Trump and the Media

One of the first victims of autocratic regimes is the free press. Autocrats detest criticism, preferring a controlled media that toes the government line. Cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump seems to have a love/hate relationship with most of the media. Reporters are one of Trump's favorite targets of attack — he frequently refers to reporters as the "enemy of the people" — and is routinely critical of the mainstream media. Simultaneously, however, Trump loves media attention and has a penchant for playing the media like a fiddle. He has house-trained mainstream reporters such as Maggie Haberman — who knows not to risk her access with hard-nosed reporting and to save her best scoops for a book in the future — and, more recently, started surrounding himself with bloggers who are essentially MAGA cult members. Trump's effort to neuter the media is wide-ranging and multifaceted. But it is an important element of his emerging autocracy.

Even before his second electoral victory, Trump had been gaining greater control of the mainstream media. Owners of both the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times overruled their own editors to quash endorsements of former Vice President Kamala Harris. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos would go on to have a front-row seat on the stage during Trump's inauguration and would eventually change the Post's editorial policy to limit opinion articles to the topics of free enterprise and personal liberty. ABC News rushed to settle a lawsuit that Trump had filed against the network, despite having a very winnable case. Trump has also sued Paramount, the owner of CBS News, over a "60 Minutes" interview of Harris that Trump insists was deceptively edited. Trump has even sued the Des Moines Register and pollster J. Ann Selzer because of a poll of voters in Iowa that Trump didn't like (admittedly, the poll was an outlier that turned out to be wrong). Trump's legal actions tend to be little more than harassment, in which Trump's cases are weak, but contesting them is costly for the media outlets involved. Moreover, Trump has never been shy about his transactional nature. The corporate owners of most major news sources are not interested in risking their larger business concerns over Trump's displeasure with new reporting. Bezos, for instance, wants to sell rockets and computing cloud services to the government. Setting aside long-held journalistic practices in order to curry favor with Trump is basically a business decision.

After starting his second term, Trump took several aggressive steps towards the media. When the Associated Press continued the use of "Gulf of Mexico", the Trump administration banned the wire service's reporters from the presidential press pool and Air Force One. The AP subsequently won a lawsuit against Trump; Court required him to lift his restrictions on the AP's reporters. That ruling was stayed pending appeal until last night. The Trump administration has said that he would appeal the judgement, but I have not heard whether an appeal was formally filed. At any rate, AP reporters are still currently banned. The important aspect of this case is that it illustrates the Trump administration's attempts to control the speech of news organizations. Reporters are expected to either use "Trump-approved" language or suffer the consequences. Trump also ended the practice of the White House Correspondents Association being responsible for determining which news organizations were admitted to the briefing room. Trump gave that power to the White House press team. In other words, Trump press flacks now determine who will be allowed to cover them. This has resulted in several MAGA-leaning bloggers being provided access. Once such reporter, a representative of My Pillow Guy's LindellTV, recently started a question by claiming, "President Trump looks healthier than ever before" and then asking whether “he is working out with Bobby Kennedy and is he eating less McDonald’s?"

Just yesterday, Trump launched a new "Truth Social" attack against "60 Minutes". While Paramount and Trump's representatives earlier agreed to a mediator in their legal dispute, Trump appears to be unwilling to wait for the outcome of that process. On Truth Social, he accused "60 Minutes" of being a dishonest political operative that is "disguised" as news. Trump went on to say that "they" should lose their license and that he hoped that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brandan Carr would impose the maximum punishment against the news organization. Carr has lately presented himself as a significant threat to free speech and is willing to use his powers in a partisan manner in support of Trump. It is not clear what "licenses" Trump is demanding be revoked. "60 Minutes" obviously does not have a broadcast license. Broadcast licenses are held by local stations, not the networks.

Trump has even disbanded what was actually the closest thing to a government-controlled media that we have had: the Voice of America and other U.S.-supported foreign broadcasting services. As with most of Trump’s actions these days, Trump appears to have acted unlawfully and now his efforts to close the news organizations are tied up in court. These foreign broadcast services were often one of very few sources of Western reporting within the countries which received the broadcasts. China was quick to begin using some of the frequencies that were abandoned by the U.S. organizations.

Not surprisingly, but still disappointing, many of the most vocal voices for free speech that have been quick to defend the rights of right-wing extremists hoping to speak on college campuses have been very quiet in response to Trump's attacks on the free press. During the administration of former President Barack Obama, mainstream news organizations came to the defense of Fox News when there were fears that Fox was being excluded from interviews. However, when Trump banned the AP, most White House reporters carried on as usual with very little in the form of protest. For the most part, today's White House reporters appear to be more than willing to play by Trump's rules in exchange for access to the administration.

In his quest to suppress free media, Trump has engaged in legal actions, administrative responses, and constant pressure, attempting to force news organizations into adopting his point of view. Trump's administration has promoted friendly news sources and punished those whose reporting is not in line with Trump's desires. Ironically, one of Trump's first actions after being sworn in was to sign an executive order "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship" However, this appears aimed more at investigating controversies during former President Joe Biden's administration than governing the behavior of the Trump Administration. Within the Trump administration, it is considered good form to censor the speech of news organizations deemed unfriendly to the administration.

Update: Since posting this, I have learned that the Trump Administration did indeed appeal the ruling against them regarding AP access to the White House. However, the appeals court has not issued its own stay. The district court's stay expired last night. Therefore, today the AP should legally have the restrictions on it lifted.

Update 2: An AP reporter and photographer attempted to join the White House pool today and were denied access to the Oval Office. This is a direct refusal by the Trump Administration to to obey a court order. Trump is also disobeying a U.S. Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of the Maryland father who was deported to El Salvador in error. We are directly in the midst of a constitutional crisis at this point.