Trump vs. the media

Howard Kurtz:

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Donald Trump is staking his presidency, as he did his election, on nothing less than destroying the credibility of the news media; and the media are determined to do the same to him. This is not just a feud or a fight or a battle. It is scorched-earth warfare in which only one side can achieve victory. To a stunning degree, the press is falling into the president's trap. The country's top news organizations have targeted Trump with an unprecedented barrage of negative stories, with some no longer making much attempt to hide their contempt. Some stories are legitimate, some are not, and others are generated by the president's own falsehoods and exaggerations. But the mainstream media, subconsciously at first, has lurched into the opposition camp and is appealing to an anti-Trump base of viewers and readers, failing to grasp how deeply it is distrusted by a wide swath of the country.

These are not easy words for me to write. I am a lifelong journalist with ink in my veins. And for all my criticism of the media's errors and excesses, I have always believed in the mission of aggressive reporting and holding politicians accountable.

But the past two years have radicalized me. I am increasingly troubled by how many of my colleagues have decided to abandon any semblance of fairness out of a conviction that they must save the country from Trump.

I first got to know Donald Trump three decades ago and never made the blunder of underestimating him during the campaign. I saw all his weaknesses — the bluster, the bullying, the refusal to admit mistakes — but I also saw strengths that most of my colleagues missed, especially an ability to channel the anger of millions of voters who despise the press — including the old-guard conservative press — and other elite institutions.

This is, at bottom, a battle over the truth. Who owns it, who controls it, who can sell their version to a polarized public that increasingly cannot agree on basic facts. Everything you read, hear and see about Trump's veracity is filtered through a mainstream media prism that reflects a lying president — and virtually never considers the press' own baggage and biases. Everything you read, hear and see from the Trump team is premised on the view that media news is fake news, that journalists are too prejudiced, angry and ideological to fairly report on the president. Trump and his acolytes use these attacks on the Fourth Estate to neutralize their own untruths, evasions and exaggerations. What many journalists fail to grasp is that Trump's supporters love his street talk and view the media critiques as nonsense driven by negativity. They don't care if he makes mistakes. As paradoxical as it sounds, negative coverage helps Trump because it bonds him to people who also feel disrespected by the denizens of the mainstream press. The media take everything literally, and Trump pitches his arguments at a gut level. It is asymmetrical warfare.
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There is much more.

This is a short piece from an excerpt of Kurtz's book on the media and Trump.  It really annoys the media that Trump's supporters do not care about the misstatements Trump might make.  Those have been an important weapon in their arsenal of destroying public figures they disapprove of.   When it doesn't work their frustration level goes up and they become more shrill in their invectives against the President. 

He, on the other hand, is a street fighting counter puncher who is not the stoic politician who absorbs the blows of the media such as George W. Bush did.  If they say something nice about him he is likely to respond in kind to that.

Since he won the election I have learned to ignore the noise and attacks from both camps.  They can both be overwrought on occasion. 

What I focus on are the President's policies and I think they have been good to excellent for the most part.  I suspect that is what many of his supporters do.  The media actually makes that easier with their unbalanced attacks.  Some of them have said that they should not be fair with Trump because he scares them.  But by being unfair they wind up making his point that they should be ignored when attacking him.

It would be nice if they would both act civilly toward each other, but I do not see that happening.  Therefore it is best to focus on policies and when I do that I like what Trump is accomplishing so far.