Offering quite the overreaction to the controversial White House decision to ban CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins from an event, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews loosely tied President Trump to communist regimes of yesteryear when “people were only allowed to hear news from the government, that you got arrested or worse if you were caught even listening to news from anywhere else.”
Matthews made the assertion about the CNN ban and reports about Trump wanting Air Force One TVs only set to the Fox News Channel at the start of his routine, show-ending “Trump Watch” commentary.
“I grew up hearing people about in communist countries people were only allowed to hear news from the government, that you got arrested or worse if you were caught even listening to news from anywhere else. Doesn’t President Trump remember growing up hearing about countries where people were denied that kind of freedom,” Matthews wondered.
With that in mind, Matthews also pondered:
So how could he order that a reporter from a major cable channel be disinvited to today’s press availability in the Rose Garden. And how could he remember a memo to be sent out saying that only one news channel should be running on Air Force One? And how could he be continually saying that only that cable channel is telling the truth?
The liberal pundit then read aloud Thomas Jefferson’s masterful quote about the importance of having a free press (in his day, it was “newspapers”) and closed with two questions for Trump supporters:
Doesn't that bother even his supporters, especially Trump supporters, that this President is so afraid of press freedom of criticisms that he’s trying to smother it? Shouldn't the American citizens out there be able to listen and decide what’s the truth for themselves?
Earlier in the show, it was clear that Matthews was heading in this direction when he teased a discussion about Fox News on Air Force One with his Hardball Roundtable in declaring that “[h]e is controlling our minds.” Talk about Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui came over for the Roundtable after being on CNN the previous hour and ironically claimed that “the bottom line is this is a President who is so sensitive to criticism that he can only live within his own echo chamber.”
Here’s a dirty, little secret that’s worth mentioning: Journalists are extremely sensitive to criticism.
Anyway, Siddiqui alluded to the Collins ban and another recent line from the President telling supporters to not believe what you hear in the news as examples of “this broader authoritarian view that he has of the media where he is now normalizing the attacks that are being made on the freedom of the press.”
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on July 25, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
July 25, 2018
7:15 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And, reports that Trump is furious that CNN is served up on Melania's TV on Air Force One. He’s trying to make sure that the sets up there are only tuned to his favorite network. It’s not us.
(....)
7:37 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
MATTHEWS: Up next reality check. President Trump was reportedly less than pleased to find a TV aboard Air Force One tuned to a channel other than Fox News. This is about — he doesn’t like anybody turning the channel or setting it for the First Lady with the wrong channel. He is controlling our minds.
(....)
7:47 p.m. Eastern
SABRINA SIDDIQUI: The bottom line, though — the bottom line is this is a President who is so sensitive to criticism that he can only live within his own eco chamber and this, of course, comes as he continues to attack as press as the White House is barring reporters from events as he was telling people just yesterday don't listen to or believe what you hear in the news. So, it’s also part of this broader authoritarian view that he has of the media where he is now normalizing the attacks that are being made on the freedom of the press. He’s ultimately setting a tone from the top that tries to discredit the media and the institutions that are a key part of this democracy.
MATTHEWS: Gene, you ever think of 1984 with the TV that’s always on?
EUGENE SCOTT: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: It’s always watching and it’s always Big Brother is always talking.
SCOTT: Yeah. I mean, that’s why could be happening but he needs to know that people are watching him as well.
MATTHEWS: Thank you, Well, you turned the tables there.
(....)
7:59 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Trump Watch. Wednesday July 25, 2017 [sic]. I grew up hearing people about in communist countries people were only allowed to hear news from the government, that you got arrested or worse if you were caught even listening to news from anywhere else. Doesn’t President Trump remember growing up hearing about countries where people were denied that kind of freedom. So how could he order that a reporter from a major cable channel be disinvited to today’s press availability in the Rose Garden. And how could he remember a memo to be sent out saying that only one news channel should be running on Air Force One? And how could he be continually saying that only that cable channel is telling the truth? Didn't Thomas Jefferson say: “Were it left to me that we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer that latter...Every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” Freedom of the press. Doesn't that bother even his supporters, especially Trump supporters, that this President is so afraid of press freedom of criticisms that he’s trying to smother it. Shouldn't the American citizens out there be able to listen and decide what’s the truth for themselves?
