Yes, the Washington Press Corps Has Already Taken and Will Continue to Take Another Dive in Its Coverage of Trump. Why Do You Ask?
Across the Wide Missouri: But we have been here before--albeit to a lesser extent. The huge gap between the Reagan and the George W. Bush that people encountered in the White House and elsewhere every single day and the Reagan and George W. Bush portrayed by the media was quite substantial. By contrast, with Obama, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Carter, what you saw was what was reported:
James Fallows: A Reflexive Liar in Command: Guidelines for the Media: "Most people would hesitate before telling easily disprovable lies like these...
...much as shoplifters would hesitate if the store owner is looking at them. Most people are fazed if caught in an outright lie. But in these cases and others, Trump never blinked. As part of his indispensable campaign coverage this summer, David Fahrenthold (and Robert O’Harrow) of The Washington Post offered astonishing documentation of Trump being caught in a long string of business-related lies and simply not caring. The news media are not built for someone like this...
Duncan Black: Reminder: "Back when Reagan was president members of the press knew that the man had some form of dementia...
...that he was not actually fit to run the country, and they covered it up because the feefees of America would be hurt because Reagan was the most popular president in the history of the universe. Of course he wasn't the most popular president by any reasonable measure, but the press loved him so America loved him and they added 10 extra points to his popularity rating in their minds. They did that for Bush II, also, too.
I don't expect Trump will ever be an especially popular president for a variety of reasons, but with the 10 bonus points traditionally granted to Republican presidents, who knows what must be kept from America. Because of our feefees.
Ronald Reagan on Ambassador Hinton!: From Douglas Brinkley, ed. (2007), The Reagan Diaries (New York: Harper Collins: 9780060876005):
Thur Feb 17 1983: Jeanne Kirkpatrick reported on her trip to Central America. A grim story. Our Ambas. Hinton under the direction of the same kind of St. Dept. bureaucrats who made Castro possible are screwing up the situation in El Salvador. I'm now really mad. Bill C. is bringing George S. up to date and then I'm determined heads will roll, beginning with Ambas. Hinton...
Thu Jun 9 1983: Ambas. Hinton just relieved as Ambas. to El Salvador, stopped by. He's a good man and did a fine job under extremely difficult circumstances. I hope he can convince some of our left leaning Congressmen how wrong they are...
I have little patience for those who say that Ronald Reagan was oriented to time, place, and identity. When you fire somebody, it's not hard to remember that you were the one who fired him. He did not have the stamina or the memory to handle the job of being president, at least not after he was seriously wounded by the John Hinckley assassination attempt.
