I would prefer to begin the week with videos and reflections of a more positive nature, but, as the song says, you can’t always get what you want. Over the weekend the current administration has continued to show its ignorance of the constitution and particularly the First Amendment and set about to ban access of several news media organizations to the White House because the administration does not agree with the nature of the reporting from these organizations. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration has seen it within their powers to curtail access to governmental events and functions of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico and voiced their opinion on the “truthfulness” of their reporting (which is rich, coming from an individual and group who are notorious at their inability to tell the truth, ever). 

The combative nature of this president with negative press, which is so infantile and embarrassing, reminds me of how another US president during a very unpopular war dealt with a largely negative relationship with the press and media. In 1969 during their final show (on CBS), the Smothers Brothers read a note that they had received from former president Lyndon Johnson:

“It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.” 

Compare that note with all of the name-calling and bullying coming from the White House today and you know we’re not dealing with the same ol’ government run-around or obfuscation. We can do so much better than this. Attempting to take down the fourth estate, the Press, is just another part of the authoritarian’s toolkit. This isn’t improving anything or making anything any better for the American public. It’s what you do when you don’t want a free press and want to control what news is shared, what stories are told and who gets to be today’s “victim.” We can do better than this.

As of this writing, with CNN banned from doing it’s coverage of the  president’s visit to NYC and the UN for the press pool, the other four networks, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and Fox News, have all chosen to not cover the trip to NYC/UN. There will be other coverage, but the camera(s) that is shared by the major networks will not be present for this trip (which includes a visit with New York Mayor Zohran Mandami). JBB

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Tags: 8647, authoritarianism, journalism, politics, video Mondays 

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