According to Media Research Center President Brent Bozell, White House journalists are Donald Trump’s “enemies” and shouldn’t be given too much stature. Appearing of Fox Business’s After the Bell, Wednesday, he declared, “There’s nothing newsy about the news media anymore. These people in that room are his enemies. These are people who are constantly against him.”
Bozell continued, “These are people who are constantly against him. There is no semblance of objectivity.... They are there as a hostile entity and if they’re going to be that hostile to him, the President-elect has the right, I think, to say I'm not going to stand there, by you people who have no vestige of objectivity.”
The MRC President said that Trump’s mantra should be “I will pick and choose who I want there.”
Bozell contrasted:
BRENT BOZELL: I do believe, at the end of the day, there has been a real — very sweet understanding with the news media and liberal presidents, that they got along just fine and they don't want that boat rocked. That boat has been rocked. Donald Trump is not going to be playing by their rules.
Indeed, journalists spent Obama’s last press conference wondering how “fearful” and “worried” the Democrat was about the incoming Trump.
A transcript is below:
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FBN’s After the Bell
01/18/17
4:52:59 p.m. [3 minutes and 46 seconds]MELISSA FRANCIS: Hand picking the press maybe? President-elect Donald Trump says he won't move the White House Briefing Room out of the West Wing but the small space might have consequence.
DONALD TRUMP: The room is too small. So, we said we'll move it to larger room, nearby area, but you know, not the same area and the press went crazy, so I said, let’s not move it. [SCREEN WIPE] So we'll have to just pick people that go into the room. I'm sure other people will thrilled about that, but we offered a much larger room. [SCREEN WIPE] They’ll be begging for much larger room very soon, you watch.
FRANICS: Here now is Brent Bozell, Media Research Center president. I mean, he sort of set this argument up to be a win for himself because, they wanted to move it. I mean, if you have been to that press area, I have, I mean, many journalists have, it is ry small. It’s very tight. People are packed in there. Anytime you see the shot, you know, he is talking about the rest of the media letting other people in, and pecking order that goes on inside of the and he wants to shake it up. What is your take?
BRENT BOZELL: Well, I think that there are two dynamic as play her, Melissa. First, the nature of the news media has changed in the last 20 years, with the internet, with online, with social media. You have an explosion of news sites, many of whom are bigger than many of the existing news outlets that are in that room right now and so they're asking for a seat at table and frankly they deserve a seat at table and not everyone can be at that table. So it is either move it into bigger room or rotate those things. That is the first point. The second point is that, this news media, there’s nothing newsy about the news media anymore. These people in that room are his enemies. These are people who are constantly against him. There is no semblance of objectivity going — you saw it on the CNN interview. They are there as a hostile entity and if they’re going to be that hostile to him, the President-elect has the right, I think, to say I'm not going to stand there, by you people who have no vestige of objectivity.
FRANCIS: Well, wait —
BOZELL: I will pick and choose who I want there.
FRANCIS: But then you get into, where does it end? Because he can't rewarded people who cover him well with a front row seat and being able to be in the room and keep the people who say things that he doesn't like send them out of the room. There’s obviously problems with that, no.
BOZELL: That's right. That's rights Melinda. You can't go to at extreme. So, there’s going — I think — the rotating idea is the best idea. Give everybody a seat at the table but you know there’s another dynamic going on here, Melinda. How many times Fox News was in the room during eight years of Barack Obama, how many times did he choose a Fox reporter to ask him a question? So the President always has that lever of power in a press conference as well, but I do believe, at the end of the day, there has been a real — very sweet understanding with the news media and liberal presidents, that they got along just fine and they don't want that boat rocked. That boat has been rocked. Donald Trump is not going to be playing by their rules.
FRANCIS: I think they should go to bigger room myself and let more outlets in. It was easy to define before ABC, NBC, cable, whatever, now it’s too many outlets. Go to a bigger room.
BOZELL: I’m fine that too
FRANCIS: There you go. Brent, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
BOZELL: Thank you, Melinda.
DAVID ASMAN: There were hundreds of people at that Trump press conference. Hundreds of journalists that were there. I don't know how they make room for them all.
