The press is the enemy of the people

So nice to have a president who echoes the thoughts of evil despots. NOT!

 

Your post lacks context.

Fact: in the case of Mao, Stalin, Hitler - the Press was turned into the enemy of the people .. and had likely already been turned into the enemy of the people at the time when those folks were making the statements that they did.

Turning the press against the people is the normal course of events that proceeds totalitarianism.

In response to "Any Questions"

The question at hand is whether or not the Press in the USA is the enemy of the people at this point in time.

 

The question is, if you think the press is the enemy of the people, what do intend to do about it.

The three despots listed all proposed that the press be shut down and future news would be reported by state run and approved media.
Has Trump agreed with them on that position? He has mentioned it.
Is he trying to censor the media? He has proposed law suits to silence their voice.

So is Trump a tyrant equaling those others listed? No.
Is he envious of their control? Seems to lean that way.
Are we lucky the First Amendment keeps him under control? Damn straight.

 

How about this for context...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/03/trump-enemy-of-the-people-meaning-history

Donald Trump’s repeated use of the phrase “enemies of the people” in his attacks on the media has stoked anger and fear not only because of general concerns that he is demonising a pillar of American democracy, but because of its echoes of totaliariansim.

The phrase has old roots, even appearing in a Shakespeare play, but it became well known in the 20th century when it was adopted by dictators from Stalin to Mao, and Nazi propagandists, to justify their murderous purges of millions.

Stalin was perhaps most closely associated with the phrase, which successor Nikita Khrushchev specifically denounced in a landmark speech after Stalin’s death, which he used to begin dismantling the dictator’s poisonous legacy.

“Stalin originated the concept ‘enemy of the people’. This term automatically made it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man be proven,” Khrushchev said in his secret address to the Communist party’s inner circle.

“It made possible the use of the cruellest repression, against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations.”

In fact the phrase was first deployed in a modern political sense during the French Revolution, allied with a form of another favourite Trump phrase, “fake news”, according to the New York Times.

Revolutionaries first bandied the term around casually to denounce their enemies, then a law was passed in 1794 explicitly targeting “enemies of the people”, which made crimes including “spreading false news” punishable by death.

Over a century later, Hitler’s propagandist Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis would describe Jews and other groups that his government targeted for detention and murder as “enemies of the people”.

In China, too, Mao Zedong used the term to denounce his enemies, as he crashed through several deadly ideological campaigns, including the “Great Leap Forward” that created a terrible manmade famine, and the Cultural Revolution.

America’s founding fathers considered the press so important to freedom they had fought to win that they put protection for journalists into the constitution, in the famous first amendment.

In using a term embraced by dictators and authoritarian regimes around the world, Trump is showing disturbing contempt for that tradition of treating a vibrant media as a key pillar of democracy.

 

Bubba Clinton complained about Rush Limbaugh. Obama complained about Fox. Trump is not the first.

 

Obama complained about Fox News purposely and knowingly lying about things he did, such as Hannity selectively editing videos of his speaches and lying about what is being said. Like when he edited a video of him giving a speach about how the the Bush adminitration had designed the Bush tax cuts to raise taxes on the middle class in 2010. Hannity edited the speach so that all that the shown was Obama saying that taxes were going to go up in 2010 for the middle class and then claimed that Obama was making the decision himself, when it was actually part already in place before Obama ever took office.

Trump claims that any news media that reports anything bad about him, regardless of the truth of what is reported, should be shut down and lose their broadcast license. He wants to dictate how and when news media is allowed to report on what he and his administration does.

There is a major difference between the two.

Obama also never tried to illegally ban Fox reporters from the white house, or from covering official events. Trump has banned more than one CNN and MSNBC in this way. And it's been proven that none of the reporters did anything illegal to warrant such action, and it was done in retaliation for them reporting accurate and truthfull stories that made Trump look bad.

 

Mah he just tried to throw Rosen in Jail...

 

The media has its own agenda and it does not conform to what Washington, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson had hoped for.

 

Washington, Jefferson, Adams and especially Franklin, wanted a free and uncensored Press. They wanted free speech. It's the first Amendment. They thought of that BEFORE they thought of guns - should tell you what was important to them. Free and uncensored.

 

For cryin' out loud, there's a HUGE difference being understandably critical with the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and calling 'the press the enemy of the people'.

 

Actually none of them other than Trump actually ever said that.

 

Actually most of the founders were against all the amendments.

Franklin especially wanted it because he had a printing business lol.

Most of the founders were our version of corporate America today. It would be like all the states today sending their top CEO's to rewrite our constitution. Instead they decide to scrap the entire thing and make their own version, one in which the majority of them became extremely wealthy afterwards.

Some people believe that the writing of the constitution was the biggest scam ever in the history of humankind.

 

Sorry, but if the Founding Fathers had wanted to set up the ultimate scam, they would have made Washington King of America (some suggested that) and given themselves all royal charters with exclusive business rights. They did not do that - so I'm going to call your post poorly thought out.

 

Oh it isn't my idea, it's just one of them I've read about.

If you look at many of the things going on at that time there were some very odd things afoot.

But you can look that up if you are interested, here is a link for you.

 

Yes, they wanted a free press. I'm not sure they wanted a monolithic press that shades the truth to one side.

 

That is the sad truth.

In an ideal world, a strong and independent media that questions government policy and actions is very much a friend of the people, an ally of the idea of a government of, by and for the people.

Sadly today the mainstream media is but a corporate owned mouthpiece for the status quo and poor government policy. That makes it very much an enemy of the people.

There still are some independent media sources that are helpful to the people.

 

Exactly. Mao, Stalin, Hitler, controlled and owned the press. They never called it the enemy, in fact they demanded their people accept the press as words of fact directly from the government.

So the OP, the cute little visual aid, etc., is an example of Propaganda and is evidence of how the press is the enemy of the people.

 

Hmm, the OP picked an ironic moment in time when more than 2 years of MSM's FakenewsGate, non-stop 24/7 lying to the American people about Trump and the Mueller witch hunt, bogus claims, rumors presented as facts, innuendo and baseless insinuations, distortions, exaggerations, lies by omission have been confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

The MSM is my enemy, I shall not want for more phony balonies to fill their putrid ranks.

 

I don't think journalists are the enemy of the people just some news organizations that represent multinational corporations and not common US citizens. I don't think news "shows" serve much good.

 

I see it slightly differently. I believe the media is an arm of the Democratic Party's left wing. They push the agenda of Pelosi, Sanders, AOC, etc. The msm is fully on board with the effort to radically transform America, moving it as far to the left as possible. They want to wipe out anything associated with traditional America.

 

You understand that the press was under the control of Goebbels. I don't understand why you think it is cute to be so wrong.

 

Bullshit, the media is on both the left and the right. You think Pelosi is a liberal- She is a damn republican more than a liberal. Where is her stance on medicare for all- in intervening in foreign governments and lands. In campaign finance reform, in term limits. Where is the legislation to have Medicare drugs go out to bid?

There are more left leaning than right leaning media to be sure. Damm even the NY times thinks intervening in Ven like they did for Iraq is a good idea. Look if you care to get information from a source that is used to sell soap and tampons fine. But anyone who formulates and opinion on something from watching Fox news or MSM should not be allowed to vote (just kidding! PLEASE)

The news outlets are in Trumps pockets on Venezuela. Like they were in Bush's pocket with Iraq and Oboma in syria and libya. They nationalize multinational corporations. We place sanctions on them because we think multinationals have more right to their oil than they do. These sanctions ruin the economy, we then back up the "white" better off minority who were most affected and now threaten military intervention to save them from the turmoil that the sanctions caused.

They want Obamacare so that the government and people spends more money on healthcare and their advertisers. Medicare for all, please where are the profits in that for them?

 

How did the GOP get so weak and powerless in the MSM?

 

On the American political spectrum, Pelosi and the media are far left. The Obama, Pelosi, Harry Reid, AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Maxine Waters agenda is extreme left compared to that of Reagan, Bush, Trump, McConnell, and Ted Cruz. These groups are polar opposites of each other.

But if you look at them from a Marxist viewpoint, I can see how the two ends of the American political spectrum look relatively similar.