Trump throws out the FAKE NEWS MEDIA
The David Vance BriefingRead More
It’s taken too long.
I am talking about the decision taken by President Trump a few days ago to ban three US fake news media outlets from the White House media pool. He singled out some of the most egregious culprits, CNN, Politico and MS NOW, and I loved to see it!
I only wish he had also thrown the BBC out while he was at it. Maybe he still will?
Announcing the ban in his own inimitable manner, Trump tweeted:
Since 2015, the fake news media have treated Trump so very badly, and the level of hatred towards the President has been off the scale. We have all watched it unfold over the years, through his first presidential campaign, his time in office, the election of 2020 and his triumphant return to the White House.
The hostility has been relentless.
Every statement he makes is taken apart, every decision is questioned, and every opportunity is used to portray him in the worst possible light. Now I am not saying that Trump always gets it right because he plainly doesn’t. In fact he is often times his own worst enemy! But no one can deny just how biased these media organisations are against him! And yet, when Trump pushes back, the very same media outlets suddenly discover the importance of press freedom and the sacred role of journalism. They are absolute hypocrites.
In making this move, Trump is not saying they cannot cover what happens in the White House; it’s just that they don’t get to do it from a comfy room inside. They can still report, investigate, criticise and publish whatever they want. What they cannot do is assume that access to the President is some sort of automatic entitlement, regardless of how they behave.
Then came a few twists!
Firstly, CNN, Politico and MS NOW have joined together to sue the Trump administration after being barred. I guess that is predictable. If you spend years telling everyone that Trump is a threat to democracy, it must be galling when he exercises the authority of the presidency in a way you don’t like.
But NOW we see that President Trump’s visit to the UN General Assembly will not be televised by ANY of the major US broadcasters as they band together to boycott his ban on CNN and MS NOW. Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, collectively known as the TV pool, are protesting the White House and have decided not to dispatch cameramen or reporters to cover the President.
Think about that for a moment. These organisations are supposed to be competing with each other for viewers, stories and exclusive access. Yet here they are, united when it comes to taking action against the President they dislike.
This is a genius move by Trump as it has exposed the FAKE NEWS and shown us what they really are. For years, they have presented themselves as independent observers, simply reporting the facts and holding those in power to account. But when the President decides to challenge their privileged position, they suddenly reveal just how much they depend on access to the very people they claim to be scrutinising.
And what happens when they don’t get their own way? They threaten legal action, organise boycotts and attempt to make the President pay a political price. How dare they!
Now some people will tell us that Trump should not be allowed to exclude journalists from the White House. They insist that this is an attack on democracy and that the media must be protected from political interference. With all due respect, that’s asinine nonsense.
There is a difference between preventing journalists from doing their job and refusing to provide them with the privileges they have become accustomed to. The White House is not a television studio, and the President is not obliged to provide every broadcaster with a comfortable seat at the table.
What is most revealing is the reaction. Rather than even asking whether their own behaviour has contributed to this situation, the media have simply closed ranks. They have decided that the problem is Trump, not their own conduct.
And that is why I welcome this decision. It has forced a public conversation that should have happened years ago about the relationship between the political establishment and the media establishment.
Trump has never pretended to be part of the club. He has spent his entire political career challenging the people who believe they own Washington, and that includes the smug journalists who have spent years treating him with contempt.
The BBC, of course, should be paying close attention. It has its own long history of reporting on Trump, and I would love to see the President apply the same treatment to them..
The reaction to this latest move from Trump tells us everything we need to know. The bloated legacy media are furious because they have been reminded that access is a privilege, not a right. And Trump, once again, has shown that he is prepared to take on the people who have spent years trying to destroy him.
I stand with him on this one!
Enjoyed this? Then don’t just read it — join me.
I publish The David Vance Briefing every morning: independent analysis of the stories, arguments and political battles I believe matter — without the filters of the mainstream media.
Subscribe free and every new Briefing comes straight to you.
And if you value what I do and want to support genuinely independent commentary, become a paid subscriber. You’ll also receive my exclusive Saturday Briefing, where I go much deeper into one of the week’s biggest issues.
Your support keeps this independent!
