If the press isn’t welcome at the RNC convention, then the networks shouldn’t cover it as a media event. The RNC should have to pay for airtime by the minute as a political advertisement. That’s it. That’s the diary.
Category: Press
2019, the year the press tried—and failed—to stand up to Trump
With Donald Trump becoming the first American president to be impeached in his first term, while holed up in the White House tweeting endless attacks around the clock like some internet troll, 2019 should have been the year the Beltway media finally shed its signature timidity and forcefully stood up to him. This should have been…
Roger Stone and the media's shame of 2016
News on Friday that a federal court convicted former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone on seven counts, including obstruction of a proceeding, false statements, and witness tampering only added to Trump’s woes as the second day of impeachment hearings played out in Washington. Stone’s conviction certainly added to an aura of criminality that surrounds Trump, as more aides and…
Why Fox News is getting trounced in the public opinion battle over Trump impeachment
Shepard Smith's recent, abrupt resignation isn’t the only crisis Fox News is facing these days. Aside from allegations that conservatives simply will not tolerate any dissenting voices amid a chorus that worships Donald Trump, the right-wing cable news outlet is struggling as it tries to fight the public opinion battle over impeachment. The unfolding inquiry in the…
It's time: Newspapers should demand Trump resign. That's what they told Bill Clinton
Openly colluding with a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political opponent, while offering up the assistance of the Department of Justice. Freezing U.S. foreign aid to make sure the overseas dirt gets dug. Hiding transcripts of presidential calls on secret servers in hopes of covering up the collusion. Publicly threatening to expose the collusion…
It's time: Newspapers should demand Trump resign. That's what they told Bill Clinton
Openly colluding with a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political opponent, while offering up the assistance of the Department of Justice. Freezing U.S. foreign aid to make sure the overseas dirt gets dug. Hiding transcripts of presidential calls on secret servers in hopes of covering up the collusion. Publicly threatening to expose the collusion…
The press has a Rudy Giuliani problem
The impeachment battle lines now appear to have been drawn in terms of the unfolding messaging war that will dominate the airwaves for months to come: Democrats are doggedly perusing the checked-out claims of a government whistleblower, while Republicans are lying about everything. That's not an exaggeration. Embracing Donald Trump's signature and constant disregard for the…
The press has a Rudy Giuliani problem
The impeachment battle lines now appear to have been drawn in terms of the unfolding messaging war that will dominate the airwaves for months to come: Democrats are doggedly perusing the checked-out claims of a government whistleblower, while Republicans are lying about everything. That's not an exaggeration. Embracing Donald Trump's signature and constant disregard for the…
Vicious anti-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attack ad shows 2020 swift boating has begun. Is press ready?
It started in depressing fashion, but the 2020 election season may have officially begun when a right-wing group aired a vicious attack ad last week against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The spot, which aired on a couple of major-market ABC stations the night of a prime-time Democratic debate, featured Ocasio-Cortez’s image being consumed…
Vicious anti-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attack ad shows 2020 swift boating has begun. Is press ready?
It started in depressing fashion, but the 2020 election season may have officially begun when a right-wing group aired a vicious attack ad last week against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The spot, which aired on a couple of major-market ABC stations the night of a prime-time Democratic debate, featured Ocasio-Cortez’s image being consumed…
Media coverage of Trump rallies is completely broken
The good news is cable news channels, even including Fox News, no longer treat Donald Trump rallies as must-air events. The bad news is that news outlets still cover the redundant, news-free rallies religiously and in the process help spread unchecked Trump lies. This week he was in North Carolina falsely claiming that “America-hating” Democrats were engaged in “a…
Media coverage of Trump rallies is completely broken
The good news is cable news channels, even including Fox News, no longer treat Donald Trump rallies as must-air events. The bad news is that news outlets still cover the redundant, news-free rallies religiously and in the process help spread unchecked Trump lies. This week he was in North Carolina falsely claiming that “America-hating” Democrats were engaged in “a…
Why Trump's new press secretary is actually more dangerous than Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Add it to the list of long-standing norms that the Trump White House has shredded: Press secretary Stephanie Grisham has aggressively positioned herself not as an administration conduit for the press corps, but as an open and hostile enemy of newsgathering, in a way that even surpasses Sarah Huckabee Sanders' dangerous tenure in the position. And…
Why Trump's new press secretary is actually more dangerous than Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Add it to the list of long-standing norms that the Trump White House has shredded: Press secretary Stephanie Grisham has aggressively positioned herself not as an administration conduit for the press corps, but as an open and hostile enemy of newsgathering, in a way that even surpasses Sarah Huckabee Sanders' dangerous tenure in the position. And…
Confirmed: Trump lies to reporters more often than he lies to any other group
Press advocates scored an important legal victory this week when a U.S. District Court judge ordered the White House to reinstate media credentials to reporter Brian Karem, whose access had been stripped away by Donald Trump's team after a dust-up during a Rose Garden ceremony in July. There, former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka called Karem a…
Confirmed: Trump lies to reporters more often than he lies to any other group
Press advocates scored an important legal victory this week when a U.S. District Court judge ordered the White House to reinstate media credentials to reporter Brian Karem, whose access had been stripped away by Donald Trump's team after a dust-up during a Rose Garden ceremony in July. There, former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka called Karem a…
Trump's 2020 polling numbers are a disaster. Why doesn't his press coverage reflect that?
The Beltway press has spent years normalizing many things about Donald Trump's radical presidency. Now it seems to be normalizing Trump's disastrous polling numbers on the eve of his re-election run. Any other incumbent in his lowly polling position would likely be getting hammered by the pundit class as it dubbed his presidency a failure. But not Trump. …
Trump's 2020 polling numbers are a disaster. Why doesn't his press coverage reflect that?
The Beltway press has spent years normalizing many things about Donald Trump's radical presidency. Now it seems to be normalizing Trump's disastrous polling numbers on the eve of his re-election run. Any other incumbent in his lowly polling position would likely be getting hammered by the pundit class as it dubbed his presidency a failure. But not Trump. …
Trump's White House is running a media access con game—and winning
The White House is perpetrating a scam on the Beltway press corps, bragging about how much access Donald Trump gives reporters. The whole thing is a ruse, though, and unfortunately, it's another example of how key institutions of American journalism are lying down in the face of Trump’s bullying, not even mustering a fight on…
