art credit: Australian National Review
I subscribe to
any number of newsletters, alert lists, and daily update links. Today, Speaker
Newt Gingrich posted a piece at Fox News and then sent his op-ed to his e-list. I am copying it below in full, especially for those who may miss the Speaker's frequent guest slots on Hannity and other prime time news programs. The media
continues to astonish in its capacity to sink to new lows-- to undermine, sabotage, and attempt to de-legitimatize
the Trump administration. Say what you like about Newt, he hits the nail on the
head calling out the corrupt media class and its dishonest coverage of President
Trump:
Note:
I wrote this before the latest despicable, dishonest smearing of the President,
but that incident simplify magnifies my case.
Here
is what National Security Adviser Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster said Monday
in response to the latest Washington press corps hysteria:
"There's
nothing that the president takes more seriously than the security of the
American people. The story that came out tonight as reported is false. The
president and the foreign minister reviewed a range of common threats to our
two countries including threats to civil aviation. At no time, at no time were
intelligence sources or methods discussed. And the President did not discuss
any military operations that were not already publicly known. Two other senior
officials who were present, including the secretary of state, remember the
meeting the same way and have said so. Their on-the-record accounts should
outweigh anonymous sources. And I was in the room, it didn’t happen."
This
simply reinforces the following, which I wrote earlier this week.
After
almost four months of watching the news media’s unending dishonesty, hostility,
and contempt toward the Trump administration, it is time to have a blunt
conversation.
The
President owes Americans the defense of the United States Constitution.
The
President owes the American people a sound job as commander in chief,
protecting the country.
The
President owes the American people a dramatically stronger economy with more
jobs, better take home pay, and increased opportunities for investment growth;
which will help people prepare for retirement, strengthen pension funds, and
guarantee Social Security’s solvency.
The
President owes the American people a better health system with greater access,
lower costs, and better health outcomes.
Indeed,
the President owes the American people many things.
But
the President does not owe anything to the Washington press corps and the
left-wing hypocrites who dominate today's news media.
I
first learned this rule after reading the transcript from President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s opening press conference with the White House Press Corps on March 8, 1933. During FDR’s inaugural meeting with the
press, no one was permitted to directly quote the President except via a
prepared quote from his office. The vast majority of the conversation was
either without attribution or completely off the record. The purpose of the
meeting was for the media to understand what was going on – not for them to
play gotcha or win clever attacks disguised as questions. Those were the rules.
Since
Watergate, the news media has acquired a steadily more arrogant attitude and
has moved further and further to the left. Today, they are adversarial
opponents of conservatives– especially the Trump administration.
I
learned the hard way as Speaker of the House that I could not regularly meet
with reporters on camera. It set up an arena for gotcha questions. Reporters
gained imaginary points for finding stupid, narrow, often irrelevant things to
argue over. Instead of being an opportunity for a genuine public dialogue, the
daily on-camera briefings became a bloody battleground – totally to my
disadvantage. Within a few weeks, we were forced to stop.
President
Trump's instinct to radically overhaul his relationship with the media is
exactly right.
When
reporters behave like picadors in daily briefings, trying desperately to taunt
and embarrass Sean Spicer rather than listen to and report on what he’s saying,
it undermines our free society's right to accurate information. The daily
briefing may draw big audiences as a reality television spectacle, but it does
not serve the country or President Trump well.
While
there remain some serious, historically-minded reporters, they are
unfortunately becoming more of a rarity. Instead, much of the Washington press
corps has become an incestuous collection of voyeurs who watch, judge, and
attack without knowledge or responsibility. This creates a hostile,
propagandistic, and distorted version of news coverage.
A
visit by Egyptian President el-Sisi to the White House last month led to a
young American woman being released from an Egyptian jail. Had Obama achieved
this, it would have been lauded by the press as a major sign of leadership and
compassion. However, because it was President Trump, the media mostly ignored
it.
Similarly,
when the new relationship between President Trump and the Chinese President Xi
Jinping directly resulted in a trade breakthrough for American beef, natural
gas, and certain financial services, ending a 13-year period in which the
Chinese refused to buy American beef, we heard very little from the media. It
should bring billions of dollars into the United States, yet the media felt it
wasn’t important enough to cover.
The
recent jobs numbers – manufacturing, in particular – have been remarkable. But,
of course, most Washington reporters treat the release of these numbers as
non-events. After all, this would mean they have to report good news, and in
the left-wing newsrooms in which they are all so deeply embedded, positive news
related to the President is simply not permissible.
The
President’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels, and
the G-7 in Sicily is a remarkable tour for a new president – especially one who
the media insisted knew nothing about international relations. But, of course,
the Washington news media wants to trivialize the trip with a discussion of
White House gossip and whether the diplomatic journey will have a big domestic
effect – as they define it.
If
you review the first four months of news coverage – much of which is based on
unnamed sources – it becomes obvious how overwhelmingly negative, hostile,
gossipy, and focused on undermining and weakening President Trump and his team
the press corps truly is.
Given
a choice between writing a story about a big historic accomplishment and a
petty piece about infighting in the White House, the Washington press corps
will go for the dirt every time. If Washington is the swamp, the media is the
muck.
I
challenge anyone to analyze the last four months of news coverage of President
Trump and come to the conclusion that it is unbiased, serious, or focused on
important topics.
My
guess is, that you will unfortunately come to the same conclusion that I have.
In this instance, President Trump should take a note from FDR to remind the
Washington press corps that he works for the American people – not the elite
media.
For the latest
on the smear that Trump asked Comey to end the investigation of Michael
Flynn, check this out.
#
# #
