Some Repubs claim the media’s stoking

Some Republicans ― including an unnamed White House official ― maintained on Wednesday that Trump was merely joking when he told Comey to lay off of Flynn, who was fired earlier this year over his conversations with Russian officials before the president’s inauguration.

 

The president must not have thought much about the quality of his joke. According to The New York Times, which reviewed portions of Comey’s memo, Trump instructed others present in the February meeting ― including Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions ― to leave the room so he could impart his words to Comey alone.

 

The argument that Trump merely made a casual request to Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn is also suspicious given that Trump later fired Comey.

 

Republicans Insist Donald Trump’s Request To James Comey Wasn’t Serious
Huffington Post

 


Some Repubs claim the media’s stoking
the fire, ’cause, well trump was just joking
in suggesting that Comey
should lay off his homie.
One wonders at what they’re all smoking!

Susan E. Eckenrode, 5/17/17

 

The media should be much nicer

In Friday’s briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied that a tweet from President Trump threatening former FBI director James B. Comey was a threat, insisted that the president maintained a busy schedule and therefore it was hard to be accurate all the time, dodged a question about whether the president tapes White House meetings, boasted about how hard his people work, uttered the mantra “the tweet speaks for itself,” maintained that his shop didn’t, in fact, mislead the public about the rationale for Comey’s firing, even though it clearly did, and lamented how the media is obsessed with small things.

 

Another day at the office, in other words.

 

The Daily Spicer: ‘He’s a nice man’
Eric Wemple, Opinion, The Washington Post

 


 

The media should be much nicer
to me and to you, my dear Spicer.
Because you stayed hidden,
that isn’t forbidden!
Next time, just tell ‘em “Aye aye, sir.”

Eric Linden, 5/11/17

 

Now the Spice man is hiding in bushes

“Whatever Spicer’s fate, the scrambled effort to address Comey’s firing has revealed something significant about this White House, which is that its press secretary is growing increasingly irrelevant.

 

“Already beset by critics who say he has lost his credibility, Spicer may now be losing his authority. His charge is to tell the media, and the public, what the president is thinking. And yet it is becoming increasingly clear that he is either not able to fulfill that task, or choosing not to.”

 

Sean Spicer under fire during crucial week for Trump
CNN Media

 


 

Now the Spice man is hiding in bushes
And he’ll answer all queries with shushes.
At the end of his rope
And unable to cope,
Does he even know where is own tush is?

Lily Beth Baker, 5/12/17

Here, Boy!

“Tracking Spicer’s broadsides against Politico may require deployment of an Erik Wemple Contractor Blog. As we reported earlier this year, Spicer & Co., with the able assistance of the Washington Examiner, perpetrated a gutter-level slime job against Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt, who at the time was reporting a critical story about the press secretary’s management approach. Prior to assuming his current post, Spicer openly hammered the decade-old political website.”

Sean Spicer on Politico reporter: ‘an idiot with no real sources’
The Washington Post

 


Every  POTUS till now’s had a pet
Except this one, they say, and yet
When that terrier named Sean
Starts to bark on the lawn,
I’d say he’s the best First Dog yet!

© 2017 Gary Zmolek


 

Unintended Consequence

“Trump’s media strategy also wiped the campaign almost completely clear of substance—which was a ground on which he didn’t want to fight. Had the Republicans nominated anybody but Trump, issues like climate change, the Afghanistan War, the South China Sea squabble, the drug war, and the future of Medicare and Social Security would have been germane to the discussion. But such is the Trump effect that these issues were barely mentioned in the three presidential debates. The snowdrift of controversy that follows Trump wherever he goes, and which the press must report on, has helped freeze out these topics in favor of discussions of his ‘character.'”

How Trump Took Over the Media By Fighting It
Politico

 


 

Once the media sold out for ratings
And succumbed to the obvious baiting
Of a huckster whose swill
Set him up on the Hill,
They became his prime target for hating.

© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode


 

Presidoesn’t

The president has referred to the media as the “opposition party” to his administration, and he has blamed news organizations for stymieing his agenda. But the language that Mr. Trump deployed on Friday is more typically used by leaders to refer to hostile foreign governments or subversive organizations. It also echoed the language of autocrats who seek to minimize dissent.

Trump Calls the News Media the ‘Enemy of the American People’
New York Times


First he says, “Heed the press? No, we mustn’t!”
Then what he says was clearly wasn’t.
By his penchant to blame
And to wrongly defame
He has earned his new name: Presidoesn’t.

© Gary Zmolek, 2017


 

When you’re charting the course you command


Feldstein thought there was reason for Trump to reconsider his strategy, too. To explain, he cited the old adage :  “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.”

“Ultimately the media does have the last word,” Feldstein said, “including literally writing his obituary when he dies. So there are long-term costs he will face for his approach.”

-Shooting the messenger: how Trump’s media vitriol could ultimately backfire
T
he Guardian

 


 

When you’re charting the course you command
ascertain that its premise will stand
on a solid rock base,
’cause the wind will erase
all the lines that are drawn in the sand.

© Lily Beth Baker, 2017

All the lines that are drawn in the sand,
irregardless how perfectly planned,
will soon disappear
if an ocean of fear
is allowed to submerge our great land.

© Susan E. Eckenrode, 2017

 


 

From the Northland, we watch things unfolding


“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has been getting used to a U.S. leader dramatically unlike the one before him, and unlike the one that Ottawa’s political class expected to win last year.”

What does the Trump era mean for Canada? A guide to what’s happened so far
The Globe and Mail

 


From the Northland, we watch things unfolding
by a president bent on remolding
a country once leader of nations
(who are now reviewing relations…)
and its media – they get a scolding.

© Eric Linden, 2017