The strained relationship between
the US President and the media started since the Donald Trump announced his bid
for the US Presidency in July 2015, during which he accused Mexican immigrants
as rapists, drug dealers and criminals. Or probably way before that when he
relentlessly raised questions about former President Barack Obama’s
citizenship.
Trump has since made many remarks
that were definitely out of line, including insulting his fellow Republican
nominees, his derogatory remarks towards former Fox news anchor, Megyn Kelly
and his mocking of New York Times journalist, Serge Kovaleski for his
disability.
Despite this, the media has been
unable to hold Trump to account, or to be fair, destroy his campaign. In fact,
his offensive statements made him stronger as he continued to garner more
support from those who viewed his messages as a rebellion against the
establishment and political correctness.
The most disturbing fact of all
this was that some media houses continued to defend him throughout, with some even
insisting that Kovaleski was not mocked, although plenty of video footage
exists that proves the blatantly obvious. To this day as the President of the
United States, Trump insists that he did not mock him.
Sometimes I think the media’s
somewhat leniency towards Trump helped him get elected and now it seems they
have begun to tolerate his behaviour which equates to indirectly supporting his
racist views, disrespect and sexual objectification of women and hatred and
wish to control the media. Yes, the media grilled him, but not as aggressive as
BBC’s HARDtalk presenter, Stephan Sucker would have. They uncovered some disturbing
information about him, but Trump denied them all and he always managed to
intimidate the journalists assigned to interview him. No journalist, to my
observation, managed to take on Trump successfully. He always emerged the
winner.
Recently, at his first press
conference as President elect, Trump called CNN and BuzzFeed carriers of fake
news for running stories about Russia allegedly holding incriminating
information about him that they could use against him.
At the same conference, after shouting
down CNN reporter, Jim Acosta, and refusing to take his question, no other
journalists came to Acosta’s defense and some people in the press conference
hall clapped their hands. I am not sure if it was journalists from other media
houses or if it was Trump’s staff and supporters.
I would have expected all journalists
to leave the press conference hall in solidarity with Acosta. I believe it is important for journalists to
support each other, especially when media freedom and respect is at stake. The
moment a crack in media freedom starts to form, it is important that it is
fixed immediately, because if you let the crack continue to develop, it will
cause substantial damage, and the whole media fraternity will suffer the
consequences.
These cracks are already starting
to show with a threat by a senior White House official who recently told the media to shut up.
What happened at that press
conference was a disgrace and the President and his media staff seem to think
that he is now above the law and can do or treat the media however he wants.
For those media houses in defense of Trump for bashing CNN and BuzzFeed for
publishing/airing unverified information, my advice to them is to open their
eyes. Trump has made many unverified statements about other people, one of the
most notable being his allegation that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the
murder of former US President, John F. Kennedy. This allegation was reported
widely by the media, even though it was never verified before being published. How
many unverified WikiLeaks information was published by the media, but the
victims never treated the media the way Trump did?
The media seems to have forgotten
that not only are they the gatekeepers of truthful information, but also
defenders of democracy by holding public officials to account. Do your job and
stop being afraid of Donald Trump, no matter how defensive, rude and
intimidating he is.
If this 'afraid attitude' continues, then it is only a matter of time before the judiciary is also attacked, which could start the beginning of the end of the USA as the leader of the free world.
Simply reporting on what our leaders are doing is not enough. It is one thing to report on something, but another thing to hold someone to account.
I am glad that some journalists recently stated that they would not be silenced by the new administration.
