According to Wikipedia, the job of the press secretary is to, “interact with the media, and deal with the White House press corps on a daily basis, generally in a press briefing.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump admitted to telling his press secretary “not to bother” with all that.
“The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the ‘podium’ much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News.”
The reason Sarah Sanders does not go to the “podium” much anymore is that the press covers her so rudely & inaccurately, in particular certain members of the press. I told her not to bother, the word gets out anyway! Most will never cover us fairly & hence, the term, Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
Donald Trump has long held that the adversarial press, which is a cornerstone of any healthy democracy, is an “enemy of the people.” He has often used the term “Fake News” throughout this Presidency to describe any negative press regarding himself or his administration’s actions.
In one instance, after a particularly contentious confrontation with CNN’s Jim Acosta, Sanders tweeted out what appeared to be a doctored video, making the reporter’s actions appear more aggressive than they actually were.
The video tweeted out by the White House last night adds motion blur and repeats frames to make it appear Acosta is being much more forceful than he actually was pic.twitter.com/hAgQodceCZ
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 8, 2018
In one extraordinary interview with CNBC’s Lesley Stahl, Trump admitted to bashing the press in order to reduce the media’s credibility to the public:
“You know why I do it?” Trump asked Stahl. “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”
In spite of repeated attacks by the President and his administration, however, journalists across the nation, including here at Big Easy Magazine remain committed to doing our jobs.
Jenn Bentley is a writer and editor originally from Cadiz, Kentucky. Her writing has been featured in publications such as The Examiner, The High Tech Society, FansShare, Yahoo News, and others. When she’s not writing or editing, Jenn spends her time raising money for Extra Life and advocating for autism awareness.
