On @FaceTheNation #Priebus re Trump tweet that press is "enemy" of "American people:" "I think you should take it seriously." #NotTheEnemy
— Lynn Sweet (@lynnsweet) February 18, 2017
During “normal” times, people tend to regard the press as, at best, a bunch of prying busybodies, and at worst a pack of tattle-tales. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) But for a brief shining moment after Watergate (and not, I would add, necessarily to the benefit of the profession), investigative reporters were swashbuckling young rebels who brought down an evil cabal which had threatened the very foundations of our democracy. Since some people mistook the movie version of All the President’s Men for a documentary, earnest suburban youngsters with adequate SATs dreamed of becoming the next Robert Redford Bob Woodward or Dustin Hoffman Carl Bernstein. Journalism became a credential-requiring career, not just a job for oddballs too literate for the factory floor and too stubborn or damaged to climb into the better white-collar ranks.
But if Trump and his handlers, on both sides of the Atlantic, are determined to reenact Watergate (second time as farce!), maybe we’ll at least get an influx of bright young minds interested in actual investigative reporting, as opposed to cocktail-party scrumming to join the ranks of the Media Village Idiots…
Reince Priebus makes Ron Ziegler look like Abraham Lincoln
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) February 19, 2017
Was there in 1970 at Nixon’s San Clemente w/ Herb Kaplow, Tom Jarrel, WH traveling press & beleaguered Ziegler. Seeing lots of parallels. https://t.co/b6gyNxQN71
— Wayne Slater (@WayneSlater) February 19, 2017
What did the President know and when did he interrupt who was telling him about it to brag about his terrific Electoral College victory?
— Rocky Mountain Mike (@RockyMntnMike) February 17, 2017
Small Ray of Sunshine Open Thread: Is Trump Making Reporting “Sexy” Again?Post + Comments (52)