Washington Post

[Commentary] Of all the mind-dizzying hypocrisies that have emanated from President Donald Trump’s communications office, it is hard to find any more outlandish than claiming to “support a free press” while barring a reporter from an open White House event simply because it didn’t like her questions. Outlandish, but not laughable; there’s nothing amusing about the administration’s retaliation against CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

There have been a number of instances in which the President or his surrogates have flatly denied something — only to have that denial contradicted weeks or months later by new documents or statements. Often, by then the media coverage has moved on to a new controversy. The release of the tape recording between Donald Trump and his former fixer, Michael Cohen, is only the most recent example of this dynamic. Here’s a sampling of White House denials that eventually unraveled after new information was disclosed.

New York attorney general candidate Zephyr Teachout promised to “explore breaking up” Facebook and Google if she is elected, using state and federal antitrust laws. Standing in front of the Manhattan offices of the New York Daily News, Teachout said tech companies are to blame for dominating the online advertising market — drawing revenue from newspapers and publishers. Teachout’s remarks came a day after the Daily News in New York announced layoffs that reduced the size of its newsroom by half.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University finds that most Americans disapprove of how the media cover President Donald Trump, a function of a majority of independents disapproving of that coverage. Among Republicans, though, nearly 9 in 10 disapprove of the media coverage. Most Americans also disapprove of how President Trump talks about the media.

In a speech to veterans, President Donald Trump said, “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” What President Trump is doing is asking listeners to join him in his carefully-crafted bubble, a space where information that conflicts with what President Trump asserts or with what President Trump believes is untrustworthy, intentionally false or simply doesn’t exist.

[Commentary] Mitt Romney wasn’t unfairly maligned in 2012. But he was victim of a toxic media and political culture. American politics has always been brutish. But changes in the media over the last half-century, along with an intense focus on every word candidates say and every mistake they make has resulted in saturation coverage of peccadillos and blunders rather than policies. This may be a good business model for the media, and effective politically, but it has undermined attempts by both parties to overcome polarization and govern.