When this Forward Kentucky contributor heard about Trump’s news media “bias” website, I couldn’t wait to see if I was on it.
Did I make it by pointing out that Trump is a vile racist (and an equally vile sexist, misogynist, nativist, xenophobe, homophobe, transphobe, and shameless panderer to Christian nationalism) who invites comparison to George “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” Wallace. Nah, he’d probably consider the comparison a compliment.
Could I have gotten in by proposing that myths like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Unicorns, and the Easter Bunny are small potatoes up against the whopper that Trump is pro-union?
Okay, I knew I wasn’t on the list because I’m a minor league journo, not a “fake news” heavy hitter.
Anyway, the list is “a new website that supposedly tracks media bias,” Margaret Sullivan explained in a Guardian opinion piece. “It offers a ‘Hall of Shame’ and ‘media offenders of the week’ to focus on reporting that the president dislikes. It names individuals and news organizations, and it points to the Boston Globe and CBS News, among others, for doing supposedly misleading and biased work. It uses terms like ‘left wing lunacy’ to describe some of its complaints.”
She also wrote that “there really is something being exposed here, but it’s not the reporting. It’s Trump’s own increasing desperation and his decreasing ability to countenance anything other than flattery and sycophancy. That’s not what the mainstream press is — or should be — in the business of providing.”
Take it from an old newspaper guy (who ultimately abandoned the newsroom for a history classroom). If Trump thinks that mocking big time print or TV reporters and mega news gathering outlets by trying to publicly shame them will make the mainstream Fourth Estate start parroting MAGA malarky, he’s even more clueless and delusional than usual.
I’d bet that those newshounds and news organizations Trump targeted are proud to be Hall of Shamers. I would be.
Sullivan also quoted from Jonathan Lemire’s piece in The Atlantic: “President Trump has never before been in such an echo chamber,” according to Lemire. “His domestic travel has basically stopped. He sees rich donors and MAGA media, not actual voters.”
Concluded Sullivan: “Given that bubble, harsh reality via the media is a rude intrusion, and the new White House site is an evident effort to dispel the discomfort by disparaging it.”
Meanwhile, Lindsey Granger wrote in The Hill that Trump’s try at media shaming online “is the culmination of a years-long pattern of belittling, mocking, and outright attacking journalists for doing their jobs.”
She added, “Since the start of his second term, the administration has used lawsuits, shutdowns of government-funded outlets, and new physical restrictions that block journalists from key government spaces. Sometimes it targets specific outlets. Other times, it bans press access altogether. Either way, it breaks bipartisan precedent and undermines the public’s right to know.”
She proposed that two factors are at play:
“First, controlling the narrative. If the public stops trusting independent journalism, they’re left with only one version of the truth — the administration’s.
“Second, weakening the watchdog. Journalism is supposed to challenge power, not fear punishment from it.
“You can disagree with coverage. You can call out inaccuracies. But when a president builds a digital ‘Hall of Shame’ to intimidate reporters, mocks them on camera, and limits their access to the government they’re meant to hold accountable, that’s not OK.
“A free press doesn’t always make leaders comfortable. That’s the point. And if the administration is naming ‘offenders of the week,’ let’s remember: targeting the messenger doesn’t make the message any less true.”
France24.com‘s Annaelle Jonah wrote that “Shortly after the site’s launch, journalists identified several errors on the site, including an entry wrongly attributing a press briefing question to a Fox News reporter. The page was quietly taken down before reappearing without the Fox reference.”
Don’t be surprised if more journalists point out more howlers and can’t be bullied into joining Fox News et al. in the MAGA ministry of propaganda. Trump may zap the site, but probably after he again decks White House walls with blobs of ketchup.
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