Last updated on May 25th, 2018 at 08:50 am
The moment that CNN‘s Jake Tapper decided that he wasn’t going to let Trump adviser Stephen Miller not answer questions and spew propaganda for an audience of one man in the Oval Office was a turning point in how the media covers Trump and his White House.
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It wasn’t just that Tapper cut off an interview with a guest who was not going to answer questions. The reason that Jake Tapper gave on the air was vital. Tapper called out Miller by saying, “I get it. There is one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious in order to please him.”
Miller wasn’t answering questions. He was there to attack CNN and go off on a rant that was designed solely to please Donald Trump. The Trump White House doesn’t get that this kind of behavior confirms the stories in Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury.
The book has opened the floodgates and allowed journalists to say publicly what they have been saying privately since Trump took office. Interviews with Trump toadies like Miller and Kellyanne Conway are a waste of time.
There is a logical progression happening in Trump coverage. The press stopped covering Trump‘s falsehoods and propaganda efforts without comment. Cable news started fact-checking the President in real time through graphics on the screen and immediately followed his comments with fact checks. The Wolff book came out and confirmed much of the behavior that journalists have experienced with this White House, and now Jake Tapper is telling his cable news colleagues that they don’t have to give airtime to Trump sycophants who are only trying to please the unstable president.
The tide has turned, and a media that was once too permissive with Trump is now covering him in a way that any president, especially one this scandal-riddled, should be covered.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
