Trump escalates war on the press • FRANCE 24 English

We can now bring in our foreign affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert. Doug, uh, good to see you. Donald Trump has gone after news outlets in the past, uh, since his return to the White House. Now, he’s banned, uh, this Wall Street Journal reporter from traveling with him. He’s also sued CBS. It’s part of a broader strategy to to sort of shape the narrative and silence the press. Yes, it is, Dano. And it goes back to before since his return to the White House. He did this in his first term. And let’s be honest, his animous, his lovehate relationship with uh news outlets, with media organizations, really goes back all the way to his days uh you know, as a real estate uh developer in New York City. Uh look, one of the questions is right now Donald Trump appears to be on course to maybe outdo Richard Nixon. I’m going back over half a half a century, right? Um in his hostility towards and crackdown on the US press, the free press, um and the protections of journalists with regard to the First Amendment. um whether it is defamation lawsuits uh or perceived defamation lawsuits, whether it’s lawsuits against organizations whose coverage of him, Donald Trump, he doesn’t like, unfavorable, perhaps too probing, too investigative coverage. If he doesn’t like it, you are a target. The climate in US news organizations if not stifling at this point because there remain many still independent many independent news organizations um it is uh becoming more more suffocating um more and more claustrophobic by the day what we have seen since he’s come back to office you asked me about the WSJ being the latest suing it for 10 uh billion dollars including Rupert Murdoch the owner for uh the story that that uh the recently published story about Donald Trump’s ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who killed himself in jail uh or was found dead in jail in 2019. Um all of this when he came into office he’s since then all but dismantled or tried to dismantle Voice of America. He has with his um minions in Congress that is the people who do his bidding in Congress, the lawmakers in the Republican party have basically revoked public funding from public broadcasters uh the public broadcasting corporation uh to the tune of over a billion dollars. Um he has sued ABC News in a defamation lawsuit. Um they settled with him. Um he uh sued CBS News, its owner, Paramount, which is in a merger process with Sky Dance right now, billions and billions of dollars. Its owner settled with Trump for millions and millions of dollars. Um so this is part of a of a pattern. Trump going after these media organizations. Is it coincidental that it comes at a time when the dialogue has been the conversation has been about Epstein and whether or not Trump is covering something up and why has he lashed out at his supporters for wanting to have more see more evidence and wanting to see those files disclosed. He wants to change the conversation. That’s at least what his critics say and not even his critics. People even who support Donald Trump say that he seems to be wanting to change the subject. These are shiny objects. They’re not necessarily new objects. holding up the press, using the Wall Street Journal as his latest punching bag, a big lawsuit, banning its reporters uh from the traveling press pool dur during his trip coming up to to Scotland. All of these are things that he knows are it is a win-win for Donald Trump. When you bash the media, MAGA generally does not have too much of a liking for journalists. Um it is a very safe bet that if you go after the media, you’re going to get your reporter, your supporters, your MAGA supporters on side. They share a common hated enemy, a common foe in the media. So, this is a win-win.

Donald Trump has banned The Wall Street Journal from his official press pool for his visit to Scotland, following the paper’s report alleging he sent Jeffrey Epstein a suggestive birthday letter—including a nude drawing—accompanied by a $10 billion defamation lawsuit. This marks a continued escalation in his confrontational approach toward media outlets as FRANCE 24’s Doug Herbert explains.
#Trump #war #press

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8 comments

  3. Instead of focusing how he run country, lunatic democRATs are bringing up hoaxes and fake rhetorics. Whatever they release, does not matter, they wont accept it as they dont respect and accept election results and SCOTUS decisions. They could have released files in previous administration where they were in White House. It was even more easier to release because autopen was doing the job.

  4. I agree we should have a free press, it's important! The problem I see in the US is all the story telling. It seems the press in the US are owned by the right or left they are not free anymore.

  7. The media did this to themselves. By being biased to the left and the right like CNN and FOX, they lost credibility and trust of the people as an unbiased platform. Under normal circumstances, no President would ever have dared to do this for fear of massive public backlash.

  8. Epstein also trafficked French girls. Is the French police and/or Europol investigating any of these activities? These girls could sue his estate for damages. And if Maxwell was involved, she could also be held accountable.

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