News Media, Target of Trumps Declaration of War, Expresses Alarm

[inanna]

By SYDNEY EMBER and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
JAN. 22, 2017

For wary Washington journalists, it seemed only a matter of time before Donald J. Trump’s presidency would lead to a high-tension standoff between his administration and the news media.

But on Day 1?

The news media world found itself in a state of shock on Sunday, a day after Mr. Trump declared himself in “a running war with the media” and the president’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, used his first appearance on the White House podium to deliver a fiery jeremiad against the press.

Worse, many journalists said, were the falsehoods that sprang from the lips of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Spicer on Saturday. Mr. Trump accused the news media of confecting a battle between himself and the intelligence services (in fact, he had previously compared the services to Nazi Germany in a Twitter post). And among other easily debunked assertions, Mr. Spicer falsely claimed that Mr. Trump’s inauguration was the most attended in history (photographs indicated it was not).

...

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/business/media/sean-spicer-donald-trump-alternative-facts.html?_r=0

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Don't be alarmed, media - grow a spine and fight back!

[Trust Buster]

2. Cry me a river. If those assholes cared about journalistic integrity instead of ratings, they

would not find their sorry asses in this position. I'll reserve my sorrow for the millions who will lose their health insurance and to hell with those ratings whores.

[meadowlark5]

3. He made it clear during the campaign he was going to go after them if elected

They refused to do their job and expose everything they could about him and concentrate on that instead of emails, emails, emails...

They were very instrumental in giving us this boob. Deal with it. Fix it. They have the ability to do it. It just depends on if they want to save the country or make money and ratings.

[Bill Fishlore]

4. Who Is the News?

The news readers on camera and the editors and directors behind the cameras may well fear for their jobs. All those people are employees in the news divisions of the handful of giant international corporations which control everything we see on TV and most of what we read in the newspapers. The outcome of Trump's war on the media will be decided in the boardrooms of those corporations, not by the reporters or their viewers.

Like Trump himself, those corporations will adjust their role in the war on the media to maximize their benefit. If both sides conclude that the current fight is in their individual interests, it will continue, perhaps as a journalistic version of professional wrestling. Or, Trump may spin on a dime and make nice as he did with the CIA over the weekend. The media may decide that it is time to trim their sails and go Fox News style on the GOP. The ball is definitely in the President's court. Mr. Trump may continue to employ the wild, inconsistent rhetoric of his campaign; he may decide to change and find that he is unable to do so. The whole Crazy Man Trump bit may just be an act, but I don't think so.