“Trump has habitually attacked the news media in rallies, responses to reporters’ questions, and many hundreds of tweets. He has repeatedly called the press “fake news,” “the enemy of the people,” “dishonest,” “corrupt,” “low life reporters,” “bad people,” “human scum” and “some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet….More than 600 of Trump’s tweets targeted specific news organizations, led by The New York Times, CNN, NBC and MSNBC, Fox News and The Washington Post. He called the Times, among other slurs, “fake,” “phony,” “nasty,” “disgraced,” “dumb,” “clueless,” “stupid,” “sad,” “failing,” and “dying.” He characterized the Post as “fake,” “crazy,” “dishonest,” “phony,” and “disgraced.”
--"The Trump Administration and the Media," Committee to Protect Journalists (2020)
And this was during his first term, when he demeaned and undermined the press at every opportunity. Brace yourself for what will follow.
Consider the 2024 presidential campaign. Both Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos, owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post respectively, overruled their editorial staffs and instituted a new policy of not endorsing presidential candidates. Unquestionably, these decisions were prompted by a fear of offending the eventual winner, Donald Trump. Both owners have interests outside their newspapers linked in multiple ways to federal policies. It appears that years of Trump’s threats got to them and they backed off from further offending him. Their white flags of surrender were the worst possible developments for defenders of a free press.
That is, until the immediate aftermath of the election. Scurrying to be the first media sycophants past the post, MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, hastened to Mar a Lago to kiss Trump’s…ring. The cable network’s viewership was shocked that two of its most vigorous Trump critics turned tail and ran from their brand so quickly and so abjectly. Since their grovel, the network has hemorrhaged viewers at an alarming rate and may not survive.
Not to be outdone, ABC announced that it was settling a defamation suit against it and one of its stars, George Stephanopoulos, for $15 million, for calling the decision in Trump’s losing case brought by E. Jean Carroll, a “rape.” This despite the fact that the Judge in the case also termed it a rape, and that, had the defamation action gone to trial, it was likely to result in a slam-dunk victory for ABC.
Nevertheless, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, which owns ABC, decided to settle for reasons similar to those motivating Bezos and Soon-Shiong, subservience being the better part of valor.
It remains to be seen what some of the other Trump media targets will do. He recently sued the Des Moines Register, its hapless* Gannett parent company, and Ann Seltzer, its pollster, for “election interference.” Their “crime?” A pre-election poll showing Kamala Harris up by three points on Trump. Again, this case is ridiculous and certain to be laughed out of court, should it come to that. The timorous folks who run Gannett may well follow ABC’s capitulation and also succumb to Trump’s threats.
*In 2023 Gannett eliminated many of its op-ed columns because opinion pieces “may offend some readers.”
Trump has also threatened CBS for a positive Interview of Harris prior to the election. No word yet on whether the network that at one time harbored the greatest collection of broadcast journalists ever assembled (e.g., Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid et al.) will, like its fellow media mavens, also cave to Trump.
Should the monumentally unqualified Trump toady, Kash Patel, become Director of the FBI, it is a given that he will go after additional media outlets and personalities. In his 2023 excuse for a book, Government Gangsters, he included an “Enemies List” of individuals, several of whom are members of the media.
Topping this off, there is certain to be more to come of threats and intimidation of the media from Trump and his vassals. The worst possible outcome of all of this is the across-the-board caving of the American media, something I never anticipated. If the surrender continues without resistance, you can kiss the great American experiment goodbye.
Combine all of this abuse with the continuing death of local journalism, which plays directly into Trump’s hands. For the last several years, the attrition has amounted to 2.5 local newspapers closing their doors every week. Today, almost 60 percent of U.S. counties are “news deserts” with little or no access to local news. The only “news” Americans may get will be Trump administration propaganda supplemented by whatever conspiracy theories spread on the Internet.
Don’t think that the American people will rise up and express their outrage at what Trump is doing. They appear to care not at all that the information rug is being pulled out from under them. They’d rather wax hysterical about drones in the night skies than contemplate anything serious.
Trump doesn’t have to win his barrage of lawsuits. It is the chilling effect they are already having on the media that is the real victory.
Are we witnessing the end times of the American Fourth Estate? It is an open question whether it will survive the second Trump era.
Dick Hermann
December 27, 2024
--"The Trump Administration and the Media," Committee to Protect Journalists (2020)
And this was during his first term, when he demeaned and undermined the press at every opportunity. Brace yourself for what will follow.
Consider the 2024 presidential campaign. Both Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos, owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post respectively, overruled their editorial staffs and instituted a new policy of not endorsing presidential candidates. Unquestionably, these decisions were prompted by a fear of offending the eventual winner, Donald Trump. Both owners have interests outside their newspapers linked in multiple ways to federal policies. It appears that years of Trump’s threats got to them and they backed off from further offending him. Their white flags of surrender were the worst possible developments for defenders of a free press.
That is, until the immediate aftermath of the election. Scurrying to be the first media sycophants past the post, MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, hastened to Mar a Lago to kiss Trump’s…ring. The cable network’s viewership was shocked that two of its most vigorous Trump critics turned tail and ran from their brand so quickly and so abjectly. Since their grovel, the network has hemorrhaged viewers at an alarming rate and may not survive.
Not to be outdone, ABC announced that it was settling a defamation suit against it and one of its stars, George Stephanopoulos, for $15 million, for calling the decision in Trump’s losing case brought by E. Jean Carroll, a “rape.” This despite the fact that the Judge in the case also termed it a rape, and that, had the defamation action gone to trial, it was likely to result in a slam-dunk victory for ABC.
Nevertheless, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, which owns ABC, decided to settle for reasons similar to those motivating Bezos and Soon-Shiong, subservience being the better part of valor.
It remains to be seen what some of the other Trump media targets will do. He recently sued the Des Moines Register, its hapless* Gannett parent company, and Ann Seltzer, its pollster, for “election interference.” Their “crime?” A pre-election poll showing Kamala Harris up by three points on Trump. Again, this case is ridiculous and certain to be laughed out of court, should it come to that. The timorous folks who run Gannett may well follow ABC’s capitulation and also succumb to Trump’s threats.
*In 2023 Gannett eliminated many of its op-ed columns because opinion pieces “may offend some readers.”
Trump has also threatened CBS for a positive Interview of Harris prior to the election. No word yet on whether the network that at one time harbored the greatest collection of broadcast journalists ever assembled (e.g., Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid et al.) will, like its fellow media mavens, also cave to Trump.
Should the monumentally unqualified Trump toady, Kash Patel, become Director of the FBI, it is a given that he will go after additional media outlets and personalities. In his 2023 excuse for a book, Government Gangsters, he included an “Enemies List” of individuals, several of whom are members of the media.
Topping this off, there is certain to be more to come of threats and intimidation of the media from Trump and his vassals. The worst possible outcome of all of this is the across-the-board caving of the American media, something I never anticipated. If the surrender continues without resistance, you can kiss the great American experiment goodbye.
Combine all of this abuse with the continuing death of local journalism, which plays directly into Trump’s hands. For the last several years, the attrition has amounted to 2.5 local newspapers closing their doors every week. Today, almost 60 percent of U.S. counties are “news deserts” with little or no access to local news. The only “news” Americans may get will be Trump administration propaganda supplemented by whatever conspiracy theories spread on the Internet.
Don’t think that the American people will rise up and express their outrage at what Trump is doing. They appear to care not at all that the information rug is being pulled out from under them. They’d rather wax hysterical about drones in the night skies than contemplate anything serious.
Trump doesn’t have to win his barrage of lawsuits. It is the chilling effect they are already having on the media that is the real victory.
Are we witnessing the end times of the American Fourth Estate? It is an open question whether it will survive the second Trump era.
Dick Hermann
December 27, 2024
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