Trump Dishes Out Media Insults But Can't Take Them
October has brought such unsettling headlines as "Trump's Dangerous Game of 'Beat the Press' " (New York magazine), "Press Corps with Trump Now Needs Police Escort as Crowd Shouts 'Whores!' " (People magazine), "Trump Rally-Goers Dismiss His Vulgarities, Offer Their Own for Clinton, News Media" (Wall Street Journal) and "Frenzied Donald Trump Supporters Are Turning On The Media -- And It's Getting Scary" (Huffington Post).
Yes, it is. Having worked a couple of decades as a street reporter before joining the opinion industry, I sympathize with my fellow journalists who still face abuse on the front lines of the news.
Yet it is a sign of our healthy press environment that there are some conservative media who can offer an alternative view. Pro-Trump Breitbart News headlined, "Triggered: Journalist Snowflakes Scared Trump Supporters Are 'Turning on the Media." Translation: Journalists are overreacting like "snowflakes," a right-wing nickname for liberals who seek safe zones and "trigger warnings" on campus.
Suck it up, says Breitbart. Those hard-working Americans who pivot at The Donald's direction to glare at you in the media pen, some flashing single-finger salutes, and calling names, mean you no harm.
No, most of them are just letting off steam. Besides, any media workers who get into this business to be loved probably won't stick around long.
But I hope when the dust settles on this election and Trump loses, as is widely expected, that he does buy his own TV news channel. Then we will see, after all of the anti-media abuse that he has dished out, how well he takes it.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@tribune.com.)
(c) 2016 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
