Anti-Trump News, Not Trump, damages Press Freedoms Abroad

By now we are well aware of the media’s persecutory delusions. Whenever Trump criticizes what he has labelled the “fake news media”, often calling them the “enemy of the people”, the press pretends he is criticizing the free press in general. It isn't true; Trump has explicitly defended the free press while criticizing the fake news media. He has explicitly distinguished between fake news media and the free press on many occasions. Unfortunately the fake news media is unwilling or unable to make that distinction themselves.

That's a shame. Because now this sort of attitude is being adopted elsewhere. Even the Committee to Protect Journalists declared President Trump to be the winner of the “Overall Achievement in Undermining Global Press Freedom” prize in their tongue-in-cheek Press Oppressor Awards. Never mind that there have been no injustice committed against journalists by the current administration, they just couldn't help themselves. Democracy itself can't stand anyone saying mean things about those who represent their profession poorly.

The evidence against Trump was, of course, his rhetoric—his words, his criticisms—which the fake news cannot help but call an “attack on the free press", and therefor, "an attack on democracy". This poses a problem for the man on the street. When Trump's words are an "attack on the press", we are left to reach for other terms to describe attacks involving fire-bombs and bullets. If calling the fake news media "the enemy of the people" is an attack on the press, what do we call the killing of journalists in a newsroom shooting spree? Conflating two disparate activities to pretend they are one and the same risks diminishing the severity of one so as to elevate the gravity of the other. The fake news media pretends the line between speaking and violence is a distinction without a difference.

We are left to believe Trump’s criticism, so long as it is unflattering and directed at the press, has replaced censorship, murder, and imprisonment as the mortal foe of journalists. Let's hope that when an imprisoned journalist learns that his colleagues in the anti-Trump media are oppressed, not by violence or censorship, but by their leader's criticisms he can learn find the humor in it all, if only to bring a smile on his face as he wastes away in prison.

Taking a page from their coastal friends, the folks at CPJ, citing a NYT opinion piece, notes that censorial leaders such as Turkey’s Erdogan have adopted the “fake news” epithet in order to discredit their press.

But, unlike President Trump, these tyrants confused and conflated “fake news” to mean “the free press”, a practice made famous by the anti-Trump media as they engage in their persecutory delusions. If the fake news media were to fairly report on Trump's support of the free press and denunciation of fake news, dictators might have adopted that approach. Instead, it is more likely they learned to conflate fake news with a free press from those who have done it routinely and uncritically so far: the anti-Trump, fake news media.

The fake news media have likened criticisms of certain journalists and certain news networks into an attack on a free press, an attack on democracy, blurring the lines between fake news and journalism without restraint. Yet, if they attack the president, that is democracy in action.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, it is possible to hold two conflicting thoughts at the same time. So, like the fake news, if tyrants want to believe criticism is an attack on them, an attack on the foundations of their country, and conflate fake news with free and fair press, it is because the anti-Trump media showed them just how to do it.

a reply to: Propagandalf

CNN says trump makes them feel unsafe.

As anti-america, they should.

a reply to: Propagandalf

Holy fcking wall of Bollocks!

Trump has explicitly defended the free press while criticizing the fake news media

What's his "oh-so-free-press" then, Briebeard or Fox-News?

I have never heard of Trump going after Alex Jones not even when they doctored the tape. What he labels fake news is news that is negative about him.

There is a lot actual fake news out there, but tRump doesn't give a damn about that.

originally posted by: PublicOpinion
a reply to: Propagandalf

Holy fcking wall of Bollocks!

Trump has explicitly defended the free press while criticizing the fake news media

What's his "oh-so-free-press" then, Briebeard or Fox-News?

You'd have to find out yourself. If you continually get others to tell you what to believe, you're going to find yourself misinformed. Hence your dismissive post.

a reply to: Grimpachi

What he labels fake news is news that is negative about him.

They keep telling you to think that, so it is no surprise that some repeat it almost verbatim. But really he has provided his definition of "fake news media" countless times.

a reply to: Propagandalf

What happened to put up or shut up, you can't come up with a single example? Pathetic.

*crickets*

a reply to: PublicOpinion

Sure.

It isn't at all hard to imagine hostile news networks like this hardcore leftist propanganda sites.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
I have never heard of Trump going after Alex Jones not even when they doctored the tape. What he labels fake news is news that is negative about him.

There is a lot actual fake news out there, but tRump doesn't give a damn about that.

Neither do you NPCs either, so much TDS you willfully eat the leftist feed and proclaim it as truth.

Carry on.

So "alternative facts" Trump decides which news is real is which is not?

And here is the right once again siding with big government over the people. Weird times.

Y'all just don't get it do you... the world doesn't think Trump is an idiot because the news said so. We heard Trump's own words. We've seen Trumps actions. We've seen the appeal to the worst sentiments in America. We've seen the petty tirades void of any facts and solely based on emotion and rabble rousing his base. He continues to act like an uninformed pissy child that got more money than love. That was all the world needed. Trump just keeps reinforcing it every single day. And everyone sees it but the Trump cult.

a reply to: okrian

Y'all just don't get it do you... the world doesn't think Trump is an idiot because the news said so. We heard Trump's own words. We've seen Trumps actions

So an idiot has outsmarted the DNC, Democrats, Progressives, Alt Left, and the entirety of the MSM? Seems about right.

a reply to: Arnie123

Right. Cuz TheIntercept is fake news, eh?

Only morons... no... only thoroughly politicized morons would believe that. There's good reasons to remain hostile, and this propaganda thread is one of them.

originally posted by: highvein
a reply to: okrian

Y'all just don't get it do you... the world doesn't think Trump is an idiot because the news said so. We heard Trump's own words. We've seen Trumps actions

So an idiot has outsmarted the DNC, Democrats, Progressives, Alt Left, and the entirety of the MSM? Seems about right.

Are we defining "outsmarted" as dumbing down the entire political discourse, reducing debating to name-calling and petulant rants, and attempting to change what the word "facts" means? Then yup, he's sure outsmarting everyone.

a reply to: okrian

We've seen

Get the point? You've not seen. You've been shown.

a reply to: Propagandalf

So who's on the good list of Trump's free press?
Not CNN
Not NYT
Not Washington Post
Not MSNBC

ESPN, maybe?

Ever heard the Emperor Has No Clothes? Imagine if the emperor called "fake" at the kid who finally said something about his nudity. Is the kid at fault for giving the emperor bad publicity?

a reply to: okrian

Then yup, he's sure outsmarting everyone.

And he won the Presidency all at the same time. How smart were the left in all of this?

originally posted by: Look2theSacredHeart
a reply to: Propagandalf

So who's on the good list of Trump's free press?
Not CNN
Not NYT
Not Washington Post
Not MSNBC

ESPN, maybe?

Ever heard the Emperor Has No Clothes? Imagine if the emperor called "fake" at the kid who finally said something about his nudity. Is the kid at fault for giving the emperor bad publicity?

...and each of those networks have ties between each other.

Did you think they were seperate? Lmfao.

originally posted by: PublicOpinion
a reply to: Arnie123

Right. Cuz TheIntercept is fake news, eh?

Only morons... no... only thoroughly politicized morons would believe that. There's good reasons to remain hostile, and this propaganda thread is one of them.

You make no sense. You just sound like some unhinge NPC getting salty at your beloved leftist feed sites being bashed on and rightfully so 😌

Keep eating that feed bruh 😏

originally posted by: Arnie123

originally posted by: Look2theSacredHeart
a reply to: Propagandalf

So who's on the good list of Trump's free press?
Not CNN
Not NYT
Not Washington Post
Not MSNBC

ESPN, maybe?

Ever heard the Emperor Has No Clothes? Imagine if the emperor called "fake" at the kid who finally said something about his nudity. Is the kid at fault for giving the emperor bad publicity?

...and each of those networks have ties between each other.

Did you think they were seperate? Lmfao.

Don't really care if they're tied. My favorites are further left and independent, like Mother Jones.

You tell me, though: who is on Trump's good list.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: okrian

We've seen

Get the point? You've not seen. You've been shown.

I haven't? We haven't? Weird. I could've sworn I've seen Trump's lips moving and absolute trash coming out of his mouth, so many times that it's seriously sad. I could have sworn that I've seen his changing stances, the lies, the corporatist used car salesman approach to his business ventures, the cornered anger, the name calling, the petty bullying, the insane hypocrisy, the pay-to-play approach to his allies. It's all real dude. No one has to tell anyone anything to see all that.

You all just can't fathom that people think he's a complete dolt out of their own volition. Sadly it's true. I wish that he had just been painted in a bad light. But he's the one casting his own light, y'all are just the ones blinded by it.

Get the point?