Donald Trump, a right-wing billionaire and television actor who is running for US president in 2016, has blacklisted unfriendly news outlets. As of June 17th 2016 they are (with links to their websites):
- BuzzFeed
- Daily Beast
- Des Moines Register
- Fusion
- Gawker
- Huffington Post
- Mother Jones
- National Review
- New Tri-State Defender
- New York Times
- Politico
- Univision
- Washington Post
In each case he has denied one or all of their reporters press passes to his events or press conferences. When they try to attend as part of the general public they can be kicked out or even arrested.
Hillary Clinton does not do this. Nor does anyone else in the US who runs for president. Not even President Nixon, who was brought down by the Washington Post, did it.
Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Jonathan Kaufman has seen this before – in communist China.
Trump says he will not change if he becomes president:
“Yeah, it is going to be like this. You think I’m going to change? I’m not going to change.”
Further, he has threatened to take away the licence of CNN and force Amazon to sell the Washington Post if he becomes president. And:
“I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”
In a veiled threat to news reporters:
“I would never kill them, but I do hate them. And some of them are such lying, disgusting people.”
Some journalists have already experienced violence:
- Michelle Fields, reporter from Breitbart News, was violently grabbed by Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
- Chris Morris, photographer for Time magazine, was choked and slammed to the ground by Secret Service when he tried to leave the pen where Trump keeps the media.
This stuff has been going on for nearly a year, since at least July 2015. This past week he added the Washington Post to the blacklist. Not only is it one of the top newspapers in the country, not only did it bring down Nixon, but it is now headed by Martin Baron, he who broke the priest paedophile scandal in Boston, as shown in the film “Spotlight” (2015).
None of the English-language television news made his blacklist, though CNN has come close. Their business model does not allow them to go hard on him.
The New Tri-State Defender, a Black newspaper in Memphis, was denied a press pass the very same week Trump gave one to The Political Cesspool, a “pro-White” radio show, also in Memphis.
The National Review is right-wing but had the nerve to print right-wing opinions that opposed Trump.
The Huffington Post made the list in part by putting this at the end of its Trump articles, complete with links:
“Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.“
– Abagond, 2016.
Update (July 3rd 2017): So, after months of calling CNN fake news, President Trump tweeted a video of him beating up CNN:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680
Super bad sign.
See also:
- Gawker: A Running List of the Publications and Reporters Who Have Had Their Credentials Revoked By Donald Trump
- The 2016 election for US president
- The TV mirror fallacy
- Republican Bubble
- The press
- propaganda model
- news director
- US cable news – more about that business model.
- New York Times
- BuzzFeed: 27 Questions Black People Have For Black People
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I think Donald Trump is not going to get nominated. Never before has any candidate shown complete incompetence. He’s got Army Generals correcting him on his perceived notions of foreign policy on live media such as CNN. That means they won’t respect much less if he’s commander and chief. I think he’s doing this as publicity to earn $$$$$$. Billionaires like Trump know the avenues of making money and any type of publicity stunt can be determined as a venue to make more money.
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Wonder what “The Donald” did to get on Huffington Post’s bad side?
They are usually pretty lenient with politicians.
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Update: So, after months of calling CNN fake news, President Trump tweeted a video of him beating up CNN:
(https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/881503147168071680)
Super bad sign.
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An incitement to violence is so beneath the office of the President.
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