Following confirmation from The New York Times and CNN regarding the minimal impact of a US military intervention on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expressed dissent. She represents President Trump, who has a notorious antagonistic attitude towards the mainstream media, which has manifested in various forms, including a contentious lawsuit filed against CBS News’ parent company, Paramount. The lawsuit alleges that CBS News manipulated footage of an interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes. Furthermore, President Trump has taken controversial steps such as banning The Associated Press from the Oval Office and advocating for the withdrawal of federal funds allocated to the likes of PBS, NPR, and Voice of America.
Trump’s hostile attitude towards the media doesn’t end with high-profile conflicts. It extends into smaller, everyday interactions through his media team, which is known for exploiting journalists’ content inquiries by launching an array of caustic rebukes and insinuations. Trump’s arsenal of insults deployed against his political opponents and journalists alike includes ‘cuck,’ ‘dumbass,’ ‘dummy,’ and ‘a dick.’ He even escalated this pattern of hostility in a recent post, assailing former FBI Director James Comey as potentially ‘one of the dumbest individuals in human history.’
Leavitt, the Press Secretary, is known for her professional conduct during official briefings, refraining from resorting to such harsh rhetoric. However, her sharp retorts are not unheard of once the cameras are switched off. Reporter Baker, who has experience covering the presidency since the time of Bill Clinton, observed a troubling pattern. The automatic reply to any journalist’s inquiry, Baker notes, often involves discrediting the reporter and disparaging the media organization they represent. This often happens without any pertinent address to the core issue at hand.
Trump’s public antagonism against the mainstream media extends to his pursuit of contentious lawsuits. A primary case circles around one such lawsuit against CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, over the alleged editing of a Kamala Harris 60 Minutes interview. The lawsuit raised numerous eyebrows and further stained the administration’s relationship with the media.
The administration’s aggressive style and resorting to invectives mark a significant diversion from the decorum and calculated formal statements characteristic of previous administrations. It is also a marked deviation from earlier practices within Trump’s term itself. The degradation of tone and language from the administration has since become customary, evidencing a lowering of the bar for acceptable political communication.
A quick digital correspondence exchange with Cheung offered interesting insights into the administration’s communication style shift. According to Cheung, the White House’s unorthodox communication style is a radical departure from the polite, clichéd political rhetoric of the past. He wrote, ‘We speak directly and clearly, without being bound by the obsolete and often insincere political niceties that have traditionally been enshrouded in mediocre responses that do little to serve the American public.’
HuffPost reporter Date deems Cheung’s responses as ‘childish,’ akin to ‘the banter of a fourth-grader on the playground.’ He further added that these insult-driven tactics allow the administration to bypass answering the valid queries posed by journalists. To that end, Date stated, ‘I urged them to dispute any incorrect facts in my reporting, but they have stood silent.’ The administration’s refusal to refute the facts factually and its increasing reliance on attacks and fuddled responses, therefore, only further fuels this pressing issue.