Donald Trump launched his campaign one year ago, and has been running against the “dishonest” and “sleazy” media ever since.
Now he’s opened a new front by yanking the credentials of the Washington Post.
The tactic isn’t new: Trump has already barred
Politico, the Des Moines Register, the Daily Beast and Buzzfeed, along
with outlets that oppose him for ideological reasons, National Review
and the Huffington Post. Sometimes it’s an offending story, sometimes an
editorial.
In the Post’s case, it was a headline.
The fact that it was a bad headline doesn’t justify
the ban. It was written by one person for the paper’s website. Trump has
criticized other Post stories, but overall seems to have had cordial
relations with the paper, and sat for a grilling with its editorial
board, which has been harshly critical of him. Few reporters have talked
to Trump as much as the Post’s Robert Costa.
Trump’s anger at the Post was on display after the
paper questioned why some of his touted donations to veterans’ groups
hadn’t been completed, and he called that news conference and teed off
on the press.
But the billionaire has been much harsher in
denouncing the New York Times, especially after the story about his past
conduct with women. He spent months fighting with Fox News, even
skipping one of its debates, and now says CNN is distorting his remarks.
He spent months appearing on “Morning Joe” but now says the Scarborough
show has gone off “the deep end.”
The Post dustup began the morning after the Orlando
massacre, when Trump phoned into “Fox & Friends.” He said that
President Obama “is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in
mind. And the something else in mind, you know, people can't believe
it.”
That led to this Post headline:
“Donald Trump Suggests President Obama Was Involved With Orlando Shooting.” About 90 minutes later, the paper softened it to: “Donald Trump Seems to Connect President Obama to Orlando Shooting.”
Except that he didn’t. Under the worst interpretation
of Trump’s comments, he was insinuating that the president sympathized
with terrorists. Indeed, the Post story was well within bounds, saying
that Trump “seemed to repeatedly accuse President Obama on Monday
of identifying with radicalized Muslims who have carried out terrorist
attacks.” But the headline was not.
In announcing the ban, Trump said: “We no longer
feel compelled to work with a publication which has put its need for
‘clicks’ above journalistic integrity. They have no journalistic
integrity and write falsely about Mr. Trump.” He went on to take his
usual shot, without offering evidence, that the paper’s owner, Amazon
founder Jeff Bezos, is using the Post as a political tool.
Marty Barton, the Post’s executive editor (and
portrayed in the movie “Spotlight” as the crusading editor whose Boston
Globe broke the church sexual abuse scandal), responded forcefully,
calling the move “nothing less than a repudiation of a free and
independent press. When coverage doesn’t correspond to what the
candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished.” Baron
said the Post, whose reporters are writing a book about The Donald,
would continue to cover him “honorably, honestly, accurately,
energetically and unflinchingly.”
It’s a common tactic for angry candidates to cut off
interviews to offending news outlets, or feed scoops to their rivals.
But revoking credentials gets the First Amendment movement up in arms.
Some folks have noted online that even at the height
of Watergate, Richard Nixon didn’t attempt to revoke the paper’s
credentials (which are awarded by the White House Correspondents
Association). He did something worse, trying to get federal regulators
to yank the company’s lucrative television license.
So what does Trump accomplish here? It’s not like the
Post is going to stop covering him aggressively. The practical effect
is that he makes it hard for the paper’s reporters to follow him around
the country, and they have to try to walk into public events with the
general crowd rather than being escorted into the press section. The
Trump campaign has ejected a Politico scribe from reporting from the
audience on at least one occasion.
What Trump does is send a message and score points
with his base, which doesn’t like or trust the press. It is also
something of a brushback pitch against other news outlets. The flip side
is that he looks a bit thin-skinned.
The escalation comes as the media coverage of Trump turns more aggressive, more skeptical, and in some cases more tendentious.
A
Washington Post news story offered a prime example on Monday:
“In a speech laden with falsehoods and exaggeration,
Trump was antagonistic and pugnacious, in stark contrast with his
Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who also spoke Monday about
combating terrorism.”
The examples? Trump called the Orlando killer an
“Afghan,” when he was born in Queens. He also said the U.S. is “not
screening” refugees, who the paper says undergo a rigorous vetting
process that can take up to two years.
And the Post said Trump “wrongly claimed that Clinton
wanted to abolish the Second Amendment.” She does not, but does that
fall into the category of embellished political rhetoric? Are the same
standards applied to Clinton when she casts Trump’s positions in the
worst possible light? Is his talk of temporarily banning Muslims
capitalizing on a tragedy, while her talk of tougher gun control is
reported as just plain common sense?
There are times when the media are unfair to Trump.
There are also plenty of times when the media challenge Trump on the
facts and he just doesn’t like it.
The Republican nominee, who has also called for
looser libel laws, has every right to push back against what he views as
unfair coverage. But this is a case where he overreacted to a terrible
headline and gave the impression that he’s willing to block the press
from doing its job.
