We always knew Donald Trump would start a war in the first six months of his presidency. We just thought it would be against North Korea or Syria. Silly us. We should have known it would be against the media. After all, his latest outbursts against MSNBC and CNN are nothing more than a continuation of the hostility he waged against the media as a candidate.
Attacking the media, in fact, was a standard feature of every Trump campaign rally. He banned many reporters from rallies because they wrote critical stories. Journalists who were allowed in were herded into pens like cattle, where Trump pointed at them and urged the crowd to taunt them. He even criticized several reporters by name – to the point where some media organizations hired security guards to accompany journalists to campaign events.
Those attacks didn’t stop once he took office. They actually increased in frequency and vitriol, reaching a new low last week when Trump first lashed out at the co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” calling Joe Scarborough “crazy” and Mika Brzezinski “dumb as a rock,” and then tweeted a fake video of himself decking and punching out what looked like a CNN reporter.
Meanwhile, the first lady and White House staffers defended Trump’s bullying of the media as “you hit him, he’ll hit you back.” Trump himself characterized his childish, nonstop tweeting as “modern day presidential.” And over the Fourth of July weekend, at what was billed as a veterans’ rally, he seized the opportunity to goad the media yet again: “The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president, and they’re not.”
What to make of President Trump’s war against the media? There are three takeaways. First, let’s remember: Every president, indeed every politician, whines about the media. At some point, they all see themselves as victims of unfair coverage. They all complain. And, indeed, if they didn’t complain, we in the media wouldn’t be doing our jobs.
So Donald Trump isn’t alone. He just makes his attacks against the media more personal than anybody else and even meaner than Spiro Agnew’s. Trump’s blasts on the media are ugly, obnoxious and juvenile. They’re also dangerous because they undermine the legitimacy of the press and could incite physical violence, as we saw in the case of Greg Gianforte, now a Republican congressman from Montana, body-slamming a Guardian reporter. In fact, the Committee to Protect Journalists, which has protested the arrest, torture and assassination of journalists in countries like Russia and Venezuela, is now focusing on violence against reporters in the United States.
Second reality. Of course, Donald Trump could learn from other presidents. From George W. Bush, for example, no fan of the media, who admitted: “Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”
Yes, Donald Trump should grow up and grow a pair and recognize that criticism comes with the territory. But he won’t. Because that’s who he is. This man who was made by the media – who wouldn’t be president without having his own TV show and being fawned over by the media – can’t stop attacking the media because it’s the only way to cover up his abysmal lack of accomplishments as president.
Third lesson: As disgusting as Trump’s attacks against them are, it’s a mistake for the media to take them too seriously. Otherwise, we play right into his hands. That’s why he tweets. That’s what he wants. For us to be talking about Joe, Mika, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, or the Washington Post – instead of about why Donald Trump can’t round up 51 Republican votes in the Senate or why he still hasn’t condemned Russia’s attempts to sabotage the last election.
The best way to deal with Trump’s attacks against the media is for reporters to ignore them and continue to do their job: Hold the powerful accountable. Dig out the facts. Report the news, good or bad. Let the chips fall where they may. Tell the American people the truth.
There’s nothing more critical to the functioning of our democracy than a fearless, independent media. It’s so essential that our founders enshrined it in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
So it’s important that, despite all the criticism, we in the media continue to do our jobs. If only Donald Trump would do his.
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