Journalists are infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump wished “the Fake News Media” a merry Christmas on Twitter, but any holiday cheer the president felt toward the press promptly evaporated in the following days as the White House and its allies pushed back against reporting on the president’s first visit to troops in a combat zone.
“CNN will attack anyone who supports President Trump, including the brave men and women of our military who fight everyday to protect our freedom,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted Thursday in response to one report questioning whether Trump signing hats for troops broke military rules.
Trump’s appearance at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq followed several media reports questioning why he had not spent time with troops during the holiday season like Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama always did. On Christmas, NBC News published a story declaring that Trump is the first president since 2002 not to visit troops “at Christmastime.”
Less than 12 hours later, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump were on Air Force One heading toward Iraq for an unannounced appearance that had been planned in secret. NBC has now updated the original story with a lengthy editor’s note explaining that the reporting was accurate when it was published and it has changed the wording of the headline from “at Christmastime” to “on or before Christmas.”
NBC faced criticism from Fox News and others, including Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple, for its handling of the story. However, media analyst and former journalist John Carroll said some of the backlash against NBC is unwarranted because the facts clearly changed after the story was posted.
“That happens in daily journalism because the news is a moving target, and you would think other supposedly journalistic organizations would understand that instead of weaponizing it to make political points,” he said.
According to Tobe Berkovitz, a former political media consultant and a professor of advertising at Boston University, NBC and other media outlets backed themselves into a corner with critical reporting on Trump’s unwillingness to visit active duty troops in a warzone before the holiday while the president was apparently preparing for this trip.
“The problem with the coverage of the trip to Iraq was the lead was first, ‘The first president not to visit our troops,’ then sort of, ‘He ended up having to visit the troops,’” he said.[…]
“It’s a complicated, difficult story to cover because there is a story in its own right that the president traveled to Iraq to meet with the troops,” said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and director School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. “His time with the troops should be duly noted, just as other presidents have traveled to the troops. The complicating element of this is it took this president so long to visit troops in a theater of combat, and his behavior when he was there.”
Some service members showed up to meet Trump with “Make America Great Again” hats and other campaign items that they waved or asked him to autograph. Several retired military officials suggested the presence of Trump campaign hats and banners violated rules prohibiting troops from partisan political activities, but the White House slammed media outlets that raised the question.
“CNN & others within the Fake News Universe were going wild about my signing MAGA hats for our military in Iraq and Germany. If these brave young people ask me to sign their hat, I will sign. Can you imagine my saying NO? We brought or gave NO hats as the Fake News first reported!” Trump tweeted.
via Weasel Zippers
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