RPOS101W
Jaleel Braithwaite
11/16/17
President Trump’s war on the media
Analyzing Trumps’ Relationship with the Media
To say the presidency of Donald trump is controversial is an extreme understatement. From the bold claims that his predecessor Barrack Obama had a part to play in surveillance of him via hidden cameras in the white house to the claims that Mexico will pay for a massive wall at the borders of the two countries, Trump has outdone himself at every turn since taking up the mantle of United States’ President. There are many newsworthy topics revolving around Donald Trump, so much that a separate paper could be written on just those topics. Out of the many talking points and controversial statements that came from the president, the single most consistent theme throughout his campaign and even now is his distrust and condemnation of the media. This problem with the media has caused a lot of divisiveness, and conversation as to how honest or dishonest the media is. In this paper I show that the number one claim President Trump usually makes about the media, that is it “fake,” serves his own agenda, and his toxic relationship with the media is a strategic move to confuse people on what is and isn’t the truth. Strong analysis will also be given on why Donald Trump’s behavior to the media is undemocratic
One of the main things President Trump likes to say about the media is that it is “fake news,” which is the intentional distortion of news to misinform people on a certain story. It is important to note the word intentional, because there are times when a report on a story can be premature due to lack of information, a lot of people get this misconstrued with fake news. The first thing we need to look at is why after all these years of reporting and countless elections we are just now seeing claims of fake news everywhere. President Trump often claims that a certain story is fake or that an entire network delivers fake news, and it is usually when they have reported something negative about him. For instance, the fact that Trump has scheduled majority of his interviews to FOX News. “By contrast, he has appeared two times as President on NBC or MSNBC, once each on CBS News and ABC News, and zero times on CNN” (Schwartz 2017). Despite being one of the largest media outlets in the country FOX has been like a home to the president. Could it be possible that out of all the major news corporations we have today, FOX is the only one to have not covered ‘’fake news’’ on their network? With further investigation it is clear to see that it has nothing to do with whether the news is fake or not but whether Trump likes what he hears. On Fox news “He’s going to get easier questions, but he also knows the people. He watches them. It’s a reflection, too, of what he’s watching,” (Martha Kumar) (Schwartz, 2017). The simple fact that President Trump favors Fox news so much is reason alone to debunk his fake news stance. The fact that almost every other news outlet is fake news to Trump but Fox News, which is more likely to give mostly positive and favorable coverage of him, is a glaring hole in his claim that media is out for him.
The president has criticized a lot of news outlets including MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and CBS but none of these networks face as much critique as CNN. There have been several instances where Trump can be found criticizing CNN like no other network. In January, Trump lashed out at a CNN reporter when asked about collusion with Russia. Trump can be quoted saying “I’m not going to give you a question” and “your organization is terrible”. After persisting for the president to simply answer his question the press secretary, Sean Spicer, said that the reporter Mr. Acosta would be removed if he tried to ask any further questions. This type of censorship and ridiculing of the media is not the democratic standard of our country has ever allowed. What made this unprofessional and disrespectful exchange even worse was that it was the President of the United States (President elect at the time) that was in the middle of this dispute. There have been times in the past when a president and the media have not had the best relationship, but it never got to the point where the president engaged in belittling and undermining the person as a reporter and disrespecting the organization said reporter works for. Another example of Trump’s negative attitude towards organizations that he considers “fake news” is when an NBC reporter asked the president a question he scoffed in a dismissive tone. It is clear to see that this type of behavior from the president has nothing to do with whether he is being covered fairly but to show his followers and people that agree with him that any media reporting that he doesn’t approve is illegitimate. The main reason Trump aims at CNN is because out of all the major networks, they are the most objective. “In fact, CNN employed a stable of pro-Trump commentators during the campaign, some of whom it retained after the election” (Borchers July 2017). Liberal channels like MSNBC are too obvious of choices to go and most of his base do not subscribe to that type of news.” CNN, however, positions itself between MSNBC and Fox News.” As a result, Trump seems to perceive CNN as wielding at least some influence over his base” (Borchers July 2017). So, by delegitimizing them and making it a point of emphasis to make them the face of “fake news” he discourages his base and people that were on the fence to distrust CNN.
In February, The Trump Administration did an unprecedented act of preventing press members from entering the White House. Due to negative press and critiques of Trump’s policies, there was a decision made to ban members of the press from entering the white house briefing. Trump’s twitter feed read “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth” with no concrete evidence proving fake news by any media outlet trump’s administration decided that it would be best to confine the media’s access to the white house to networks that were cozy to Trump. “Reporters from The Times, Buzzfeed news, CNN, Politico and BBC where shut out of the press briefing” (Davis and Grynbaum 2017). The Trump administration along with Sean Spicer attempted to justify their move by saying “We’re going to aggressively push back…. We are not just going to setback and let false narratives, false stories and inaccurate facts get out there”. In addition to this, Spicer allowed news networks like Brietbart news, One America, CBS, the wall street journal, FOX news and Bloomberg to attend the press briefing, mostly friendly or neutral news networks. These actions that were carried out by President Trump and his administration was a clear violation of the freedom of press. Many organizations stood up to this clear violation of press and decided not to attend the press briefing although being invited. Time magazine, The Washington Post, and The Associated Press all declined to attend in protest of what the Trump administration were doing. Marty Barton the post’s editor called Spicer’s decision to bar certain media outlets from the press briefings were undemocratic.
For the entirety of America’s existence, the press has played a pivotal role in informing American citizens of the political climate and has served as a check for politicians and of course the president. It is counterintuitive to limit press briefings to friendly networks. The diversity of our media is a testament to the diversity of America, and its freedom is what separates it from other countries around the world. So, by limiting press coverage the Trump administration is going against the very idea of America, where the media isn’t censored, and it keeps those with power in check. One of trumps tactics to cause distrust of the media is to first establish that whatever network or media outlet that is criticizing him is an illegitimate or is a failing business, only making these false reports for the profit. He then changes the narrative to one that glorifies himself and vilifies whoever had criticized him. This is an effort to remove the credibility from the source by suggesting it has no power or is a failing business. In February, Trump wrote on twitter “THE FAKE NEWS media (failing @NY times, @ABC, @CBS, CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the people.” In this very post Trump proves all my points. He first, vaguely, delegitimizes the networks who analyzes him negatively and then tries to hijack the narrative. There are several other cases where the president has tried to delegitimize the media, one such time is when he made a visit to the CIA’S headquarters in Langley Virginia, he can be quoted saying members of the media “…are among the most dishonest human beings on the face of the earth”. It is one thing to criticize the media for being dishonest as reporters but to attack the characters of the actual people who are only doing their job an expressing a right they find important, comparing them to the most dishonest people in the world, is inappropriate and shows lack of character in the president himself.
Following the election of Donald Trump, the country has heard and seen actions carried out by the president that has never been done before. His sour relationship with the media does not benefit the country, it has caused nothing but divisiveness in the country and has created an untruthful political and media atmosphere. If it were not for the arrogance and pride exhibited from our president, Donald Trump, most of the issues we are dealing with would never have existed. Trump’s bold claims to build a wall on the border and the racist, homophobic, and ignorant misogynistic overtones of his campaign were divisive and brought about criticism from many news outlets. It also does not help that Donald Trump gives mostly vague and unsubstantiated allegations against the press with no concrete evidence. The free press is an integral part of our democracy and throughout each administration there have been dedicated reporters who carry out their job like everyone else. There have certainly been bad apples and dishonest reporters, but the broad brush used to paint the entire media with is unfair and is mostly made up of unsubstantiated stories and accusations made by the president and his administration. The only way we can see real change in Washington is for our president to ignore his pride and make legitimate efforts to repair his relationship in the press. Instead of doing battle with the media, Trump should use some of the criticism as a point of improvement and a way to extend his reach past the base that supports him. The true job of the president is to protect, unify and change the lives of the American people in a positive light. By rebuking and trying to delegitimize the media to protect himself from critiques, makes him an undemocratic and illegitimate president.
Works Cited
Borchers, C. (2017, July 3). The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/03/why-cnn-is-trumps-favorite-foil/?utm_term=.6686c7147729
Schwartz, J. (2017, October 25). Politico. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from Politico: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/25/how-many-interviews-has-trump-given-fox-244157
Kumar, M.(2017, October 25). Politico. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from Politico: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/25/how-many-interviews-has-trump-given-fox-244157
Dave, J., & Grynbaum, M. (2017, February 24). The New York Times.Retrieved November 15, 2017, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/white-house-sean-spicer-briefing.html
Borchers, C. (2017, January 11). The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/11/trumps-love-hate-relationship-with-the-media-was-on-full-display-at-his-news-conference/?utm_term=.28dc6613689e
Borchers, C. (2017, June 22). The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/22/no-cameras-no-live-audio-and-no-sean-spicer-the-latest-white-house-press-briefing-annotated/?utm_term=.f7286d11aecb