Trump Demands The Media Report The News His Way

It is no secret to the American public, that Fox News is Mr. Trump’s favorite news outlet, with Fox & Friends being his go-to show.

As Charles Blow, Opinion Writer for the New York Times makes clear:

“This show, with its kindergarten-level intellectual capacity, moved from parroting conservative policies to constructing presidential priorities. “Fox & Friends” has essentially become Donald Trump’s daily briefing.” 

Dubbing the news outlet and Mr. Trump as the “Trump-Fox feedback loop,” Politico concluded after three months of monitoring Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed, that Trump was simply “live Tweeting” Fox and Friends talking  points. Put another way: While Trump has access to one of, if not the best, intelligence apparatus’ in the world, one that has a budget of 73 million dollars per year, it is apparent he “prefers to rely on conservative cable news hosts to understand current events.”

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What seems to Americans across this land to be nothing more than random thoughts stirring through Trump’s brain, actually have their etiology in Fox News programming.

Case in point:

Matthew Gertz, Senior Fellow for Media Matters for America concludes:

“On Tuesday morning, for instance, on his first morning back in Washington after an 11-day vacation, the president tweeted what I believe were five consecutive tweets based on Fox’s programming….”

The network, and specifically their flagship morning show, Fox and Friends have led Trump to publicly proclaim that Huma Abedin, the former Secretary of State’s aide should be imprisoned. Furthermore, Trump’s Tweets regarding the NFL,  the concocted Uranium One  scandal against Mr. Trump’s former opponent,  and his attacks on the FBI premised on nothing but conspiracies each have their roots in the network and show. ” And just look how the network and show have provided Trump with talking points – mostly false – regarding the “dreaded caravan.”

And lest anyone has forgotten, it is estimated that Mr. Trump spends approximately nine hours per day in what is termed “Executive Time,” leading him to being the most “freewheeling President” in modern-day political history, attempting to fulfill his role in one of the most “regimented” job position in the country.

As Gertz points out in his piece in Politico;

“In December, Mediaite put the co-hosts of Fox & Friends at the top of its ‘Most Influential in Media‘ list, pointing out “the topics they cover essentially set the national agenda for the rest of the day. Mediaite is not wrong.” 

Later that day, Kellyanne Conway congratulated the hosts of Fox & Friends for the distinction, with Trump following up with his own note of congratulations
“urging the “many Fake News Hate Shows” to “study your formula for success!”

The question then is, “Why does Mr. Trump feel such an affinity for Fox News, specifically Fox & Friends, while referencing the rest of the media as “fake news” which he labels the “enemy of the people,” a highly charged characterization and attack on the nation’s first amendment right?

Perhaps Ainsely Earhardt, co-host for Fox & Friends can assist here.  On Thursday morning, after “playing a video clip of Trump being pressed during his interview with Axios,”  specifically when Jim VandeHei asks Trump why he refers to the media as the “enemy of the people,” Trump responded as follows:

“It is my only form of fighting back. I couldn’t be here if I didn’t do that.”

After airing the clip of the interview, Ainsely Earhardt provides a rare moment of truth to the viewer. She states:

“How frustrating would it be if you’re the president of the United States and every single time you turn on the TV on most of the channels, they’re misconstruing what you say? And you know your heart and you know your words and you know your voice, and then you watch other people report on what you say and it’s completely different than what you mean. That has to be frustrating. That’s why he’s saying it’s fake news. And he’s saying, if you don’t want to be called the enemy, then get the story right, be accurate and report the story the way that I want it reported.” 

First, has Earhardt lost her mind? Every single president who has served this nation has had some viewer misconstrue what they had been saying. How about former President Obama and Fox’s selective editing on statements he made such as “if you have a business, you didn’t built that?”

Second, the most oft cited reason Trump supporters have given for being behind Mr. Trump is his “ability to tell it like it is,” right? According to Earhardt, Trump is failing in this department as much as he is failing to make good on his promises to the American people.  In a similar vein, how many surrogates does the man need to interpret what he said, providing the public with hours of endless spin? And Earhardt wants us to believe the journalists are reporting something “completely different” than what Trump means? Spare us!

Finally, and most importantly, Earhardt exposes what Trump’s  real issue  with media outlets is with the last sentence of her statement:

“And he’s saying, if you don’t want to be called the enemy, then get the story right, be accurate “and report the story the way I want it reported.”

And there you each have it folks. Trump’s beef with the media is plain and simple: he wants all media outlets to report the story the way he wants it reported. If they don’t, he considers those outlets, “fake,” and “the enemy of the people.” 

If that does not make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, I do not know what will. That is the kind of statement dictators and autocrats make. And this right here is the reason liberals and progressives must get out and vote on November, 6, 2018. For if we don’t, we may very well not have a democracy left by the time the next election rolls around.

Or worse, Fox News will be governing our Nation.

Dr. Mark Bear

A social psychologist by day, political analyst and journalist by night, Dr. Mark Bear has built an established audience by printing facts, without click-bait, sensationalism, or hyperbole. He is married to his wife of 34 years, and both he and his wife, Susan, have a Schnauzer named Shadow. Follow along by connecting with Doc on Facebook or Twitter under the handle Dr. Progressive!