Trump’s Bullying of the Press has become Intolerable

Back in 2016, it was not unusual to log in to Facebook, and see that a friend had shared something that looked like a news story, detailing how someone who had a beef with Hillary Clinton had gone missing or committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. If you did a little detective work, like trying to Google the story, you often found that not only was the story false, but that the website that hosted it was somewhere in Bulgaria. 

Fake news. 

But in the last two decades or so, something strange had happened. New cable news channels and news sites on the web proliferated, and tended to pander to one political leaning or the other. Thus it became possible for people to chose a source of news that further supported their pre-existing world view by printing stories and editorials consistent with that view. 

If a story floating around Facebook or Twitter fit into a person’s world view, that person was more likely to believe it without checking the source, and share the story in the hope of convincing others of his or her world view. 

Secretary Clinton was a prime target for this fake news, as conspiracy theories of the so-called Arkansas mafia threatening women who claimed sexual abuse by her husband, Bill Clinton, had proliferated for years. Likewise, the suicide of Secretary Clinton’s colleague, Vince Foster, fueled belief that there was a conspiracy to cover up wrongdoing in the White Water affair. So of course to Clinton detractors news of mysterious disappearances and suicides of Clinton associates made sense.

It was in this way that fake news influenced voters in the 2016 presidential election. 

But as the term “fake news” became more popular, the definition became twisted by those who found themselves the target of unflattering news stories or critical editorial pieces. 

After the election, for example, but before Trump’s inauguration, a news story broke that a former British spy had compiled a dossier that allegedly showed that the Russian Government had compromising information on the President-Elect; the so-called Steele Dossier. Many of the allegations were salacious, and at the time there was no corroboration of many of the allegations. At a press conference after the story broke, Trump refused to take questions from CNN, calling the network “fake news” for publishing accounts of the Steele Dossier. 

Trump then expanded the term to include stories with anonymous sources that were allegedly leaks from the White House staff. Eventually, Trump applied to term to any news story that he disliked, that portrayed him in a negative manner, or that failed to discuss news Trump believed reflected well on him, such as the economy. To Trump, fake news was not just false stories created out of whole cloth. It was any story that he believed reflected poorly on him. 

It became a common term in his war against the press. Fake news became the enemy of the people.  Reporters who did not buy the official White House line, and who insisted on following up with tough questions at press conferences were deemed rude. Women reporters with tough questions were ridiculed. 

As Trump became more belligerent with the press, his sycophantic fans attending his political rallies followed. Members of the press were shouted down at Trump rallies. If a person confronted a Trump fan with news sources showing that their memes and outlandish claims were wrong, the inevitable response was, “Well, you must have got that from CNN.  That’s fake news.” Thus the moniker fake news permitted Trump fans to ignore facts, avoid the cognitive dissonance of seeing that their beliefs were wrong, and attack the purveyors of news stories critical of their President. 

But Trump’s war against the press has taken a startling new twist. In a post mid-term election press conference, White House pool reporter Jim Acosta, as is his routine, asked tough questions of the President and had tough follow-up questions. Trump’s response was to order that the microphone be taken from Acosta. An intern grabbed for the microphone, and Acosta resisted, continuing with his tough line of questions. When Acosta eventually relinquished the microphone, Trump called him rude and said CNN should be ashamed for hiring him. 

For supporters of the free press, this exchange was bad enough. Here was the President avoiding the tough questions could reflect badly on him. He picked a fight with a reporter who had refused to kowtow to his bullying. 

But what happened the next day was utterly shocking. The White House had revoked Acosta’s press credentials. Worse, to justify this action, the White House released video of the press conference claiming it showed that Acosta had assaulted the intern who tried to take away him microphone. Almost immediately, news sources demonstrated how the video had been doctored to speed up the exchange and make it appear as though Acosta had reacted to the intern with a Karate-chop. 

Warring against the free press with harsh rhetoric is one thing. But to exclude a reporter, who has been critical of the President and willing to follow up with tough questions countering the official White House line, based on doctored evidence is intolerable. It is the action of a bully, a man whose autocratic tendencies prohibit him from receiving criticism, a man who believes he is entitled to positive press coverage. 

The American people should not let this stand. They cannot permit Trump to expand the definition of fake news to such an extend that the guarantee of a free press in the First Amendment of the Constitution becomes meaningless. They cannot allow a President to single out for punishment a reporter trying to hold that President accountable. 

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.