Terrified of Irrelevancy, the Media Threatens Republicans Who Ignore Them

It seems that the Republican Party is learning from Donald Trump’s mistakes as President.

This lesson is simple: Don’t play by the media’s rules. Trump enjoyed a successful presidency in many aspects. It’s not a game you’ll ever win, and Trump managed to have a largely successful presidency (in terms of many of its policies) being unencumbered by the whims of the media as other presidents have been in the past.

It is not common knowledge that Republican politicians attempt to influence their statements and policies to reflect the opinions or views of the media. Many Republicans believe that the media is a powerful tool to get their message across.

But, it’s not always possible to do this according to media terms. Journalists have become more hostile to Republicans and are joining Democrats’ talk about the GOP is all in on extremism and pushing Republicans as supporters of insurrection etc. Nine out of ten times, the media are complicit in crafting the Democratic narrative.

This week, we saw many stories about Republicans closing down the media. One Republican advisor said straight up that they couldn’t see the point.

A Republican presidential candidate’s adviser said that he didn’t understand the point of the request and asked for anonymity to discuss media strategy. It used to be you believed you could get fair deals. But, every outlet and reporter is now seeking resistance.

The problem with this piece is that the writer justifies his advice in the next paragraph.

Another theory is that Republicans don’t really have much to offer. This isn’t always a satisfactory answer.

The Washington Post and Vanity Fair were among those who lamented Tuesday’s GOP decision to shut down the press.

From The Post:

DeSantis stated to the more than 1000 conservatives who paid $100 each for the summit: “We in Florida will not allow legacy media outlets to be involved in the primary.”

A campaign spokesperson followed up those remarks with a tweet aimed at “fake journalists”, a photo of DeSantis onstage.

She asked: “How does the view look from outside security?”

The campaign has committed to the bit.

It’s no wonder Ron DeSantis wouldn’t allow major media outlets into his home. 60 Minutes still stands by the terrible hit it took on DeSantis last year. There are few outlets that have accepted responsibility for his actions. Charlie Crist can speak freely in public.

Here’s a bit from Vanity Fair.

Trump established a media blacklist, breaking all precedents in the 2016 election cycle. BuzzFeed and Politico refused to give press credentials to Trump for his 2016 election cycle.

The future of presidential debates remains to be seen. In April, the Republican National Committee voted to “unanimously” withdraw its membership from the Commission on Presidential Debates. The nonpartisan, nonpartisan organization hosts the debates for over 30 years. In April, the Republican National Committee voted to “unanimously” withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates. Without naming the candidates, she also said that the party would find “newer, better platforms to debate”

This is acceptable. We should block media outlets from speaking at press events and speeches. Normal circumstances would dictate that media outlets should not be acting as activists or attacking the other side. However, some journalists at “blacklisted” outlets can be excellent journalists but it is shame to see them mixed up with the entire organization. The management of these outlets has allowed journalists and anchors to continue their journalism rather than activism for too long.

They will learn a valuable lesson. If they refuse, then a column on Politico becomes threatening.

A politician can ban the press from digging deeper into a story. Patrick Radden Keefe of the New Yorker pointed out that he supports the “write around”, where a reporter denied access to his subject uses emails and oral histories to get material.

A candidate can maintain silence but he cannot stop the flow of information. Weigel stated reporters have the right to interview participants at events they are exempt from or to listen to recordings.

It is important that you acknowledge the sugar rush that comes from telling a New York Times reporter to “Get lost.”

There are many other points, but the writer says this: We can do whatever we need to without your talking to us. We will continue to search for information that you don’t want, but they can keep writing the same garbage as before without talking to Republicans.

The official GOP response to this column should be “Don’t threaten us with a good time.”

If you don’t let us into your press events, we’ll give you bad coverage is one hell of a response to the GOP shutting out the media because they routinely give bad (and dishonest) coverage. It’s almost like they actually want to be shut out so that it gives them license to really embrace their resistance to Literotica.

There is no reason Republicans should read any of these headlines and worry that they’re making a mistake. The media has done a horrible job of being objective in the Trump and post-Trump era (not that they were great at it prior). They should not be rewarded with access to events and their hit jobs made easier. At the very least, make them work harder for it.