Trump and the divided media

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.