Nixon Dreamed of Breaking the Media. Trump Is Doing It.

from The New York Times I'm Michael. Babar this is the. [Music]. daily as president Trump set out to. systematically eliminate or intimidate. those who stand in his way from. Inspector General to judges to law firms. the news media loomed as one of his most. stubborn obstacles or so it seemed.

today my colleague Jim rudenberg on how. Trump is both circumventing and. undermining the fourth estate in a way. no president before him ever. has it's Tuesday March. [Music]. 25th Jim we are talking today about the. state of the news media under President.

Trump in his second term and when we. brought this subject to you a student of. the media for many I'm not going to say. how many we we don't talk in decades. household many years yep former media. columnist here at the times you're. writing a book about the news. media when we brought this subject to. you you kept pointing us to Richard. Nixon I former President Nixon why well.

in many ways we would not be where we. are in the media sphere were it not for. Richard Nixon and I mean that on a. couple of different levels Nixon was the. first president to really. face the full force of an independent. truly challenging press Corp it started. Johnson was facing some during the. Vietnam war and was very angry about it.

Nixon inherits this news media that's in. its kind of full flower of Independence. direct from our Newsroom in New York in. color this is the CBS Evening News with. Walter KRON kite it is challenging. presidents and government in ways that. weren't non-existent but weren't as. common the big question is whether the. Vietnamese can take over and hold on as. the United States withdraws in his view. the media was hounding him about Vietnam. the bugging of the Democratic Party.

headquarters in Washington's Watergate. Hotel was back in the news today with. the name and then of course we move into. these stories about the Breakin at the. Watergate good evening the country. tonight is in the midst of what may be. the most serious constitutional crisis. in its history the president has fired. special Watergate prosecutor Arch B it's. just ramping up along with Nixon's own. Fury and you know I've spent a lot of. time in the Nixon archives and you see. the memos every day where Nixon's AIDS. are sending him the scripts from the.

Evening News because the Evening News. especially Walter kronite of CBS I mean. they are kind of this Behemoth they are. getting tens of millions of viewers. every night and they are calling it. straight but they are not calling it in. favor of Nixon and so Nixon would get. these scripts and circle them like who's. talking to them and just Kon kite I'm. gonna stop that you know he's just. yelling at his aids to get on top of. this we have to stop do something about. it do something and he.

began a campaign to beat back what he. and his AIDS called these unelected. communication. [Music]. Powers they start politically just going. after the Press no reporter from The. Washington Post is ever to be in the. white house again and no photographer. either no photographer is that clear yes. sir very unusual to this degree from a. White. House they see about using kind of the.

mechanisms of power using for instance. the Federal Communications Commission. which you know is the FCC to punish. stations for their licenses they try to. stop the New York Times from publishing. the secret War history known as the. Pentagon papers they go to court but. they lose when they try to do things at. the FCC they realize it's kind of a. bridge too far they can try to enact. some changes of Regulation but that's. years away they can't really just snap. their fingers and ultimately what Nixon. can't do is stop the railroad train.

coming at his White House of Watergate. and basically it is ultimately the. powerful independent press that gives. him no option but to resign you know the. media is always talking about the. imperial presidency the power of the. imperial presidency I think we ought to. hear a little bit of discussion of the. Imperial media and it's.

power so in the end Richard Nixon's. relationship with the media is he's. furious with it wants to weaken it wants. to stop it can't and the media quite. literally conquers him yeah the press. the power of the press prevails and the. reason I've been thinking about it a lot. lately is that the Echoes to that moment. to that time period in time.

are so loud in these early days of the. new Trump Administration strikingly so. he's going after the press in ways that. are very similar to the ways Nixon did. but he's going farther than Nixon did. already in just the first couple months. at the same time he's completely able to. make an end run around the Press around. its journalistic narratives to this huge. new media sphere that will present the.

world only on the terms that Trump wants. it present it on and that is something. that Nixon could have only dreamed of so. talk to us about the mechanics of how. Trump is doing what Nixon couldn't. realizing Nixon's fantasy of a. relationship with the media starting. with Trump's ability as you just said to. go around this monolithic media.

let's start with like the Baseline he. had even the first time around his first. Administration 201 2020 yeah in so he. already had Fox News which always was. it's very friendly to Republicans. especially its prime time host for Trump. after a bumpy period in the beginning. they really get into his corner and and. that just grows through his. administration they're even more in his. Corner night after night kind of paring. what he's saying and he's kind of. sometimes paring them and there's a real. symbiosis and that for its time was.

really. new but then when he leaves office in. just a short period of time it's only. we're only talking four years right when. Trump is shoed out of Washington. following the violence of January 6 the. media will go on to radically change and. perhaps most importantly it's changed in. a place where so many people now get. their news and that's of course social. media mhm and you know where I'm going. right where I'm heading here now is to. talk talk about X formerly Twitter right.

since 2020 it goes through this enormous. change of course it's come under the. control of Elon Musk and he goes on to. reconfigure it from a place where think. about this Trump couldn't even post by. early 2021 he'd been completely banned. after the Insurrection so now it goes. from that to being a real megaphone for. his message for his supporter's message. it's reaching tens of millions of. monthly active users in the US many more.

globally and by the way it's a place. where information moves algorithmically. to the top of people's feeds and that is. controlled by said Trump fan Elon Musk. right that's huge can I just pause I. think it's worth just describing this if. you open up x what used to be Twitter. under Elon Musk and now in the era of. Donald Trump you. experience something very different than. what you did a couple of years ago I.

mean I could open m and and show you. this but essentially whether it's Elon. Musk himself coming on to praise. president Trump or a bunch of. conservative accounts I had never. followed suddenly are very prominent on. on my feed I used to just follow a bunch. of journalists and use it for. informational purposes but very much it. now feels like a daily megaphone for. Trump and the entire mod movement in in.

my experience same for you mine too and. people have done experiments because you. know these algorithms are sort of still. bafflingly among the least understood. things in American politics right now. but that is my experience that's the. experience of people who try to do kind. of neutral studies and that's a big deal. for Trump because it's as you note these. are trumpian narratives that take over. the platform and support whatever he's. saying that day right and it just seems. important to to note that suddenly one. of the most important widely used social.

media Platforms in the country if not. the world is being managed. for the president empirically it seems. that way musk won't always say that. sometimes he'll deny that often he'll. deny that but it's I mean it's just. universally study after study finds that. and that is directly tied to something. that gets a ton of promotion on x. but it's its own media sphere and it's.

it's emerged in this entirely new way. and that's this world of male-dominated. media largely podcasts often referred to. as the. manosphere which has grown exponentially. since Trump was last in office in number. of shows and popularity and so who are. these people these are like um they're. kind of just Bros the best way to. describe what they do is bro casual. they're reaching this disaffected young.

male audience that's historically been. very hard to reach these guys have are. talking to them and they're talking to. them about video games or silly pranks. or you know mixed martial arts or. professional wrestling if you if you'd. like to yeah we're rolling right now. nice let me I haven't seen one of these. some high quality mics that's pretty. cool we walked in on the other and Trump. starts showing up on these shows my. son's a big fan of you as Baron really. Baron is yeah graduated uh High School.

right that's right he just said he he. knows you very well he said dad he's big. wow you're a big one that's cool that's. good that's that's where it is nowadays. right yeah well it's interesting he. actually credits his son Baron for. showing him that these shows could be a. powerful way to reach what his team. termed low propensity voters I like. doing stuff like this you know I like it. I like. conversation uh I don't seem to get. myself plays. personality it's like perfect for his.

freewheeling style and so he proves to. be quite the match for a lot of these. shows and if you bring down the cost of. energy and if you do some very basic. things uh get rid of the windmills uh. the windmills are that's why I didn't go. to Coachella this year because when you. drive to Palm Springs you got to see all. the windmills and ever since you said. that pisses me off when I see all the. windmills how about the old ones that. are sitting there rusting just kind of. shooting the breeze sometimes about. politics but all sorts of other things. so way you know we know how it's like.

the like a constant weave remember how. he would do the speech he would call it. a weave cuz he would weave all over the. place these things are built for that. dude and you know what he plays golf and. he plays well he uh he hit a perfect. drive with me I said do you play but no. one at that world is more important and. I would say few are more important now. in modern media than the prototypical. star of the manosphere and that is Joe. Rogan I I was 100% a left leaning person. who lived in Los Angeles I never voted.

Republican my whole life I was very. left-leaning but California went nuts. man Joe Rogan has incredible credibility. with this crowd because he was a Bernie. Sanders guy his podcast is really Breezy. well they canceled the Apprentice when. you were running for president correct. no they had Arnold Schwarz and do. it and he has an interview with Trump. during the campaign do you know Elon. Musk yes he endorsed me by the way he. gave me the nicest endorsement to this.

the tough he said the country is going. to fail you should do the same thing Joe. because you cannot be voting for Kamala. kamla you're not a Kamala person I know. you and get this that interview with. Trump has racked up more than 50 million. views on YouTube alone mhm now those. aren't ratings points right we don't 50. million views we don't know how long. those people were there but that is a. lot of people now we're talking like. kronite level person we need like a. realist someone who's like conservative.

fiscally and understands foreign policy. and how to deal with dictators but also. some and he's going basically all in. with Trump actually endorses him yeah. and it just came over the wires that Joe. Rogan just endorsed me is that. good thank you Joe and endorsements only. go so far in this world that's a big. endorsement that's so nice.

right that one went as best we can tell. real far because we see it in the exit. polls and and the post polling analyses. that Trump gained with young voters. overall with young men and that's all. well and good for a campaign but here's. the thing now is that that's all still. here for Trump and so As Trump has set. out to you know reorder government and. really push the limits of any that that.

establishment Washington has certainly. seen he still has this media world to. promote his agenda the Dem leadership or. you know political leadership that they. issue their instructions and their. puppets carry it out yeah and they're. just like pupp for example Elon Musk. who's really the face certainly the. biggest spokesperson for what the. administration is calling the department. of government efficiency he's come on to. Rogan a couple of times recently once.

was during the election but but more. recently after and both interviews were. really striking for what they said about. a Joe Rogan versus a Walter kronite and. certainly kronite successors the evening. news broadcast on the main networks now. because their networks a Walter kronite. they're rooted in news you could like. them or hate them but they try to. traffic in verifiable fact following the. rules of Journalism Rogan doesn't he's.

free to say and go wherever he wants as. his guests can go on and on about things. no matter how far they may be veering. from the verifiable facts for example. they PID themselves enormous sums. through these. nonprofits that's it's so insane that. that's been going on for so long it's a. gigantic scam like one of the biggest. maybe the biggest scam ever and how many. during this last appearance last month. Musk talks with Rogan about the all the.

receipts right all the fraud he's. finding things that the newscasters are. really treating skeptically and finding. a lot of flaws with but Rogan is kind of. just wowed by this like it's feeding. hungry people we're people are going to. starve Elon this is horrible and then. you find out actually it's like $250. million for transgender animal studies. like literally mutilating animals yes. mutilating animals in demented uh.

studies yes uh that are you know it's. just because at face value it all does. sound really crazy everybody should be. celebrating that we've found a way to. cut out fraud and waste yeah if you pay. taxes and you don't like that you have. to pay so much in taxes and so you could. see how a show like his again which has. a ton of credibility with his audience. you should cting can be a really. powerful. for the Trump Administration as it sets.

out on this. aggressive agenda that's being. challenged a lot of cases by journalists. and certainly the courts right just to. say J by my informal math if you take X. and you add in Joe Rogan alone you are. looking at an audience of what 70 80. million yeah easily huge yeah president. has had anything close to this m in.

terms of basically like media. cheerleading and support and on top of. that there are kind of new organisms. coming out of this petre dish right and. there really we've never seen anything. like them H such as well I'm thinking. about in this case Turning Point USA and. turning point action hey everybody today. on the Charley Kirk show 12 years it's. been a 12y year Journey Turning Point. USA and turning point action is stronger.

than. ever and this is an. organization listeners will have. probably heard of him uh people on. social media Charlie Kirk is kind of the. he's the face of this of this of this. organization and this organization think. about it this way take Shan Hannity of. Fox News and then put him on a podcast a. big giant one and then layer on top of. that an actual whole political. organization it's got chapters on more.

than 850 college campuses and there. they're getting people active in. politics for the first time but. conservative politics organizing people. getting people out to vote that's. basically what you have with Turning. Point look when I started covering media. we talked about Fox News and Roger ALS. and people would say derisively Roger. ALS is like a a part of the Republican. party or the chairman of the Republican. Party Charlie Kirk is running his own. political operation and a giant media.

operation and they're all rowing in the. same direction and that direction is. Donald Trump it's Donald. Trump and now that Trump has moved into. governing Kirk can use this sort of get. out the vote Machinery meets media. machine to act as something of a trump. enforcer H just give us an example of. that there's a great example um that was. contained in a really good story about. Charlie Kirk and turning point in the. New York Times magazine by our colleague.

Robert Draper where Robert Draper is. with Charlie Kirk having dinner in PM. peach in December Pete heg has been. nominated as defense secretary right. there's a lot of controversy around him. right accusations of sexual assault and. Joanie Ernst senator from Iowa is on the. fence good Republican but on the fence. and a key vote key vote and Char mutes a. draper at dinner uh you know I think.

we're going to have to consider. primarying some some these Republicans. who don't step in line with the agenda. who sort of take the Trump base for. granted and maybe we'll primary some. people and and among the people he. mentions is Joanie Ernst and Michael. Charlie Kirk proceeds to do just that. the funding is already been put together. donors are calling like crazy primaries. are going to be launched he he says what. he said to Draper he says on his show to.

millions of people you go up against. Pete heg the president. repeatedly then don't be surprised. Joanie Ern all sudden you got a primary. challenge in Iowa but most importantly. her right that we will. potentially recruit someone to run. against you in a Republican primary in. Iowa and make sure that you are no. longer a member of the United States. Senate this will cost you your seat the. the the the old RNC the old way of doing. things is dead okay you think that we at. Turning Point action Turning Point pack.

are just going to kind of rest on our. Laurels no no no. no and circulates that around on X cuz. it always comes back to X One Way or. Another Wow real full circle moment here. that's what I'm talking. about and then gets to announce that he. has word that she will be endorsing heg. Seth right in other words Kirk has AFF. effectuated the change in vote that Heth. needs from joonie Ernst to become the. next Secretary of Defense and what.

you're describing is a very new form of. not just cheerleading and not just. supporting but active media coordination. with enforcement of the president's. agenda exactly so to go back to Nixon. for just a moment what he wanted by your. account most was to. somehow get around journalists like. Walter kronite who he was so frustrated.

with and so frustrated that he couldn't. get around with Trump that Dynamic has. been kind of inverted right Trump. doesn't have to go around the mainstream. media this new trumpa sphere in the. media is already working with him and. for him and in that sense Trump doesn't. even need the mainstream media exactly. that's why you'll hear it come up again. and again again slogans among this.

cohort we are the media that's their. kind of we're it now H bye-bye us us you. you well they didn't mention either of. us by name but as Elon says we are the. media now so it's not just that. commentators are popping up and there's. all these new podcasters but it's normal. people who finally have a voice op and. importantly they can back that claim up. with their numers With Their audience.

again you know apples and oranges in the. metrics but no matter what we see it in. the views millions and millions of. people are inhaling this stuff people. are just hungry for independent voices. who are authentic and honest with their. audiences so this is. really now a completely Uncharted media. environment that we're only beginning to. understand mhm no president has had. anything like this nothing close and yet.

for all of that it's not enough for. Trump cuz he's still really does care. what the mainstream media has to say. what this old media sphere has to say. and he's been making it increasingly. clear he wants it entirely either out of. his way or solely serving his interest. [Music].

we'll be right. [Music]. back Jim as we turn to Trump's efforts. to try to break the back of the. traditional mainstream media I think we. have to ask the very simple question of. why this remains a priority of his if he. has the enormous influence in this new. Trump adjacent media you just described.

he doesn't in some sense need it would. seem the mainstream media the mainstream. media has significant economic problems. we've talked about for years on this. show with you and Trust in the. mainstream media I believe is at an. all-time low so why is Trump so. determined to try to it right. let's just say if you listen to people. around Trump like Elon Musk crippling it. would apparently be like the nice thing.

to do after Trump's election mus for. instance rod on X. literally the Legacy Media must die. that's the real quote wow but there's. one sort of easy answer and that is that. there are still millions of people who. watch network television there are still. big newspapers doing journalism and they. get Scoops about in his administration. that his sort of podcast friendlies.

don't get right they're digging stuff up. some of that is like winding up in these. court cases against his agenda I think. he just sees it as hey they're still. part of the media system for all of the. advantages I have elsewhere this old. part is still out to get me and I got to. cut it off it's in the way just the way. KRON kite was to Nixon exactly so with. that in mind how is the president in. this second run at being president.

attempting to go after and maybe even. destroy the mainstream media well let's. start with the courts he's been bringing. some pretty aggressive lawsuits and. where he has done this in the past now. that he's kind of won the popular vote. he's feeling more powerful we're. watching as he's getting very different. results hm. just explain that well there have been a.

couple that Trump filed from even before. he became president and one that. everybody probably remembers was against. ABC News which settled for $15 million. people saw it as a real capitulation a. real shrinking in the face of a threat. but let's focus on the one he brought. against CBS 60 minutes and cbs's paring. company Paramount this one was based on. his view or this idea that when 60. Minutes interview kamla Harris during.

the campaign it had edited one of her. answers to make her sound better because. in two different places two different. excerpts of this same interview they. show different answers to the same. question which is really just different. parts of a longer answer right and this. was like unheard of to sue over this. idea that somehow CBS was playing games. with the sound to help her in her. campaign I mean it was just like as far. as first amendment lawyers were. concerned brainer that this would not.

stand it was almost like a frivolous. lawsuit mm and what happens well. something shocking happens word gets out. that cbs's parent company Paramount is. preparing to enter talks to settle this. lawsuit and this is happening Just As. Trump is taking office and this has huge. ramifications inside of CBS News at 60. minutes which by the way. we can talk about Network news not being.

what it once was 60 Minutes is still a. giant television show it's like the last. of them and it is a serious journalistic. operation so the idea that the parent. company is going to make them settle. this law suit about an actual answer. that the Democratic nominee and sitting. vice president made I mean that's just. unbelievable to them but there's a. bigger thing at stake involved in this. which is what behind the scenes the. Trump Administration is dangling a.

basically punishment against Paramount. and its primary business interests. because Paramount is trying to affect a. sale to another Media company called Sky. Dan right that deal is going to need. approval from the federal government. including the Federal Communications. Commission which controls station. licenses for CBS News MH and so the fear. is that the FC c will somehow seek to.

block this merger because of Trump's. personal Peak at the network over this. edit of this interview with KL Harris. yeah and so here's Paramount wanting to. just get this out of the way by folding. on this very kind of central question. about freedom of speech and freedom of. the press and sure enough the man who. Trump had just recently appointed as the. chair of the FCC Brendan Carr opens an. investigation based on a complaint that.

the FCC under Biden had just dismissed. and that involves cbs's handling of this. interview edit and Carr will even go on. to say fairly explicitly that approval. of that deal could hinge on what the FCC. finds so now CBS has asked show us your. script show us your raw material and CBS. complies which yet again in journalism. world is seen as this complete caving. right and we should say I think it's. during this process of CBS participating.

in this FCC investigation that we all. finally get a look at the original. transcript and the editing and basically. we all learn. simultaneously that there's nothing to. see here this is very natural editing. process there was no effort to protect K. Harris right it's just how the editing. process works you see it it's kind of. boring right but it shows you can torque. anything into anything and you would the. FCC is expected to kind of know that it. had known that. but here we were right and the reason.

this would seem to matter back to this. question of how is Trump trying to break. the back of the news media is that he. seems to be pretty effectively. transforming the regulatory body that. oversees especially TV news and turning. it into this pretty invasive weapon that. can be wielded against the major news. outlets and presumably have a chilling. effect if you're CBS 60 Minutes or.

anything else inside CBS or if you're. any of the shows at NBC you're thinking. to yourselves we have to be really. careful about how we cover Donald Trump. because if we get crosswise with him. then the FCC might come after us yeah. and it does something that Nixon was. only threatening to do in the Nixon. years they were threatening to bring the. FCC after the biased networks in New. York and La Washington whatever ever. they were threatening FCC power they.

held back from really asserting it and. it's not clear that this will end with. the FCC which is a regulatory body right. a few weeks ago Trump gave a speech at. the Department of Justice well thank you. very. much thank you thank you P where he. essentially argued that he would like to. transform the doj itself into a cudel. against the press and I believe that CNN. and msdnc. who literally write.

97.6% bad about me or political arms of. the Democrat Party and in my opinion. they're really corrupt and they're. illegal he literally said that the press. in reporting some stories he personally. didn't like was probably acting. illegally and it has to stop it has to. be illegal it's influencing judges and. it's in it's really uh changing law law. and it just cannot be legal I don't.

believe it's legal and right and even if. he's only musing at this point this once. again adds to the chilling effect we've. seen in TV news but also I think we. should add in print where we've seen the. owners of the LA Times And The. Washington Post block their editorial. boards from endorsing KLA Harris as both. plan to it's been widely noted in the. case of the Washington Post that its. owner Jeff Bezos has a lot of government.

contracts before Trump and Trump has. threatened his government contracts in. the past so we have a clear sense now of. how Trump is using both the courts and. the power of the federal government. against the media exactly but these. actions he's taking in the courts with. the FCC possibly now doj they take time. and so in the interim he's doing what he. can now to curtail access and punish. outlets for not going along with his.

narrative and I think the best example. of this is what he did against the. Associated Press as you may remember he. has declared that the Gulf of Mexico is. now the Gulf of America the Associated. Press has not updated its style book on. the Gulf of America and the White House. was very angry about this so the. Associated Press was pulled out of the. Press pool excluded basically from.

access to things like a Oval Office. meeting between Trump and the leader of. a foreign country yeah and by the way. that's one thing for us right the New. York Times we write a story a day or how. many stories out of that the. AP is a wire service it goes to. newspapers across the country it feeds. 15,000 other media Outlets a lot of them. who don't can't afford to have the AP is. kind of the eyes and the ears for a lot. of local media around the country than. you you said it better than I was saying. it that's why you're that's the job.

that's that's what you do and this was. again kind of this was unheard of and. again put the Press on notice that now. you need to use the language that the. president wants you to use or you were. going to be punished MH and there's. something else that's going on here. that's very important not to maybe the. average listener until they think about. it but because the press needs to be. independent it has always insisted that. it will control the pool at the White.

House the people covering the White. House determined who each day was going. to be assigned to play this role right. so for the first time in memory the. Trump White House a White House is. saying no we're controlling the pool. we're going to decide who's in the room. and why exactly does that matter well. the whole press pool the whole tradition. looks it's starting to look very. different and what's an example of that. there was a really Stark example of this.

recently well thank you very much it's. an honor to have President zalinski of. Ukraine when President vomir zalinsky of. Ukraine came to the White House to. discuss War and Peace in his country. right how they were going to end this. rank death and destruction in. Ukraine and in this setting one of the. new members of the pool uh gentleman. from right side broadcasting an online. very prot Trump network was given a. question that would not have been a good. situation what was your second question.

my second question for president. zalinski now do you ever why don't you. wear a suit and that question was why. are you president zalinsky dressed like. this in the Oval Office just want to see. if you do own a suit yeah you have. problems I I a lot of Americans have. problems with you not respecting the of. office uh I will wear costume after this. war will finish okay which president. Trump had already made a crack about. that he didn't like it that president. zalinsky was as he often does wearing.

kind of a more of a military field. uniform not a suit a pretty vivid. example of what a new pool looks and. sounds like it it kind of looks like. journalists parroting Trump parting. Trump on a thing that has nothing to do. with the life and death matter at hand. but very much pleases this president who. loved seeing that play out while he's. having these talks but more than that it. was a question that played to president. Trump's end goal that day which was to.

take a newly hard line with Ukraine in a. way that isn't necessarily comfortable. or popular with the American public that. remains to be seen so now you have the. pool kind of echoing the strategy of the. White House I'm sorry that is. fundamentally different than what we. have seen here to for in these major. moments of War and Peace So Jim where do. you think all of this goes from here I. think you have demonstrated very.

powerfully just how radically the media. ecosystem has. changed in between the two Trump. presidencies and how willing he is to. change the government's relationship to. the media based on all your reporting. and your observations here where does. that go well there are two ways to. answer that question on the one hand I. think in terms of the way our government.

works Trump has shown that he. can in ways he didn't quite pull off the. first time around create his own reality. and then move government policy based on. that reality no matter how far away from. actual facts or accuracy it is that he. has this whole other world that will. give him the power to create any. justification to do anything and then.

you know the courts take over whatever. so what the mainstream press does to. fact check hug to facts becomes less and. less powerful and at the same time as he. makes these moves against the networks. against reporters against news. organizations there's no way to argue. that that doesn't further weaken the. press and further a road trust. mhm at the same.

time if they'd already basically killed. journalism disempowered journalism they. wouldn't be bothering with all of. this but if we're being. honest is it the case that the. mainstream media both in terms of. audience and these. attacks appears to be in a losing battle. against this approach to government and. this approach to. Media yeah there's no question if the.

mission of the mainstream media of. basically traditional American. journalism is to keep the in part the. national debate honest to tie it to. facts to inform voters based on what's. happening in Corporal. reality that mission has never seemed. more challenged in our lifetimes than it. does now and I'm not saying by the way. that the Press is always functioning at.

its highest level not at all but I want. to say one thing that's optimistic for. American journalism for the MSM but for. the traditional role the Press has. played yeah I think you're allowed you. are an embodiment of the traditional. media and that is that we didn't talk. about this but there was a point when. Nixon was going after the Press where he. thought he. won because Watergate started breaking a. lot of big stories happened toward the.

end of his reelection. campaign they were even on kronite the. CBS News Nixon was very angry about that. but what happened was Nixon won that. election in a landslide and after that. they said literally to Major people in. the Press we're coming for you now we. are you we do not like how you treated. us you're gonna pay made all kinds of. threats very similar to right now and as. we all know Nixon couldn't outrun the.

facts or the truth and journalism was. Vindicated it's a reminder that we don't. know what's around the corner and we. can't assume that what we're. experiencing in these first few months. the whole country says what we're going. to be experiencing months from now but. there's no question that the. fundamentals are really challenging and. Trump is going to do everything he can. to make them more so over the next four.

[Music]. years well J I really appreciate it. thank you very much thanks for having. me since we spoke with Jim president. Trump's attacks on the traditional media. have only intensified on social media. over the weekend Trump issued highly.

personal attacks against two White House. reporters for the New York Times Maggie. Haberman and Peter Baker as well as. Baker's wife Susan Glasser a writer for. the New Yorker magazine suggesting that. all three of them are biased against. him in response the times defended both. White House reporters and said quote. intimidation tactics against times. reporters or their family members have. never caused us to back down from our.

mission meanwhile Republican allies of. trump in Congress are scheduled to hold. a hearing tomorrow in which they will. make the case that NPR and PBS present. biased and partisan coverage and are no. longer worthy of federal funding the. Republican congresswoman who will. oversee the hearing representative. Marjorie Taylor green said quote I want.

to hear why NPR and PBS think they. should ever again receive a single scent. from the American. [Music]. taxpayer we'll be right. back here's what else you need to know. today the White House has confirmed an. extraordinary breach of National. Security involving top government.

officials including vice president JD. Vance and defense secretary Pete hegf. who discussed plans for military strikes. in a group chat that inadvertently. included a. journalist instead of using highly. secure government channels to discuss. their War plans the officials exchanged. messages over the commercial messaging. app signal and included Jeffrey gold. Berg of the Atlantic Magazine on all.

their. messages and in the most sweeping move. of its kind West Virginia has banned. foods containing most artificial food. dyes and two different preservatives. citing their potential health. risks the action signed into law by the. state's governor on Monday suggests that. states are moving faster than the. federal government to restrict food F. additives a target of the Trump.

administration at least 20 different. states are considering similar. restrictions to West. [Music]. Virginia's today's episode was produced. by Rob zipco and Eric krupky it was. edited by Michael benois and Patricia. willins was fact check by Susan Lee. contains original music by Dan Powell. Marian Lozano and Pat mccusker. and was engineered by Chris Wood our.

theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. lansberg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Michael. Boro see you tomorrow. [Music].