Reports are that the heads of the major network news organizations went into a meeting with President-Elect Donald Trump yesterday expecting the usual; they would tell the Republican president-elect the terms they demanded for White Coverage and he would acquiesce to them. It did not turn out that way.
“Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said ‘I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,’”
“The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,”
Trump did the right thing. Yes, the media are a bunch of arrogant, partisan liars. They know Steve Bannon isn’t a Nazi, and they know Jeff Sessions isn’t a racist; but they promote exactly that Narrative because that’s the Narrative the Democrat Party wants to put out.
The press is not interested in merely informing the public of the facts and events of the day. They find that work tedious and beneath them. Members of the press see themselves as a sort of Priesthood, with a mission to guide the putrid masses toward a better, fairer, more enlightened world. Mere facts do not lend themselves to that mission; so the priesthood promotes a mix of fables and myths that make up The Narrative. For example; the public must be made to believe that White Racist Cops Gun Down Innocent Black Honor Students Every Day in order to nudge the world toward racial harmony and enlightenment. The public must be made to believe that Global Warming Climate Change is the most harrowing threat humanity has ever faced and that it is totally worth giving up our freedom and prosperity to prevent it because this moves the world toward Ecotopia. The public must be made to believe that all Republicans are closet Nazis (or the current code-word “White Nationalists”) so that the Democrats can advance the Agenda supported by The Narrative.
The strategy of every Republican, heretofore, has been to attempt to placate and appease the press. “Maybe if they see that we’re really nice guys, they’ll give us a fair shake.” How well did that work out for you George W Bush? How about you, President McCain?
And Donald Trump just said, “To Hell with that.” He recognizes that the Press are his adversaries; and he treats them as such.
Good.
Exactly. There are those who say “You won — back off, no need to continue hammering the MSM, it makes you look bad.”
To those people, I say: “Keep it up, Mr. Trump. They earned it!”
I don’t know who are the bigger idiots – the Dhimmicrat Media that think they know everything, or the idiots who believe them.
Regards,
Peter H.
What I’ve noticed is the Democrat Media continuing to throw everything they can at Donald Trump: as you say, V, that Steve Bannon is a Nazi, and Jeff Sessions is a racist, etc. How well did those sorts of attacks work for them and their candidate, Madam President, during the campaign? Did the Democrat Media learn nothing from the campaign? The electorate saw it for the cheap tactic it was, and it just made support for Donald Trump stronger. Same thing will happen now that Trump is president elect.
The MSM doesn’t realize that the Trump victory has pretty much rendered them irrelevant which is why the Demoncrats will start targeting “fake news”. Notice how close that term is to “Faux News”.
Trump continues to demonstrate that he’s playing the game at a higher level. This meeting was “off the record” but then several went right to their papers to reveal what was discussed and whine about it. Trump KNEW this would happen, set the trap, watch the media fall right in to it, and will use this outcome to good effect.
And notice that he followed this beat down with his “direct to the American people” Youtube message. He went right over the MSM chattering idiots’ heads to deliver his message without any dilution or deliberate misinterpretation. It was a clear and succinct description of his immediate agenda. Very smart move, Mr President-Elect.
Trump is already proving himself to be far more adept at political chess against the media than Bush ever was. Whatever else, he’s not going to role over and let the media have their way with him.
With Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media — used judiciously — the Trump Admin. can get it’s message out to the American people without WH Press Releases and Press Conferences where the MSM presumed to be both filter and interpreter.
And don’t forget that the West Wing and the Oval Office may not be available as a political backdrop for the next 12-16 months, so the WH Press Corps will lose clout and immediacy to Trump regardless. Trump can “be Presidential” directly to the American People and the World from Mar-A-Lago; the Bedminster, Doral golf resorts; the Charlottesville Winery; the Seven Springs estate or Trump Tower.
Of course, a particular cable news channel was already being labeled as “fake” for years by many of the Democrat persuasion. How convenient that they now have a currently popular term to attach to it.
This is already receiving harrumphs from the worker bees in media. Then it was pointed out that they really haven’t complained much when the current president chooses not to have press conferences yet goes on every television talk show in the country. Now why is that?
Excellent post. But “How about you, President McCain?” still gets me to wondering after eight years if the objective was to win the presidency or to be the fellow who would show the world how gracious and magnanimous he was in defeat to the first bi-racial president. Alas, If the true answer could be known I would bet that it would be the latter, which makes Donald’s take-no-crap attitude pretty refreshing.
Now the Democrat Media is running stories about Trump flip-flopping on policy positions before he is even in office. Does anyone remember the Democrat Media, at any time in the last eight years, in a dither over Obama’s broken campaign promises to run “the most transparent administration in history” or “go line by line through the federal budget” to list just two examples? How about “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” which Obama said many times as president prior to passage of the ACA?
Seriously.
I am starting to like Trump, if only for his badass online trolling of the left, on top of his bulldozing thru the MSM PCness-distortion-lenses. I wasn’t sure I had noticed it, but others confirmed my intuition.
And they keep falling for it! Precious.
(Meager consolation, as I also know that Trump or no Trump, I’m going to have to pay always more to get always less in this “golden state” of Cryinfornia … until I’m tired enough to vote against it with my feet, as usual. Meh)
CBS News reported that there were cheers in the room as Trump entered. What the mic picks up however are boos. The cheers must have been coming from a different part of the room.
I guess that’s MSM bias, though?
A few years back, a Mexican Democrat in the CA state senate put it very succinctly to a GOP (viz., loser) colleague: “If I win, I get to take your money. If you win, you just get to keep your money. But there doesn’t exist a scenario where if you win, you get to take _my_ money.”
Jerry Falwell, Jr, who wants Biblical creation to be taught alongside evolution is being considered for Secretary of Education.
#MAGA
@15: What does “MAGA” mean?
Anyhew, having creationists in the Dept. of Ed. might — in the extreme worst-case scenario — create headaches for university biology TAs who have to deal with underprepared freshmen (or, in some cases, sophomores, since college-level Bio programs often require a full year of Chemistry as a prerequisite).
Won’t make the least bit of difference to cutting-edge American biology research, because the training for that really begins at the undergrad and grad level, not in public high schools.
these people have robbed the American people of their greatest weapon in the fight against tyranny; a free and INDEPENDENT media. in totalitarian countries the media is FORCED to report the party line. our wonderful media voluntarily gave up their independence to regurgitate the party line. in fact spewing the party line is why they went into the media in the first place. just like people that become teachers to indoctrinate children in the party line instead of educating them.
Make America Great Again.
It’s bad enough that liberals believe everything they watch in the MSM. Having an even less educated populace that is even less interested in science isn’t a step in the right direction.
As to Jerry Falwell, Jr., the left is horrified that he might be “dictating the educational agenda of America’s public school children” as secretary of education. Who created a system where the federal government has the power to dictate the educational agenda of all of America’s public school children? The left. And who argued in 1979 at the time President Carter created a cabinet-level Department of Education that it would be an unnecessary and unconstitutional intrusion into local affairs? Republicans. It amazes me that the left continually goes about creating the apparatus for centralized federal authority without once considering that eventually it will be controlled by the opposition.
That’s very interesting, Conservative Guy.
But, surely, Trump could be considering people for the position whose beliefs about science were rooted in facts. No one is perfect, but this is a bit ridiculous. I don’t think it’s a big ask.
@19 when the federal dept. of education was created the united states was #1 in the world in education. today the united states is #24 and dropping fast. it is a lot easier to destroy the educational system of a country when there is only one bureaucracy to infiltrate instead of fifty. it is a Marxist’s job to destroy the existing order.
I’m not advocating for or against Falwell as education secretary. Just pointing out who created the federal bureaucracy he would head.
A big ask? You probably mean, “I don’t think it’s too much to ask”? No offense intended, but I’m curious why you phrase it the way you do?
Yes. I mean, as a U.S. citizen, I don’t think it’s too much to ask (or hope for) that the President Elect consider a pool of people for SOE who aren’t theologically poisoned in regards to their understanding of science. Nobody’s perfect. But, this is ridiculous. It’s the 21st Century. I’d be fine with prayer in school. But, when it comes to actual things being taught … we should be passed this. Falwell is president of university that teaches Creationism in biology. Creationism has no place in any classes but theologically-focused ones, amongst others. This is not indicative of a path towards making America great again. This is more like, “Let’s make America even more ignorant than they already are.”
It’s all very head-scratching. I’m sure some on here find no problem with it, or mildly amusing, which is just sad.
It should be noted that the New York Post’s version of the event has been challenged online. Whatever happened in the meeting is said to be far less dramatic than what actually occurred. Alternate events have PEOTUS smacking down certain individuals—directly or indirectly—like Jeff Zucker of CNN; and praising other individuals. I suspect the truth of what actually happened will leak out over time.
Either way, the media is responsible for its own predicament. After eight years of giving a free pass to the current occupant of the Oval Office, they built up the PEOTUS as a primary candidate (because he provides ratings gold and is certain to pale beside the desired successor to the position, so why not?), only to paint him as the devil made real after the party conventions. Except that they could not win in the persuasion game against the Master Persuader and now they are stuck with him for 4 years and a couple of months. So now the tack is to saddle him with every wack job and fringe organization which could remotely be in his camp. But the hillbillies and rednecks who allegedly voted him in are taking note and are becoming more supportive of their candidate than ever.
He also ascended to his current position via nepotism. But at least he has a JD from UVa, so he’s not a complete bonehead.
Well, not I; but then again, I don’t necessarily place much stock in him getting the position. “Being considered” isn’t “nominated”; and “nominated” isn’t “confirmed”, however. My bets are on Michelle Rhee, who personally I would like to see head the DOEd.
But it really depends on the candidate and what their temperament is and how squeaky clean they are (or aren’t, as the case may be). We learned from the Clinton Administration that presidential nominees with under-the-table nannies can never be confirmed to higher office. Since then, the how-dare-you-be-one-of-those standards have only increased. It may be that someone as bland and, presumably, as clean as Jerry Falwell Jr is the only kind of person that can be nominated with a good chance of passing the requisite background check.
At the same time, there’s another element which needs to be taken into consideration. I hear tonight that Dr Ben Carson has been offered the position of Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development [HUD]. That struck me as quite odd, since Health And Human Services Secretary would be the logical choice, outside of Surgeon General (though I imagine that having Dr Carson warn about the evils of obesity would only work because his audience fell asleep while listening to him drone on about it and therefore couldn’t eat for the duration).
Then I realized that what most cabinet-level departments need at their helm is a capable administrator. In certain respects, it doesn’t matter what the background of a cabinet secretary is so long as they can organize the particular department so that the goals of the administration are being met. There are exceptions, one of the most notable being Secretary Of The Interior, which would not do well with a Barack or Michelle Obama at the head; but that is not true with most cabinet heads. So perhaps that explains some of the logic behind some of the appointments. At any rate, it’s nice to see that persons who aren’t the usual party hacks are also in the running for positions in the future administration.
PEOTUS cabinet update, via Bruce’s Twitter feed:
Gov. Nikki Haley picked to become UN ambassador, sources say
http://www.postandcourier.com/politics/gov-nikki-haley-picked-to-become-un-ambassador-sources-say/article_4bf198dc-b131-11e6-9ba2-b7cef19f22da.html
[Side note: this was one of the positions Rick Grenell was rumored to be considered for.]
I like Nikki Haley and think she’s a good choice (did he show her his tax returns, lol? probably not).
But, I think I was pretty clear about the considering vs. appointing stance. Falwell isn’t being appointed. But, that he’s even considered for SoE in 2016 being a Creationist who has has implemented his own theological views as legitimate science in his own educational facility is, to quote Trump, “Sad!” Not a good look any way you slice it. :shrug:
Vince, it could be Trump trolling the media again.
If he is, it’s time for him to stop.
But, based on who he has actually gone with for SoE, I’m not so sure about the trolling.
Don’t count on it. This is how he won the election: pacing and leading. Pick a name that a majority of non-supporters (and even some supporters themselves) will scratch their heads at and say “Whaaa…??” then pick someone perceived to be less extreme (compared to the original choice) and have a fair number of those same people say “Oh, whew!” and benignly support, if not openly oppose the selection.
So the predictable hysteria by the most predictable of predictables is being seen as an unexpected endorsement:
http://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2016/11/23/backfire-teachers-union-boss-gives-trumps-pick-for-education-secretary-the-best-endorsement-ever/
“some” of the supporters. I should hope a lot. Or perhaps I’m out of touch and there are more people who believe in Creationism-influenced science classes in the U.S. than I’ve realised.
I see your point, though. Sad!