by Anthony J Codispoti
Here is what I have learned about President Trump. He knows the news media despises him. More than 90% of mainstream media news stories about the President and and his administration are negative. How could that possibly be considered fair coverage?
Of course, it isn't fair and there are no indications anywhere that it's about to change. One might get the sense that if President Trump walked on water and talked to Jesus, the headlines in the Washington Post and the NY Times would read, "Trump Conspires with Risen Christ; Women and Minorities Most Affected."
The question the media and all Americans should ask is this: does this president deserve 90% or more negative coverage from the news media? Personally, I always knew that the news media, which didn't have an adversarial bone in its body for eight years under Obama, would suddenly rediscover those bones under ANY Republican President. The fact that the Republican President is Donald Trump offends their elitist sensibilities very deeply indeed.
He knows he isn't going to get fair coverage and it's pointless to hope for it. But he cannot allow the media bias to discredit him or undermine his authority as President. This media today is more than adversarial. They are attempting a subversion of Presidential authority which will have repercussions for future Presidents if permitted. In reaction, President Trump is duty bound to act to protect the institution of the Presidency.
So, what can he do? Well, one thing he could do is discredit the mainstream news media. He does this in speeches all the time, but that's not nearly enough. Labeling them "fake news" plays only to his base of supporters, but it doesn't prove his point to anyone else.
He needs the media to discredit itself as well, preferably, by its own hand, because that will lend credibility to his argument outside of his base of support. It is here that the mainstream news media is actually building Trump's case against themselves. He is providing the rope and they are hanging themselves while Americans are watching.
Here is just one way the President is accomplishing this:
Trump knows the media expects all Presidents to behave a certain way. He knows behaving differently, which he finds easy to do, can cause the media to focus on idiosyncratic aspects of his personality to such distraction, they will appear petty and totally obsessed in the process.
It has gotten so bad, they will create firestorms in 2-3 day news cycles obsessing over Melania's choice of footwear, or the way Trump tosses paper towels to Puerto Rican hurricane victims, and even throw away lines intended to turn media attention down another blind alley, with two words "you'll see."
The Northeastern media elites complain that Trump has no appreciation for the necessary decorum expected from Presidents, but then are continually confounded when he behaves with that decorum as he did recently in Las Vegas.
The elites are outsmarting themselves because President Trump has a deep appreciation for the decorum required of the Presidency. And that's exactly why he breaks from that decorum often because he needs to keep an almost uniformly hostile media off balance and focused on trivia.
The fact of the matter is, President Trump owns the media and they know it and they know there is nothing they can do about it. They hate him for it.
They will never give him a fair shake. And he will never stop discrediting them and making them discredit themselves as long as they don't give him that fair shake.
There has never been a President like Trump. And we hear this from news media almost daily. But there also was never a President like Obama, either. Obama also broke with a great many Presidential traditions and limitations, but we never heard the wailing and gnashing of teeth with Obama's unprecedented behavior in office. It is necessary to point out here because it illustrates the bias in the news media. They were ideologically sympathetic with Obama. Any moves in service to that ideological agenda, even outside the Constitutional guardrails set for the Presidency were given few, if any critical words.
But President Trump's agenda is not ideological. It's populist. Populists bend to the popular will. The media is chock full of progressive ideologues wishing to impose their vision for America over the popular will. They are fundamentally undemocratic. They will seek as they have already sought to bring down this President. So far, it's hurt them more than it's hurt Trump.
The media behavior here is reminiscent of President Nixon's words as he left the White House upon resigning from office:
"Others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself." The media needs to review that one, I think.
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