Russian journalists: "Trump's press conference was nothing compared to Putin's authoritarian style"

[DetlefK]

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/you-thought-this-was-rock-bottom-america-but-the-russians-are-knocking-from-below-56789

In Russia, the independent media has gradually eroded under a president who seems to share Donald Trump’s disdain for disruptive journalism. But Russian Twitter users who tuned in to watch Trump’s meeting with the press weren’t partying or seething — for the most part, they were laughing.

So what was so funny?

For years, the United States has been an inescapable presence in Russian politics. American plots and pernicious influence permeate the political rhetoric in Moscow, where no problem is too big or too small to blame on Washington and President Obama. Throughout this time, Russia barely registered in the United States, even after Moscow redrew the map of Europe by annexing Crimea from Ukraine.

Fast-forward to Wednesday, Jan. 11, when a room full of top reporters mobbed the U.S. president-elect with questions about the Kremlin and how America should confront Russian President Vladimir Putin.



And here are some tweets from Russia about Trump's press conference:

All the first questions to Trump are about Russia. Among Russian Twitter users, the main topic is Trump. This, apparently, is the long-awaited multipolar world.

Judging by the questions are Trump’s press conference, the United States is some kind of crypto-colony of Russia. Deputy Fedorov got it all backwards!

So not even once did anybody ask Trump what we’re supposed to call the Kerch bridge? These people aren’t journalists.

Throughout the entire press conference, nobody asked Trump to pave a road or deliver gas utilities. When did they even bother with this thing?

American journalism is dead, insofar as nobody asked Trump where he’s going to spend New Year’s and what he’ll have on his holiday dinner table.

What’s the idea of having a press conference where nobody gets a new apartment at the end, and a cute American girl isn’t even gifted a little puppy?

Why aren’t they asking Trump about the roads? I was in Arizona yesterday, and there were definitely a couple of potholes.

“Yes, the young woman from MSNBC.” “Mr. Trump, in Michigan, our transit buses are very old. Would you be able to pressure our governor to fix it?” “Thank you. Now sit down.”

I suspect that Trump will now close down BuzzFeed and replace the chief editor at CNN.

Margarita Simonyan (chief editor of RT) will be appointed the next chief editor of BuzzFeed.

[liberal N proud]

1. That is because trump is just getting started

I am sure he will hone that authoritarian tactics.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Trump isn't close to Putin-level treatment of the media, at least not yet.

(snip)

Many prominent Russian Twitter users seemed to think the most amusing aspect of Trump’s confrontation with the press was the fact that reporters actually asked him tough questions, sometimes quite aggressively. This is a far cry from the tone at Vladimir Putin’s annual press conferences, where a room packed mostly with sycophants pampers the president with praise, disguised as questions, and opportunities to impress the nation, framed as requests for presidential intervention.

(snip)

One of the strangest things about Putin’s press conferences is that the guests are permitted to bring signs and posters, where they spell out the essence of what questions they’d like to ask. This policy makes for an arena-like scene, where a room full of adults jockeys desperately for the president’s attention.

At least one Russian Twitter user made a small tweak to a photo from Putin’s press conference to imagine how Trump might have enjoyed it.

(snip)

A more bittersweet comedy captured the fact that American journalists can afford to offend the commander-in-chief, without risking the dismantling of their publication. Russian journalists don’t have this luxury, and staff who have worked at independent Russian news outlets like Dozhd, Lenta.ru, RBC, and others know all too well that falling afoul of the Kremlin means you could lose your broadcasting contracts, your office lease, or your chief editors.

[DonCoquixote]

3. I find this refreshing

why do appreciate the fact that some in the news media are finally paying attention to the freedoms that many journalists have lost, it is nice to see some people say that things are not as rough in America as they are in other parts of the world. Let me be very frank, as much as I am sure that the folks at MSNBC, or the New York Times, or (insert bland been all corporate ass kiss her media here) talk about Trump, they sure as hell are not the ones getting thrown into jail. No I do not want to see this happen common even to folks like Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews, although to be frank, part of me would think that they deserve it.

Yes media, now that you realize that you have summoned the demon into the Oval Office that very well may endanger your very comfortable lifestyles, where you get paid a good amount of money. Now you're breaking out the crocodile tears and wearing the hair shirts. Yes, to fight to make sure that we do not become a default colony of Moscow, do you actually look out for your less affluent journalist, who make less money than you because, unlike you they actually fight the powerful, instead of making them look good on camera. However if you do not, if you keep going on your present path, then allow me to become the ghost of Christmas future, the one that shows you what all happen if your actions do not change and you get the well-deserved retribution that your actions have forged in life, link by link, deed by deed. You already have a taste of it, or despite the fact that social media has been hijacked by Steve Bannon, and that Mark Zuckerberg is very happy to let his watchdogs sleep, many people simply would rather research stuff on their own then read the paper. Sorry to say, in large part thanks to be out right dereliction of duty you did in 2016, televised news might become as worthless as newspapers.

I know that many journalists will go ahead and say that the Internet ruined the journalism. All it may have done some damage, the same way radio did some damage to television, and the same way radio television did some damage to movies, but radio, TV, and cinema are all making record profits aren't they? What a lot of journalistic not like to admit is that they have been shown asleep at the wheel way too many times, and in some cases, as this election is a perfect example of, have been direct contributors to the misinformation because it made them money! Thanks in large part to them, we were raid have Hillary Clinton burnt at the stake for her emails but have allowed someone who's very career has been defined by "conflict of interest" to take over the White House. The sad thing is, as much as a lot of journalist including self-appointed "left wing" journalist are crying crocodile tears right now, they know that they have a built in money machine, for all they have to do is cry crocodile tears and watch for profits role in. The Federalist papers, that much abused and much quoted document had one very strong and true warning:

We miss watch out for those who have "a vested interest in disorder." Admittedly, the writers of that document have lawyers in mind when they wrote this, they can also apply to a bunch of lazy, overfed courtiers that been allowed to serve as our "Free Press." Yes, we do have more freedom than in Russia, but it is not thanks to our journalists.

[11 Bravo]

4. Give him time. He's a slow learner, but he'll get there eventually.