Attacking White House 34-year-old Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for bullying the press, Brian Karem with Sentinel Newspapers played victim to what he called unprecedented White House attacks. Karem rejects the idea that the White House press corps has been overly harsh with the Trump administration, despite a May 19 Harvard study showing egregious media bias against 71-year-old President Donald Trump. Karem overreacted to Huckabee’s critique of CNN who retracted June 26 a fake news story fingering White House aide Anthony Marricucci for working for a Russian investment fund. White House’s press corps fashion questions for Huckabee and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer based on single-sourced news items, often without any verification. Whether it’s about a fake news story or failing to report White House news, the media hasn’t been kind to Trump.
“If any one of us doesn’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel and not read us,” Karem said, ignoring the Washington press’s mobbing the White House with concocted news stories. Routinely asking questions about impeachment, the White House press buys lock-stock-and-barrel stories coming out of the New York Times and Washington Post, often without attribution, implicating Trump in Russian collusion and, more recently, obstruction of justice. Instead of buying the unnamed, single-sourced stories, the White House press has convicted Trump and Associates of the spurious allegations of Trump and associates’ alleged connections to the Kremlin. Washington’s press has concocted so many unverified stories about Trump’s Russian connections that the Washington press accepts the wild speculation as indisputable fact.
Karem doesn’t have the slightest awareness of how the Washington press has built an impeachment case against Trump based on wild speculation. Even Hillary-backing emeritus Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz questioned the press’s flimsy case against Trump. “Were in here asking you questions,” said Karem. “You’re here to provide the answers and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, ‘see once again, the president’s right, and everybody else out here is fake media.’ And everybody in this room is trying to do their job,” said Karem. Karem acts like the victim when White House has every right to dispute false stories often circulated by Democratic political operatives. It’s no accident that the press ran with the Russian story, after Hillary accused Trump Oct. 18 at the last debate in Las Vegas of being a “Russian puppet.”
Karem thinks he can digest garbage supplied by the anti-Trump media, ask questions and expect cheerful answers. “I disagree completely,” said Sanders. “I think if anything’s been inflamed, it’s often the dishonesty that takes in the news media. And I think it’s outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to the question,” telling Karem that a line of questions built off fake news stories is unacceptable. Sanders’s defensive style doesn’t help Trump’s message, making the president look like he’s got something to hide. Sarah would be far better off explaining to the public how the Washington Press can’t separate wild speculation from verified journalism, seemingly advancing the Democratic Party’s narrative that Trump’s in bed with Russians. If the press derives their line of questioning from fake news stories pushed by Democratic operatives, it’s no wonder Trump’s communication team has difficulty answering questions.
Both Spicer and Huckabee-Sanders have a tendency to get rattled by the press. Both need to react less defensively, explaining more and complaining less about the fake news dominating today’s headlines. “I think the constant barrage of fake news directed at this president probably that has garnered a lot of frustration,” said Huckabee-Sanders not explaining how the press can’t distinguish political agendas from real news. Trump isn’t just frustrated as Huckabee-Sanders suggests, he’s appalled by the lack of objectivity and professionalism in today’s journalism. Huckabee-Sanders says nothing of how Trump and his associates have been investigated by former FBI Director James Comey without probable cause. Explaining to the media what their colleagues in the press refuse to admit would go a long way in helping the White House press corps understand their anti-Trump bias.
Accusing the White House press of bullying, Karem doesn’t see that he’s been part of the bullying, not the White House. When the Washington press establishment builds a case against the president based on unnamed, single-sources stories, it’s no wonder there’s push back by the White House. Spicer and Huckabee-Sanders have done an amateurish job of the push back, leaving Trump battling the Washington press establishment by himself with tweets. Trump would need to tweet less if his press office did its job competently. Neither Spicer nor Huckabee-Sanders say anything about how Washington’s press is joined at the hip with Democratic Party. They don’t question liberal polls that show Trump with abysmal approval ratings, ignoring the Rasmussen poll showing Trump with a 50% approval rating. Harvard’s study proved who’s the real victim in the press’s anti-Trump bias.
