It seems astonishing that anything quite so unified could grow from America’s famously polarised soil, but here we are, watching as such sworn enemies as Fox News and MS NOW stand in solidarity with each other, and against President Donald Trump’s latest attack on their craft.
uncertain
enemies → seem → craft
Each symbolises everything the other hates.
asserted
other → symbolise → everything
And yet this week, that was forgotten when Trump declared he was banning MS NOW, alongside CNN and Politico, from the White House, and deactivated their correspondents’ press passes.
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he → forget → passes
Illegally so, it turned out, and a court has just ordered they be reinstated.
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they → turn → ?
But in the meantime, Fox – alongside ABC, CBS and NBC – had boycotted Trump’s press conferences.
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Fox → boycott → conferences
Suddenly, Trump found himself at risk of greatly reduced television coverage in a week of addressing the UN and hosting Xi Jinping.
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Trump → find → Jinping
Already, we’ve seen his team forced to capture their own footage of Trump arriving heroically to open the new White House helipad, the kind of thing that news cameras would have filmed.
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cameras → see → that
There he was, saying words no one could hear, exuding exactly no authority.
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one → say → authority
That sort of thing is unimaginable for someone like Trump, who loves and dominates television more than any president ever has.
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president → love → television
He is famously fixed to Fox News.
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He → fix → News
He appoints its anchors to high office.
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He → appoint → office
In his first term, Trump staffers tried giving him briefings in the form of television packages because it was the best way to ensure he would pay attention.
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he → try → attention
He amassed some US$4.6 billion ($6.5 billion) worth of free television coverage in the 2016 election campaign alone, about twice that of Hillary Clinton.
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He → amass → Clinton
He has effectively lived with a television camera on him since.
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He → live → him
A boycott of this kind hits Trump somewhere near where it hurts.
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it → hit → Trump
I’ll admit to being surprised by these developments.
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I → admit → developments
After all, Trump has berated the media for his whole premiership without provoking any solidaristic response.
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Trump → berate → response
You’re familiar with the catchphrases: “the fake news media”, “the enemy of the people”, “corrupt” and “dishonest”.
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You → ’re → people
He has attacked individual journalists as “human scum” and “low-life reporters” and told one to be “quiet, piggy”.
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He → attack → one
He has even banned individual reporters from the Pentagon and White House, most notably CNN’s Jim Acosta in 2018.
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He → ban → 2018
The difference this time was that he just went ahead and banned whole outlets.
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he → go → outlets
That has two consequences.
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That → have → consequences
First, it ends up costing the other outlets much more money because they often share footage, which allows them to operate with fewer resources.
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them → end → resources
Cut two TV networks from the pool and you leave a big shortfall for the others to make up.
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others → cut → shortfall
But second, Trump did so explicitly because their “cumulative stories” led him to regard them as unfavourable.
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stories → do → them
And whatever you think of those outlets, or even of the media in general, that’s an enormous move.
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that → think → media
To effectively demand favourable coverage in exchange for access is to undo the very concept of accountability.
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demand → demand → accountability
Trump’s answer to this charge hits all the typically populist notes, but it also had a slip within it: “I don’t have to let them into my … into the people’s house.”
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I → hit → house
Trump seems to regard access as his to give personally.
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Trump → seem → his
Then he corrects, and asserts it on behalf of the people.
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he → correct → people
By now, some of this should sound familiar to the Australian ear.
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some → sound → ear
But she has taken the step of banning entire outlets from attending some of her press conferences.
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she → take → conferences
In this case, it’s the ABC (for whom I am a radio host) and The Guardian, and on the Victorian hustings, occasionally, The Age.
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I → ’ → hustings
“I answer to the people, not the media” declared Hanson in her National Press Club address in June.
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Hanson → answer → June
Party director James Ashby said giving the ABC access would be like “going back to some domestic violence relationship” (Hanson’s views on such violence as a “two-way street” presumably don’t extend this far).
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views → say → street
The ban is patchy and Barnaby Joyce certainly seems exempt from it.
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Joyce → seem → it
But One Nation has pulled candidates from ABC slots where they were regulars until they joined the party.
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they → pull → party
In short, Hanson has crossed a line the US media has decided not to accept.
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media → cross → line
Might Australian journalists do the same?
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journalists → do → same
Could we see, for example, the Murdoch press – broadcast and print – stand on principle and say that if the ABC cannot attend a press conference, then they won’t either?
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they → see → conference
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
