I’m not a President Trump supporter. However, I do support truth regardless to whom speaks it.
Since his candidacy and now presidency, President Trump has waged war on the media like we have never seen in recent years, especially coming from the Oval Office. Even going so far in creating new language to insert in the American vernacular such as “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and now expressly calling the media “the enemy of the people.” Strong condemnations from the highest office in the land. Some are seeing this behavior as a sinful, unpatriotic act while others say its truth telling in its most unadulterated form. But if we look at history, a President at odds with the press has always happened.
For example, if we look at the history of Presidents who felt unfairly represented by the media, over the past 50 years, starting with President Nixon we can see an ongoing pattern. The pattern of Presidents fighting to gain favorability in the eyes of the media. Nixon was a man who was hell bent on making sure this his side of the story was seen in a favorable light, even though his rocky road political career, legacy tarnishing decision to wage war in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal showed otherwise. After Nixon, the relationship between the media and the Oval Office once again changed.
President Ford mentioned that he wanted to get back to a place of candor and honesty with the media, but one month after coming into power, he pardoned President Nixon, and the media scrutiny intensified. The president’s son, Steven Ford, said the "honeymoon was over with reporters.” Then came President Jimmy Carter, who was often characterized as the “peanut farmer” who didn’t have a clue how Washington politics was done, so he was ridiculed. President Ronald Reagan, the actor turned politician, was described as the “Teflon President” because nothing stuck to him and his great ability of communicating a well scripted message redefined how the Oval Office was understood by the press and the American people, garnering him the title “The Great Communicator.”
President George Bush, was described by journalist and The New Yorker media critic, Ken Auletta, as running “the White House like a CEO” and that he was “disciplined” in his dealings with the press and saw it as “another special interest.” Moving forward to President Clinton, his relationship has been up and down as “the media doggedly reported stories about his former business dealings and alleged sexual transgressions” according to the History Channel. So Presidential feuds with the media is nothing new. It just in this age of sound bites, social media and catch phrases, it’s more pronounced.
In 2018, media is now a 24-hour news cycle phenomenon and platform where the dominant political parties can unabashedly and unapologetically provide context about the state of the union, and the affairs of the people, through politically biased reporting. Based on the bottom line, the fusion of politics and news is big business for Washington, New York and Hollywood. We need to keep in mind as we have this discussion.
What has made this President and his threats, accusations and denouncements of the media more telling, is his use of his presidential “bully pulpit” to wage war on a pillar of American society and culture. A pillar that he, himself, has benefited from. He has turned his disdain for certain liberal leaning media into a revolution by galvanizing his base and energizing the sentiment that media doesn’t offer valuable context for the people, the industry isn’t good for democracy and essentially, the reporting doesn’t tell the truth. Now he’s speaking from his own personal vantage point and experience. However, what isn’t being said is the fact that he has now opened the door for reevaluation, criticism and scrutiny of the media, by us all. And we should rightfully do so, considering the growing power of our fourth estate.
As a black man living in Trump’s America, who understands the power of media language, context and presentation, President Trump’s view of biased media, is not totally without merit, especially for black people.
There is no group of people that has been scrutinized, vilified and hated more by the media than Black Americans. Let’s look at the history. The first look of Black People in America, on a wide scale, came from the first major Motion Picture “Birth of A Nation” produced by D.W. Griffith in 1915. In that landmark film, black people were seen as beasts of the field that white men in hoods had to tame to save white women and the country. Some may say that was long ago, things have changed. Certainly, if we fast forward to any case involving black men and the violation of white people, especially white women, such as the cases of Emmitt Till and the Central Park 5, the media has found black men guilty in the court of public opinion, in spite of the truth, continuing the narrative of Birth of A Nation to justify the beating, imprisonment and killing of Black men.
Even though there have been some improvements of black representation in TV and movies, the stigma that Black men and women are violent, savage and uncivilized, is still there. These perceptions have been the ongoing storyline for a few seasons of our struggle that has yet to end. And the media has played a huge role in providing a platform, network, online space and stage for that story to be continually told.
If this wasn’t an issue, then the industry that I am a part of would not be called “Black Media.” It would just be media. But it’s not “just media,” because even in the midst of the promise of truthful reporting and the renewed commitment to be a light in the darkness, mainstream, white media has been used to blind society to the humanity of Black men and women. So our stories have to be told by us to be heard.
We have not gotten to a place where we can honestly and justly talk about racism, without white fragility rearing its ugly head and ballpoint pen. White people still work from the belief that when Black people are present, in any space, we’re wrong and out of place. So another 911 call is made. Another hashtag is created. And once again, Black people are back in the media having to justify their presence and humanity.
This is the ongoing vicious cycle that this dysfunctional relationship between the Black community and the press have taken. It’s a cycle that we need to acknowledge, stop and rewrite. In this moment of clarity, if the news outlets can take a stand against the President to defend their values, necessity and nobility of their profession, then another stand can be made for all of us who have been victimized by their words. A stand not based on propaganda, partisan politics, fake news or alternative facts, but a stand rooted in truth.
Farajii Muhammad is a community organizer with Strong City Baltimore and host of “For The Culture” on 88.9 WEAA FM.