Thursday, after President Trump’s impromptu press conference during which he lambasted the mainstream press for their often adversarial coverage of him, NBC’s Chuck Todd tweeted:
Press bashing may feel good to folks but when it’s done by people in power, it’s corrosive. Take off your partisan hats for a second
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) February 16, 2017
Todd brings up an interesting philosophical question. Is the president allowed to hit back? If the press treats a president fairly, perhaps such aggression wouldn’t be warranted. However, the mainstream press has not treated President Trump fairly.
The mainstream media has about a 50/50 track-record as it pertains to their coverage of Trump.
There are many times when Trump does need to be checked for his numerous falsehoods, and poor policy decisions. However, many in the media seem to have decided ahead of time that anything and everything President Trump does is bad, and will be treated as such. Given that, it’s not surprising to see the president punch back at dishonesty in the media.
As of this publication, Todd’s tweet has 2,600 retweets and 8,300 “likes,” but that hasn’t stopped twitter users from hammering him in the comments:
@chucktodd Do you think the way the last administration dealt with the press (and leaks) was also corrosive?
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) February 16, 2017
@chucktodd – where are your tweets going after President Obama for chastising Fox News! Must have missed those.
— Jim Nelles (@jim_nel123) February 16, 2017
@chucktodd You should ask yourselves what you did in the previous 8 years to cause this
— Daryl Robinson (@DarylRobinson23) February 16, 2017
@chucktodd Public trust in press is at an all-time low. Much of it is self-inflicted. Time to look within instead of blaming others. pic.twitter.com/XiL7trhpFo
— Jimmy Orr (@JimmyOrr) February 16, 2017
@chucktodd you’re not wrong. But President bashing by a powerful media is no better. #lookinthemirror
— A Reasoning Faith (@AReasoningFaith) February 17, 2017
Ouch.
Following the election, it appeared for just a moment that the mainstream press was preparing to enter a period of self-examination. Unfortunately, they decided to dig in their heels, and savage Trump regardless of the nature of his policy or behavior.
As indicated above, it’s not working on everyone. As the old saying goes: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”