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In a Washington Post op-ed so dishonest, they should put him on staff!

Media's favorite Republican tells Trump to stop attacking his BFFs



Media's favorite Republican tells Trump to stop attacking his BFFs Surely you've seen Sen. John McCain (R-The Media) on television. It's his favorite place to be. And he knows exactly how to get there. There is nothing the media love more than a Republican who will wag his finger at other Republicans for their right-wing extremism, meanness, irresponsibility, ignorance, etc. Prove your mettle by saving ObamaCare or idiotic methane regulations, and you can be a media star for life. (Granted, he did usher Sarah Palin onto the national stage, but he's only been trying that much harder to atone for that sin ever since.)
So when his Arizona colleague Jeff Flake dropped hints he will take to the Senate floor this week and excoriate Donald Trump for attacking the media, you knew McCain couldn't allow Flake to steal his media-loving thunder. No Republican loves the media more than me, John McCain! And McCain has proven his mettle once again, by taking to the op-ed pages of the Washington Post with a thoroughly dishonest takedown of Trump for his attacks on the media. Trump, you see, is giving cover to dictators and despots who are killing journalists throughout the world. They're only doing that because meanie Trump hates the First Amendment and is trying every day to destroy it so American journalists will end up in prison cells - their notepads and laptops taken away forever:
Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s attitude toward such behavior has been inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst. While administration officials often condemn violence against reporters abroad, Trump continues his unrelenting attacks on the integrity of American journalists and news outlets. This has provided cover for repressive regimes to follow suit. The phrase “fake news” — granted legitimacy by an American president — is being used by autocrats to silence reporters, undermine political opponents, stave off media scrutiny and mislead citizens. CPJ documented 21 cases in 2017 in which journalists were jailed on “fake news” charges. Trump’s attempts to undermine the free press also make it more difficult to hold repressive governments accountable. For decades, dissidents and human rights advocates have relied on independent investigations into government corruption to further their fight for freedom. But constant cries of “fake news” undercut this type of reporting and strip activists of one of their most powerful tools of dissent.

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Bolshevik. The press deserves every attack it's getting from Trump and far more than that. McCain's dishonest proposition here is that Trump has a problem with the freedom of the press. He does not. He has a problem with the dishonesty and irresponsibility of the press. The First Amendment gives the press the right to express any ideas they like without legal sanction. That is as it should be, and Donald Trump is not trying to do anything to change that. What the First Amendment does not do is protect the press from being criticized when they do their job poorly - even when the media critic is the president of the United States. The media's reliance on unreliable sources to develop negative stories about Trump has gotten completely out of control, as has their tendency to speculate on things they think will happen rather than waiting for them to actually happen (or not happen) and then simply report events as facts. Whether they're touting a leaked, unofficial memo or making completely inaccurate claims about the tax reform bill, the media have become cheerleaders for an agenda and absolute antagonists of President Trump. Yesterday we showed you video of CNN's grandstanding clown Jim Acosta being told to exit the Oval Office after he continually shouted obnoxious, insulting insinuations at the president. As we predicted, Acosta acted as though he'd been the victim of some press-hating Third World dictator.

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It's no surprise John McCain would carry their water for them

Let's see: Acosta still has his White House press credentials. He is still able to roam freely around the place. He is still allowed to go on the air and say whatever he wants about the president, regardless of how idiotic it is. The only thing he wasn't allowed to do is continue repeating the same moronic insinuations about the president wanting people coming to America from "only Caucasian countries." That is so far removed from what would happen in countries that truly oppress the media, it's astonishing someone idiotic enough to make the comparison has a job of any kind, let alone one as White House correspondent for a major news network. And this is the very distinction McCain is failing to make in his op-ed. The press are facing no legal sanction for their poor performance, nor are they being prevented in any way from doing their jobs. The only thing that's happening to them is that they're being called out when they're inaccurate, unfair and irresponsible. And that's exactly what should happen. By the way, one last thing about the use of the term "fake news." It was the media itself that started using the phrase, immediately after the 2016 election, as a way of claiming that phony Internet news sites had fooled people into electing Trump. What Trump did was turn the phrase around on them, noting that an awful lot of what they report under the guise of credibility and seriousness isn't accurate either - and that if the term could apply to the sites who claim aliens were in cahoots with Hillary Clinton, it could also apply to media outlets who claim Trump conspired with the Russians to steal the election. Both are equally ridiculous, and equally false, but one is pushed by screwballs on the Internet and the other is pushed by the mainstream media. Trump simply applies the media's own condescending label to their own shoddy work, and they scream bloody murder. It's no surprise John McCain would carry their water for them. They're pretty much the only thing that's been keeping him relevant for the past decade or so. His disregard for truth is so galling, the Post should put him on staff. He'd fit right in.


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Dan Calabrese -- Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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