(Daily Caller) In the first days of Donald Trump’s time as president, he labeled CNN “fake news,” and his press secretary vowed to hold the press “accountable.”
This war against the media is not new to President Trump. During the campaign he called reporters “dishonest scum,” and called the press “corrupt.” In his first press conference since winning the election, Trump called CNN “fake news,” and labeled BuzzFeed a “failing pile of garbage.”
As people have learned throughout Trump’s entrance into presidential politics, there is no pivot, and Trump has not changed his attitude towards the liberal press since moving into the White House Friday.
In Sean Spicer’s first appearance behind the podium as press secretary, he decried the actions of a reporter from Time Magazine and the liberal press in general for criticizing the attendance at Trump’s inauguration. Spicer said that the “dishonesty in the media” is making it more difficult to bring the nation together.
Journalists reacted harshly to Spicer’s criticism, calling it “ominous,” and the hallmarks of an “authoritarian” leader. The battle between the liberal press and the Trump administration continued in a way that would appear insignificant to the layman. Spicer decided that the first outlet he would call on in his press briefing Monday would be The New York Post. This lead to journalists crying out about tradition being broken as the Associated Press would typically have gotten the first question.
This battle continued Tuesday when Spicer called on Laura Ingraham’s LifeZette first, an incident that the AP would end up writing a story about. Then President Trump decided he would join in on the fun and tweeted his approval of Fox News, while labeling CNN “FAKE NEWS.” CNN did not return a request for comment.
It should be noted that this is a two-sided battle. Publications held in high regard like The New York Times and The Washington Post have both published decidedly false stories in their efforts to damage Trump.
In addition to this, reporters from The New York Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New Yorker and Daily Beast have all let their negative biases about Trump known on Twitter and continue to cover him.
Trump has called himself a “counterpuncher,” and as he will likely spend his administration under attack from the press, expect more outlets to be deemed “fake news.”
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