The White House barred several news organizations from an off-camera press briefing on Friday, handpicking a select group of reporters that included a number of conservative outlets friendly toward Donald Trump.Kudos to the Associated Press and Time magazine for not playing along. Brickbats to the television networks for being quislings.
The “gaggle” with Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, took place in lieu of his daily briefing and was originally scheduled as an on-camera event.
But the White House press office announced later in the day that the Q&A session would take place off camera before only an “expanded pool” of journalists, and in Spicer’s West Wing office as opposed to the James S Brady press briefing room where it is typically held.
The press is supposed to dig. They are supposed to look for the things that any government (or company) wants to hide. They are supposed to kick over the rocks and shine a light on the vermin.
Donald the Special Snowflake doesn't understand that. He is a toxic combination of a wannabee Saddam Hussein and a tweener girl: Nobody can say anything bad about him and if they do, he is going to make them pay for it.
I understand why the Washington Times and Fox News won't cover Trump with anything but adoration (Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith notwithstanding): They're propaganda organs, not journalists.
To the rest of the press corps: If Trump likes you, you aren't doing your fucking jobs. Those journalists and their companies that were excluded by Spicer the Liar should wear that exclusion as a badge of honor.
No politician really likes the press. But they (and true Americans) understand that the press has a job to do. The Founding Fathers set things up that way.
Trump is showing himself to be an enemy of liberty and freedom. He is trending toward fascism. And if he continues on this path, then as Joe Scarborough said, the Republicans are going to own this for the next fifty years.
Republicans, especially those in the House and Senate, have to choose between their country and Donald Trump. If they continue to back Trump, they may end up being out of power for longer than they were after Hoover left office.
For the good of the GOP and the good of the nation: Trump must go.
9 comments:
And they don't know how to behave.
The press used to be the "loyal opposition"...They were expected to dig, and churn, and do what they are supposed to do....but with a bit of respect, for the office, if not the man. They owed the president nothing, but were expected to be respectful, at least.
They failed to dig at all for Barry, but were merely lapdogs for him. They gave us biased, edited and censored news....and the public saw them for what they were.
Trump is not the kind of guy they like....I get that. But they use bias and innuendo and outright lies against him....and since they give him no respect, they get none in return.
Remember: Trump owes the press nothing either. They want respect, they get to earn it.
All of the above arguments are valid. But that STILL does not validate Trump's selective inclusion of news sources favorable to him. By taking this action, it only reinforces the perception that Trump is dividing the country rather than uniting the people. His actions do not match his stated words.
There has to be repercussions for they "third world dictator" behavior. Not sure what can be done, but the public, at least those with an ability to think for themselves, should be angry.
Dale
"Remember: Trump owes the press nothing either."
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This has been held to include the executive branch as well, I believe.
-Doug in Oakland
B, you ign... Sorry, can't say it.
What "Barry" scandal did the press fail to dig for? His Hawaii birth certificate, that the Republican Governor of Hawaii confirmed was authentic? His order to confiscate all guns held by white males, which never happened? In what fevered dream do you see any scandals under the Obama administration that were anywhere near comparable to the daily catastrophes that the Trump administration craps on America?
Spicer's banning of any press that tells stories he or Trump don't like was reprehensible, disgusting, subversive to democracy, ruinous to the reputation of the United States and the Presidency and....I could go on and on. All the same, do not — I REPEAT, DO NOT! — get rid of Trump. Remember who will replace him.
Mike Pence is Donald Trump with a functioning brain that can concentrate on a topic for more than 10 seconds. He'd make it worse than Donald Trump will be able to do, if that's possible, for the future of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, civil rights, fair taxation and other matters that distinguish the United States from, say, Uganda.
What we need to do is disrupt and delay the neo-Fascists (at least I'm hoping they're neo) until the next election, then take control of the Senate and if possible the House, and then keep Trump in his cornered rat's corner until the next presidential election.
Remember, if you get rid of Trump right now, you get Pence. And if you get rid of Pence, you get Paul Ryan. Be careful what you wish for.
Yours very crankily,
The New York Crank
With the latest round of Nixonian BS coming out of the White House (COS leaning on the feebies to squash Russia reporting by publicly commenting on an ongoing investigation, chairmen of both intelligence committees admitting to contacting media organizations at the behest of the White House to tell them to back off of Trump/Russia coverage while simultaneously investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia)
I'm not confident that this administration is gonna last four years.
While I agree with TNYC's comment in principle, and personally stand to lose out with the gutting of those programs, I just don't see how this is sustainable.
Then there's the announcement that there is a report being prepared by DHS which will validate his travel ban by showing those seven countries to be major threats for attacks on the US, when in reality there already is a report from DHS to the contrary
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474730-DHS-intelligence-document-on-President-Donald.html
which raises the specter of Cheney style bullying of the intelligence services to produce evidence that will support your pre-arrived at conclusions and all of the lovely consequences that arise from such malfeasances of government...
Yeah, I like my health insurance but I really really don't want another Iraq war right now.
-Doug in Oakland
B., a Republocan Congress repeated investigated President Obama's Administration and found nothing, zero, nil, nada. The Obama White House excluded no press. Repeated "scandals", dug up by a fevered right-leaning or alt-right news organs, banged away on the drums but never gave any evidence that their allegations were true, as shown by the above Congressional acts. The biggest thing they found was "Benghazi", and after eight investigations, the Congress found NO scandal or coverup, none.
Compare and contrast...Donnie's Administration is busy trying to inhibit the press ability to investigate and/or report. Evidence continues to trickle out that this Administration is concealing possible criminal activity, and rather than encouraging "their" per Congress to investigate, they attempt to evade and conceal. This is not proof that these allegations are true, however, it is very disturbing to any American that they are unwilling to prove the suggestions false by releasing relevant data.
This Administration is already in violation of the Records Act, as admitted by numerous officials, as is this Republican Congress. What I suspect will happen is the app(s) they are using for communications that are "secure" and "automatically deleted" will turn into the longest-burning issue for this Administration and Congress. There are some records out there, and likely more every day, that will probably cause real heartburn for the Administration when exposed...remember how we had a secure app that deleted pictures as soon as they were viewed...not!
The only thing I would add to CP88 and Doug is that Chaffetz and Issa were digging away for six years and found nothing. Fox,which has the resources of a billionaire behind them, found nothing but their garden-variety bullshit innuendo.
No scandals. No indictments.
Nothing.
The NYC said it better than I could've.
That said, most members of the Press do feel they have a similar liberal outlook to Democrats and naturally oppose many conservative positions. Why some rights are "liberal" and some "conservative" is a notion beyond my understanding.
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