Fingering 70-year-old GOP nominee real estate mogul Donald Trump for threatening the First Amendment, the Committee to Protect Journalists called Trump’s critiques “unknown in modern history.” Denouncing Trump, Sandra Mims Rowe, chairwoman of CPJ’s board, ripped Trump for “vilifying” the media. When you consider the overwhelming media bias against Trump in the 2016 campaign, Rowe’s comments are designed to cover-up the media’s unprecedented collusion with Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham’s Clinton’s campaign. Calling Cable News Network [CNN] Clinton’s News Network, prompted CNN CEO Jeff Zucker to admit June 17 that his network has become too “liberal” in the 2016 campaign. Trump’s critique on the media isn’t an attack on the First Amendment, it’s an attack on today’s corrupt journalism.
Trump’s well acquainted with media bias against his candidacy from Day One, when he first appeared Aug. 6, 2015 at a Fox News debate where Megyn Kelly accused him in the first question of misogynism. Trump found out the hard way Sept. 26 in the first facet-to-face debate with Hillary hosted by NBC’s Lester Holt. Holt proceeded to ask Trump questions about his tax returns, the so-called “birther” issue and alleged disparaging comments toward women. Holt avoided asking Hillary anything controversial about her emails, Wall Street speeches or cash donations to the Clinton Foundation while Secretary of State. When Trump faced Hillary again Oct. 9, CNN host Anderson Cooper and ABC’s Martha Raddatz hammered Trump on more of the same. Trump commented it looks like “one-on-three,” with the hosts and Hillary piling on the GOP nominee.
Calling Trump an “unprecedented threat to the rights of journalists” and threat to the First Amendment, Rowe joins the Trump-bashing party, hoping to use her influence to elect Hillary. When Raddatz began yelling at Trump Oct. 9 to “answer the question,” she injected herself, not as a journalist but a biased backer of the Hillary campaign. Now Rowe throws in her two cents, hiding behind her non-profit group to rip Trump. Whatever criticisms Trump has lodged toward the media, it mirrors his belief that the mainstream media has crossed the line backing Hillary’s campaign. Rowe doesn’t mention past subversion by CBS’s Dan Rather in the 2004 election, broadcasting forged copies of former President George W. Bush’s discharge papers with the Texas Air National Guard in 1972. Rather lost his job over that stunt June 19, 2006, forced to retire early in disgrace.
Going after Trump with a non-profit group, Rowe violates IRS rules related to 501 (c) (3) non-profits, using an organization to advance a presidential campaign. “Since the beginning of his candidacy, Trump has insulted and vilified the press and has made his opposition to the media a central piece of his campaign. Trump has routinely labeled the press as “dishonest” and “scum” and singled out individual news organizations and journalist,” insisted Rowe. Rowe mentions nothing of recent WikiLeaks showing that current DNC Chairman Donna Brazile gave Hillary questions before the first debate with Trump. Trump’s beef with the media involves the overwhelming bias against his campaign, fighting not only the Democratic and Republican parties but the media seeking to upend his presidential run. Rowe blames Trump for compromising the First Amendment but says nothing about egregious media bias.
Rowe’s Committee to Protect Journalists says, “a Trump presidency would represent a threat to press freedoms in the United States, but the consequences for the rights of journalists around the world could be far more serious,” said Rowe, not admitting damage done to the First Amendment when journalists don’t report ties to political organizations. Catching Rather red-handed in the Bush-Kerry election was the tip of the iceberg of collusion by the press in political campaigns. When the CEO of CNN calls his own network out for left wing bias, it’s a glaring understatement. “Any failure of the United States to uphold its own standards emboldens dictators and despots to restrict the media in their own countries . . . “ said Rowe, diverting attention away from egregious media bias in the 2016 election. No newsroom can allow collusion with political campaigns.
Letting political campaigns infiltrate newsrooms violates the First Amendment far more than Trump threatening to sue news organizations for publishing false stories. Trump’s criticism of the press stems from unfair reporting, reading, listening and watching negative news stories at more than 10-to-one. If there’s any threat to the First Amendment, it’s about news organizations colluding with a political campaign to give Hillary a leg up heading to Election Day. Whatever the veracity of recent bombshells of Trump’s groping allegations is anyone’s guess. Judging by the media’s concerted attempt to sabotage Trump’s campaign, healthy skepticism looks appropriate. Whether Trump goes down with the ship Nov. 8, he’s not going without a fight. Non-profit groups protecting journalists should also heed the necessity of keeping the newsroom free of contamination from political campaigns.
