The media’s civil war over Donald Trump escalated Friday when the mainstream outlets, including the New York Times and CNN, were challenged over their lack of staff that understand the president’s world view.
During a confab to debate covering the new Trump White House, the media’s rediscovered “mission” to hold the administration “accountable” after eight years of Obama coverage was also hit as cover for attacking a president it doesn’t like.
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Speaking at the Columbia Journalism School, journalists from CNN, the New York Times and others discussed their coverage and effort to hold the administration accountable.
Times Bureau Chief Elisabeth Bumiller praised her team’s hard work and mission.
“What’s happened in the Washington bureau is this enormous sense of mission and people are energized and they are working like they’ve never worked before because suddenly everything is clear and our mission is to hold the administration accountable, cover the administration fairly and thoroughly, but also hold them accountable,” she said.
That prompted Breitbart financial editor John Carney, the only journalist from a conservative organization on the six person panel, to challenge those in the media who have turned their guns on Trump.
“I think it’s extraordinary that the press sort of ‘woke up’ after Donald Trump’s election to a moment of clarity about it’s job. I think that is one of the things that actually people find alienating,” he said.
“It looks like, and I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t true…that fundamentally, most journalists do not agree with the worldview of Donald Trump. They can’t hear the word or phrase ‘economic nationalism’ without thinking that is bad. They come from, I would say, a globalist secularist point of view and the idea of a president who uses the phrase ‘America First’ strikes them as disturbing,” he added.
Carney then turned to the newsrooms of the mainstream media where he suggested there is a lack of political diversity.
“Do you think you have enough people who understand and sympathize with Trump’s world view in your news organizations or do you think that your are predominantly staffed by people who view Trump’s view as not just wrong but probably also evil?”
The comeback from the Times: “Do you have enough people in your news organization who disagree with Trump’s point of view?”
During the session, Carney noted that there has been disagreement in conservative newsrooms over Trump, with some starting the #NeverTrump movement.
But, he said having an understanding of Trump’s world view is key to covering him and his team. “We have a very specific point of view in the White House and I don’t think that there’s a lot of understanding of that point of view in our news organizations,” he said.
And, he said Breitbart had that even during the campaign. “If you paid attention to what Breitbart was doing, you understood better how America was going to vote. If you were reading Breitbart every day, you weren’t surprised on November 8. You said, ‘This is what I thought was going to happen.'”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
