Press Freedoms Further Erode Under Trump's Autocratic Rule

After eliminating the head of the only independent investigation into his and his team’s connections to the Russians yesterday, Trump and his crony Jeff Sessions are now on the attack against one of last remaining institutions Trump can not control and that is the free press.

Yesterday, a reporter in West Virginia was arrested for asking questions to HHS Secretary Tom Price. Price and the mistress of “alternative facts”, KellyAnn Conway, had just left a private meeting about the opioid crisis and were in a public space in the West Virginia Capitol when a local reporter with the Public News Service West Virginia repeatedly asked Price and Conway whether domestic violence would be considered a pre-existing condition under Trumpcare. According to the reporter, “At some point they decided I was too persistent in trying to ask this question and do my job, so they arrested me.” He was charged with “willful disruption of government processes” and part of the complaint against him included the charge that he was “causing a disturbance by yelling questions.” As the Committee to Protect Journalists notes, this was a clear attack on press freedom.

Then, today, the President met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a supposedly private Oval Office meeting which was not available to the press. The US press that is. TASS, the official news agency of Russia, was included in that meeting and sent out pictures of Trump meeting with not only Lavrov but also with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. More disturbing, the readout from the White House that the press received about that meeting did not include the fact that Kislyak also attending that meeting. I wish you could have seen MSNBC’s Chuck Todd’s jaw hit the floor when he heard this report from Andrea Mitchell.

The message to the US press was loud and clear and that is Trump does not and will not respect their constitutional rights. He has and will continue to treat them with contempt. He and his spokespeople lie to the press all the time. The readouts from Trump’s private calls and meetings with foreign leaders are not only devoid of real content but also sometimes at odds with reports from the foreign leader and the foreign press. Trump has repeatedly attacked the press and banned certain networks from certain press events. Now reporters are being arrested and the US press is banned from an event but the Russian press is invited. It’s all just another part of the burgeoning Trump autocracy.