Tell me how this is democracy.
NYT reporter says Trump handling press like Soviet Kremlin This is how an authoritarian/fascist behaves.
Vikor Orban did the same thing when he got rid of democratic norms and seized power in Hungary.
When you want to weaken or get rid of a democracy, control the media.
"Peter Baker, a leading reporter at The New York Times, blasted President Trump’s White House over its decision to take control of the press pool covering the president and ban The Associated Press from key White House spaces.
'Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of [Vladimir] Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access,' Baker wrote Tuesday afternoon on the social platform X.
'The message is clear. Given that the White House has already kicked one news organization out of the pool because of coverage it does not like, it is making certain everyone else knows that the rest of us can be barred too if the president does not like our questions or stories.' ”
Thomas Jefferson on a free press:
"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."
"The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty.
On free speech:
The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro’ the channel of the public papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people.
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them."
THIS IS WHAT THE FELON of the UNITED STATES ASPIRES TO:
16 comments:
I'm sure we can count on our conservative members to call for the removal of Trump because of his attacks on freedom of the press, one of the rights in the Constitution through the first amendment.
I mean, there's no way those folks who say the second amendment is absolute would ever consider limiting freedom of the press with a new law would they?
I'm asking for some friends.
Is anybody surprised?
It is now kiss the ass of the Fuhrer or be silenced.
This is no longer America. It is Amerika, home of the idiot tyrant.
Fascism and MAGA came to Amerika clutching a bible and waving the flag.
The world is becoming more dangerous with each passing day that the Fuhrer of Amerika roams the planet..
Is anybody surprised?
The Fuhrer of Amerika demands the media kiss his fat ass.
So much for a free and independent press. We're one step closer to state run media.
I fully expect the Fuhrer to declare Marshall Law before too much longer.
America is dead.
Since the Nixon Admin, Republican Presidents and political Candidates have been fixated on crippling the free press. Remember the tax evading criminal Spiro Agnew and his William Safire written "nattering nabobs of negativism" rant about critics, which included the media.
Then we fast forward to Sarah Palin and her complaining about a "Gotcha" question which only asked what magazines she read. Sharron Angle, former Senate candidate from Nevada was so upset at a press conference that she simply refused to answer questions because they "weren't what she wanted to talk about".
Soon we had Kellyanne Conway droning on to the press with her lies, excuse me, "Alternative Facts". And now, the Trump Admin limits access to the AP because they won't call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump's preferred name? And now the WH has asserted that it will choose who they let cover our government.
All because, if you read the fever swamps of conservative America, they don't like to hear such nasty, to quote the Mothership, facts.
What's the through line in all of this?
The GOP.
Sure the Dems complain, but it's nothing like this crowd. We tend to limit our complaints to the adjudicated, habitual and admitted liars like Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, NewsMax, OAN and of course Fox News.
Nobody on the Left objected when Hugo Chavez seized/ shutdown RCTV... jes sayin'... but regardless, the White House does have the right to control access to the White House.
Not true. But it is hilarious that you needed to use Hugo Chavez as a comparison to what Felon Trump is doing.
Here is "The Hill" reporting on Chavez and his attacks on the free press, published in May of 2007:
"To get a sense of the magnitude of Chavez’s move against RCTV, imagine if a U.S. president, angry at jokes about him on “Saturday Night Live” and unhappy with critical reports about his administration on the “Nightly News,” directed the Federal Communications Commission to shut NBC down — and for good. Fortunately, we can’t imagine that happening in the United States. No president would try; and perhaps more importantly, it would not be allowed."
Donald Trump has called the press that criticizes him an "enemy of the people." He has said that ABC, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC should lose their licenses. And now he's picking and choosing which news outlets will cover the WH press briefings, because Trump doesn't like and cannot handle any criticism whatsoever -- just like any little tin-pot dictator.
You and your pals seem to have no problem with Trump's attack on the free press and other media. Go back and read "The Hill's" rather naive claim that no American POTUS would ever behave like Chavez. Trump is America's version of a Chavez.
It's happening right in front of you nose.
You like it and you defend it, just like Chavez's supporters liked and defended what he did.
TRUMP AND HIS DREAM OF BEING AMERICA'S CHAVEZ.
Leave to the MAGAats to twist the point into a pretzel of irrationality so as to support their Fuhrer and irs obsession with alternative alternative facts and reality.
HERE IS WHAT AMERICA'S CHAVEZ HAS SAID ABOUT SHUTTING DOWN MEDIA THAT DISPLEASES HIM. Where in our American history and Constitution does Trump get this idea?
"...in 2024, as a presidential candidate, Donald Trump has reasserted that broadcasters who displease him should lose their federal airwave licenses. A September 2023 post on Truth Social accused NBC of “Country Threatening Treason.” He added, “Why should NBC, or any of the other corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE?”
After the moderators of the ABC presidential debate fact-checked his false statements, he called the network “dishonest” and added them to the target list. “To be honest they are a news organization, they have to be licensed. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that,” he said on Fox & Friends. Recently, CBS also came in the crosshairs after he did not like an editing decision in a CBS interview with Kamala Harris. Only weeks before the general election, Mr. Trump again went to Truth Social to expand his targets to include not only CBS, but also “all other Broadcast Licenses.”
Trump got this idea from dictators like Chavez, that's where. And Orban, and Putin.
It right in front of your nose, Joe Con!
Wait, what?
The many named troll is comparing actions performed by a dictator against their own citizenry in the past to what the FOTUS is doing now? And their sly dig is to say well, you didn't say anything then so why now????
Are you kidding me?
Yes, what Chavez did was wrong but he did it in his own country over twenty years ago. The FOTUS is doing this to US right now you ignorant troll so yeah, our response is out loud and proud.
See, there is a Constitution that many of us have sworn to defend. You, troll, only exist to stir up trouble and spread lies so sweet you'd swear they are honey except for the whiff of excrement as you go in for a taste. Oh, my bad, your response is very much you, all poof and poop.
There isn't an honest bone in JoeCon's body. No American who understands the constitution agrees with Trump's threats to the media.
Imagine - Trump press briefing with only a FoxNews person. Stalin had his
Pravda. We'd have to get our news from Canada (until we become their 11th
Province)
Joe... the White House has the right to control access to the White House within the law and Constitutional limits. I know you guys hate that reality and especially libs using the law to accomplish goals, but it took and often takes that law to force ppl to do the right thing.
Think school integration, clean air standards, etc.
The FCC shut down MSNBC? Who knew?
Perhaps, JoeCon, you missed this:
Donald Trump has called the press that criticizes him an "enemy of the people." He has said that ABC, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC should lose their licenses. And now he's picking and choosing which news outlets will cover the WH press briefings, because Trump doesn't like and cannot handle any criticism whatsoever -- just like any little tin-pot dictator.
Trump has already managed to have Bezos and Soon-Shiong acquiesce to being his lap-dog press. How easy would it be for him to get one of his oligarchs to buy MSNBC and turn it into another FAUX NOOZ? At one point, Musk mused about buying MSNBC.
A totalitarian team like Trump-Musk don't have to break the law (the 1st Amendment/Freedom of the Press/Media) to quash the opposition. All they have to do is buy their way to fascism. It's been done many, many times in world history, and many Trumpers in his administration admire Viktor Orban and how he managed to get rid of an opposition press/media.
In case you are too busy to read the link above, here's a nugget from it:
"Elon Musk has called MSNBC “the utter scum of the Earth.” He has said the channel “peddles puerile propaganda.” Just a few days ago he said, “MSNBC is going down.” And now he is posting memes about buying the channel."
The richest ketamine fueled oligarch in the world saying this about an American cable news station, and you think it's "nothing to see here?"
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