The Press and Obama: The Way Things Were

Liberals in the mainstream media are not happy with the way they are being treated by President-Elect Donald Trump.

To hear them tell it, it’s less than one full week into his time as president-elect and Trump is already showing signs his administration will approach the notion of a free press much in the same manner as Joseph Stalin.

Having completely abandoned any and all semblance of journalistic integrity in order to wage an extremely vicious, ideologically motivated propaganda war against Donald Trump, the national mainstream media now expects him to treat them with respect.

“As Trump Leaves Press Behind for Steak Dinner, Incoming Admin Already Showing Lack of Transparency,” reads the headline of an NBC News article. Trump’s crime — the rank audacity to desire a nice, quiet meal out with some family and coworkers after a week of almost nonstop travel.

“In a highly unusual move, President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday night left his Manhattan residence without notifying the reporters covering him or giving any indication of where he was going,” the article reads. “The maneuver seemed to deliberately limit access to the media.”

Heavens forbid Trump wishes to enjoy a steak outside of his home-turned-bunker without a gaggle of reporters sticking microphones in his face and hurling loaded questions about Steve Bannon at him.

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“This is not a navel-gaze-y ‘woe is media’ thing,” insisted NBC’s Hallie Jackson on Twitter. “This is about being conduit to Americans on basic whereabouts of president-elect.”

Clearly the days of fawning coverage of Obama’s trips to grab burgers with the likes of Joe Biden and Dmitry Medvedev are over. No longer, it seems, do the mainstream media have a president over whom to gush and pose for photos — and it is driving them insane.

Indeed, the liberal media is acting as if Trump’s move heralds the arrival of an age in which reporters are dragged from their offices and summarily shot.

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“A week after the election, Trump hasn’t yet held a press conference, the longest any recent president has waited to speak to the press,” the NBC article states.

It is stunning that NBC, the two journalists it took to write this hit piece, and the rest of the mainstream media are surprised. The mainstream media has spent the last year lying about Trump. They have lied about his words, they have lied about his positions, and they have lied about his supporters. They continue to lie about his associates and advisers.

Having completely abandoned any and all semblance of journalistic integrity in order to wage an extremely vicious, ideologically motivated propaganda war against Donald Trump, the national mainstream media now expects him to treat them with not only respect but coddling. The effrontery is breathtaking.

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What makes the media’s faux outrage all the more inexcusable is their relative silence in the face of the Obama administration’s quiet campaign to limit transparency. USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page stated that the Obama administration was “more dangerous” to the media than any other in history. Former New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson described it as “the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering.”

If Trump actually does end up running a secretive, press-hostile White House, it will only be possible because of the precedent set by Obama — a precedent the majority of the mainstream media was happy to see set as long as a Democratic president was responsible and he gave them photo ops at burger joints.