Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump agree to
improve relations of both countries
It’s back to Twitter barbs at the “nasty” and
“unfair” news media. Two weeks after his
election, Donald Trump’s relations with the
press are as contentious as ever.
There is no honeymoon between the US
president-elect and news organizations after a
bruising campaign where the candidate
dubbed journalists “thieves and crooks” and
was himself labeled a “liar” on the news
pages.
The Republican billionaire resumed his
onslaught Monday during a closed-door
session with high-ranking television executives
where, despite expectations of fence-mending,
he reportedly gave them a dressing-down over
their coverage of the 2016 race.
On Tuesday, Trump cancelled then
rescheduled a meeting with the New York
Times, firing off a fresh broadside over what
he called “nasty” coverage by his hometown
daily.
The property tycoon, who has not held a news
conference since his election, complained that
the terms of the interview “were changed at
the last minute,” an account the Times
disputed.
Both Team Trump and the newspaper later
confirmed the meeting was back on, after the
two sides agreed on an off-the-record session
with the paper’s publisher followed by an on-
record interview.
The Times later reported that Reince Priebus,
the incoming White House chief of staff, had
misinformed Trump — telling him the terms
had changed — in an apparent bid to prevent
the interview, fearing he might face questions
he is unprepared to answer.
Trump announced he would meet the
influential daily after all in an upbeat tweet
saying, “Look forward to it!”
But that followed a stream of hostile early
morning tweets assailing what he called a
“failing” paper for continuing to “cover me
inaccurately and with a nasty tone!”
– ‘Blustering blowhard’ –
The dust-up with the Times came a day after
Trump held an off-the-record chat with
television executives and news anchors, with
comments filtering out indicating Trump’s
displeasure over coverage.
New Yorker editor David Remnick, citing
sources attending the session, said Trump
complained that NBC News used unflattering
photos showing his double chin, and asked for
“nicer” images.
Attendees said they were taken aback at the
tone from the president-elect, who repeated
claims of insulting and inaccurate coverage.
“I really am offended,” one of them was
quoted as saying. “This was unprecedented.
Outrageous!”
Far from sobered by his heavy new
responsibilities as head of state, one
participant was quoted as saying Trump “is
the same kind of blustering, bluffing blowhard
as he was during the campaign.”
Trump spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway
offered a different version, calling the meeting
“cordial” and “productive,” adding that “there
was no need to mend fences.”
US news organizations dug into a host of
Trump controversies as he campaigned for the
world’s most powerful office.
These included allegations by women that he
had harassed or sexually assaulted them, his
past failures as a real estate developer and
indications that he avoided paying taxes for
years.
The Republican pushed back hard — charging
the election was being “rigged by corrupt
media pushing completely false allegations
and outright lies” and colluding to hand
victory to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
– ‘Wants to scare them’ –
Trump’s latest clashes with the media would
seem to foreshadow a stormy relationship
when he moves into the White House in
January.
“I think he wants to scare them,” said Lucy
Dalglish, dean of journalism at the University
of Maryland:
“He wants to chill them. He is retaliating. He
feels he was not treated fairly and he is trying
to get them to cower. But that’s the last thing
you want to do with some of these people.”
Some groups have already complained Trump
has not yet guaranteed “pool” media access,
as has been customary in recent history, where
a small group of journalists accompanies the
president-elect on all public events and
meetings.
“It’s not the media that needs this, it’s the
pubic, and he doesn’t seem to understand the
role that an independent, freely functioning
media plays in a democracy. And not to
recognize that role is troubling,” said Dalglish.
Joel Kaplan, associate dean of journalism at
Syracuse University, agreed that the media
and Trump are in uncharted waters.
“There is no precedent for the relationship
between Trump and the press,” Kaplan said.
“Even those (presidents) who didn’t have the
best relationship going in understood the role
of the press and tried to court individual
members.”
Kaplan noted that Trump’s hand is helped by
a deepening distrust of the news media by the
US public, but claimed that should not be a
reason to change coverage of the White
House.
“I don’t think the general public can have a
much lower opinion of the news media and
honestly, the news media shouldn’t care,” he
said.
“The role of the news media is to inform the
public. Once that happens, the public is
responsible for what it does with that
information.”
Source: Vanguardng
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