Trump v. the Media
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
US and other Western major media are the shame of the nations where they operate.
They willfully ill-inform, misinform and disinform, managing news, information and opinion – polar opposite what legitimate journalism is supposed to be all about.
They stick to the official censored narrative on major issues, suppressing what most vital for everyone to know, serving as press agents for powerful interests, betraying their readers, viewers and listeners.
Their daily propaganda on domestic and geopolitical issues, along with volumes of worthless junk food news, disgrace their reporting, embarrassing everyone relying on them to stay informed.
Most Americans are brainwashed to accept what demands denunciation, victims of the falsified official narrative, consisting of disinformation, Big Lies, and fake news on issues mattering most.
Anyone connected online can stay informed with minimal effort by following reliable independent print, audio, and video sources – at no cost.
Dominant corporate media, along with shameful public radio and television in America, operating the same way, can easily be put out of business if enough news consumers walk away by choosing alternative sources, avoiding what operates to deceive and betray, not inform.
It’s the only major industry in America, the West, and elsewhere that ordinary people have power over by refusing to follow their rubbish.
There’s plenty about Trump to criticize – notably his wars of aggression, fealty to Wall Street and other corporate interests, support for apartheid Israel and Saudi despotism, rage against sovereign Iran, Venezuela and other countries, disdain for ordinary people everywhere, unacceptable racism, and much more.
His outsized ego, bombast, bravado, hubris, arrogance, and dissembling on virtually everything is just cause to bash him.
He’s right about the deplorable state of America’s major media, yet blindly follows Fox News, a deplorable choice, his favorite TV channel.
He’s wrong in how he attacks media he deplores. True enough, cable and broadcast television channels, the NYT, Washington Post, and other dominant media are untrustworthy, unreliable, and should be avoided.
Yet shutting out any or their personnel constitutes a flagrant First Amendment violation, along with breaching longstanding White House protocol.
Trump’s shouting match with CNN’s Jim Acosta, suspending his White House press pass “until further notice,” threatening to pull them from other members of the White House press core – following his contentious post-midterms press conference was unconstitutional and disgraceful.
On Friday, Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) advocacy director Courtney Radsch slammed him, saying:
“Journalists should be able to do their job without fear that a tough series of questions will provoke retaliation. The White House should immediately reinstate Jim Acosta’s press pass, and refrain from punishing reporters by revoking their access.”
“That’s not how a free press works” – even when it’s deplorably unfair and disgraceful. Everyone has a right to say what they please, no matter how unacceptable their remarks may be to others.
The White House Correspondents Association slammed Trump’s action, calling on him to “immediately reverse (his) weak and misguided action.”
True enough, Acosta, other so-called CNN reporters, and most others from the dominant media mock legitimate journalism.
The proper way to respond is by walking away, tuning them out, ignoring them, not violating the First Amendment for any reason, including unacceptable rudeness by Acosta, refusing to give up the microphone at Trump’s press conference.
Actions by DLT and Acosta shamed them both. Accusing Acosta of manhandling a White House female aide was greatly exaggerated and out of line.
Trump calling Acosta an “enemy of the people” is true for virtually all members of the dominant fourth estate, including his Fox News favorites, using their media platforms to deceive the public, not provide legitimate journalism.
CNN notoriously is the most distrusted name in television news – clear to every intelligent person aware of how disgracefully it operates.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
