BETWEEN TRUMP AND THE MEDIA
“If it were left on me to decide
whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” The preceding
quotation is from a former President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson and
it unambiguously underscores the importance of the media in a democracy.
As the lifeline of any
nation, the media provides not only information on what may affect the normal
human being in his day-to-day functioning, but also keeps him informed of
developments around him. The reach of the media and the effect that it can have
on the general public makes it the fulcrums of development in the world.
Over the years, autocrats, tyrants and despots
in various parts of the world, and over diverse ages, have tried very hard to
silence the media for obvious reasons. In some cases, scores of journalists
have been killed, maimed, jailed and dehumanized by despots whose main goal was
to stifle the media. Societies with massive history of gross disrespect for democratic
institutions and principles are often most guilty of spiteful anti media
tendencies. Such abounds in quantum in Africa, Asia and, to a large extent,
some nations in Eastern Europe, especially during the cold war era.
Ironically, however, what is currently playing
out in the United States of America, the supposed leading light and self
proclaimed global guardian of democratic tenets, is quite curious. President
Donald Trump, without a doubt, cuts the image of one who is going to give his
country’s media a raw deal. Never in the history of the country has a leader exhibited
such overt disdain for the media.
To keen observes of unfolding events in the
country, President Trump is on a retributive mission against the American
media. They are certain that the President is out to get his pound of flesh on
the media over what he considered ‘bias media coverage’ in the last
presidential election which he won, albeit without winning the popular vote. And
the way the President is going about the business is not shrouded in secrecy. Unlike
the conventional political leader who will openly court the media but
surreptitiously ‘kill’ them behind the scene, Mr. Trump is explicitly mouthing
his disgust for the media, and at every given opportunity.
A few days to his inauguration, the maverick
business enigma cum politician, held a press conference in which he took his
disdain for a section of the American media to a rather ridiculous height. On
that occasion, Mr. Trump openly refused to allow questions from reporters of
certain media platforms which he referred to as ‘fake media’. It was so awful
that one would think it was a tyrant back in the ancient days that was holding
court. Sadly, some of his supporters, who were present at the event, cheered
him on while at the same time they jeered profusely at the hapless reporters
from the allegedly ‘fake’ media houses.
That
was barely a week before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. About two days after his
inauguration, while addressing members of the United States’ intelligent
community at the CIA headquarters, Mr. Trump similarly lashed out at the media in
a most unpresidential manner. He declared: “I have a running war with the media. They
are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth…” Ironically, Mr. Trump who
is extensively reputed for making largely unproven claims alleged that he
dislikes the media because he loves honesty and thus prefers “honest
reporting.”
As it is often the case in action
packed season movies, the presidential media lampoon did not end with the
tirades at the CIA headquarters. A few hours after the event, Mr. Trump’s chief
media aide, Sean Spicer, with the audacity of a Nazi war time media manager,
hurriedly assembled the White House press corps into the James S. Brady briefing
room, which his principal had earlier threatened to close, and tutored them on
accountability. He said: “There's been a lot of talk in the media about
the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable. And I'm here to tell you
that it goes two ways. We're going to hold the press accountable, as
well.”
Within
the few days of his presidency, it is so glaring that Mr. Trump is metaphorically
poised for war in many fronts. He is at war with the American political
establishment. He is at war with a ‘fraudulent voting’ order in his country.
Outside America, the European Union doesn’t seem to catch his fancy; same for
NATO. As for Mexico, that country had better started figuring out how it will
finance the great wall that Trump is bent on building along the two nations’
border. German leader, Angela Merkel, is equally not likely to have it easy with
the Trump presidency. Remember the mouthful Mr. Trump had earlier referred to
her refugee policy as catastrophe!
However,
of all the wars that Mr. Trump is geared to fight, the one against the media
appears to be, perhaps, the most sensitive and dangerous one. Being the acclaimed
home of democratic values and ethics, Mr. Trump would be doing an incalculable
damage to the image of his country with his superficial obsession with the
media. In as much as the media, just
like every human organization, have its excesses, history has shown that mindless
and childish attack on the media is often counterproductive.
If
it is actually true, as being speculated by American media experts, that Mr. Trump
is ready to use his office’s immense authority to coerce, frustrate, gag, spy
on and quiet the media, then he might have just begun a war that he is not
likely to win. In the meantime, let’s wait and see who blinks first in the war between
Mr. Trump and the American media.
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