Kyle Jensen and Jack Selzer, The Conversation: How the media encourages – and sustains – political warfare
Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been waging war against the American press by dismissing unfavorable reports as “fake news” and calling the media “the enemy of the American people.”
As a countermeasure, The Washington Post has publicly fact-checked every claim that Trump has labeled as fake. In August, The Boston Globe coordinated editorials from newspapers across the nation to push back against Trump’s attacks on the press. The Associated Press characterized this effort as the declaration of a “war of words” against Trump.
News organizations might frame themselves as the besieged party in this “war.” But what if they’re as much to blame as the president in this back-and-forth? And what if readers are to blame as well?
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WNU Editor: Regular readers of this blog know that I have been a critic of the media since the beginning .... on how they covered President Bush and President Obama when they were in the White House, to how they cover President Trump. The difference today is that there is a now President who fights back via through Twitter and other media forums on how the media covers news stories, and more importantly, educates the public on how they do it. To say that the blow-back from the media has been overwhelmingly negative and in many cases hateful is an understatement Fortunately .... IMHO .... some people are noticing it .... If You Ignore the News, America Actually Seems Pretty Nice (Justin Fox, Bloomberg)
