Media Madness: book shows Trump White House obsessed with press

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Volume by Fox News anchor, seen by Guardian, portrays president who values loyalty above everything except media attention
David Smith in Washington

@smithinamerica
Sat 27 Jan 2018 12.45 EST

A new book depicts Donald Trump as a media obsessive who measures his staff’s loyalty by how well they defended him on television. But despite his Twitter habit, he rarely looks at the web.

A copy of Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War Over the Truth by Howard Kurtz, a host and media critic on the president’s favored Fox News network, was obtained by the Guardian ahead of its publication on Monday.

It tells of a period in which Trump would phone his son-in-law Jared Kushner every morning and ask: “Did you read the fucking New York Times?” Kushner assured him the paper did not matter.

The president, Kurtz writes, begins his day with four newspapers: the Times, New York Post, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He watches the daily White House press briefing and uses the TiVo personal video recorder to catch up on cable shows he has missed. Communications director Hope Hicks, who has Google alerts set up for key names, sometimes shows him clips on her phone.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/27/media-madness-book-howard-kurtz-donald-trump

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Someone should slide a NY Daily News in there for him to look at

[riversedge]

6. love the S**t for brains for Trump!

[babylonsister]

2. Pierce: Howard Kurtz and the Art of Failing Upwards

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15869472/howard-kurtz-trump-book/

snip//

In his long and spotty career as a media critic, Howie Kurtz has been a monument to upward mobility, much like nausea is. In 2013, he ended up at the Fox News Channel, a career trajectory approximately as unpredictable as the daily passage of the sun. And now, in the era of President* Trump, he has decided to become a “rebel” against what he sees as a mutual suicide pact between the president* and The Media. From Politico:

“The past two years have radicalized me,” Kurtz writes. “I am increasingly troubled by how many of my colleagues have decided to abandon any semblance of fairness out of a conviction that they must save the country from Trump.”

If I want to study a tool, I’ll go to trade school.

To borrow a phrase from young Mr. Lyman, I’d eat this book before I read it.

[Bradical79]

3. The Times

If anything, they're too nice to him. They have a habit of trying to soften the blow of big stories with either some positive Trump related piece, or a suspiciously timed negative article on one of his perceived opponents.

[mopinko]

4. is this a term of art here?

"The president, Kurtz writes, begins his day with four newspapers: the Times, New York Post, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. "

he doesnt say he reads them. i think he just looks at the pics, and reads the headlines.

[UpInArms]

5. Kurtz and Krauthammer make me

Throw up in my mouth ...

[meadowlander]

7. I'm calling bullshit on Trump reading four newspapers a day.

He scans clippings selected by his staff for mentions of his name.