Donald Trump once again lashed out at the media, calling CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal” for reporting negatively about him.
Trump’s attacks on the media are nothing new, but his choice of venue is: The Justice Department, where, in his campaign-like speech before prosecutors, he also attacked political opponents.
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“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat party, and in my opinion, they are really corrupt and they are illegal,” Trump said, again using his nickname for MSNBC.
He also bashed other outlets, including CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, for their reporting. He claimed that the mainstream outlets were influencing judges and “I don’t believe it’s legal.”
Media outlets are protected by the First Amendment.
Trump has made attacks on news outlets a primary part of his political persona. But in his second term, his administration has taken steps to try to chill or even intimidate the media. His FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has launched inquiries into CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris, and of Comcast for its diversity, equity and inclusion policy.
Trump’s White House has banned the Associated Press from Oval Office and other events because the news organization has not changed its Stylebook guidance to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. The White House also has taken control of who will be members of the press pool, the dozen or so reporters who have access to smaller events with limited capacity. The White House Correspondents’ Association, a non-profit run by journalists, had coordinated the pool for decades.
The administration also has canceled government subscriptions to news outlets, costing major organizations revenue. On Thursday, Kari Lake, who is serving as senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said that she moved to cancel newswire contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Lake wrote on X, “USAGM is an American taxpayer funded News Organization with an 83-year history. We should not be paying outside news companies to tell us what the news is—with nearly a billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves.” Lake has routinely bashed mainstream media organizations as she waged unsuccessful campaigns for governor and then U.S. senator from Arizona.
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