Trumps antagonistic attitude to reporters goes beyond the pale. He recently told CNN reporter Jim Acosta that "your organization is terrible" and that "you (CNN) are fake news." This is a classic bully tactic adopted by him to gain power over his perceived enemies and minimize the effectiveness of fair reporting.
In December 2015, Katy Tur of NBC News said Trump took offense at a tweet in which she said that he ended his speech "abruptly" after protesters showed up at a rally. In response, Trump tweeted that Tur "should be fired for dishonest reporting," and, a few days, later called out Tur from the stage of a South Carolina rally, belittling her by calling her "Little Katy" and a "third-rate reporter." (Another classic bullying tactic.) I can cite example after example of Trump behaving this way within the past year when he clearly felt threatened by reporters, and decided to hit back at them.
Trumps willingness to berate and belittle anyone who disagrees with him, takes us all back to elementary school and the schoolyard bully. You may remember his GOP presidential opponents, Marco "little Marco" Rubio, Ted "lying Ted" Cruz, Jeb "low energy Jeb "Bush, and Bernie "crazy Bernie" Sanders, and of course Hillary "crooked Hillary" Clinton. It was outrageous behavior by him to "name call" these clearly qualified candidates. So why does Trump always seem to adopt these tactics?
"People bully to gain power over others," says Naomi Drew, author of No Kidding About Bullying, "Trump's behavior is the epitome of this." Trump was unlikeable as a child, and suffered emotional abuse from his father Fred Trump, and so, like so many kids who are bullied, Trump became a bully too.
Kellyanne Conway, the unquestionably unpopular Trump adviser, told journalists that reporters who "talked smack" about Trump should be fired, adding fuel to the fire that our first amendment rights are being threatened, and that censorship is not far away from his brand of authoritarianism.
Free Speech, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, ensuring that there is no prohibition on the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights.
Journalists live, breathe and work by a code of ethics. Every fact should be checked and rechecked, and dates and places and times should be verified, before an article is sent to the editor. A few publications don't comply with these basic rules and are generally deemed as "fluff" journalism, but in the main, newspapers, broadcast and online news organizations adhere to the journalistic principles of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, fairness, public accountability and impartiality.
Newspapers like the New York Times, The Guardian, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post and news outlets like, CNBC, Fox news, CNN, Reuters, ABC news, CBSN, and hundreds of similar outlets employ reporters who have been vilified by this current administration. All they've done to the best of their ability, is report the news fairly and accurately. Sadly, Trump is unable to hear the truth.
I'm horrified by Trumps assertion that journalists are all dishonest and are willing to run the risk of being fired by their paper if they write a piece that is factually inaccurate. Occasionally a report is published where mistakes are made. However this doesn't give Trump the right to make blanket statements that all reporters are dishonest. That simply is untrue. If I turn off my offense meter for a moment and watch Sean Spicer, (Trump's press secretary) I hear an intimidated little boy parroting what Trump tells him to say. The same applies to Kellyanne Conway. The only one in the room who is taken in by her clearly biased spin is Kellyanne herself!
We want to thank the journalists for continuing to maintain their professionalism. We want them to continue to give credit where credit is due and provide unbiased accounts of important issues so that "we the people" can read and make up our own minds. We want to thank the many government employees who are desperately working to steady our important Government agencies during very tumultuous times. We also want to thank Arianna Huffington for giving us , and people like us, a platform to speak up and support artists and music in our culture. America is a mature and strong Democracy. Democracy is loud and noisy sometimes and so it should be. We dropped the ball this time by not getting enough people out to vote. We all share responsibility for that, but that does not give Trump the right to inflate his numbers. He won his presidency with less than 37 percent of registered voters supporting him. As long as he continues to promote characters like Steve Bannon, make atrociously insulting immigration policies, and adopt his "my way or the highway" approach to speaking to the American public, his numbers will continue to go down. This administrations war against wordsmiths is not going to work, because the pen truly is mightier than the sword.