Some Colorado conservatives are joining President Donald Trump in blaming the press for the daily eye-pop, head-spinning news stories streaming from the White House.
Leading the charge are local talk radio hosts, but conservative politicians are also mad at journalists.
Appearing on KOA 850-AM Mandy Connell show yesterday, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) lamented that the media are “inventing this Russia story.”
Buck: “When George Bush won, he was the dumbest human being alive, even though he’d gone to great schools and gotten great degrees. Every time he stumbled in a speech, it was a story for two or three days. He just wasn’t smart enough to be president “ Buck told Connell. “And then we get Barack Obama, and he’s the smartest person in the world. He’s just a savior. “And then we get Donald Trump. And they’ve got to find something with Donald Trump. He’s a very successful businessman. So obviously he’s not stupid. So now now we’re inventing this Russia story, and just on and on.”
Citing the anonymous sources used by the New York Times in its story about Trump pressuring Comey to not investigate former national security adviser Michael Flynn, KNUS radio host and (former Fox 31 Denver reporter) Julie Hayden said on air May 15.
Hayden: “I have been dismayed ― I mean, as a reporter― at just how they just make it ―. I mean, they really do just make it up, you know!”
Co-host Chuck Bonniwell jumped in with, “They don’t care. They just don’t care.”
You can always criticize journalists, and some people will never accept anonymous sources, but that’s why we have professional journalism. To utilize such sources in a responsible way. That’s not making stuff up―or not caring.
Colorado gubernatorial candidate George Brauchler, who gained fame as a prosecutor in the Aurora theater murders, also pointed to bias among reporters covering Trump. On KNUS 710-AM May 15, Brauchler said:
Brauchler: [Journalists] don’t need Trump’s help. But he gives it to them anyway. That’s the only part that’s a little frustrating, is like, ‘If you, Mr. President, could just pull it back― just a little bit ― it would expose, I think, how biased that they truly are.’ Because right now, there’s just enough there that they make mountains out of molehills, and all this other stuff. But if he can just pull it back, just a little bit.
To her credit, KOA host Mandy Connell faults Trump for blundering, but then she attacks the “viciousness” of the media and says the “media has picked [his blunders] up, [and] blown up into massive proportion.”
“Trump keeps giving the media ammunition with which to shoot him,” said Connell on air. “If he would shut his pie hole sometimes and not shoot from the hip, they would not have the ammunition that they currently have.”
In truth, the media are working sources and exposing serious dangers to us and our democracy. That’s what the fourth estate is supposed to do. Thank you, journalism. Listen to Buck on KOA May 18 here.
