WaPo | Almost all conversations about roadblocks Trump faces or opposition to
his initiatives centered on what was perceived as the media’s biased
portrayal of him and his administration, rather than on anything the
Democrats were doing.
Republicans and conservatives have grumbled about unfair coverage
from the “mainstream media” for decades. But the Trump era has brought
us to a new plateau, one where the media has moved from adversarial to
oppositional. Many observers, on both right and left, have come to see
the media as the leader of the resistance.
If you care about
journalism, it’s a disturbing trend. Many in the media would undoubtedly
lay much of the blame on Trump’s “fake news” attacks. But peruse the
pages or websites of most of our nation’s leading news providers, and
it’s easy to understand why such a perception has taken hold, apart from
Trump’s claims.
Former Democratic president Jimmy Carter’s widely reported comments in Maureen Dowd’s recent New York Times column about the media’s coverage of Trump were a welcome acknowledgment of the obvious from someone other than a Trump loyalist.
“I
think the media have been harder on Trump than any other president
certainly that I’ve known about,” Carter said. “I think they feel free
to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without
hesitation.”
Out of curiosity, I checked the Democratic National Committee’s website this week. Some of the headlines were: “Trump abuses role as commander-in-chief in latest lie.” “Tom Perez on Trump’s executive order to sabotage Americans’ health care.” “Trump’s lapdog Pence must return wasted taxpayer dollars.”
That’s what you would expect from the opposition party. The problem is, headlines accusing Trump of “sabotage,” “lies”
and more are not uncommon from our major media outlets. That’s why I
was curious whether the DNC was still bothering to employ a press staff
when it has been made so redundant.
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