There’s an amazing “open letter to Trump” from the White House press corps that needs to be required reading. This link is from the Columbia Journalism Review.
If you want to know about the culture of good journalism, and the role its going to play in the uncharted political territory going forward, this is a place to start.
Here’s my favorite paragraph:
We’ll obsess over the details of government. You and your staff sit in the White House, but the American government is a sprawling thing. We will fan reporters out across the government, embed them in your agencies, source up those bureaucrats. The result will be that while you may seek to control what comes out of the West Wing, we’ll have the upper hand in covering how your policies are carried out.
Those are fighting words, and great to see. I would encourage you to read the whole letter.
Of course, I would love to see this same approach at the state and local level, but realistically there aren’t the resources there to support this kind of deployment of pushy, nosy reporters. It needs to be done, but given the steep decline in reporting staff at local and regional newspapers across the county, it’s unlikely to happen.
So we’ll rely on the lead of the Washington press corps and eagerly await their disclosures of the inner workings of the new administration.
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“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.”
— White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
“I looked out, the field was — it looked like a million, million and a half people.”
— President Trump, in his own world again
“You’re saying it’s a falsehood and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”
— Kellyanne Conway, about to have a stroke
“Alternative facts”. that’s even better than “Plausible deniability”.
Trump really needs to start his own alt-reality party. Millions of Americans would still vote for him.
He has started the alt-reality party and all the lies got him elected. How depressing is that? Now he’s accusing the media of being “the most dishonest people in the world,” when actually that is him and his gang.
MSNBC had one of their “behind the camera” news editors on who demolished the “official line” from Trump (at Langley) and Spicer with tape and sourced stats. (Interior Dept. anticipating this, shut down all Twitter accounts of personnel for awhile so as not to get out of step with Trump-Spicer.) What was chilling was the NBC editor saying he had experienced similar dust-ups overseas with dictatorial regimes, although he was careful to qualify his criticism to the particulars. The press has replaced Hilary as the enemy in Trump’s “reality” to his followers. When Sunday’s op-ed has both Krugman and George Will both signaling an apocalyptic future you have to wonder if the “Eastern elite” knows what it is talking about. Button your seat belts. We’re in for a bumpy ride.
NYT
WASHINGTON — A team of prominent constitutional scholars, Supreme Court litigators and former White House ethics lawyers intends to file a lawsuit Monday morning alleging that President Trump is violating the Constitution by allowing his hotels and other business operations to accept payments from foreign governments.
The lawsuit is among a barrage of legal actions against the Trump administration that have been initiated or are being planned by major liberal advocacy organizations. Such suits are among the few outlets they have to challenge the administration now that Republicans are in control of the government.
In the new case, the lawyers argue that a provision in the Constitution known as the Emoluments Clause amounts to a ban on payments from foreign powers like the ones to Mr. Trump’s companies. They cite fears by the framers of the Constitution that United States officials could be corrupted by gifts or payments.
ladies and gentlemen, Trump’s problems have only started. it’s time to focus on 2018 and 2020. Getting stuck in 2016 is foolhardy. Let’s roll
Trump will end up being his own worst enemy.
my thoughts exactly. Trump can attack “the media” all he wants but he can’t control the media. The best-case scenario starts when Trump’s own staff can’t stand him, leave their positions and begin leaking evidence to journalists, including Trump’s secret tax returns. Leaks happen to every US President and it will happen with Trump. Richard Nixon got nailed by “Deep Throat”, who turned out to be Nixon’s own FBI No. 2.
The best sources – always, always – are people who turn on their bosses. Journalists cherish insiders, not babbling commentators. Trump is master at making enemies. He doesn’t even have good relations with his own daughter, Tiffany Trump, who is anything but a Republican. Internal squabbles do not end well for families that are loaded with money.
The worst-case scenario: Trump starts trade wars and real wars out of sheer arrogance and carelessness. I hope Trump keeps whining about the media: It only pushes reporters to work harder. The chief barometer of Trump’s mental status is the redness in his face and the childishness of his Tweets.