Republican President Calls Free Press the “Enemy of the American People”
This morning I woke up to this.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
BTW here is the Republican’s first attempt at this post three hours earlier He deleted it almost immediately.
You know, the good news is that, as “opposition parties” (thank you, Steve Bannon) go, the press is actually turning into a better one than the Democrats.
They’re not backing down, and if they keep this up they will begin sucking some of the oxygen out of the room of the so-called “alternative news” sites that don’t have the resources to compete with them for traffic.
Author for History News Network calls Pence presidency “inevitable,” which is farther than I would go, but he’s a presidential scholar and I’m not.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/presidential-historian-predicts-trumps-term-will-last-less-than-200-days-the-second-shortest-ever/
As I wrote last week, if I’m Bannon and his gang of reprobates, I’m looking to bring down Pence. He’s the immediate threat to Bannon’s power.
One other scenario: With delays in Cabinet nomination approvals, careful reviews of executive orders by the judiciary, and a Republican Congressional majority that cannot come to internal agreement on anything of significance, Trump throws up his hands and says, “WTF, nobody here is willing to work with me (do it my way), so I’m outta here. You guys go figure it out.”
He’d be happy — he still believes he won by one of the greatest majorities ever — and the fact that neither the wall nor the Muslim ban nor any of the other crap he proposed ever took effect wouldn’t be his fault.
He can bail on the country the same way he bailed on Israel policy, when he told Netanyahu basically, “I don’t give a rat’s ass whether it’s one nation or two. You guys figure it out, just don’t fight too much while you decide.”
Not saying this scenario is likely … only that you never know what will happen in tomorrow’s episode of this reality show, “Trump, the Presidential Apprentice.”
“…if I’m Bannon and his gang of reprobates, I’m looking to bring down Pence. He’s the immediate threat to Bannon’s power.”
The reprobates may need to be pardoned by President Pence.
The problem with all these scenarios is that Trump and Bannon will definitely try war before losing power.
If Trump tries war, I don’t think he will be able to build a coalition of the willing. America will stand alone, and war will not enjoy the same kind of domestic support it did for Bush.
Polling for the 2018 elections will determine whether Repubs in Congress stand with Trump or turn against him.
Trump doesn’t need much of a war; he primarily needs an excuse to stamp out the disloyal.
He doesn’t need to form a coalition. He just needs to “push the button.”
A terrorist attack is much easier to stage, or to allow to happen, and suits the purpose even better than a war would.
Sort of a misleading title; I think many people distrust certain media organizations that are one sided. I’m sure many people at DL think that FOX is an “Enemy of the American People”.
Please go refresh your memory of how the Obama administration treated the “free press”. Subpoenas, threats, collecting phone records, wire taps.
FBH, stop trying to normalize fascism. Fash News is not “the enemy of the american people” They are the friend of the conservative movement, enemy of progressive/liberal causes…. but they are a news organization free to operate under the constitution. President Obama criticized their one-sided reporting (such as continuously reporting outright lies told by a boated orange about his place of birth) but never once said they were an enemy.
“but they are a news organization free to operate under the constitution.”
And so are all the others. Trump hasn’t threatened, subpoenaed, or wire tapped or demanded phone records from any media outlet…The Obama administration did though…..Selective indignation… The left are far more likely to hinder free speech.
So what if Trump heckles and berates certain media outlets. Where is the outrage when the left does it?
You dont understand what “free speech” means or from whom it is granted.
I am allowed to do all I can, short of physical contact or violence to shut up, for example, Milo the Pedo. I am not the federal government. The government is not allowed to do anything at all to silence critics of themselves.
We are talking about the government, right? Threats, subpoenas, wire tapping, collecting phone records….These are all things that the government did to the “free press” during the Obama administration
Obama was constantly berating any media that was adversarial to his agenda.
You couldn’t even shake a stick at all the examples where Obama berated FOX news or Rush Limbaugh….Just own up to the double standard….Even the left leaning media was taken back/aback by Obama’s treatment of the “free press” at the time.
Fox and Rush Limbaugh are not “news” outlets, they are opinion outlets presenting as “fact” many things that are not true and, more importantly, were never intended to be.
Your counterexamples fail on this point.
“Threats, subpoenas, wire tapping, collecting phone records….These are all things that the government did to the “free press” during the Obama administration”
proof please
If your argument for everything is Obama did it too, and worse! Maybe rework it a little. Very weak even for the internet.
@Ben: He’s talking about the Obama administration’s crackdown on leakers, which is true.
What he leaves out is that a) lots of people did bitch about it; b) he’s just as guilty of hypocrisy as he’s accusing you of being, because he didn’t bitch about any of that under George W. Bush, either; c) the difference is in degree, not kind. No past president called a free press an “enemy of the people,” mainly because every past president was intelligent and mature enough to realize he was not “the people.”
Beyond that, what do you care what some rando con-job thinks? He’s just trying to get under your skin.
More than anything else that bothers me about FBH.. Id like to converse with an intelligent GOPer.
It’s FBH’s low quality of argument, lazy lies, and almost non-existent intellect that bothers me the most. Not really the trolling or lies themselves.
I thought this was about the fourth estate, no? It says “press” right there in the title and the debate was over whether said press were “the enemy.”
Obama did treat whistleblowers overly harsh and there were loud and many complaints.
So, one the argument doesn’t follow, and two I’m very tired of this technique to take an unrelated thing Obama did completely out of context and say, “see, you’re a hypocrite!” Vacuous and dumb.
@REV: I love when conservatives charge “hypocrisy!” as if it were something they avoided at all costs, instead of something they indulge in every day.
“Fox and Rush Limbaugh are not “news””
Never said Rush Limbaugh was news. He is media though.
FOX is as much “news” as any of the other editorialized TV news outlets. They are all the same; FOX is just the lone outlet that slants it’s coverage to the right.
REVanilla…..”I thought this was about the fourth estate, no? It says “press” right there in the” title and the debate was over whether said press were “the enemy.”
Right, “free press”; FOX news is also the “free press”, no?…..And Obama would constantly imply that they were the adversary or “enemy”, as it were…Obama’s adversarial relationship with right leaning media is no different than Trump’s with the left, and neither is a threat to the “freedom of the press.”
Obama “shut out” the free press on a regular basis. Don’t you guys remember that shit, and all of the complaints from the news organizations(left and right) concerning those “lock outs”? These kinds of actions were more of a threat to the “free press” than any political rhetoric.
“imply… as it were.” There’s your tell everybody. Square peg doesn’t fit round hole.
It’s actually quite different.
Trump is at least as bad as Obama in behavior (probably much worse) but rhetorically he is definitely worse.
“These kinds of actions were more of a threat to the “free press” than any political rhetoric.”
You’re entitled to your opinion, but it’s not a persuasive one. What Trump engaged in was not “political rhetoric.” It was a direct attack on the media that dare report on this least transparent of all presidents.
There is nothing you can point to that the Clintons ever did that Trump has not already done. Unless you are on board with investigations, you are the one who is displaying a disgusting level of hypocrisy.
“FOX is as much “news” as any of the other editorialized TV news outlets.”
I don’t know which outlets you reference, but it doesn’t matter. None of them was begun as a conscious propaganda enterprise to cater to conservatives looking to shut out coverage they don’t like. The evidence is easily available, and it’s not up for debate.
PS: While we’re at it, could you provide links for the Obama press “lockouts” you reference? A Google search turned up a single fund-raising event from which the press was shut out.
Maybe he doesn’t want people to see his awkward back swing….Good follow through, though.
@Alby..”Obama Shuts Out White House Reporters Yet Again”…The “Yet Again” sort of explains it. Also click on the highlighted links in the article. I’m not making it up. Maybe you just didn’t pay attention back then like you do now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/24/obama-press-pac-reporters-president-white-house_n_5618220.html
Again, that’s barring reporters from fund-raisers. Standard operating procedure, and nothing any conservative has ever complained about. The restrictions on photographs, again, is a first step toward total blackout — and I don’t recall any conservatives sticking up for the media over it, either.
A world of difference between that instance — that’s the only one I could find, too — and Trump/Bannon’s assault on First Amendment protected voice of the people. To call it the “enemy” of the people, even while then singling out propaganda voices as “truth,” is an assault on truth — which, let’s face it, is what the right has been on about since forever. They believe the propaganda about American exceptionalism and demand it be promulgated by all.
Also, remember the ironclad rule: Presidents of both parties build on the precedents of prior presidents of either party.
You’re pretty much wasting your time here.
@FBH: In regard to the black plastic over the clubhouse windows, as with all things Trump, what’s most notable isn’t the restriction but the clumsiness of the execution.
I guess you didn’t click on the links in the article.
“Thirty-eight news organizations, including the New York Times and ABC News, sent a letter to White House officials in late November demanding more access to President Obama as he performs official duties in the Oval Office. New York Times photographer Doug Mills compared the White House to the Soviet Union, drawing parallels to Russia’s World War II propaganda.”…Huffington Post
Cat and mouse games and calling the 4th estate the enemy of the people are not equivalent. At least not to me they aren’t. And one photog’s remark in the Huffington Post doesn’t convince me otherwise.
Yeah. For photographers who wanted access to the president as he went about his work. Obama was the first to ban them, substituting WH-approved staff photos.
Did YOU read the New York Times piece you linked to? Is this really the hill you want to fight on — press access for photographers? It makes pretty clear that some of the candid shots of prior presidents — think W in the plane flying over New Orleans — did no favors to those executives.
You can decry the decision — seriously, of all the things you bitched at Obama for, I don’t recall this one making the list — but if Romney had been elected and done the same thing you would have ignored it. Just like you ignored his destruction of all his email from his time as Massachusetts’ governor when it came time to complain about Hillary’s attempts to evade open-records laws.
Ultimately, though, who gives a fuck? Having failed to complain the first time someone bumps into me doesn’t mean I have to stay quiet the next time. What are you trying to prove — that people are upset about things Trump is doing but didn’t complain when Obama did similar things? As I keep noting, you yourself are guilty of that, making the charge a pointless exercise in hypocrisy.
What’s the matter, the Ayotte crowd not providing you with enough entertainment these days? Why are you picking pointless arguments here?
You guys are high maintenance.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/229665-a-round-of-golf-for-obama-press-pool-gets-left-behind
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/barack-obama-locks-out-the-press-again-109316
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2009/10/white_house_reveals_tactics_in.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/nytimes-obama-white-house-doj-investigations_n_3318748.html
You seem to continue to confusing all that business with declaring the entirety of the constitutionally protected press an “enemy” of the state. Pardon me, Fox and Friends excepted.
See, I feel you. Bernie got the shaft over political nastiness and dirty tricks. It’s a cancer. Obama was quite good at it. World class. It feels unfair…
This is not the same thing. Obama never argued the press was illegitimate.
Yeah, and so what? The point is what? If you are countering the blacked-out clubhouse windows, point made. If you are saying it’s the same as declaring the press an “enemy of the people,” it’s not working.
The point really is that YOU are just as hypocritical as you’re trying to claim others are, since you aren’t complaining about it on both ends — I heard nothing from you on the Obama “secrecy” issue during the eight years he held office. Has that point penetrated your bird brain yet?
Why do you consider certain organizations within the news media to be beyond reproach. It’s almost like you are defending your religion or a family member.
Calling out certain lying, one sided, media/ Democratic Party operatives, is for sure, in no way calling the entire “press”, the “enemy of the people”. There is no 1st Amendment violation there.
Part of the reason why Trump was elected is because a whole shitload of people no longer trust the “main stream media”
BTW, shouldn’t you be somewhere disrupting a town hall meeting or something.
https://www.rt.com/usa/jefferson-muzzle-obama-administration-708/
You know what RT is, right?