Chris Wallace: Trump ‘Crossed a Line’ With His ‘Enemy of the State’ Remark


Donald Trump is a very aggressive, outspoken man. Anyone who does not see this as obvious has been cut off from the world for at least two years. When you speak off the cuff, and especially when you make provocative statements, you are bound to offend people — sometimes intentionally, at other times, unintentionally. In the case of President Trump, we can expect all of these things to happen, and they are.

Here is the latest example of a comment that thoroughly stirred the pot.

What has the media upset is this comment:

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

 

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Chris Wallace of Fox News believes that with that comment Mr. Trump, “crossed a line.” Ever the Trump opponent, Senator John McCain in an interview alluded to such comments as being common to dictators in their early efforts to grab power — although the senator quickly stated that he does not believe Mr. Trump is trying to become a dictator.

What this boils down to is a couple of questions:

Is President Trump calling the media as a whole a danger to Americans? The answer is clearly, “no.” He is calling out the “fake” media as the people’s enemy.

So the next question would be what he means by “fake” media? That question is not as easy to answer. Taking his numerous other comments into consideration, the best understanding of this comment would be that he defines “fake” media as those outlets that allegedly deliberately distort the news to push a liberal agenda, thereby giving the people an erroneous view of current events and their meaning.

To put it more simply, are these media outlets deliberately mixing the front page with the editorial page to attack conservatives? Whether broadcast or print, the answer is yes, and this is nothing new.

The next question is whether the mainstream media represents a danger to the nation and hence are the people’s enemy. Coupled with that question is what President Trump meant by that comment.

It would be a real stretch to put into Mr. Trump’s mouth the words that an independent press, as an institution, is a danger to the United States and its citizens. It would be much easier to postulate that what he meant by this comment is that the deliberate spreading of false news is a danger. And it is very likely that he looked at the reporting by the mainstream press that is biased against him, and decided it would be a good time to give them a typical Trump-like blast.

The independent press is not in danger from President Trump. What this incident amounts to is a very assertive, even aggressive man, expressing how fed up he is with a segment of the press that is eager to manage the news in such a way as to put the most negative light possible on events surrounding his administration. That’s the essence of “fake” news — speculations and conjecture mixed with some facts and packaged in such a way as to push a typically leftist agenda, thereby giving readers and listeners a highly politicized view of the news.

One thing President Trump need not worry about is whether his base of support realizes what is going on. We do.

Source:  Fox News

 



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