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| President Trump, excoriating the Press for its coverage of him at a Press Conference in February, 2017 |
Franklin's response has resonated over the years since then; whenever some American or group of Americans has wondered if the latest purported threat to America's continuing existence as America, someone remembers and quotes Franklin's sage advice. The point being: democracy (okay, the USA is technically a representative republic, but let's not quibble here) is a fragile thing; many experiments in Rule by the People have been launched over the centuries, and a number of them quickly descended into the sort of chaos which spawns authoritarian governments and worse.
Since the presidential election of 2016, a number of Americans have wondered if the country had ignored Franklin's advice in electing Donald J. Trump. It seems that every time the President opens his mouth - or posts something to Twitter - somebody wonders whether he is leading the country down the tubes, and the only way to save America would be to find some pretext to cause the Trump presidency to fall.
As I've 'confessed' several times in this blog, I voted for Trump and therefore would have to accept some of the blame should his presidency prove to be the undoing of America. And in all honesty, many of the things Trump says are definitely 'cringe-worthy' in my sensibilities. That said, if would appear that his reference to 'shithole' countries, so widely reported in the media, is not a true quote. Trump denies saying it at the closed meeting with leaders of Congress, and Senator Dick Durban, who reported to the press that he'd said it - others present at the meeting remember no such quote - has been caught mis-quoting (ie, lying about what others had said) before. But the world seems to accept that Trump actually said it, perhaps at least in part, because most of us can imagine him saying it given other things he has, verifiably, said. And since the media has so widely and gleefully reported that he did say it, despite that there were no journalists present at the meeting in question, few are questioning it.
I personally think that the widespread outrage at what Trump supposedly said, is comical. Politicians, including US Presidents, routinely say saucy things and nobody thinks that the American Republic is in danger. Powerful politicians on both the right and the left, routinely says things that are probably not fit to print...and the world doesn't come to an end. But in the case of Trump, the howls of warning that the Republic is in danger rise up from the media anytime he opens his mouth or gets onto his computer. (Or whatever device from which he, or some designated staff member, tweets.)
Just after the news cycle had run out on 'shithole countries,' the President's personal physician was trotted out in a White House presser to report that, after Trump's recent annual physical, he is healthy as a horse and entirely fit - from a physical and cognitive health standpoint - to continue to serve in his office. The media present, raked Doctor Ronny Jackson over the coals for an hour, trying to punch some hole in his report. And since the press conference, some in the media have been working hard to discredit the doctor himself. That's kind of interesting, since the same Doctor Jackson, who is a Rear Admiral in the US Navy Medical Corps, has been personal physician to Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama before Trump, and made the same announcements at press conferences for the past 12 years, and nobody in the media questioned his judgement or his integrity. No, it seems that the press is just so eager to discredit and topple the President, that they'll jump on any possibility, and do so with the vigor of a pack of wild dogs.
Given this, the President's ire for the press doesn't seem so ill-considered. The same press that was, according to many wiser heads than mine, sycophantic towards President Obama, is reflexively disposed to report unfairly - and often inaccurately - on this President.
Interestingly, Obama during his presidency and even as recently as last week, has repeatedly tried to discredit Fox News Network, one of the only major news outlets (along with the Wall Street Journal) that did not reflexively report positively on everything Obama said and did. So when some network reported negatively on Obama, he got hot under the collar and refused to be interviewed by its reporters. He received virtually no criticism in the mainstream media for doing the same thing for which Trump - when criticized in the media, fairly or unfairly - is noted. In mentioning this I'm not trying to deflect criticism of Trump by criticizing Obama. I'm just pointing out that no powerful politician is likely to suffer negative press coverage that he doesn't think he deserves.
A free and unfettered press has been seen as an important element in American freedom from the beginnings of the republic. Even so, there have been a number of scandalous episodes in American journalism. For example, many historians believe that it was shoddy and sensational reporting that dragged us into the Spanish-American War by reporting a hunch concerning the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor as gospel truth, and thus fanning the flames of public opinion towards going to war. And that's just one example.
I wish President Trump would not spend his valuable time (or that of his staff) in writing up announcements of 'Fake News Awards,' but I do agree that the press needs to be called out for its biases and excesses. Slanted reporting is nothing new, but seems that this Presidency is bringing out the worst in the degree of bias expressed as 'fact.' I wish that journalist would get back to the basics of what their profession is supposed to be about, and get back - as a group, not just some exceptions - to their sacred trust of safeguarding the Republic.
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