Trump Takes a Shot at NY Times' New Publisher

""Another reason that I'm going to win another four years, is because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I'm not there."

1.4.2018 

 

News

 

 Mark Tapson 

 

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Howard Kurtz writes at Fox News that the new publisher of the New York Timeshad barely managed to promise his readers that the paper would uphold the principles of independent journalism before President Donald Trump fired a shot across the Gray Lady's bow.

After taking over the newspaper from his father Arthur Sulzberger Jr., A.G. Sulzberger (pictured above) wrote in a full-page letter,

"Misinformation is rising and trust in the media is declining as technology platforms elevate clickbait, rumor and propaganda over real journalism, and politicians jockey for advantage by inflaming suspicion of the press."

No one has to "inflame suspicion" of the press -- the news media has utterly destroyed its own credibility and no longer even bothers to put up a pretense of objective journalism. As for misinformation, again the mainstream media is to blame.

In any case, President Trump tweeted in response,

"Get impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent 'sources,' and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you won't have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done!"

Trump was referring to an open letter written by Sulzberger Jr. after the 2016 election asking, "Did Donald Trump’s sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters?" As Kurtz notes, the letter did not include any apology.

Kurtz also pointed out that Trump told Times reporter Michael Schmidt last week that the news media is going to be the reason Trump wins again in 2020:

"Another reason that I'm going to win another four years, is because newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I'm not there because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes ... 

"So they basically have to let me win. And eventually, probably six months before the election, they'll be loving me because they're saying, 'Please, please, don't lose Donald Trump.' O.K."

If Trump runs again and wins, however, it won't simply be because the media obsess over him. It will be because he has made America great again. But Kurtz concedes that

there are very few media outlets that haven’t benefited from Trump’s nonstop newsmaking. Those openly opposed to Trump are marketing themselves to the resistance, those openly backing Trump appeal to his loyal supporters (who don’t trust the MSM), and those that are trying to position themselves in the middle benefit from a hyped-up atmosphere in which everyone is debating politics, from the coffee shop to Twitter and Facebook.

That’s the great irony of this new era: the media, targeted and taunted by Trump, are also riding the financial wave he’s created.

And the president, in turn, feeds off the constant media attention to drive his agenda.

"I suspect he's trolling the media," Kurtz concludes, "having a little fun at their expense. But he's also right that the constant combat has been ringing their cash registers."

And yet at the same time, Trump is exposing the mainstream media outlets for what they largely are: leftist propaganda organs.