Trump Is Right About US Press

Donald Trump has again stirred the wrath of his critics by charging that the media can cause wars. His opponents immediately howled that he’d launched another salvo in his ongoing campaign to vilify journalists as the “enemy of the people.” They also ridiculed his contention as factually absurd. Fox News reporter Chris Wallace bluntly asked National Security Advisor John Bolton: “What wars have we caused?” Princeton University historian and CNN analyst Julian E. Zelizer epitomized the view that Trump’s charge is unfounded with a piece in The Atlantic titled, “The Press Doesn’t Cause Wars - Presidents Do.”

Zelizer and similar critics are technically correct, of course. Media outlets have no power to launch attacks on foreign countries or order U.S. troops into combat. But that view is much too narrow. As Zelizer himself admits, the new media have considerable ability to influence public opinion. Such a capacity to shape the overall narrative is not a trivial power. An irresponsible press can, and has, whipped up public sentiment in favor of military actions that subsequent evidence indicated were unnecessary and even immoral.

You can read the rest @
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/yes-the-press-helps-start-wars/

The press is deeply complicit in US wars. Perhaps the best modern example of this is 9/11 and its aftermath. Not a single major claim about the 9/11 attacks was independently verified by the press; in fact, they were instrumental in the spreading of lies which led directly to the so-called war on Islam terror. And instead of standing up for the truth and the very principles of a free press, most of them have helped the government brand Julian Assange as an enemy of the state.

Trump may be clumsy, but he often is on the right track. The press is no friend of We the People.

By the way, I am slowly reading Seymour Hersh's memoir Reporter. I'll have more to say on the subject when I finish, but one of the book's lessons can be discerned in its title. The job of the press is to ACCURATELY REPORT the news ... not to obscure, embellish, twist, and/or weaponize it.