Over the past year and a half President-Elect Donald Trump has managed to shine a bright white spotlight on the mainstream media and exposed them as the number one source of manufactured and "fake" news across the world. He has done so by exposing their extreme biases, then using those same biases to garner free media and spread his message further than any campaign could through advertising alone.
This is a pattern seen through the primary campaign, into the general election campaign and one that Trump is continuing to utilize presently, and the MSM, having learned nothing, is still taking the rope Trump continues to hand them and hanging themselves with it.
FLASHBACK- FREE & NEGATIVE MEDIA COVERAGE
In March 2016, before the primaries had even concluded, it was reported that Trump had received more "free media" than all of the other Republican candidates combined, as well as garnering more than both Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders combined.
This continued throughout the general election campaign, with an MRC study finding that while Trump was still receiving free media, in the 12 weeks after the party conventions, 91 percent of that free coverage was negative for Trump, which is where the liberal media bias comes in and how Trump used that bias against the very reporters that were trying to destroy him.
CHANGE THE WASHINGTON PRESS CORPS TO BYPASS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
Considering that a look at the recent headlines of NYT or Washington Post and other MSM sources, we see that continuous negative coverage continues right now, which is why the following little tidbit from a Wall Street Journal article is very interesting:
The briefing room itself, the place where reporters sit, and the adjacent space in which they are provided offices reflect the power of the mainstream press, based largely on the media-consuming habits of the American people from decades ago. The Associated Press, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News, for example, sit in front-row seats that have their names on them. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the Washington Post and NPR sit right behind them. While approximately 750 reporters hold White House credentials, the briefing room holds 49 seats, and they are occupied overwhelmingly by mainstream media reporters, with barely any assigned to the new dot-com world.
The White House press secretary used to decide who got what seats, but this authority was given to the White House Correspondents Association in the middle of the George W. Bush administration. Nothing prohibits the incoming administration from taking it back. The valuable West Wing real estate occupied by the White House press corps isn’t the property of the press. It belongs to the U.S. government.
If Trump wanted to, according to that same article, he could abolish the daily briefings entirely, but what a better way to treat the press with the same contempt that the MSM treated Trump and his supporters, than to replace the MSM in the briefing room with members of the Alternative Media.
Feel free to weigh in below in the comment section on whether Trump should allow the very people that attack him daily and have been for a year and a half, to be granted the coveted positions in the White House Briefing room or if he should replace them all.
MEDIA OUTRAGED AT TRUMP PUNKING THEM
As Trump is focusing on building his administration (and tweeting!), manufactured MSM rumors started by MSNBC, are swirling across the Internet, proving that once again, the media learned absolutely nothing from the multiple times the Trump campaign has punked them in the past.
While there are a number of examples that can be shown here, we will stick with the most memorable, such as in September 2016, Trump tweeted "‘I am now going to the brand new Trump International, Hotel D.C. for a major statement."
The MSM, assuming Trump was going to reference the Birther issue since that had been in the news at the time, despite the fact that nothing in the tweet above even addressed that issue, rushed right on over, and then all the major networks spent "more than a half hour of a variety of military heroes – generals, medal honor recipients and a gold star wife – expressing support for the Republican nominee. And it all aired live on the cable news networks," as described by WND.
"It’s hard to imagine this as anything other than a political rick-roll," anchor Jake Tapper said wryly as CNN cut away from the broadcast of the Trump event and asked him to comment. [...]
"I really don’t quite know what to make of that except for that we got played again by the Trump campaign which is what they do," said John King afterward, pointing out that Trump tricked them into covering a live event.
Did Trump play them? Or did their own assumptions and desire to present a "gotcha moment" against Trump, play them?
In October 2016, Donald Trump sent out a Facebook post with a live video feed, the post simply stated "Join me in St. Louis, Missouri - as I conclude my debate prep."
One again, the media rushed right on over, just to see Donald Trump walk in the room with multiple women that have accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting them, and again, the media was outraged!!!!
Presently the media is still following the pattern as evidenced by Trump inviting high profile media personalities to a meeting, to which once again they 'assumed" they were going to discuss more media access to Trump, because they have been lamenting the fact that he hasn't offered them the "traditional" access, nor held a public press conference, and what they got instead, was a major dressing down, supposedly of-the-record," but they immediately ran out and started leaking what was said, including the statement that the summit was a "f***ing firing squad."
The point being, Trump does not have to waste any time making the MSM look like lying fools, all he has to do is sit back, let them show their own biases, make their own assumptions, which inevitably are proven wrong, then bypass them by talking directly to the people, as he did recently with his Transition 2017 statement, informing the public of his plans for his first months in office and forcing the MSM to report on it second-hand.
MSM NOISE & TRUMP NOMINEES
Now let's talk about Trump's appointments and nominees for his administration. Once again, the media is making assumptions using unnamed sources to make claims, just to find out Trump chose someone else...... example, Bloomberg on November 16, stated "Cruz considered by Trump for Attorney General," as they cite unnamed sources, yet on November 18, the headline reads "Trump Names Senator Jeff Sessions to Be His Attorney General."
Newsflash, the initial report was a waste of time because as Trump finalizes his picks, he is announcing them on his greatagain.gov website.... the rest of the reports from the MSM, the guessing games, the assumptions, the critical so-call analysis of his picks, is all MSM noise.
Following up on that thought, people must remember that Trump is teaching MSM loyalists, those that still believe a portion of what the MSM reports, a valuable lesson, but we find that even conservatives, most of which claim they don't trust the MSM, are still listening to their lies.
A very valuable indicator as to whether one of Trump's nominees is a good fit for a Trump presidency, capable of helping implement Trump's agenda, is how fast and furiously the MSM and liberally biased pundits decry and lament the choice, such as Forbes' over the top screed over Trump's choice for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, where they headline "Trump's Education Secretary Choice Is A Blow To Our Nation's Science Health."
The article goes on to provide reasons for liberals to hate DeVos, including the following:
- DeVos, a graduate of Calvin College, is the founder of All Children Matter, an organization dedicated to rerouting taxpayer dollars into school vouchers for parents to use to send their children to charter/private/religious schools.
- What we do know, though, is that having a pro-voucher secretary of education with zero public school experience is a recipe for shunting our tax dollars away from an education putatively free of religious bias and straight into classrooms where science in any conventionally recognizable form is not allowed.
- Much has been made of Trump’s ongoing war on science and his emphatic and almost proud ignorance about anything science related. He rejects many scientific conclusions that are backed by overwhelming data and scientific consensus, including global climate change and the lack of an autism-vaccines link. He is seen as a threat to the scientific success that has been a hallmark of this nation for decades.
The liberal bias in that Forbes' piece simply reeks.
While some conservatives have concerns about DeVos being associated with groups or organizations who are Common Core proponents, DeVos herself has addressed that topic, stating "Many of you are asking about Common Core. To clarify, I am not a supporter—period. Read my full stance, here: http://betsydevos.com/qa/."
The Trump campaign has also addressed the issue with a statement by Trump spokesman Jason Miller, who said "The President-elect has been consistent and very clear in his opposition to Common Core. Anybody joining the Administration is signing on to the President-elect’s platform and vision for moving America forward."
That ladies and gentlemen is the key quote. Anyone brought into the Trump administration is joining with the understanding that they are doing so in order to implement Trump's agenda, which is why ANP is not writing and lamenting on every speculative piece about who Trump will pick or who he won't for each and every position, nor criticizing anyone Trump has under consideration for any position, despite the fact that we are not particularly... fond of certain people under consideration.
DO YOU TRUST THE MSM? IF YOUR ANSWER IS NO, STOP QUOTING THEM OR LISTENING TO THEM
What we are watching play out in the MSM right now, is the same thing we watched throughout the primary and especially the general election campaign, where the MSM actively promoted, (and they admitted it!) Hillary Clinton, spending countless hours and thousands of negative articles attempting to influence the public against Trump. They lost, Trump was elected, after they informed all their loyal followers that it just wasn't possible. Only now they are making up stories, manufacturing conflicts based on unnamed inside sources," attempting to poison the public on Trump's nominees, and generally allowing the Trump campaign to deliberately show them for the political hacks they have become.
The point here is that Trump is still using the MSM's own bias against them, continuing to teach their supporters a lesson, the MSM cannot be trusted, are the main culprits in reporting "fake news." Trump supporters should already understand that point since they were the ones the MSM labeled sexist, racist, Xenophobic, Islamophobic deplorables.
Which begs the question of why the heck any conservative is still reading/watching the MSM, or more to the point, why are we seeing some still buying into their nonsense and quoting them? Anyone that claims they do not trust the MSM, should not be giving them traffic and revenue from said traffic, unless it is to highlight their lies and call them out on their bias.
It is all political theater, compounded by the fact that Trump is refusing to conform to the "norms," and the "traditional" access the press is so desperate for and has been demanding, which is leading them to promote even bigger lies and actively report "fake" news.
BOTTOM LINE
Donald Trump has a huge job in front of him, the last thing he needs is to continuously be forced to fight a liberal and biased press machine, so he should replace them as the White House Press Corps, bypass them by speaking directly to the public, and allow them to to continue grabbing the rope he feeds them to hang themselves with, but conservatives should not allow the MSM to wrap it around their necks as well.
Below - Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer on President-elect Trump’s relationship with the media and potential Cabinet picks.
