Trump: “Fake News” to Blame for Lost Media Jobs

President Trump unloaded a series of furious tweets against the news media over the weekend, blasting CNN, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and others for their biased coverage of his administration. Attacking the mainstream media is a regular feature of Trump’s arsenal, but these fresh rounds came after one of the worst weeks in the history of American journalism. BuzzFeed’s fake story about Michael Cohen, the media’s slanderous onslaught against Nick Sandmann and the kids of Covington Catholic, and topped off with the ridiculous live coverage of Roger Stone’s arrest: This week made the media’s coverage of Ferguson look nuanced and objective.

On Saturday, Trump suggested that the irresponsibility of the news media was to blame for the decline of the industry.

“’Ax falls quickly at BuzzFeed and Huffpost!’ Headline, New York Post,” the president wrote. “Fake News and bad journalism have caused a big downturn. Sadly, many others will follow. The people want the Truth!”

Employees and employers at BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post took exception to what they perceived as the president’s “gloating,” but this tweet was really nothing more or less than a statement of the facts. Which is why, perhaps, these fake news insiders had so much trouble recognizing it. Trump isn’t glad to see the media fall on hard times; quite the opposite! The president, like all of us, knows only too well how important it is for this country to have a free, thriving Fourth Estate. But that’s not possible when reporters are willing to ignore the truth in favor of an agenda. And until major corrections are made, Trump is right: Many others will follow.

Trump also took aim at a CBS report on the indictment of Stone:

CBS reports that in the Roger Stone indictment, data was “released during the 2016 Election to damage Hillary Clinton.” Oh really! What about the Fake and Unverified “Dossier,” a total phony conjob, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary to damage me and the Trump Campaign? What about all of the one sided Fake Media coverage (collusion with Crooked H?) that I had to endure during my very successful presidential campaign. What about the now revealed bias by Facebook and many others. Roger Stone didn’t even work for me anywhere near the Election!

You have to admit, he makes a point. Let’s say that Stone was “colluding” with WikiLeaks on the timing of the email releases. So what? Are you seriously going to say that WikiLeaks publications amounted to ANYTHING more damaging than the constant stream of fake, biased coverage coming from The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, the major news networks, and so on and so on? The idea that Trump stole the election by taking advantage of leaked emails is asinine and insane.

Sadly, there’s no indication that the media is planning to change its ways. Thus, the sad story of BuzzFeed and HuffPost will likely be the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the death of the American mainstream news media. Welp, can’t say they weren’t warned.