(Dobbs) With An Unfiltered Microphone, It Only Makes Things WorseTrump says he might give “rather nasty statements.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, with President Trump as the featured speaker, is on again. Tonight. Call it “Take Two.” Take One, in April, was upended by a gunman who tried to storm the ballroom. We never got to hear what the president had to say. But he did give us a hint. He said at the time that he planned to “really rip” the media, and in his self-absorbed style that makes “rude” look like a compliment, he said it would be the “most inappropriate speech ever made.” This time is no different. This time he says he might give “rather nasty statements.” Of course we never know what Donald Trump is going to do until he does it. It’s not always clear that even he knows. But a chance to mend fences with the media, a chance to do a shout-out for the First Amendment, doesn’t sound promising. To the contrary, battling with the media is a more profitable use of the presidency. He filed a defamation suit against ABC News that netted him $16 million. From CBS News, in a lawsuit over a segment on 60 Minutes, another $16 million. He didn’t actually win those suits. The companies decided that with him back in the White House, it made sense to pay the money and move on. At last count, Trump has lawsuits going against major media companies like The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, The New York Times, and CNN. He’s even suing the board of the Pulitzer Prize over some awards it gave journalists eight years ago. Just like the dog he is, the man never lets go of his bone. The newest instance of Trump’s contempt for the First Amendment is the Justice Department subpoenas issued earlier this month to four journalists at The New York Times, including a demand for their phone and text records. The president was peeved when they reported their story about security shortcomings— which compromised his safety— of the fancy new version of Air Force One, the plane gifted to him by Qatar. He wants to know who leaked them the information about the plane not being fully fitted out. At first, evidently embarrassed after promoting it as “the world’s most luxurious plane,” Trump denied the whole story. But as it happens, the Times reporters were right and the president was lying. Ten days later Trump conceded that the plane was being taken out of service to be “maxed out.” Thank goodness the Times reporters were transparent. Trump sure wasn’t. Yesterday afternoon in federal court, after a judge said the subpoenas raised “profound First Amendment and free press issues” and told Justice either to quash the subpoenas or he would, the government withdrew them. As the president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press put it, the judge “saw DOJ’s effort clearly for what it was: a brazen and careless government overreach.” But the government’s purpose was served: to intimidate journalists who report on the opaque and corrupt administration of Donald Trump. He even had the gall last week, after he didn’t get full prime time coverage for his vacuous speech on election reform, to demand that ABC and NBC News lose their “broadcast license.” Our uninformed president doesn’t even know, local stations have licenses, networks do not. So it’s fair to conclude, freedom of the press is not high on this president’s list. He’s the one who has called mainstream journalists the “fake news” and has invoked the line used long before him by the likes of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Mao Zedong, that the press is “the enemy of the people.” All of this should make for an interesting if inflammatory dinner tonight. Trump has boycotted it five times before. In 2017, which was the first time, his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “I think it’s kind of naive of us to think that we can all walk into a room for a couple of hours and pretend that some of that tension isn’t there.” Oh, there’ll be tension tonight, heightened if anything by a letter sent to the Correspondents’ Association, signed by more than 500 veteran journalists (including the likes of Dan Rather, Ann Curry, Jim Acosta, Sam Donaldson…. and me) and eight media organizations. It reiterates what an initial letter said in April, before that dinner was abruptly postponed. Today, it bears repeating: “Since that evening, the administration’s attacks on journalists and press freedom have become even more egregious. The President’s Department of Justice has subpoenaed journalists and their phone records. President Trump has threatened to revoke licenses of broadcasters who refuse to acquiesce to his demands. Yet, the White House Correspondents’ Association still plans on hosting the President at its rescheduled dinner. Our message to the White House Correspondents’ Association is now more urgent: forcefully stand up for freedom of the press in front of the President, publicly defend the journalists he attacks, and vow to resist his administration’s concerted effort to undermine the First Amendment. WHCA President Weijia Jiang says the dinner’s purpose is “to celebrate the First Amendment and the hard daily work of the journalists who defend it.” We believe it is hypocritical to celebrate the First Amendment in front of the man who relentlessly attacks it. We urge the WHCA to condemn the administration’s actions from the podium and pledge to fight all attempts by his administration to undermine this core pillar of a functioning democracy.” Leave a comment I signed, because Donald Trump is not just a very bad president, he’s a very bad man. The horrific things he does, to a free press and to the people of this nation, are the norm for him. The more he does them, they become the norm for others. Normalizing this guy, legitimizing this guy, is dangerous. If the White House Correspondents’ Association gives him an unfiltered uncontested microphone and fails to respond to his attacks, it only makes things worse. We need things to get better, not worse. Share |