Everyone who has right-of-center leanings knows that the media aren't their friends. TV news, newspapers, and magazines typically advocate for bigger government, liberal social trends, and Democratic politicians. These are just facts of life. Orange Blatherskite, however has taken the step of banning five news organizations from White House press briefings. One can easily tell reasonable people from Trump stooges by their response to this. Reasonable people ( like those who remember any courses on civics or government) know that O.B. has gone too far; that he is living down to the protofascist his enemies already believed him to be. Trump stooges, in contrast, act as though this is somehow sticking it to the liberal media. They forget that previous Republican presidents never assumed they had a right to exclude hostile journalists from the press pool.
Fox News' Bret Baier has been right to defend CNN from this exclusion, pointing out that CNN cried foul when Oh Blah Blah tried to exclude Fox from the press pool. The proper way to deal with liberal media bias is not to pretend they don't practice journalism. Even dishonest journalists deserve to be treated as journalists. The problem of liberal media bias is a problem that the consumer needs to deal with. If you don't believe CNN or BuzzFeed is a reliable source, don't use them. You don't deal with them by shutting them out from press conferences. That is juvenile and counterproductive. The last thing O.B. needs right now is to look like he doesn't respect a free press.
Fox News' Bret Baier has been right to defend CNN from this exclusion, pointing out that CNN cried foul when Oh Blah Blah tried to exclude Fox from the press pool. The proper way to deal with liberal media bias is not to pretend they don't practice journalism. Even dishonest journalists deserve to be treated as journalists. The problem of liberal media bias is a problem that the consumer needs to deal with. If you don't believe CNN or BuzzFeed is a reliable source, don't use them. You don't deal with them by shutting them out from press conferences. That is juvenile and counterproductive. The last thing O.B. needs right now is to look like he doesn't respect a free press.
