Quote:
Originally Posted by middle-aged mom
No POTUS in history has been more critical of media than Trump.
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not true..
the POTUS has had an up and down relationship with the press since the beginning
John Adams was so concerned about foreign influence (the French) on our press, he signed into law the 1798 Sedition Act, which made publishing anything critical of the government illegal.
Jefferson criticized what he perceived as the partisan nature of the media (a fair criticism at a time when newspapers printed stories with overt bias and published personal attacks on politicians). Jefferson wrote to a newspaper editor in 1807, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.
Ulysses S. Grant
had the press in mind when he concluded his second inaugural address. Grant said, “Throughout the war, and from my candidacy for my present office in 1868 to the close of the last presidential campaign, I have been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in political history.”
Theodore Roosevelt. He despised the press and called them a bunch of muckrakers for their sensationalism and false reporting. “The liars,” Roosevelt said of the media, “is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity take the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves.”
few people remember is that during World War I, Wilson curtailed the freedom of the press “through a dual strategy of censorship and propaganda.” According to History, Wilson wanted “authority to exercise censorship over the Press to the extent that that censorship. . . is absolutely necessary to the public safety.”
FDR..enjoyed an extended honeymoon with the press his first year as president. Yet, FDR’s legendary charm began wearing thin in 1934. By 1935, things were sliding into open warfare. He repeatedly griped about what he called “poisonous propaganda.” In the president’s mind, any reporter who wasn’t strongly for him was against him. Asking tough questions about his New Deal programs amounted to treason. Roosevelt took those questions as personal attacks and nurtured bitter grudges.
By the time he ran for re-election in 1936, he complained that 85 percent of the press was against him
Barack Obama’s lies and propaganda and attacks on conservative media. Obama made plenty of attacks on the press. “Under his administration, the U.S. government has set a new record for withholdingFreedom of Information Act requests,” which give the press an essential view into the workings of the executive branch. He declared war on leaks even while paying lip service to the protection of whistleblowers. Plus, he held infrequent news conferences, much to the dismay of the media.
Kennedy was friendly to some members of the press, but hostile to others. While his presidency began as a love affair with the press (or rather the press with him), that degenerated over time. This was especially true during the crisis with Cuba in 1961 and 1962. To the dismay of journalists, even friendly ones, Kennedy shut off access to foreign policy information.
Dwight Eisenhower was quite turbulent with the press. He restricted media access and caused many to believe the country was facing a crisis of liberty, and that government secrecy was growing.
Another president who also had his entanglements with the press is, of course, Richard Nixon, who called the press “the elites” and threatened to fire his press secretaryif he didn’t keep media out of the White House. “I want it clearly understood from now on, ever no reporter from the Washington Post is ever to be in the White House. Is that clear?” Nixon said.
the press despised Lyndon B. Johnson. Members of the media accused Johnson of lying and of lacking credibility. Historians say that by 1967, many members of the White House press corps — and of the American media in general — had grown tired of Johnson’s efforts to manipulate and punish them.
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