and this is what she said, “The company said that its digital advertising revenue rose 19 percent, to $50 million, in the first quarter, which ended in late March. It also added 308,000 net digital-only news subscriptions — the most of any quarter in its history — helping to propel an 11 percent increase in circulation revenue (Ember, 2017).” The growth of these number aren’t surprising considering all the people who want to know what Trump did next, and the New York Times always being there to report it for them. But, we can’t pretend that media is not a business. Just like any other business, media’s main motive is to make money. When we delve deeper into the relationship of Trump and media, we are able to find a narcissistic man who is overly sensitive to criticism, and a corrupt industry who is exploiting his sensitivity to make a profit.
Think about it: this is the first time in history that the media needs the president, as much as the president needs the media. With viewings dropping in cable network televisions and sales dropping in subscriptions for news companies, “old” media was close to dying out. Then Trump came along and has unknowingly recovered the falling economy of “old” media by simply being an easy target, but the plus is that he is entertaining and crude. If media’s main motive is to make money, and to not give the utmost accurate truth, then we have lost the rooted meaning of press being watchdogs of the government for the people. The press is no longer how our founding fathers envisioned it being. I think a valid question to ask is: what does this mean for democracy? Only time will tell.
The main message of this paper is to always question what is only being seen on the surface. That being said, by understanding the significances of our constitutional rights and knowing our president’s relationship with media, I think we should all be curious enough to question: is there more to what we just see on the surface. And once we do, we will see that there absolutely is. It is our constitutional right to be able to come to these conclusions to challenge people and industries who are abusing power. We have to have the guts to go beyond the surface, into the dark depths, in order to come out enlightened.
Bibliography
Account, D. J. (2018, March 11). Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump). Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?lang=en
Chavern, D. (2016, October 19). Protecting Democracy: Freedom of the Press. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.newsmediaalliance.org/press-freedom/
Ember, S. (2017, May 03). New York Times Co. Reports Rising Digital Profit as Print Advertising Falls. Retrieved March 16, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/business/new-york-times-co-q1-earnings.html?smid=tw-share
Facing History. The Importance of a Free Press. (2017). Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/facing-ferguson-news-literacy-digital-age/importance-free-press
M. (2018, March 13). Peggy Noonan: What Trump can learn from Reagan. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/peggy-noonan-what-trump-can-learn-from-reagan-1184546883968
Yglesias, M. (2018, January 09). Donald Trump's phony war with the press, explained. Retrieved March 13, 2018, from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/9/16854368/trump-fake-news