NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham appeared on the C-SPAN interview program Washington Journal on Sunday morning to discuss the "war" between the media and the Trump administration. Trump's waging a war? Graham said "Well, yes, he is, in a way, and for many people, for many conservatives who didn’t necessarily back him in the primaries, it was the best part of Trump. Because we have an arrogant liberal media that needs to be taken down a peg." But he said the irony was Trump gave the media much more access than Hillary Clinton did.
At the end of the half hour, Graham dared the news media to refute the notion they were an "opposition party" to Republicans by showing the public how they voted in November:
STEVE SCULLY : Let me conclude with these words of Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary, he was a Democrat in the Clinton White House. He was talking about the media coverage and about Donald Trump, and he told [The] Huffington Post "Donald Trump and his advisers, including Stephen Bannon of ‘Breitbart News,’ as well as Spicer and others, understand that a significant portion of the public trust Trump’s own words more than they do the media's, Trump can get away with saying and doing whatever he wants.” Robert Reich says, “When that happens, our democracy ends."
TIM GRAHAM: Well, this underlines again that these people always believe that democracy relies on the Democrats – so that when the Democrats lose, democracy loses. When the Democrats aren’t in power, the government is not accountable. Conservatives in this country think that when the Democrats are in power, they’re unaccountable because of the liberal media that doesn’t trust them. Steve Bannon got in trouble the other day for saying that the media was the opposition party. I dare the news media! You tell us who you voted for in the last election and we will see who the opposition party is!
You can see the full video at C-SPAN. (Although some leftist has already "flagged" the video as offensive.)
Earlier: Tim Graham on double standards over Steven Bannon's media-bashing.
