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The President vs. the Media
If the mainstream media’s relationship to President Barack Obama began as a slobbering love affair, some reporters eventually realized that the relationship had always been one-sided. The press corps may have fallen in love with Obama at first sight, but the president was never really that into them. The most transparent administration in history turned out to be merciless when it came to leaks, substantive interactions were nixed in favor of superficial pressers, and the president was more than happy to bypass the press corps in favor of carefully managed social media when it suited him (as it often did). Don’t take my word for it: This 2015 piece in the Columbia Journalism Review catalogues the pattern admirably.
President Donald Trump’s relationship with the press promises to be, shall we say, different: “Mutual abuse for each other’s benefit” seems about right, though — and this is important — the press keeps getting rolled. Witness the kerfuffle this weekend over the crowd size at the inauguration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlnhqvp9uJ4
A few observations:
- This is among the least substantive issues I can imagine. The size of the crowds at the inaugurations is not and never was important.
- I’m not claiming to be any expert on this, but it sure looks like the crowd at Obama’s inauguration was bigger than the one at Trump’s, and it stands to reason that it would have been (first black president taking the oath of office in a majority black city, etc). Regardless, Spicer is transparently trying to have it both ways: i.e, claiming that the lack of any official count means it’s impossible for the press to make responsible claims, while insisting that Trump’s inauguration was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.”
- The media thinks this is gold. To take the obvious example, the New York Times has at least three pieces dedicated to the subject (here, here, and here), as well as a fourth that compares the inauguration crowd to those at anti-Trump protests.
If the press cares either for its reputation or serving the public, it needs to smarten up, and quickly. Dedicating this many resources to catching the administration in a blatant-but-meaningless falsehood is a waste of time and resources. Focus on the real stuff — the good and the bad — and don’t run down every rabbit hole the administration presents to you. Sean Spicer clearly didn’t put a lot of time or energy on this. Why should you?
As for the administration, I would suggest that it ain’t always going to be this easy. Other people will eventually get wise as to how this works and it’ll make you sloppy when you need to keep your skills sharp.
Published in Politics
I think Rob Long would agree with you, given that there’s such a thing as a television audience. But hey, you’re right about it being so high school.
Factual evidence? Sir, you’ve gone too far!
Seems to me that the crowd-size issue is Eric Stratton’s thumb:
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/cAEHQ4As0xw” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>
Like a four year hurdle race. LOVE it.
If Trump doesn’t do it to them, they will bludgeon him. Plus, the media will have to work.
It will be critical for Trump to be truthful in all of his diversions and riddles.
It’s also about hitting a nerve. Throughout the campaign he bragged and exaggerated about the size of the audience. Saying he had a smaller inaugural crowd is just another iteration of the small hands meme. Trump is, sadly, very sensitive about this.
Do they pee standing up or sitting down?
At the rally maybe depends?
?
I am gonna take away your cake, Jamie! haha
You read my mind Tom. This is part of why everyone thinks the media is full of [non-CoC compliant word].
I don’t think Trump picks his battles – he pushes back always, about everything.
I’m sure from his point of view it has worked well for him to take this approach, so I see it continuing.
It’ll be interesting to see if it rattles the press to be forcefully contradicted all the time. It might get in their heads and affect how aggressive they are.
Does the size of the crowd have anything to do with the size of his hands?
Mr. Trump will be living rent-free in their heads for years to come.
If Scott Walker had just been inaugurated as president, the crowds would still have been smaller, and the press would have made just as big a deal out of it. Walker would have ignored it and if asked would’ve dismissed it as a statistic that only the media cares about. And then begun talking about his already-completed Obamacare repeal/replace package awaiting Senate action.
Which is what Trump should have done, but instead he chose to dive right in. So again the world smallest violin is playing for him.
Part of what’s driving this might be mutual reinforcement. The media sells extra when their egging Trump on causes a stir. And Trump gets media attention when a stir is caused. No one can accuse Trump of not enjoying controversy.
Still the left wing media are in their element opposing Trump. Obama made them guilty if they opposed.
We all would be better served if everyone cooled it. Trump deserves a honeymoon even if he pricks the media to oppose him.
Fasten your seat belts, please. We’re in for a bumpy ride.
Nope, that was W’s strategery. Poor move. They buried him.
Get in their face each and every time. Fight. The issue at hand is not the point. The left has been using this strategy for years, successfully. Crowd size, schmoud size. Take the fight to them, on everything. This is part of why I wish I could’ve voted for him several times.
Probably.
Here are a few news stories that I’m glad will get overshadowed by crowd-gate.
But good job, media. Keep talking about stuff that doesn’t matter!
Evan McMullin: “His [Trump’s] attacks are not routine disputes over bias, fairness or facts. They are intended to destroy the media’s ability to hold him accountable.”
The True Conservative has spoken.
I think the larger point is that the media looks ridiculous even writing/posting such stories. A better approach by Spicer would have been to point out how many other, more important, aspects of the inauguration could have occupied the same print/online space. They showed their pettiness; he should have mocked them for it.
He could have also pointed out that, of course, every inauguration is historic, but the inauguration of the first African-American president in 2009 understandably drew record crowds and viewers.
It would have looked gracious, and made the media squirm, in one fell swoop. #Winning! ?
Sidebar: are we going to get these silly comparison stories with every Trump Administration event? E.g., the State of the Union speech should be soon……I hope there’s not another kerfuffle over that.
But I heard Trump’s golf score was better than Obama’s. Why aren’t they talking about that?
Yup. And whatever Obama did will be better.
This is arguing the definition of “is” without a lawyer’s need to hide the blue dress. (It was blue, wasn’t it?)
Guruforhire (View Comment):
A black guy will never get the Klan’s support. No point in bothering.
I don’t think Donald Trump has to win over the hard Left. (That’s your “Klan,” right?)
However, if he wants to govern well, he has to win over more than just the people who voted for him.
There is no point in simply stirring up his hard base, or he’ll just be Barack Obama with different hair.
What’s great about that???
Exactly. Instead the whole thing was misplayed.
No, Trump is just trying to divert attention away from the fact that he, Ryan, and McConnell will jam through 8 years of GOP wish list items in a week. He wants to see how much time a shiny object made up controversy will buy him. After all this time, do you really think Trump’s MO is just random?
Seriously? So your erroneous reading of the comments is actually correct because the plain English interpretation does not conform your preconceptions. Words have meanings. Attend and watch are words with distinct meanings. A quick check of a dictionary will clarify that for you.
You’re correct that Spicer compared the Metro ridership to Obama’s [last]* inaugural (I’ve no comment on that) but he then immediately said that this was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. Both in person and around the globe.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlnhqvp9uJ4&feature=youtu.be&t=2m9s
* I erroneously said “first” initially. Mea culpa.
^Yup.