Jan 23, 2017

MMMM # 563 -- Trump & The Media

     It is going to be a very long four (or eight) years for the media covering the new President.
    The Washington Post headline about the 1st official meeting between the new press secretary and the White House press corps:

Sean Spicer held a press conference. He didn’t take questions. Or tell the whole truth.

 The story is HERE.

     The Columbia Journalism Review proclaims the new administration a new expanded branch of an old White House enterprise:

"Whereas all modern presidents have spun information—even lied—the reality TV star actively obstructs a fact-based public debate like no other before him. Whereas all have attempted to take their messages directly to supporters, Trump has a unique gift for using tools that do so almost instantaneously. Whereas all have sought to limit press access to suit their political ends, Trump’s relationship with the truth has called the very value of access into question. And whereas all have railed against the press in the face of negative coverage, Trump has portrayed the media as a political foil he’s actively trying to defeat."

     The first post-Inauguration pitched battle between the Administration and the media was a familiar one: How big of a crowd attended/watched the Inauguration? The Atlantic and others use these aerial photos, with Trump's crowd on the left and the first Obama Inaugural on the right.
The TRUE story of the photos

 The Atlantic headline to its story:

Trump's Press Secretary Falsely Claims: 'Largest Audience Ever to Witness an Inauguration, Period'

In his first official White House briefing, Sean Spicer blasted journalists for “deliberately false reporting,” and made categorical claims about crowd-size at odds with the available evidence.





  The traditional media virtually missed the huge Saturday women's protest marches against Trump, reported The Washington Post:

“The women’s marches were pretty much under the radar in most mainstream-media coverage over the last few weeks,” says Marcus Messner, an associate professor of journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he studies social media. The number of demonstrators and events, he says, “caught the media and public off guard,” even as the social-media buzz began growing into a “huge groundswell.”

     There had been talk by the incoming administration of throwing the press corps out of the White House entirely, an event that may seem even more likely following the first Spicer press "meeting" with reporters.
     And watch: if Trump can get away with it, watch for upcoming candidates for U.S. Senate and Governor in Alabama treat the media the same way.

 







[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of www.TimLennox.com]

1 comment:

  1. Plenty of coverage on CNN and MSNBC, as well as the DC local affiliates. (I didn't check out Fox, as I'm allergic to that network.)

    ReplyDelete