Understandably, he’s very angry at the media and journalists. After swearing in as the president of the United States, Donald Trump has said that journalists are the most dishonest people on Earth.
Not only him. The White House press secretary has also held journalists responsible for the negative publicity he has received. He said he has an antagonistic relationship with the media.
He also alleged that the media has reported wrongly on the day of his swearing in about the presence of the people. Even before swearing in, during the election campaign, he accused CNN of publishing “fake news.” He also compared The New York Times with the CNN, adding: “Have you seen how they are losing? They won’t be able to run their businesses for long.”
However, the NYT has said that they are not even thinking of losing; the number of their subscribers has increased immensely.
President Trump has been accused in the media of not telling the truth many times before the election.
The NYT and The Huffington Post are the best examples of that. Despite that, the voters chose him. 49% of voters have said he was telling the truth, and 39% believed the journalists.
Although Trump has always thought journalists were quite tough on him, the media didn’t challenge him about his views on Afghanistan. They didn’t challenge him about Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.
Trump has cited examples of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, highlighting how they thought of the media. President Trump claimed that those eminent presidents had also termed the media as “fake.”
According to the Christian Science Monitor, he said: “Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln and many of our greatest presidents fought with the media and called them out often on their lies. When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away with it.”
There’s antagonism between Trump and the media, but an attempt is also there to fix the relationship among the supporters of the president and the journalists. Both the sides are seen trying to make up.
Who is President Trump fighting against? The most viewed TV channel in America is owned by GE; and GE is the number one producer of nuclear weapons in the world. The richest people in the US own most of the media outlets
After the election, during the president’s exclusive interview with CBS, the interviewer was seen to avoid many important questions, such as his alleged attitudes towards women. The media has also begun a twitter campaign, saying: “We’re not the enemy.” This certainly is an attempt to fix the relationship.
A war-like atmosphere is prevailing between the media and the White House. However, the question is rising in the minds of people: Where’s this whole episode heading to? Who’s benefitting from this feud? What is it that the president is expecting from the media? What is it the media is expecting from the president? Somewhere, there’s a problem which the people or the audience are failing to observe.
There’s a thing in America called “corporate media.” Corporate media refers to a system of mass media production, distribution, ownership, and funding which is dominated by corporations. Let’s see who owns these media conglomerates.
General Electric owns Comcast, NBC, Universal Pictures, and Focus Pictures. News Corp is the owner of Fox, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post.
Disney owns ABC, ESPN, Miramax, and Marvel Studios. Viacom is the owner of MTV, Nick JR, BET, CMT, and Paramount Pictures. Time Warner controls CNN, HBO, Time, and Warner Bros, and lastly, CBS owns Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, NFL.com, Jeopardy, and Sixty Minutes.
These six corporations are said to control 90% of American media.
Now who is President Trump fighting against? The most viewed TV channel in America is owned by GE; and GE is the number one producer of nuclear weapons in the world. The richest people in the US own most of the media outlets.
I spoke to a few American-Bangladeshis about this feud. They say Trump is an extreme example of a narcissist; he only likes those who praise him and terms as dishonest who criticise him.
Newsweek says that Trump is obsessed with the media and the media is also obsessed with him, and the situation isn’t healthy for anyone. A similar situation occurred during President Nixon when the media had won.
Both the sides are expecting that one would stop, but no one is stopping the blame game. The media is also saying that the president is trying to save him from himself, and that’s why he has been attacking the media every day.
The analysts think the media is benefitting from this. Imagine, how would media portray Trump 10 years from now? He won’t be very happy to see his depiction then.
We, the audience, hope this comes to an end very soon. Otherwise mistrust is developing on both the president and the media, which won’t be good for anyone.
Ekram Kabir is a fiction writer.
