By Brigitte L. Nacos
When journalists cover Donald Trump’s rallies, they risk rhetorical attacks from the former president and by his supporters. As candidate and as president Trump called the news media the “enemy of the people.” This was his well laid plan to undermine public trust in the press.
Following his election victory in 2016, Trump had a telling encounter with the well- known TV reporter Lesley Stahl that she described later during a journalism award event,
“At one point, he started to attack the press. There were no cameras in there. I said, ‘You know, this is getting tired. Why are you doing it over and over? It’s boring and it’s time to end that. You know, you’ve won … why do you keep hammering at this?’ And he said: ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”
Trump was successful in convincing his hard-core followers that the American press is evil and aligned with their domestic enemies—Democrats, Liberals, the “deep state” and so on. In such a climate, aggressive language can result in physical attacks.
Last Friday, a man stormed into the press section shortly after Trump had criticized the media for negative coverage in general and CNN for interviewing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz a day earlier. Before the intruder could harm reporters, police officers tasered and arrested the guy. Reacting to the incident Trump asked the crowd, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?” There is reason to believe that Trump would have liked to see some roughed-up media workers last Friday.
In October 2018, after congressional GOP candidate Greg Gianforte of Montana body slammed and injured a reporter of The Guardian because he did not like to be questioned about his healthcare policy, President Trump praised Gianforte during a rally and mimicked a body slamming motion. “Greg is smart,” he said. “And by the way, never wrestle him. Never. Any guy that can do a body slam is my kind of guy. My kind. I shouldn’t say that but this is nothing to be embarrassed by.”
After MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi covered a peaceful “Black Lives Matter” demonstration and was hit by a rubber bullet, Donald Trump recalled the incident at a campaign rally. “They [law enforcement officers] threw him aside like he was a little bag of popcorn,” the President said. “But I mean honestly, when you watch the crap that we’ve all had to take so long…when you see it, it’s actually a beautiful sight.”
Trump has no reason whatsoever to attack the press. He is the spreader of lies. Not the media. During this campaign he has once again dominated the news because he received more coverage than first Joe Biden and more recently Kamala Harris. Good examples were the trials in New York City courts, when the media offered him every day several opportunities to appear before cameras and microphones to attack plaintiffs, witnesses, prosecutors, judges, and Democrats for allegedly misusing the legal system again him, “an innocent man.”
In yesterday’s Washington Post, Columnist Colbert I. King summarized the soft reporting on Donald Trump best in the opening sentences of his column. He wrote,
“Are we in La La Land?
If I didn’t know better, I might conclude that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, in which rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election, was merely the act of exuberant “patriots” voicing their displeasure with Joe Biden’s victory — and that Donald Trump had nothing to do with it. What else to think, based on the media’s treatment of the twice-impeached former president and felon and his campaign to return to the White House? Trump is being covered by the press as if Jan. 6 were old news.”
Very well said!
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