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Press On
Author: BobR    Date: 02/08/2017 14:52:49

With pResident tRump firmly ensconced in the Oval Office, there's been a lot of talk about dictators and autocrats. While tRump may think he was supreme power to do what he wants, he is slowly learning that we are indeed a democracy, and his every whim will not be catered too... at least - not as long as there is an opposition.

Here in DC there is a museum dedicated to the sacred notion of a free press, and those who have been sacrificed maintaining it. Our Founding Fathers felt it necessary to include it in the very first amendment to the Constitution. With that in mind, it's clear that the tRump Regime has acted in a way that deserves comparison to countries like Syria and Cuba where dissent is squashed with an iron fist: he has targeted the press.

There are too many instances of him demonizing the press during the campaign to bother with linking them all. It was a staple of his stump speech. At the same time, that same press was giving him untold hours of free air time. It was an ugly symbiotic relationship.

Once he got elected, though, that relationship should have changed. As President Obama stated upon his first election success to the presidency, he knew he was the president for ALL Americans, and had heard their voices (those who voted for McCain). It was clear, though, that the press was still "on notice", and they were well aware of it. pResident tRump set the tone with his first press conference after getting elected showing he wasn't planning on tempering his beligerance, nor his contempt for media for reporting the truth. This is when he called CNN "fake news", and refused to take a question from them.

This likely prompted what prompted Jake Tapper at CNN to warn us what to expect as long as tRump was in office:
Tapper explained that he’s experienced being yelled at by both presidents and press secretaries and on both sides of the aisle. However, “I’ve never seen the effort to delegitimize an organization for a story that you don’t like that has been proven.” He went on to say that the story is 100 percent accurate.

“[Trump] was obviously trying to get us to stop focusing on the story, and just to discredit all of us,” Tapper continued. “And you know, that’s too bad — it’s not a huge shock that he would try to do that.”
[...]
“[The Trump transition team] tried to say that the entire organization was illegitimate. And when they were doing that, I challenged them for that, specifically because it’s an important principle to stand up for — we’re all supposed to be in this together.”

Tapper offered a warning to journalists from other news organizations if they didn’t stand up to Trump’s bullying. “You’re next,” he said.

And then... there was the infamous first press conference by the president's Press Secretary. It wasn't so much a "conference" as Sean Spicer throwing a tantrum and berating journalists. He took no questions.

Fortunately for all of us, the press is not going to be cowed by this nonsense. They are not backing down at all; they are not being intimidated. Here are a few samplings:


CNN has been doing a lot of the pushing back because they have taken the brunt of the abuse. It is nice to see at least a couple FOX "News" folks pushing back as well. Even though CNN has been guilty of over-sensationalizing a story, or getting it wrong in a rush to get it first, they are one of our best bulwarks against a mafia-like regime that would prefer to control the narrative. They - and ALL media that report the truth - deserve our support.
 

38 comments (Latest Comment: 02/08/2017 20:33:04 by Scoopster)
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