The Journalism Empire Strikes Back
Blockbuster reports from the Washington Post and New York Times are rocking the Trump White House. But will this administration ever come to acknowledge the power of the press?
LLOYD GROVE
02.15.17 12:57 PM ET
After weeks of mocking the mainstream media as fake news and the opposition partyan attempt to delegitimize an essential participant in American democracy in order to control the version of reality being sold to the citizenryDonald Trump and the people around him are being forced to confront a basic fact: Journalists matter.
And with the firing of White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynna step President Trump took very reluctantly Monday night in response to the damaging revelations published by The Washington Post and The New York Times about the retired generals lies concerning his conversations with the Russian ambassadorjournalism as an institution has reasserted itself.
Big time.
Donald Trump cant change the way gravity worksand the news media in our civil society, and accountability journalism, muscled up and demonstrated that he cant change gravity, said Steve Clemons, Washington editor at large for The Atlantic magazine. High-quality journalism matters enormously, and it mattered to him, even though he tried to ignore it.
Clemons added: I wouldnt say that journalism is now boss in this new world. But I would say that in this multi-match Sumo contest between journalists and the White House, in which the White House thought it was going to redefine the power dynamic, journalism has knocked Trump out of the ring. But its only the beginning of the contest, and its not the definitive case that journalism is prevailing.
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