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The war between President Donald Trump and the media reached a new low last week when the White House revoked the credentials of CNN journalist Jim Acosta following a difficult exchange during the day. 39, a press conference. CNN sued and obtained a temporary stay.
Late Monday, before the court could rule on the implications of the Acosta ban to the first amendment, the White House caved in, saying it would restore the powers of the CNN reporter. But it will also impose rules on how journalists can ask questions to the president: one question per reporter, no follow-up except at the discretion of the president or the press officer, and the reporter must "yield say "by giving up the microphone. Breaking these rules "could result in the suspension or revocation of the journalist's card".
That as much as guarantees that we will be back here someday. It is a perilous road.
Muzzling the press is the first chapter of the authoritarian leader's rule book. According to the design of the founders, the president of the United States is neither a king nor a dictator. He does not control the media and does not decide which journalists are responsible for covering it.
A free press is not free if the government imposes rules on what journalists can ask for and how they should do it. It violates the first amendment. Period.
Prohibiting journalists from asking additional questions or challenging the president's statements, otherwise depriving them of access to the White House, hampers the media monitoring function. White House reporters will look over their shoulders, calibrate the consequences, whenever they ask tough questions. Meanwhile, the President will be able to dodge responsibility and lie to the American people with even more impunity.
To his credit, the White House Correspondents Association will not accept the new rules. "Since there are press conferences at the White House, White House journalists have asked additional questions, and we really hope this tradition will continue," the group said in a statement.
Instead of micromanaging the press, the president should try to manage his own behavior. Stop ad hominem attacks on reporters. Stop fighting to score points with "base". Stop lying. Behave with the decorum you want to see in the media. Yes, journalists must be courteous. But it is also our duty to challenge authority, to be persistent, to ask impertinent questions, and not to accept the "no" as an answer.
In the future, if the president or his spokesman dodges the question of a reporter, the next reporter called should ask the same question until he receives an answer. If this results in the "suspension or revocation" of a journalist's powers, so be it. Leave the chair dialog box in an empty meeting room.
In a democracy, the relationship between the president and the press is supposed to be antagonistic. John Adams has sentenced his critics to prison under Alien and Sedition Acts. Franklin Delano Roosevelt forced a poor journalist to wear a donkey bonnet. Richard Nixon kept a "list of enemies" including several journalists. The administration of Barack Obama has received the label "less transparent than ever".
Trump's contempt for the media is not new, but he has entered a new dangerous phase. The free flow of ideas is the cornerstone of democracy. Citizens should be alarmed by any attempt to restrict it.
It is unfortunate that so many Trump supporters believe that the press should bow to the president. the founding fathers would be stunned. The concentration of power that has lasted for decades and the recent cult of personality in the executive power can only be genuinely repressed by other branches of equal government, the Congress and the judiciary. In our country, under our Constitution, the press should not be required to submit to such authoritarian subjugation.
Syracuse Editorials
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