Although it was not among his promises to the American people, it can be rightly argued that the one place President Donald Trump has fostered a prodigious amount of change in a short time is in the kingdom of the Fourth Estate.
Whether by design or sheer force of personality, Trump has done what many presidents before him never dared do — and that is – tangle with the time-honored traditions of the establishment media.
First, he threw some of the troops out. He put them on notice that his press office wasn’t automatically open to every big name in the media world. This was quite the heave-ho, and the media immediately squawked about a restriction on their movement.
Even more significant has been his continued tweeting, which has reduced the media’s control over his administration as “gatekeepers of the truth.” Thus, the media no longer has cornered the market on all communication emanating from the White House. To say they are incensed by this is an understatement.
In the meantime, the Trump communications people have opened their doors to new, smaller news outlets by providing a few Skype spaces for them in the White House briefing room. Horrors!
And when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson chose Independent Journal Review reporter Erin McPike to join him as the lone media person aboard his jet on an overseas trip, the hue and cry of the establishment media could be heard all the way to Japan, as satirized here on Liberty Nation.
And still, there is so much more.
Today, the famed White House Correspondents Association dinner will go on sans The Prez. This is unusual to say the least, and should prove to render the annual dinner a much more subdued affair. Let’s face it, the air changes in a room when the President of the United States is present. It seems Trump has eschewed the dinner in favor of a rally in the Keystone state to be with “his” people.
Imagine that.
Even Variety noted that, “… there is one area where Trump has racked up accomplishments, to his direct and indirect credit, by design and by chance. That is the media.” They also took note of the president’s actions concerning net neutrality:
Trump also signed a bill that reversed a set of privacy rules for internet providers, passed by the FCC last year. That may be just a prelude of plans to repeal, via the FCC or Congress, the current design of net neutrality rules, posing huge implications for the future of online streaming and broadband in general.
Net neutrality, communications mergers and more – any which way you look at it the President may have to endure daily attacks from the press – but his footprint can be seen on the backs of just about everything media related. It’s a no holds barred, take no prisoners approach.
Mostly the President has kept the establishment media awake and alert trying to keep up with his every, unpredictable move. Gone are the lazy, hazy days of Ike on the golf course or LBJ down on the ranch. Those in the ivory tower of the Fourth Estate may detest the man and his mission, but their ratings certainly do not belie the truth that they have benefitted handsomely from a Trump presidency.
And so, the outrage from the leftist establishment media is likely to continue unabated, and that just may be fine and dandy with the 45th President. They have, at the very least, learned to spell his name right. Indeed, that may be all that Donald Trump expects from this group.
