Trump Versus the Liberal Media

Kerry Lear

9 years ago

On Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer held a daily press briefing, but media outlets that Trump has recently accused of reporting &ldquo&semi;fake news&rdquo&semi; we&rsquo&semi;re allegedly not invited&period;&NewLine;CNN, The New York Times, The Hill, Buzzfeed, and Politico were among the new sources &ldquo&semi;not given access&rdquo&semi; to the press conference&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;While, The Washington Times, One America News Network, Breitbart, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and McClatchy were all allow to cover the press gaggle&period; Both The Associated Press and Time Magazine were given access, but did not attend in defiance of the White House&rsquo&semi;s move to exclude some media sources&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;AP believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible,&rdquo&semi; tweeted Lauren Easton, AP&&num;8217&semi;s director of media relations&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;However, the White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said that the &ldquo&semi;claims that outlets were excluded are not factual&rdquo&semi; and that &ldquo&semi;the pool was there, so various media mediums were represented&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;Spicer argued that the administration has given the press a tremendous amount of access to the president and his team&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;I think that we have shown an abundance of accessibility,&&num;8221&semi; said Spicer in the Friday press briefing&period; &&num;8220&semi;We&rsquo&semi;ve brought more reporters into this process&period; &hellip&semi; We&rsquo&semi;ve actually gone above and beyond making ourselves, our team and our briefing room more accessible than probably any prior administration&period; I think you can take that to the bank&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Spicer was responsible for allowing the use of &ldquo&semi;Skype seats,&rdquo&semi; where other reporters outside of Washington can ask questions in the White House press briefings now&period;&NewLine;Even though the press has the most access to the White House than ever, it looks as though the tensions between Trump and the media is at an all-time high&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Trump is making it clear he won&rsquo&semi;t be tolerating outlets reporting &ldquo&semi;fake news,&rdquo&semi; or news that hasn&rsquo&semi;t been verified&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fake, phony, fake,&&num;8221&semi; said Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday before the press briefing&period; &&num;8220&semi;A few days ago, I called the fake news &&num;8216&semi;the enemy of the people,&&num;8217&semi; and they are&period; They are the enemy of the people&period; Because they have no sources&period; They just make them up when there are none&period;&&num;8221&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Many voiced criticisms after the White House supposedly excluded some of the media from Friday&rsquo&semi;s news briefing&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today&&num;8217&semi;s gaggle is being handled by the White House,&rdquo&semi; said Jeff Mason, the White House Correspondents&rsquo&semi; Association (WHCA) president in a statement&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Then on Saturday, the president announced he would not be attending the upcoming White House Correspondents&&num;8217&semi; Association dinner on April 29th&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;I will not be attending the White House Correspondents&&num;8217&semi; Association Dinner this year&period; Please wish everyone well and have a great evening&excl;&rdquo&semi; tweeted Trump&period;&NewLine;The dinner honors White House journalists, while also awards scholarships to up-and-coming reporters&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising students who represent the next generation of our profession,&&num;8221&semi; said Mason about the event&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;But, Trump isn&rsquo&semi;t the only one backing out of the event&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;The president&&num;8217&semi;s announcement comes amid growing tensions between his administration and the media, with several news organizations including CNN saying they may not participate in this year&&num;8217&semi;s event at the Washington Hilton,&rdquo&semi; writes The Hill&period; &nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;Bloomberg L&period;P&period;, which hosts a high-profile after-party for the dinner, had pulled the plug on the event&period; Vanity Fair, which usually partners with Bloomberg in throwing the party, announced earlier this month that it would not participate&period; The New Yorker, the magazine that hosts a kickoff party before the dinner, canceled its event earlier this month, while CNN and MSNBC are also reportedly deliberating whether they will pull out of the annual dinner&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;So, all of these media outlets are making statements of their own&period;&NewLine;Author&rsquo&semi;s note&colon; The battle between liberal media and Trump is intensifying&period; But, instead of outlets revealing their excessive bias against the president, they should be focusing on improving their journalistic practices&period; It&rsquo&semi;s not just that these sources are reporting primarily unjustified attacks on the Trump administration, it&rsquo&semi;s that they are publishing stories without fact-checking and having reliable sources&period; The media is doing anything to get traffic to their sites with bogus articles&period; But, Trump is not going to let them get away with it&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;