The Constitution is clear and unequivocal about the importance of the media and the power it bestows on it.
“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”
No law. None.
This is turning out to be another case where President Donald Trump fancies himself to be above the law. Congress, the courts and the rest of the nation should not indulge him.
Trump’s disdain for the legitimate media hasn’t been a secret since newspapers exposed his fraudulent schemes even as a “college” creator and a real estate owner in New York City years ago.
Trump has long been infuriated by the legitimate press repeatedly pointing out his proven and prolific habit of lying.
Trump has long dubbed the press the “lame-stream media” and angrily called it “fake news” in an effort to give credence to his deceits, fabrications, misinformation and false narratives.
Now, Trump has begun a new game of dares, making clear that his war on journalism is without end.
Just days after assuming office for his second term, Trump wantonly changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America as an aberrant titillation, and a dare.
The Associated Press, of which the Sentinel is a proud member, ruled that style usage of Trump’s dalliance in triteness would be accommodated by referring in reports to the Gulf of Mexico as just that, adding that Trump changed it to “the Gulf of America.”
Trump petulantly rebuked the AP, and began punishing what is arguably the world’s largest distributor of legitimate news about the United States government here, and around the globe.
Trump has locked out AP reporters and photographers from a wide range of select presidential news events.
What he’s done is lock out hundreds of millions of news readers from across the political spectrum. In essence, giving in to his own craven personal problems with insecurity and authoritarianism, he’s violated the U.S. Constitution by abridging the press, in this case, the Associated Press.
That’s not just the opinion of the Sentinel, but of the federal court system.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden ruled that the government, including Trump, cannot punish the AP for exercising its right to free speech and the rights bestowed upon the press.
The judge didn’t say that Trump had to invite the AP into the press events he has locked them out of, the judge simply ruled that Trump can’t use the reporting of the AP as grounds for punishing its reporters, photographers and, ultimately, member newspapers and readers.
In a typical Trump move, he groused.
This week, Trump refused to let AP journalists into the Oval Office during a press event with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
Trump petulantly raged even harder Sunday against the CBS news show 60 Minutes, after a broadcast this week focused on recent moves by the new Trump administration.
“Almost every week, 60 Minutes … mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” Trump said Sunday on his Truth Social account.
He has instructed his Federal Communications Commission chairperson to strike out against CBS and impose fiscal and other punishment for what Trump called, “unlawful and illegal behavior.”
CBS, with deep pockets and skilled lawyers, have fearlessly forged ahead in exposing what journalists there have uncovered, episodes of Trump malfeasance, and offering viewers proof of their allegations.
The thin-skinned Trump, after spending years purporting unsubstantiated allegations of his political enemies “weaponizing” the government against him, and against the law, is flagrantly doing just that.
While the Associated Press and CBS News are able to withstand Trump’s puerile compulsions, there is no doubt his behavior has a chilling effect on parts of the press who care not to suffer the eccentric obsessions of Trump’s psychological frailty for fear the retribution could be lethal.
Regardless of the political persuasion of Sentinel readers and 60 Minutes viewers, everyone should aggressively push back against Trump’s perilous affliction. The Constitutional rights of the press guarantee the right of journalists at Fox News, the Sentinel and 60 Minutes to provide critical reports of the nation’s government, including its elected officials.
It’s up to readers and viewers to determine whether their news source is offering accurate, substantiated and reliable information, either inviting that into their lives or booting it out. That’s not the call for Trump or any elected official to make.
If society in the US was normal at this point, a yutz like Trump would be laughed at, but we have a whole party of sycophants just waiting to amplify his every brain fart! The fact that he is warring with AP over the Gulf of Mexico is ludicrous. The fact that CBS is reporting facts that are inconvenient to the Trump administration should warrant some introspection from the Whitehouse. Instead, they defend every cruel spending cut, every unwarranted deportation, and every politically motivated dismissal of long-time loyal government employees! The Washinton Post, as directed by Jeff Bezos, has turned it’s head from reporting honestly and freely, but we need news orgs and universities to resist Trump’s authoritarian directives, otherwise we lose our democratic moorings. SCOTUS needs to step up and defend democracy.
Sorry your revolutionary vanguard is getting deported, Kane, but I realize you think only Third World peon labor should do blue collar work.
And yes, I also realize you think it’s forever 1938 when your side isn’t in total power. Guess you just don’t like the taste of your own Marcusian “liberating tolerance.”
Well said.
I think we should all agree that we cannot afford to have any politician try to silence the media. It doesn’t matter whether it is left wing or right wing media. It is a shame that they are no longer objective news sources. We also cannot afford to have any politician weaponize the justice system, either Biden or Trump. We cannot have the politicians forgiving crime by their cronies, as both parties have done.