Until Donald Trump ran for president, the national media sat cute knowing they had free license to embarrass and belittle anyone they wanted without recourse, as Republican nominees were too concerned with their tone to return fire.
Suddenly, any insult directed at the press, or any denied press credential is evidence of a dictator-in-waiting. Now a New Yorker with a big mouth hits back and the media have a no-tolerance policy for a “bully” in politics.
“Bully” was the word used by the Washington Post editorial board last week on the same day the paper ran a column with the headline: “Donald Trump declares war on the press.” CNN went with: “Trump launches all-out attack on the press.”
It was a supposed turning point: Trump held a press conference that was meant to clear the air about money he’d raised for veterans’ charities and which organizations had received the checks.
Trump repeatedly called the media “dishonest” for questioning him on the donations. He said the press “should be ashamed” of itself. He singled out ABC News reporter Tom Llamas as “a sleaze.”
CNN’s Dana Bash, devastated, said it was time for the press not to be “dispassionate” about Trump and his apparent assault on the press. PBS called it a “no-holds-barred assault.”
But even before the press conference that will live in infamy, journalists were faint at the idea of a politician who pushed back.
In April, Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple described Megyn Kelly, Trump’s most well-known media adversary, as “the Fox News host whose life Trump has pretty much ruined.”
By “ruined,” Wemple was presumably not referring to the Vanity Fair cover, book deal and primetime special that all followed the new fame Kelly enjoyed after she grilled Trump at the first Republican debate and the insults he threw at her in response.
The political media were used to being the ones who got to push people around.
