Trump & Co. would do well to cease its war against the Press.
They are going to need the Press to communicate with the American people as they plunge into their promises of “change.” Even if Trump, bypassing the Press, tweets constantly night and day, tweets cannot explain the complexities and nuances of the far-reaching changes he hopes to make.
In his impromptu talk at C.I.A. headquarters the other day, Trump again blasted the Press, calling reporters among “the most dishonest people” on Earth. The irony is almost funny, considering the fact Trump has told hundreds of documented lies since his campaign began 18 months ago.
And now, just days into the presidency, Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer, visibly angry, castigated a roomful of reporters for lying. He insisted the audience at the Trump inauguration was the biggest one in history – a lie. It wasn’t. Aerial photographs proved it wasn’t. After telling his self-righteous whopper, Spicer glared at the reporters and left the room in a huff.
Next day, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway had the gall to tell reporter Chuck Todd that Spicer had decided to present “alternative facts” to the crowd-size question. Todd reminded Conway “alternative facts” is a phrase meaning “falsehoods.”
Then in a sniffy whine, peeved Conway said this to Todd, as if she were a stern school marm scolding a naughty child: “If we’re going to keep referring to our press secretary in those types of terms, I think we’re going to have to rethink our relationship here.”
First of all, it’s the Trump inner circle that raised the landmark observation that their inauguration was the biggest inauguration – not! And then Spicer dashed off, armed with “truth” (he might have thought), to lash the Press for not accurately reporting his boss’s inauguration was the biggest.
And then, instead of just stopping the lunacy, nope, they had to trot out Conway to explain to veteran journalist Todd the “alternative-facts” theory. As if that were not bad enough, Conway immediately told another whopper: that nobody but reporters care about Trump not releasing his tax forms. Fact: A poll earlier this month showed 74 percent of people (Democrats, Republicans and Independents) think the president should release those forms.
With a snide condescension and presumptuous sneer, Conway said, “Most Americans are very busy looking at what their tax returns will look like while President Trump is in office – not what his look like.”
Says who?
If the Trump “communicators” are tying themselves into knots and telling whoppers about lunatic issues – like “whose is bigger?”– what will they be doing and saying when a truly momentous issue arises? If they screw up, they will probably blame the Press and then offer their “alternative facts,” the way Big Brother did in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
The Founding Fathers knew all too well what can happen when there is not a vigorous free Press scrutinizing the powerful – thus, the First Amendment. The Press is not sacrosanct; it, too, is subject to criticism. Presidents and Press have always carried on a love-hate affair. But these unwarranted attacks against the Press from the Trump Administration are far beyond criticism; so far, they seem to be assaults from bullies who think they are immune from any scrutiny at all.
