SPIRO AGNEW’S MEDIA LEGACY: TRUMP, OBAMA AND TIME MAGAZINE:
What Spiro Agnew accomplished with that speech in Des Moines was to quite openly and publicly turn the tables on the mainstream media by casting doubt on their ability to tell the truth in an unbiased fashion. From that moment on, the media – television networks and newspapers and magazines all — found their credibility increasingly under assault. This before Fox News and talk radio — and the Media Research Center — were even a gleam in the conservative eye.
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The difference this time? The difference is that the Trump White House — led by the President himself — is forcefully fighting back. Directly and routinely singling out various outlets and questioning everything from the accuracy of specific facts to the reporting of specific reporters.
How will this end? The betting here is that it won’t end. For the duration of the Trump White House the media writ large and writ small is going to be given what might be called “extreme vetting” by this White House. There will be an endless back and forth between president and press that once upon a time would have been unthinkable.
Good. Far better to fight back than to simply allow yourself to be pummeled endlessly by the DNC-MSM as George W. Bush did.