This morning, Trump tweeted an old video of himself pummeling a wrestler after the wrestler was thrown out of the ring. The wrestler taking Trump’s blows is labeled CNN.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
7/2/17, 9:21 AM
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN pic.twitter.com/WYUnHjjUjg
I see this as a direct incitement to violence against the media and anyone who dares to criticize King Donald.
I reported this tweet to Twitter as abusive and violent. I said that I, as a writer and critic, feel dupirectly threatened by the violence that this man adores and encourages.
He is a phony hero. He praises the military, but claimed five deferments to avoid the draft. He is a draft dodger.
His attacks on the media are an attack on the First Amendment.
Does he know about the First Amendment?
This man has no dignity. He defines the term “low-life.” He is a national and international embarrassment. As far as I am concerned, he was elected by Putin, and he is #NotMyPresident.
God save our country from this man and the viciousness and ignorance that he represents so well.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well said!
As Glenn Greenwald demonstrates in this amazing article, that the Corporate Media is not doing its self (or the public) any favors when it behaves in a way that gives ammunition to Trump’s “fake news” rantings. There IS fake news and unless the corporate media and the Democrats are held equally accountable for their failures and transgressions, we will get nowhere by simply pointing the finger at Trump.
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/27/cnn-journalists-resign-latest-example-of-media-recklessness-on-the-russia-threat/
Journalists sometimes make mistakes. They apologize. That’s a mistake, not Fake News.
Every word out of Trump’s mouth is Fake News.
Nice link Daniella.
Most media outlets have been knowingly and willingly feeding their audiences a Fake News diet for quite some time. The latest project Veritas undercover videos confirm that fact.
Yes, mistakes can happen, but the amount has been staggering. If their staff members are so incredibly sloppy, then they should have been fired a while ago. In fact, if one were to compile all of the false narratives over the past ten months from just four sources like, the NYT, WAPO, CNN, MSNBC, the resulting work would be as thick as an encyclopedia.
Surely you jest.
Trump lies every time he opens his mouth.
Now he is trying to destroy journalism.
Only FOX and Breitbart feed the malignant narcissist’s hunger for flattery.
I already have two Trump trolls on the blog. I don’t need three.
Thank you for your response.
Ernesto, you say The Intercept is a “nice” link. I disagree.
In a short time, everything I read about it indicates it is a member of the Alternate media.
In February 2015, having resigned after nearly 14 months with The Intercept, Ken Silverstein contributed an article on Politico about his time at First Look and The Intercept. “I went to First Look to do fearless journalism,” Silverstein wrote, “but I found I couldn’t navigate any journalism, fearless or not, through the layers of what I saw as inept management, oversight and editing.
Thanks Dan. I don’t know about The Intercept as a whole. First time I’ve seen it is the link above. The lone article did seem to reflect my own studies as to how media tends to cover things. That is all.
You must be kidding project Veritas. Who has been found to be a serial fake news fraud, to the point of editing cutting and pasting their phony videos . Sued and and jailed for fraud that is your source.
Lloyd Lofthouse
Neither the Intercept or the NYT, ,Wa Post, CNN nor MSNBC is fake news . Ever journalistic endeavor interprets circumstance according to inherent bias .The war in Iraq should be evidence of that. Judith miller was not alone.
Fake news is quite different like Project Veritas sited above.Breitbart . Or dare I say most of Fox news where intentional efforts are made to distribute lies and half truths and distort facts. Make that the whole modern Republican party as well . Which does not make Democrats angels .
Everyday Dean Baker calls out fake news in the NYTimes and other main stream media. He is not saying at all that their news is fake rather that they are interpreting it wrong with a bias . We see the same on research . So what you have to do is, understand the bias of the outfit and confirm their stories with other research and news outfits. This should be perfectly clear in the education wars.
Yesterday the media was a buzz with Minimum wage in Seattle killing low wage jobs . Both Baker and a separate piece in Nation pointed out that a slightly earlier study was a far more accurate picture of that economic reality.
Does anyone listen to Fahreed Zakaria who investigated this today with Senator Mark Warner? Warner gave info of the on going investigation of Russian hackers who embed fake new bots in the US and ll over the world. Much of this is what some here are laying at the feat of REAL news media like CNN, MSNBC, MY Times, Washington Post. Please get your facts straight before making accusations agains the REAL media.
typo…meant N Y Times…but also the Trump trolls abound on all blog sites claiming that his distracting and false cries, screams, of fake news, are real. They get paid to do this. Beware of new names that appear here.
Ellen Lubic
When someone references “project Veritas” that is disqualifying . When those on the left can not understand the difference between fake news and the editorial slant that is part of normal reporting . It is infuriating.. One should be skeptical of reporting which means you may need multiple sources when it comes to conclusions . The underlying facts is what should be reliable . Few of the underlying facts are questionable How we interpret what has been reported may be questionable on many issues . Unless he pardons everyone he is going down.
OMG . . . NOT LOL at all. Trump is like some mean teenager bully who has no idea how to connect to others, has an unparented child’s unbridled narcissism, and is just plain fast, cheap, and out of control.
This all gets magnified because he is the POTUS, but acts more like some bully in a Judy Blume novel. It’s like a child-man-bully-sex-offender straight out of a show on Nickelodeon.
How the people here and in other countries are reacting to this man-child is unfathomable, but it’s the reality.
I cannot believe this guy is president, but he is.
He is going to attract a nuclear attack somewhere like nectar to a bee, and honey to a bear. Beware . . . .
Joel…what are you talking about? You seem to be scolding me…what is that all about? Have you forgotten we have been on the same side since you started writing here? And please, just call me Ellen.
Trump has repeated his business dealings with foreigners repeatedly and will surely be impeached under the emoluments clause…but he also is showing that he is well into lack of control with his recent tweets added to the endless stream, so some legislators are talking about the 25th Amendment…and Fareed and Warner spoke about that possibility as well.
Joel and all here, please google Laurence Tribe lawsuits and also Noah Bookbinder of CREW. The law moves slowly, but the process is in place for Trump impeachment, if Pence does not move faster and declare Trump mentally unfit using the 25th Amendment…then, with the Cabinet in agreement, they call for a Congressional vote to depose him…and we are left with Pence, Ryan, and McConnell. A bad deal all around…but better than being the laughing stock of the world and losing the world’s trust in America.
Pence is content to wait. He is making the decisions, picking the new hires, while Mad Donald tweets.
Ellen
I did not think I was lecturing you and we are on the same side.The comment was meant to reinforce the difference between fake news and real journalism which can and does frequently have bias. There are some here who do not make the distinction. Some calling the Times and others the
Intercept fake news neither is. Both have a bias.
Here’s some insight on how fake news has upended traditional media organizations. Execs at the networks are no friends of Trump but the environment for today’s reporter does not permit them the resources or time to conduct the tedious legwork needed to fact check . This comment came to me from a friend who was a long time reporter for a major news organization (names deleted)
The execs at that network are definitely not friends of Trump, so of
course the right is loving this a lot.
This does point to a problem that arose in the Clinton years, when Matt Drudge started posting łnews˛ online about the Clinton wars online with no vetting by anybody. Pure gossip and rumor, but well sourced, so sometimes it was true. And wingnuts believed it regardless.
[Names Deleted] pointed out that this created a sort of arms
race -used to be that reporters sat on stories a long time
while legal combed over it. But in this new environment, thereąs less
and less time to post before you get łscooped˛ by bloggers
who have no process in place. Thus a rush to publish.
But now, rightwing hostility and the hostility of people at the top of
government is at all-time highs. The mainstream press is
under attack as never before, ironically, especially the ones who have a lot of process in place to verify and fact check.
Because of this bad environment, news media people are under great
pressure from both sides – post now while it’s still news-but verify
thoroughly.”
Make no mistake. Greenwald is no fan of Trump. He has never defended Trump administration over his attempt to taunt and suppress free speech.
However he has a deep mistrust of the American intelligence community do to the treatment of his boyfriend in the Wiki Affair. Perhaps more than it should be.
That’s true.
What is also true is my 4 finger typing does not keep up with my mind
Do should have been Due Never fails .
It might be more accurate to say that BOTH left & right media outlets are vulnerable to jumping into print on the basis of slim evidence– & apologising later– because our media are (a)vulnerable financially, as they are still in the midst of the financial repercussions of the transition from print to digital, & (b)owned in recent decades by media conglomerates &/or billionaires, all listed on the stock exchange & expected to earn gross profits– most easily accomplished by publishing controversial & sensational stories.
What you are pointing to is that the ‘elite, Eastern establishment’ outlets still seem to garner more credibility nationally than, say, Breitbart & Fox, despite your cites of their stumbles & retractions. I suggest that NYT/ WaPo etc are more credible to me, because I can still depend on their retracting bad stories. I have yet to see Breitbart or Fox do the same. There may be a bit of backpedaling when their back is to the wall, but they don’t retract/ apologize/ fire reporters. And that is because those rightwing outlets don’t actually report news: they deal in suggestion, conspiracy theory, nuance & spin on news stories reported elsewhere.
Diane Instead of being raised up by his position as president, Trump is trying to transform the presidency into own version of (as you say) a low-life. As one pundit said this morning, “we are seeing a dictatorship in the making.”
As one Trump-follower said, “He can hold his own in a bar fight.” I hope the white-coats come and get Trump before TWO ignorant ego-maniacs (Trump and Kim) destroy the civilized world. And BTW, as most white-males know, being white is not an achievement, nor is being male.
It is disheartening to see what this man-boy has done to the Office of the President. The question is when will the Republicans see the reality?
Exactly! This July 4th I am a proud American who embraces diversity, supports those that serve and will speak out in defense of the constitution. Yet I stand in humiliation with the eagle and the rest of the country when basic rights are threatened and our reputation is tarnished throughout the world. Those Republicnss who choice to remain silent are with Him and will be remembered that way. Where is the integrity and decency among you?’
AlwaysLearning Apparently, we are being introduced to the “modern presidency.”
The people are Speaking about how they feel about this modern president.
“Thousands of Demonstrators Expected at Downtown L.A. Rally Supporting Trump Impeachment”. Time for legislators to wake up.
Thank you, Dianne. You’re a hero, with a proven record of speaking truth to power. Exactly the kind of person authoritarians like Donald Trump fear the most.
I keep hoping he will block me on Twitter but no luck so far.
Hard to imagine that the alleged leader of the Free World has nothing better to do than watch cable news and tweet.
Doesn’t he have minders?
I recently enlightened my hubby on this subject, who is too busy at work to put the headlines together into a narrative. Even tho he knows who Trump is (we were longtime NYers), he was incredulous that a Pres of the US had time to follow cable news– ‘doesn’t he have mtgs all day?’
I showed him how the Trump tweet flow directly follows & reacts to the 24-hr cable news-analysis stations [which he deplores], concluding that if indeed Trump is in mtgs all day, he must be up half the night catching up & reacting to his coverage at CNN, MSNBC, & Fox…
No handlers. That’s the thing – as transparent as glass and STILL able to function with impunity.
Let’s not forget the so-called 17 independent agencies that reported Russia’s involvement with election fraud has deteriorated to just 4 — all of them the usual suspects.
The Duopoly and MSM control is where the focus should be but instead we continue to be played.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/02/playbook-lally-weymouth-party-spotted-240194
I’m embarrassed to admit I’m enough of a wrestling fan to have seen the whole clip years ago.
It goes on to show Donald taken down by a Stone Cold Stunner!
Sent from my iPhone, with keys way too small for humans.
He is not a well person and gets worse every day. So much for celebrating July4th!
I do not tweet and don’t know how many people spend time ramping up the thumbs up and thumbs down responses to Trump’s vulgarities.
I would like to know what explains the 158,425 Retweets for this Trumped up image with CNN the apparent victim of Trump’s need to portray himself as a fighter. I worry even more concerned about the 246,092 Likes and whether these have any credibility as indicators of agreement with Trump’s aggression and transgressions.
I suspect that Trump thrives on the “Likes” and tracks the “Retweets” to see where he stands on publicity. I think that Trump gets high on any kind of publicity and that the need for a high in the early hours is acute, so acute he has become a compulsive tweeter. He also insecure, thin-skinned, so fragile that he MUST demean others and lie and conjure conspiracies to prove he is both right and “worthy.” People support him for reasons I cannot fathom. And least of all can I fathom elected officials, especially Republicans, who think it is OK to hedge or remain silent about the conduct of Trump and the danger this man poses for everyone, here and abroad.
Little hands must keep busy. Twitter is a natural for someone with nothing better to do. When not taking health care away from millions or destroying the environment
It is indeed very scary to imagine that the Pres of the US is no different from alL those adolescents who finish their hw during the day then are up half the night trying to establish an ID online, watching the media, & assessing whether it’s coming across as planned by monitoring FB/ tweet likes/dislikes…
But I think, judging from the tweet-flow from DJT, that’s exactly who we’ ve got in the WH.
My take: after 6 mos of efforts by WH aides to ‘handle’ this [unsuccessful]– & feedback from WH that all subordinates shrink from his vengeful attacks on those he deems ‘disloyal’– &, as many have begun saying, “he’s 71yo, he won’t change”– we essentially have a void at the helm. His party will kowtow where they absolutely have to, but otherwise will conduct the Rep Party’s natl biz w/o him. And as to intl biz: we have a void of power, already recognized. The next [& subsequent] intl crisis will be handled by Bannon/ Tillerson as best they can manage, given predictable chaotic interference from POTUS.
“The next [& subsequent] international crisis will be handled by Bannon/ Tillerson”
How many of us will lose sleep thinking of that thought? These two are probably equal to or worse than Trump.
Lloyd…Tillerson is beginning to look like the only sane one of the whole pack. The Cabinet is creepy and mainly war mongers.
Gorsuch is Scalia reincarnated…but even nuttier and even more of a religious ideologue. He is now voting with Thomas, who even other judges demean as to his intelligence, and he belongs indicted for tax evasion.
If we don’t all work to turn Congress BLUE in 2018, we will probably end up with only two liberal SCOTUS judges…Kagan and Sotomayor…and that will take many generations to fix. Can you imagine Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Gorsuch, joined by three other Scalia clones? Kennedy, Bader-Ginsburg, and Breyer will probably not last another 4 years on the Court due to illness and old age.
I hope at least the likes are fake. I hate to think that many people who are spending their time reading LaDonald’s tweets much less liking them.
Paul Ryan & Mitch McConnell will remain silent as long as Trump signs all of their pet legislation to get more tax cuts & dismantle our public safety net. Suffering, death, & systemic cruelty are mere externalities to them& their donors.
My entire professional life I had been a believer in what John Dewey wrote and spoke about. However the election of Trump makes me question the wisdom of some of our citizens. Its a democracy and the people have made their choice, but I wonder how Dewey would react to that choice. Also, right on Diane: couldn’t have said it better.
Anthony DeFalco I didn’t make that choice, nor did a majority of our citizens. We can have hope in that.
There could be a silver lining. If I am not mistaken, the Trump candidacy brought first-time or rare voters out from under a rock. These were people who for most of their lives felt their vote didn’t count, so didn’t bother. All of them lower-SES voters, & many of them older: the same folks who were aghast at lib-kids protesting the VNWar [or who fought there, while lib-kids had deferments]– felt ‘lesser-than’, as relatively uneducated & lower-class; felt they had no voice so never voted.
Once these folks finally vote– for a candidate who seems to express their thoughts/voice– & find themselves screwed by this admin… well, there will be plenty of cognitive-dissonance, insistence that their candidate could have prevailed were it not for those multiple forces that kept them voiceless for decades…
But this is the opening for the Dem party, if they can shed the neolibs & begin again supporting the poor, the working & middle classes.
I posted a link to Maureen Dowd’s column today at Oped,
Here is a small part of what she says about the cruelty of this man.
“Before he got to D.C., Trump was used to media that could be bought, sold and bartered with.
“He is not built for this hostile environment and it shows in his deteriorating psychological state. Even though he’s in the safest space of all, he’s not in a safe space”
“The 71-year-old president’s pathological inability to let go of slights; his strongman reflex to be the aggressor and bite back like a cornered animal, without regard for societal norms; his lack of self-awareness about the power he commands and the proportionality of his responses; his grotesque hunger for flattery and taste for Tony Soprano tactics;.
“Trump has moved his shallow kiddie wading pool of gossip and ridicule from Trump Tower to the White House, where it is so outlandishly out of place that it often feels like we have a Page Six reporter as our president.”
“Of course, since Trump and some of those close to him have such an elastic relationship with the truth, and since some staffers have been known to feed journalists false details just to mess with them, you can never be sure of anything that comes out of this White House.
“Except the cruelty.”
Wonder if the press could push him completely over the edge or if they could stop reporting about him and report the real news instead ? Or both.
West Coast Teacher The truth is anathema to Trump. All the press has to do to pxxs him off is to tell it.
West Coast Teacher
He is the real news could anything be more real than impending Oligarchy and Fascism . A slow motion role till now.
Speaking of the First Amendment, you do realize that your ‘criticism’ is going to get that mongrel’s attention. He thinks that ‘freedom’ gives him the right to express his rage, but the you have no right to deem his behavior inappropriate or bad..
This piece in the NY Times Today, deals with this idea… that trolls like trump have rights to what they believe is the right of ‘free speech’.
Save Free Speech From Trolls; https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/opinion/sunday/save-free-speech-from-trolls.html?ribbon-ad-idx=7&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article
My take-away:
“Criticism is not censorship, and no matter how insistent Twitter’s free speech brigade might be, I felt safe knowing that we could always go back to the text. The Constitution was on my side.
“But that was when I thought facts had power, when what we think of as the truth was based more on observable reality and less on the incantations of paranoid uncles who would rather die of preventable diseases than let America’s first black president leave an intact legacy. When the “free speech” canard started nibbling away at me, around 2012 or so, it seemed as goofy as the idea of Donald Trump becoming president. Oops.”
“The election of Donald Trump and crying “free speech” to end any discussion of cultural sensitivity are not unrelated. Casting the dissent of marginalized groups as a First Amendment violation is the kind of PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL argument that seems reasonable to people who don’t have enough skin in the game to bother paying attention. “Discourse” is good! Sunlight is the best disinfectant!”
” YEAH, YEAH! LIES ARE JUST AS VALID AS TRUTH, is their mantra!
THEY TRY TO TELL US THAT: “The more airtime we give to IRRATIONAL BIGOTS on high-profile platforms — the more assiduously we hear both sides, stay “fair and balanced” — the sooner they’ll be rejected by the public at large!
“Unfortunately, Conflating criticism with censorship fosters a system in which ALL POSITIONS DESERVE EQUAL CONSIDERATION, and that no bad ideas can ever be put to rest, and LIES ARE JUST AS VALID AS TRUTH!!”
It’s not hard to draw a straight line from internet culture warriors’ misappropriation of free speech to our current mass delusions over climate change, the Hyde Amendment, abstinence-only education, health care as a luxury and class as a meritocracy. “Free speech” rhetoric begot “fake news,” which begot “alternative facts.”
“The right cannot lay claim to the First Amendment when its own president is actively hostile to it. ”
“Sometimes disinfectant is the best disinfectant.”
It’s truly embarrassing to be an American now.
An interesting article from the Albany Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-opinion/article/Commentary-Losing-sense-of-civility-in-politics-11261342.php
Another Reason Democrats Keep Losing Elections: They Don’t Stand With Majorities Who Support Public Schools | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/education/another-reason-democrats-keep-losing-elections-they-dont-stand-majorities-who-support
Ed Ciaccio
Wishful thinking Ed everybody is for everything until they have to pay for it.
With over a hundred thousand opt outs in NY . Cuomo still beat Teachout . That was with I believe 500,000 + teachers in NY, mostly eligible to vote Democratic.
Probably the most important thing Democrats can do is motivate their base and reach the 43% who do not vote . I am betting they are not in the 10-% tax bracket who should be voting Republican .
There were a hell of a lot of other reasons Northam and the Republicans win . Like not having a real democrat in NY’s third something that will catch up to them soon enough.
The one thing the Democrats have not tried is nominating Democrats..
If I had a facebook or twitter account (I don’t) and I posted that video or any of those nasty, demeaning tweets, as a teacher I would have been fired or at least written up for indecent behavior becoming a teacher. Trump does it and gets away with it because he won.
He won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote that he lost by almost 3 million. The United States is the only republic that has a system in place that can elect a leader who does not win the popular vote.
And he thinks he may have won the popular vote. So there is Trump’s Presidential Commission dealing with his idea, lead by a man who has marketed voter fraud as a big issue. People in charge of voting in every state have received a letter demanding all records on all voters…the Inquisition begins in the absence of any evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump wants one national database which might well include SS numbers. The request is outrageous. At last word about 26 states said NO. I sure hope that this database, a tool for voter intimidation and new hurdles in voting, goes down in flames.
I won’t be surprised if Trump goes to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to force those 26 states, that include California where I was born and live, to hand over the info.
Wouldn’t it be great if Twitter banned this evil man? It would be like castrating him. This would never happen of course. I think the WH Press should boycott his “news” briefings. Ignoring him and his stupidity would do more than trying to report half-baked theories coming from the White House.
Please google Carl von Ossietzsky for a history lesson about why a free press is so important and why we need to stand up for journalists who do their jobs.
The day President Trump turned into “Psycho” Trump.
Nothing new. He’s always been a psycho. Those who have had some influence over his psycho behavior are losing any influence they have over him. I think the reason for this is because his wife won’t let him touch her and it is not easy for him to go around stealth groping young women without permission and getting away with it. That might be the main reason he resents the media so much because now he is under a media lens 24/7.
I agree who could try calling Vlad for room service.
I meant a wrestler named Psycho Sick Trump.
He’s CRAZY!
Diane, belated birthday greetings. Trump is a bully as you know. But now threatening violence.
As Robert Reich tweeted today:
“Remember, Trump sent these “gutter” tweets to distract from:
1) Health care stalled
2) WSJ story on Flynn
3) His bogus voter fraud panel”
The worst thought is that by criticizing all legitimate press, Trump does seem to be “weaponizing” unknowing public against the pillars of democracy as defined in the Bill of Rights section of the Constitution. All those freedoms we hold dear. Teachers have a teaching moment about what our rights are and our precious freedoms of speech, thought, research, investigation, questioning and protesting.
Amen!
Ms. Ravitch,
So well stated and exactly my thoughts. I am embarrassed to be an American right now, but not embarrassed to be a pubic school graduate.
Thank you,
Jean Carubia
>
Thomas Jefferson declared that “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” And Founding Father John Adams, one of the key drafters of our entire Constitution, declared that “The liberty of the Press is essential to the Security of the State.” Our Founding Fathers put Freedom of the Press right there in the very First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. A Free Press is our republic’s first line of defense against fascism, and that’s why America’s free press is under attack on two fronts: The attack from the White House is well known and public, but the attack from inside the press is invisible. Thanks to Congress’s failure to enforce antitrust laws, just a handful of large corporations own all the major newspapers, television stations, and radio stations. Pressure from corporate leadership is forcing their news operations to become more and more conservative and less and less critical of threats to our republic from Washington and Wall Street. What’s the solution?
Read the thoughtful feature story “Covering a free press under siege” in the July 2 Los Angeles Times. We have much to worry about, and loss of a free press is at the top because without probing reporting we will know nothing about the other important issues other than what Big Brother wants us to know…and to think.
Scisne “Big Brother” used to mean “the government.” Now it means “the government–under the control of big corporations and singular oligarchs.”
The Duopoly Party – have a ball at the expense of all!
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/02/playbook-lally-weymouth-party-spotted-240194