President Trump is driving the media crazy – but, as libertarian scribe John Stossel points out, at least it was a short trip. Excerpt:
The Federalist’s Jordyn Pair points out that the press repeatedly told us that a dozen Trump administration members were about to be fired, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Press Secretary Sean Spicer and strategists Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.
Months later, all still work for or with the administration.
I actually wish Sessions had been fired, but Trump’s staff reshufflings are no more frequent than those of other administrations, including President Obama’s. The media so desperately want something bad to happen, to prove Trump’s unqualified, that they blow stuff up.
New York Times writers are so upset by Trump’s rants against them that they act like he’s a Venezuelan dictator who will shut them down. (Wait, don’t Times socialists like Venezuelan dictators?)
“Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings” was one recent headline.
The evidence?
“The First Amendment,” wrote the normally sensible media columnist Jim Rutenberg, “is under near-daily assault from the highest levels of the government.”
The “assault” cited was Trump’s tweeting out a fake wrestling video, which depicted, as Rutenberg put it, “himself tackling and beating a figure with a CNN logo superimposed.”
So what? The video, like professional wrestling, was childish and unpresidential. But it doesn’t put the press “under siege.” It’s a lame joke.
And if there’s anything the President seems to enjoy, it’s a lame joke. (More on this in tomorrow’s Rule Five Friday post.) And another thing he apparently enjoys is driving the legacy media absolutely batshit. And after eight years of the legacy media’s adulation of President Obama, frankly, they’ve got it coming.
Stossel is right on one thing; there is no First Amendment threat here. President Trump is not threatening to jail reporters (President Lincoln was the last one to do that) or nationalize the major networks. He’s just trolling. And trolling is something he’s always done well.
