Apparently the mainstream media still doesn’t understand the rebuke it received on Election Day. Trust in mass media sunk to a new law according to a poll taken by Gallup this fall.
Here is an example of why.
You have a major news affiliate whining that it wasn’t given access to President-elect Donald Trump eating steak with his family.
NBC News published this headline – As Trump Leaves Press Behind for Steak Dinner, Incoming Administration Already Showing Lack of Transparency.
Are you freaking kidding me? How in the world am I supposed to take a news organization seriously that complains about not getting to tag along to watch Donald Trump eat steak. What earth shattering news will take place in that dinner? “Oh the President-elect likes his steak well done? How can we trust a President who ruins a good piece of meat?”
Maybe they wanted to be there just in case he choked.
Trump has also refused to travel with the press corps since the election, a continuation of his campaign practice of flying in a separate plane from the media that covered him.
The media covering the president-elect have also not yet been offered briefings on his transition efforts, which was a typical practice for past presidents that allowed the public to keep apprised of the details of the new government.
Look, there are now daily press briefings-I personally get an extraordinary amount of email from the Transition Team just like I did from the campaign. Trump was pretty accessible to the press with press conferences and the like – far more than Hillary Clinton (not that we see much coverage about that).
If he starts banning news organizations from the White House and never does any press conferences then they’ll have a legitimate complaint. As far as flying in a separate plane, I assume he’s flying his own jet right now. Having been on it, while it is large, it cannot accommodate a press contingent. I’m pretty sure that practice won’t continue once he can fly Air Force One.
I think there are far more important things for the press to consider like why they utterly failed to be the objective Fourth Estate they are supposed to be.
