Donald Trump and the Press - 3rd week slides. John Palen

Transcription

1 Donald Trump and the Press - 3rd week slides John Palen

2 State of the Union Next-day headlines and leads on State-of-the-Union Address New York Times This Is Our New American Moment : Trump Tries to Move Past Tumult in State of the Union Speech Addressing a deeply divided Congress and nation, President Trump called for bipartisan efforts on issues like infrastructure and immigration. Amid some jeers, he laid out a four-pillar immigration plan, one of the major debates that loomed over his first year in office.

3 State of the Union Washington Post Trump s call for unity slams into reality of a divided Washington: President outlined ambitious agenda for second year in office President Trump s call for lawmakers to come together ran headlong into the divided politics of the moment, as Democrats redoubled criticism of his policies and Republicans acknowledged differences of opinion within their party on immigration.

4 State of the Union Wall Street Journal Trump Tries Taking a New Role: Optimist In the year since President Trump took office, voters have frequently seen the angry Trump, the divisive Trump, and occasionally the reserved Trump. On Tuesday, the president wanted voters to see something different: the optimistic Trump.

5 State of the Union Fox News Glum Democrats scowl, walk out during Trump SOTU call for unity in DC They scowled as President Trump touted soaring jobs numbers, sat stone-faced when he honored veterans, and one even walked out after becoming triggered by a patriotic chant. Democrats at President Trump's first State of the Union, after a year of partisan rancor, showed they were in no mood to accept his call for bipartisanship.

6 State of the Union Huffington Post Extremist Makeover: The Hidden Extremism of Trump s State of the Union President Donald Trump s first State of the Union address was competently delivered and for him relatively inoffensive. The mainstream media and the television pundits will surely deem it to be a presidential moment, representative of yet another pivot to the center. But one speech does not erase Trump s record. The speech s banality its embrace of optimism and platitude is a mask. Do not be fooled: Political extremism, divisive rhetoric and bizarre behavior have characterized the first year of Trump s presidency and underlie many of the harmless-sounding proposals he talked about Tuesday night.

7 State of the Union Breitbart Hate Mob: WashPost Rewrites SOTU Headline after #Resistance Rages on Twitter In apparent effort to appease the left-wing Twitter mob, the far-left Washington Post quickly rewrote its front page State of the Union headline. Not long after the conclusion of President Trump s extremely well-received State of the Union speech, the Post advertised what it promised would be the front page of tomorrow s Washington Post. Just above a photo of Trump giving his speech, the five-point headline read, A call for bipartisanship The Twitter backlash from the anti-trump resistance was bitter and immediate some 3000 replies, almost all of them negative. Obviously, a headline that reported something accurate and positive about the president will always be unacceptable to those on the left. And so, within the hour, the Washington Post seemingly decided to soothe the mob with the news that the front page was updated after the first edition.

8 State of the Union Reuters (German) Trump ruft zur Einheit auf - Bleibt bei Einwanderung hart Washington (Reuters) - US-Präsident Donald Trump hat die Amerikaner in seiner ersten Rede zur Lage der Nation zur Einigkeit aufgefordert.... Bei mehreren Streitpunkten signalisierte der Republikaner allerdings Härte, vor allem beim Thema Einwanderung.

9 Bias - The Campaign News Coverage of the 2016 General Election: How the Press Failed the Voters. By Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School. Content analysis of mainstream print and broadcast news media. Major Finding: Coverage of both candidates was negative, more so for Clinton than Trump. The bias of the press is not that it s liberal or conservative, but that it s negative.

10 Bias - The Campaign The mainstream press highlights what s wrong with politics without also telling us what s right. It s a version of politics that rewards a particular brand of politics. When everything and everybody is portrayed as deeply flawed, there s no sense making distinctions on that score, which works to the advantage of those who are more deeply flawed. Civility and sound proposals are no longer the stuff of headlines, which instead give voice to those who are skilled in the art of destruction. The car wreck that was the 2016 election had many drivers. Journalists were not alone in the car, but their fingerprints were all over the wheel. Thomas Patterson

11 The First 100 Days News Coverage of Donald Trump s First 100 Days. Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School. Content analysis of mainstream print and broadcast news media. Major Findings: Trump dominated network coverage, topic of 41% of all news stories. Republican voices, including Trump, comprised 80% of what newsmakers said about him; Democrats 6%, anti-trump protestors, 2%. Coverage negative across all topics. This includes editorials and columns. Negative means a story in which someone directly criticizes the president. Fox comes closest to positive coverage

12 The First 100 Days Who does the talking when Trump is the story?

13 The First 100 Days Topics of Coverage

14 The First 100 Days

15 The First 100 Days

16 The First 100 Days

17 The First 100 Days

18 The First 100 Days Patterson s Takeaways Negative coverage of Trump is negative, exceedingly so. This is not surprising, given his unusual level of early mis-steps. What s surprising is that he himself was the source of 2/3s of soundbites. Why is coverage so negative when he does most of the talking? He s been on defensive because so much has gone bad: Immigration orders, health care, appointments, etc. Advice to media: Pay more attention to policy and its impact on people.