During a guest appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Friday, acclaimed director Rob Reiner claimed that President Trump represented “the first time” that an American President had enjoyed the support of the mainstream media.
Reiner began by saying that the majority of Americans don’t care about the threats presented by Russia because everything is too complicated, and most people only get their information from one source.
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He explained, “They don’t care because they don’t really understand it. It’s very, very complicated, and if you are only getting your information from one place, it’s very difficult to penetrate. This is the first time also in American history where we have had a president — every president uses propaganda to sell a policy — Republicans and Democrats. To sell a policy, so sell a rationale for going to war — but this is the first time we have had a president that is supported by mainstream media.”
Reiner then went on to describe which outlets he was including in his description of “mainstream media,” complaining that “43 percent of the country are getting their news only” from:
- Fox News
- Breitbart
- Sinclair
- Alex Jones
And while some would certainly question Reiner’s assessment of which outlets constitute “mainstream media,” most would argue that former President Obama had much more support from a much broader range of outlets than President Trump.
Also, and you know this better than most, the vast majority of the media gave President Obama a pass. It’s easy to do press conferences when your audience is basically a giant fan club.
— Justin T. Haskins (@JustinTHaskins) June 6, 2018
Obama did it? Media fawned. Trump does it? You’d think it was the end of the world. https://t.co/EoRAiVor7R
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) November 11, 2017
(RELATED: ‘Hate-Trump Media’ Can’t Handle All The Winning)
Even former President Bill Clinton admitted as much just a few days earlier.
Bill Clinton claims media was easy on Obama because they liked having a black president: https://t.co/bAxsmXEcRy pic.twitter.com/xaKUZASuNN
— Complex (@Complex) June 4, 2018