Donald Trump is once again floating the idea of creating his own, government sponsored news outlet, to combat the “fake news”. If that sounds a little dictator-y, then you probably have heard of any fascist regime ever. Because a state controlled news platform is basically step two in becoming a brutal dictator. There is nothing wrong with a government helping to fund independent news. The BBC is one of the most respected news organizations in the world, and it exists because of government funding, but the British government doesn’t run it or get to tell them what to say. Because when the Government begins reporting the news, it stops being the news, and starts being propaganda. And I’m sorry, but Donald Trump can’t speak for 30 seconds without lying, and as such, I would have trouble taking serious any “news” he put his rubber stamp on. I don’t know if Trump will actually go through with trying to create some kind of rival news network to sell his narrative against the largely accurate news organizations that Trump hates, but I do look forward to the day when we get a President who doesn’t challenge the credibility of legitimate news organizations on a daily basis.
To recap Donald Trump’s most recent assault on the Free Press, Jim Acosta from CNN had his press credentials from the White House revoked for asking questions Trump didn’t want to answer, and Trump flipped out on him. Then the White House claimed Acosta assaulted an intern using a doctored video from InfoWars. Obviously thinking that was ludicrously out of line, CNN brought it to the courts, where the courts told Trump that he had to give Acosta his press credentials back. All’s well, right? Well I guess not. Now Trump is implementing new rules for the sake of “politeness” and it sounds like no one is agreeing to them, because apparently they are kind of antithetical to the whole idea of a free press. The rules, as outlined in an email by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have a number of limitations, including the limiting of followup questions, which will keep reporters from getting the clarity they often need in interpreting the backwards statements that Trump and his people put out. But the fact that a precedent is now being set as to how reporters can approach asking questions and getting answers demonstrates a worrying habit of the Trump administration to quash anything that looks like dissent. And what do you call that if not fascism?
There was a point early on in Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first days, where I thought I should feel sorry for her. I really thought she was being forced to peddle the party line. I mean, despite my distaste for her and her family’s politics, I would have hoped that she was at least honest. Or honest as far as she was able. I would have thought the sort of blatant lack of honesty would eventually rub her the wrong way, which might account for her more and more aggressive posturing. But I quickly realized that I was projecting far more decency on her than she deserved. She really is just generally dishonest and weirdly aggressive when she’s called on it. It’s been especially obvious in the last several days, where she has been defending the revocation of Jim Acosta’s Press Credentials. Beyond towing her boss’s line, she’s actively helping in expanding on the deception by using doctored footage from InfoWars (of all places) to try and further tarnish Acosta’s reputation. It’s despicable, and yet remarkably consistent with what we might expect.
Mind the Exit 