Observed irony

If your argument requires full acceptance of a long list of prior assumptions, it won't fly with a heterodox audience. It doesn't even rise to the minimum of being an argument. It is merely a claim or opinion.

“Campaigns against the press do not get your face carved in Mount Rushmore because when you chip away at the free press you chip away at the heart of democracy.” — Ron Chernow #WHCD2019

— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) April 28, 2019

But this does spark a thought.

While the press was largely collusive with the prior administration, sycophantically admiring of set piece speeches by President Obama, and were largely silent on instances when the administration banned reporters from public conferences, spied on journalists and monitored their communications, failed to respond as required to FOIA orders, ruthlessly squelched White House leaks, etc., they did have some quibbles.

They acknowledged that without a script and teleprompter, the President's public speaking skills were rudimentary.

But their biggest beef was the relative scarcity of opportunities when the press could have access to the President. He rarely held White House briefings, interviews were carefully scripted and choreographed, and we could go months between events when the press might query him.

It is ironical that at the core of much of the current press complaint is that the new President communicates too much. He tweets directly to the American people all the time, he holds lots of events where he takes questions from the press, on innumerable occasions he informally takes time out of some other scheduled activity to have an impromptu interaction with the press.

Two ironies then.

Under one presidency the press loved the President even though he rarely interacted with them, stopped all the leaks, and took numerous actions to go after journalists with whom he disagreed. The least accessible President was the most popular with the press.

Under the other presidency, the press hates the President who is almost continuously available to them, has continuing impromptu press conferences, runs a White House which leaks like a sieve, and who has not jailed or surveilled a single journalist or press outlet.


UPDATE: Ed Krayewski provides the historical rebuttal to Chernow's assertion.

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle." - Thomas Jefferson, who is on Mt. Rushmore

— I'm real (@edkrayewski) April 28, 2019

Click on the thread for the other Mount Rushmore figures and their views of the mainstream media.