In our western democratic system, the media has always played an important role when it’s come to reporting historic events involving the President of the United States. The press pools and White House Correspondents have been there for everything – from witnessing George Bush being informed of 9/11, to the assassination of JFK. Playing an important role in our society, they keep the general public informed of all those details you can’t rely on a presidential team to report on accurately.
President-elect Donald Trump has made no effort to hide his disgust and annoyance with the media, often claiming them to be bias and misrepresenting of his character. It was only a week ago when he met with various members of the press including network executives, broadcasters, and anchors from major networks to publicly berate them. He singled out certain members and described them in words such as ‘liars’ and ‘dishonest’. As well as that, his twitter account has become a well-known platform for his particularly strong vendetta against the New York Times.
The recent encounters have stirred up anger within the press, but also a sense of fear for the oppositional relationship Trump seems to be setting up between the two of them. Many reporters are upset with his very personal defense against the media coverage and extreme efforts to scold them, which practically derails the whole point of the first amendment. The media is known to criticize politicians and keep them under a close radar, and most learn to take it with a grain of salt. Trump, however, appears to be taking all the coverage of himself very personally and even taking the time to fight back against claims being made – and that’s just for the serious reporters. His outspoken disapproval of comedians and actors such as the Saturday Night Live and Hamilton cast is also something that’s become worrying considering how trivial these issues appear when you compare them to the real problems in America – such as the lack of equality, race issues, and collapsing economy.
A statement made by Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondent Association on November 16, provided further insight into how Trump has been handling the press after he failed to alert them of his location in an incident nearly two weeks ago:
“On Tuesday President-elect Trump went out for dinner in New York without a pool of journalists in his motorcade and after reporters were advised that he was in for the night. One week after the election, it is unacceptable for the next president of the United States to travel without a regular pool to record his movements and inform the public about his whereabouts.”
Up until now, there’s been a very two-way relationship with the press using the president to report on events and keep citizens updated, as well as the president being able to use the press pool in order to get out messages quickly. Yet with the different approach and very clear rift between reporters and Trump, it’s become worryingly unclear what the fate of mainstream media will be during Trump’s presidency. The social check and balance we’ve come to know over the years is already starting to be replaced with tweets from Trump’s personal twitter account. If he chooses to rely more heavily on Twitter rather than normal media, it’s likely to constrict the flow of information we receive as well as make it even more unreliable.
With such uncertainty in the air, only time will tell how involved the White House Press will be with Trump. But from what we’ve witnessed so far, things aren’t looking too promising. Trump’s certainly made it clear that he’s not going to be running things similar to how previous presidents have done in the past – and while that idea was one that strongly appealed to his followers, it’s a concept that has many in fear. When a man who is about to become president is choosing to spend more time focusing on his representation in the media rather than focusing on ways to possibly change his image or make more Americans feel safe with his presidency, it doesn’t help with the huge amount of doubt many have that he will be inexperienced and incapable of running an entire country.
