Trump's Attacks on the Media Are Self-Defeating
When the president asserts that all negative coverage is false, he seals his party off from necessary criticism.
TL;DR
- Donald Trump's actions against the news media are a consequence of his hatred for them, not the other way around.
- Trump has a history of bullying and manipulating the news media since before his presidency.
- Conservative distrust of the media, long-standing since the Nixon administration, perceives liberal bias as a fixed truth.
- Mainstream news outlets often have reporters with left-leaning views, and while they try to report objectively, conservatives often fail to acknowledge these efforts.
- The belief in pervasive liberal media bias leads conservatives to dismiss negative coverage as innate hostility or 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'.
- Trump categorizes all news as either positive or fake, believing negative stories should not be legal.
- The First Amendment prevents Trump from making negative stories illegal, and court challenges are expected to overturn his media bans.