Media's relentlessly negative coverage of President Trump
Media Research Center says network newscast coverage of Trump was 91 percent negative in January and February; reaction from Sean Spicer and Joe Concha on 'Hannity.'
President Trump’s foreign policy is defying the media so much, even they are finally sounding positive over his “stunning” peace moves with North Korea.
But journalists haven’t liked the president’s criticisms of Europe. President Trump has been repeatedly critical of how Europe has handled its refugee crisis – pointing out the reality of no-go zones and specifically discussing a spike in immigrant-related crime in Sweden. This week he was proven at least somewhat correct on both fronts.
German Prime Minister Angela Merkel admitted that her nation has “no-go areas,” though she wouldn’t admit where. The Associated Press reported: “In an interview Monday with German broadcaster n-tv, Merkel said she favors a zero tolerance policy on crime and that includes preventing no-go areas, ‘that’s areas where nobody dares to go.’”
According to Politico, President Trump told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in 2015 that “London and other places … are so radicalized that the police are afraid for their own lives.”
Merkel’s “areas where nobody dares to go” would seem to qualify as “other places.” MSNBC was one of many outlets to deny Trump’s original claim.
The case of Sweden was more specific. While Trump called out Sweden’s situation based on one disputed incident, he quickly got to the larger issue. Here’s a quote from the president as reported by CNN on Feb. 20, 2017: “You look at what's happening in Germany. You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible.”
President Trump took a victory lap this week. NBC reported his follow-up comments during a White House press conference with Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. "Certainly, you have a problem with the immigration," Trump said. "It's caused problems with Sweden. I was one of the first ones to say it, I took a little heat. But that was OK, because I proved to be right."
But here’s the NBC headline: “Trump claims vindication for baffling Sweden terror comments last year.” Hardly admitting anything.
The latest dust-up over Sweden follows a New York Times piece that described Sweden in, well, Trumpian terms. The article was headlined: “Hand Grenades and Gang Violence Rattle Sweden’s Middle Class.” It said: “Weapons from a faraway, long-ago war are flowing into immigrant neighborhoods here, puncturing Swedes’ sense of confidence and security.”
The Daily Caller’s Saagar Enjeti upset traditional media outlets when he was called on at a White House news conference and brought up the Times story. “Mr. Prime Minister, last year, you criticized the president for drawing a link between immigrant crime and the recent arrivals of refugees. This week, one of our own flagship papers, The New York Times, actually profiled a link between hand grenade violence and immigrant gang violence in your country. Do you stand by your criticism the President?” he asked.
Journalists were quick to bash Enjeti. NPR Lead Editor Domenico Montanaro said: “The Daily Caller question asker just basically asked if the Swedish PM wants to apologize to Trump on immigration.” No, he asked the question the Times should have asked.
2. An Epic Journalism Disaster: Take schlock journalism, add an anti-depressant and possibly alcohol and you get Erin Burnett’s interview with former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg on CNN.
It was a 40-minute TV extravaganza that included Burnett making a disturbing point. “Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath," Burnett told Nunberg. While he denied it, he admitted taking “meds,” or “anti-depressants.” That revelation didn’t stop the interview from going viral.
What the Nunberg interviews reveal about the media
Insight into the media's reaction to Nunberg and coverage of President Trump.
By the time Nunberg vowed to get help, the media had already gone berserk. Nunberg told the New York Daily News he was concerned. "I'm a little worried about me," he said.
When the day was out, CNN had milked the interview for everything it could get: nearly four hours of on air time from 3:30 to 11 p.m. It devoted 73.3 percent to Nunberg and left little time for anything else. MSNBC spent 56.7 percent of its time on the story. MSNBC Anchor Chris Matthews called Nunberg a “Kato Kaelin-type character.”
As a good measure of how bad the Nunberg coverage was, even Co-host Sunny Hostin of “The View” said: “It felt a little exploitative to me.” Duh.
This kind of bizarre media hit-job reporting only makes sense in the context of journalists’ continued war against the president. The evening broadcast coverage still stands at 91 percent negative.
3. The Left’s Farrakhan Fiasco: Ordinarily, when a professional hate-monger and bigot crops up in the news cycle, journalists are quick to point fingers. As long as those fingers get aimed at the right. Then there’s Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Farrakhan gave an unhinged but typical (for him) speech at the end of February where he proclaimed “Jews are my enemy,” and “white folks are going down.” Neither aspect of his bigotry is new. But his ties to the Women’s March founders and Democratic politicians got a little more attention than they wanted.
Who is Louis Farrakhan and why he’s a problem for Democrats
A look at Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and why he’s a problem for Democrats
This all got complicated when it turned out that several of the Women’s March leaders supported the anti-Semitic bigot. March Co-President Tamika Mallory attended the “Jews are my enemy” speech and previously had said Farrakhan is “definitely GOAT,” or Greatest of All Time.
The Daily Beast’s Emily Shire skewered the march and its close ties and support for Farrakhan’s virulent anti-Semitism. CNN Anchor Jake Tapper blasted Democrats and asked why they wouldn’t denounce Farrakhan. Politico reported that Democrats are now, finally, backing away from the famous bigot, but this comes only a few weeks after an old photo of then-Sen. Obama appearing with Farrakhan surface. That caused hardly a ripple in the news.
The problems for the Women’s March are continuing. The Atlantic ran a piece on Thursday calling out the march and saying, “it finds itself embroiled in an unexpected controversy after the initial refusal of several of its leaders to distance themselves from one of America’s leading anti-Semites, the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan.”
If this were a conservative scandal, almost every member of Congress would have been asked to disassociate from both the march and Farrakhan.
4. Sexual Misconduct Fight Continues: That didn’t take long. Politics reporter Ryan Lizza is now working for Rolling Stone after The New Yorker fired him following “sexual misconduct allegations,” reported Vanity Fair. He also never lost his contributor gig at CNN, according to The Hill.
Former legal analyst Adrienne Lawrence sued ESPN for sex harassment and discrimination including “complaints about unwelcome sexual advances from SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross, along with other inappropriate behavior by male colleagues,” wrote Forbes.
5. A Little More Media Bias Proof: Just in case you still believe the claim that journalists aren’t biased against the right, here are a few reminders:
? Humiliated Nashville Mayor Megan Barry announced her resignation following an affair with a bodyguard and pleading guilty to theft. The media went of their way to skip her party affiliation. She’s a Democrat. So I wonder why?
? The American Legion is fighting to save a 40-foot tall monument in the shape of a cross that memorializes members of the armed forces who died defending our country in World War I. The Maryland monument lost in the latest round of the court fight and the legion has vowed to appeal. None of the broadcast networks covered it.
? The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Bruenig reminded readers how far the paper has shifted left. She wrote an opinion piece headlined: “It’s time to give socialism a try.” An actual news organization might have pointed out to her that it has been tried repeatedly – in the old Soviet Union, China, Castro’s Cuba and in the collapsing nation of Venezuela, just to name a few. But there are always liberal journalists to say: “capitalism seems to be at odds with the harmonious, peaceful, stable liberalism of midcentury dreams.”
? Journalists wonder why people don’t trust so-called “fact-checkers,” like PolitiFact. Here’s why. Texas GOP congressional candidate Jason Isaac ran an ad saying that abortion is “the leading cause of death for black Americans and kills as many as 1,000 black children every day.” PolitiFact staffers who apparently never took biology called that “mostly false.” According to this “fact-checker,” “it’s worth noting for starters that Isaac’s characterization of abortions as killing babies is disputed.” This is why no one should ever believe anything PolitiFact says.
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