Journalism

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign said that CNN has denied its offer to buy air time for a campaign ad, marking the second time the network has refused to run a pro-Trump campaign spot. The ad, called “Let President Trump Do His Job,” accuses the media of “attacking our president” and briefly displays pictures of news anchors from several news outlets, including CNN anchors Jake Tapper, Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper.

“The president’s enemies don’t want him to succeed,” the ad states. “Let President Trump do his job.” The ad also touts U.S. economic growth, the stock market, jobs figures and military strength, while accusing Democrats of obstruction. “One of the many reasons that so many millions of Americans support President Trump is because of their complete mistrust of the mainstream news media, and the president’s refusal to allow their biased filter to interfere with his messages,” Trump campaign executive director Michael Glassner said in a statement.

President Donald Trump evidently doesn't know the definition of "press conference." Aug 11, after two days of unusual engagement with the White House press corps, President Trump promised to hold a "pretty big press conference" at the White House on Aug 14. But the White House didn't set up any press conference. Instead, he gave a hastily-arranged speech without answering any questions. When he came before cameras a second time Aug 14, and CNN's Jim Acosta, who was in the room serving as pool reporter, asked about the lack of a presser, President Trump said, "We had a press conference. We just had a press conference." President Trump's declaration that "we had a press conference" seemed to confirm what some White House correspondents already surmised -- that Trump is counting any appearance in front of the press corps as a press conference.

President Donald Trump and CNN’s Jim Acosta traded barbs Aug 14 when the reporter pressed President Trump to take questions about his response to the weekend white supremacist rally in Charlottesville (VA). President Trump made a statement earlier on Aug 14 and said that “racism is evil” and specifically criticized the KKK, Nazis and other groups that organized the rally for the first time. But he did not take questions from reporters, despite later calling it a "press conference." At a second announcement later in the day, President Trump said he is launching an investigation into China’s trade practices. As that announcement ended, Acosta asked Trump if reporters could ask him questions about his remarks on Charlottesville. “It doesn’t bother me at all, but I like real news, not fake news,” Trump said, pointing at Acosta. “You’re fake news.” “Haven’t you spread a lot of fake news yourself, sir?” Acosta shot back.

[Commentary] At a certain point, we must all pause to ask: How is it that the only time our mouthy, straight-shooting, politically incorrect president seems to bite his tongue is when he is called upon to denounce white supremacists? Does it have much to do with the fact that he lines the senior ranks of his administration with outspoken white supremacists, including Steve Bannon, formerly of Breitbart? And why is the administration so interested in curbing civil rights investigations and stopping funding for counter-white nationalism efforts? These questions should trouble every American, and therefore be on the tip of the tongue of every journalist.

Until we get real answers, it’s time to stop calling the president’s favored political zealots by their favored self-identifying term. Journalists can’t allow agents of hatred to set how they are defined. Their rebrand is little more than a cover-up for white supremacists to continue to commit foul acts of disrespect, intimidation, and violence.

[Shaya Tayefe Mohajer is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles.]

It’s not easy being the first and only Fox News host in Silicon Valley. But Steve Hilton, a tech entrepreneur who was once chief adviser to former Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, added that role to his résumé in June. Now every week, Hilton flies from the home he shares with his high-profile tech executive wife, Rachel Whetstone, in Silicon Valley’s billionaire enclave of Atherton (CA) to Fox’s studios in Los Angeles to host “The Next Revolution With Steve Hilton.” Fox News markets the Sunday night program as exploring “the impact of the populist movement.” All of which makes life complicated for Hilton in overwhelmingly liberal Silicon Valley, where supporters of President Trump are nearly nonexistent and few think populism would improve their lives.

[Commentary] Joe McCarthy loved to savage reporters, singling them out by name at his rallies in the 1950s. The Republican senator from Wisconsin knew the work of each reporter who covered his years-long campaign aimed at rooting out the communists who were supposedly seeded throughout the federal government. Then, moments after leaving the stage, McCarthy would sidle up to a reporter he’d just finished flaying and toss an arm around him: “That was just good fun.” Reporters who’ve covered Donald Trump anytime in the past four decades know that sense of whiplash all too well.

President Trump and McCarthy share a populist, demagogic speaking style and a propensity to say anything to win the moment. The two men are often compared because they both aggressively hit back at their critics and tended to inflate minor slights or partisan rows into threats against the nation. But their similarities go deeper: Both won and cemented support by using, attacking and foiling the news media. Both deployed a crazy quilt of behavior to demand news coverage — and then stomped on those same organizations as disloyal liars conspiring against them. And both enjoyed extended periods of popularity even amid reporting about their erratic behavior and tendency to say things that weren’t true. In the end, McCarthy fell from grace, but journalism alone wasn’t enough to end his destructive crusade. The news reporting about McCarthy’s excesses did over time diminish his popular support, but ultimately that souring of sentiment had to filter up from the public to their elected representatives. It took years, but McCarthy was finally held to account.

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has launched his own daily online news program, building on his “No Spin News” podcast. O'Reilly, once a conservative powerhouse at Fox News, was fired in April after The New York Times reported he sexually harassed at least seven women at the network. O'Reilly posted the first half-hour of the show on billoreilly.com on Aug 9, but only subscribers with premium membership — which cost $4.95 per month — could watch. On Aug 10, the show was made available to the public.

CNN is reporting that it has severed ties with commentator Jeffery Lord on Aug 10 after he tweeted “Sieg Heil!” at a liberal activist on Twitter. Lord, a columnist for conservative magazine The American Spectator, tweeted the Nazi victory salute at Angelo Carusone, president of the liberal group Media Matters for America. “Nazi salutes are indefensible,” a CNN spokesperson said, according to the network. “Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network.” In the opinion piece that eventually led to his ouster from CNN, Lord took issue with a Media Matters campaign to get Fox's Sean Hannity fired from his network. Media Matters urged its supporter to pressure advertisers on Hannity’s program to withdraw their support. Lord argued in his piece that this was a “fascist game” and an effort to end Hannity’s “free speech.”

[Commentary] Recent statement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions mark a serious intervention in a delicate, decades-long balancing act between the federal government and professional journalists.

A change in the policy about press subpoenas could have grave consequences for the government and press alike. A subpoena is the legal tool that forces an individual to testify or produce evidence. When subpoenas are issued to journalists (or their communications providers) in leak investigations, it is most often for the purpose of identifying a leaker: Match the relevant reporter’s telephone records to an individual with access to the classified information — or better yet, force the reporter to testify directly as to the source — and you’ve got your leaker. But you’ve also compromised the press’s ability to protect their sources, undermining their ability to do their job. Reporters who refuse to reveal their sources in compliance with such subpoenas risk contempt charges.

While the Constitution limits government intrusion on the freedom of speech and of the press, the law does not offer absolute protection for journalists against revealing their sources. Congress has not enacted robust protections and the Supreme Court has not interpreted the First Amendment as itself embodying such a privilege — nothing approximating a broad “press privilege” relieving reporters from revealing sources. Such a privilege is protected at the state level in nearly all states. But no such privilege has been recognized uniformly at the federal level.

[Murillo is a third-year student at Harvard Law School, where she is an editor of the Harvard Law Review]

“What makes Trump different is that he’s systematically trying to delegitimize the news as an institution because they won’t cover him the way he wants to be covered. That’s what’s different here.”
-- Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute