Journalists who complain about President Trump’s anti-media rhetoric are proving him right with every published word.
Look no further than the “failing” New York Times. Deep in the throes of Trump derangement syndrome, the paper’s coverage of the president has been consistently hysterical, biased and misleading.
On Sunday, the president tweeted that he had met with the paper’s publisher, Arthur Gregg Sulzberger: “Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times,” President Trump wrote. “Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, ‘Enemy of the People.’ Sad!”
Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
The New York Times was not amused that President Trump disclosed the meeting. Sulzberger issued a self-aggrandizing, self-righteous, embarrassingly narcissistic statement explaining that he deigned to accept the meeting only to admonish the president for being mean to journalists.
Not kidding.
Sulzberger’s entire five-paragraph statement is worth reading. It offers an invaluable glimpse into a fake-news-media mindset that is completely divorced from reality.
“I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous,” Sulzberger wrote. What is actually divisive and increasingly dangerous is a mainstream media, which consistently lies about, distorts and dehumanizes the political side it doesn’t like. They have loads of such targets. But Donald Trump makes them crazy for the simple reason that he has his own platform and isn’t afraid to call them out.
Sulzberger insisted on multiple occasions in his ridiculous statement that the President’s rhetoric could result in people dying. “This inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence … I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation.”
The inflammatory language contributing to a rise in violence and putting lives at risk is the unhinged anti-Trump rhetoric of individuals and organizations like Sulzberger’s trying to convince legions of impressionable Americans that their President is a proud neo-Nazi and traitorous Russian agent.
In July alone, at least three Times articles about President Trump make references to Nazis or Neo-Nazis, two dozen tie him to “supremacist” and a dozen more connect him to “fascist” or “fascism.” A search of the New York Times website for “Trump Nazi” returns nearly almost 2000 results. There can be no talk of civility — let alone journalism—- in dealing with this level of inflammatory malevolence.
When the Times isn’t busy libeling people it disagrees with as Nazis, supremacists, or fascists, it’s publishing flat-out falsehoods.
The paper famously issued an apology for its entirely botched and biased coverage of that sought to influence the 2016 election. In that apology, then-publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. promised that the paper would “rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism. That is to report America and the world honestly, without fear or favor.”
It was a breathtaking acknowledgment that the Times was, in fact, engaged in comprehensive violations of the most basic rules of journalistic ethics, doing its damnedest to “undermine the democratic ideals of our nation.”
Sulzberger’s son and successor is failing miserably to correct this outrage, and he is angry at President Trump for pointing it out.
On Aug. 2, it was revealed that a rising star the Times just added to its editorial board has a history of vitriolic, unabashedly racist social media comments — vulgar, vile, and violent. The Times says it was fully aware before hiring her, and — since she is a minority and the target of her hate is “white people”— they plan to keep her.
The New York Times used to be the nation’s paper of record. It is now reduced to a record of the left’s descent into paranoia, hate, and (we must hope) irrelevancy.
Sulzberger’s arrogance in attacking the President’s justifiable anti-media comments completely ignores his publication’s daily depredations against reason and truth that validate – indeed, demand – vigorous repudiation. It speaks volumes about the sniveling elitists who have betrayed journalism that they now openly rail against the “weaponization” of the First Amendment by those who dare to disagree with them.
Americans’ trust in the media is at a historic low. A majority of Americans think mainstream media are biased. And the hacks who are responsible for destroying journalism want to blame their intended victim.
Sulzberger doesn’t like that President Trump calls the fake news media the “enemy of the people.” They certainly are the enemy of the truth. If they continue to lie and incite in order to advance a hateful, divisive political agenda, what else are we to call them?
Jeff Ballabon is a political advisor, media consultant, and former CBS executive.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
