Sunday, February 19, 2017

John Dickerson: Trump Didn’t Ruin Media’s Reputation, We Did



By Bre Payton
Friday, February 17, 2017

CBS’s John Dickerson joined Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Friday to talk about Donald Trump’s 77-minute long confrontation with the media earlier this week.

When Hewitt asked Dickerson if the media has betrayed the trust of the American people, the “Face The Nation” host said the press did that all on its own by acting hysterically about “every little thing.”

It’s not because of anything obviously Donald Trump did. The press did all that good work ruining its reputation on its own, and we can have a long conversation about what created that. Part of it, though, is what you mentioned about the local weather report, which is to say a lot of hysterical coverage about every little last thing that doesn’t warrant it. Having said that, it doesn’t mean, and in fact, it most explicitly does not mean that the press just throws out the standards.

Despite media’s overreaction to “every little thing,” Dickerson pointed out that Trump made several egregious misstatements during his midweek presser, and that the president ought not to posture as a truth-teller if he is not precise with his own words.

“If you’re going to make a case on honesty grounds and truthfulness grounds, if that’s the turf on which you’re going to hold your press conference and open your press conference. . . to elide it completely seems inconsistent with the argument that you’re making in the 77 minute press conference,” he said.

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