Small touch by small touch, Donald Trump tries to neutralize the media. The decree he signed Thursday against PBS and NBC did not react as much as he should have. His title: End funding by biased media tax payers. The cuts he orders are quite low, around 1% of the total budget for NBC and 15% for PBS. The two stations are largely funded by public donors and patrons. Trump’s attacks on the media should be taken seriously. They are part of a world movement to weaken the media.
1) What are the common media problems?
Reporters Sans Frontières has just published its annual media report worldwide. The verdict is overwhelming. They are doing more and more badly, for three main reasons. First, the GAFAM divert 80% of advertising revenues which previously resulted in the chests of the traditional media. Then, the authoritarian regimes are more and more numerous and they enact increasingly restrictive laws against the media. Finally, oligarchs always buy more media and they censor many subjects.
2) What are the problems relating to the United States?
For years, the United States has slipped into the borderless reporters. They are now at 57e rank on 180 countries. The American media encounter several new problems. Thus, in a dozen states, the law now prohibits journalists from access to public places, in particular to legislative assemblies. They can no longer record the police. In addition, the United States’s media tends to become extremely supporting.
-3) What is the role of Trump?
Trump accentuates the media crisis. For example, he politicized the Federal Communications Commission by favoring the pro-Trump media excessively during press conferences. He also ordered the closure of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia. Over 400 million people worldwide are deprived of quality information. He also dismantled the intelligence services responsible for countering foreign propaganda, notably that of Russia and China.
4) How does Trump consider the media?
Trump’s most pernicious attacks on the media are often in the order of propaganda against journalists. While the latter simply try to report news, they are taken to part by Trump. A few days ago, Trump violently attacked a presenter of Fox News And asked for his dismissal, when he only described the fall in satisfaction rates towards Trump. This type of attitude is then taken up by Trump groups who do not hesitate to attack other journalists for free who, too, do only their work.
5) How is the decree on the media extraordinary?
Never before has an American president would have attacked two media with a decree by describing them as biases. In democracies, the laws do not fall into these kinds of verbal swelling. Nor do they target specific entities at the expense of other entities. This kind of arbitrary discrimination is most often prohibited. But Trump is not careful. He pursues his sickly and narcissistic hatred anyone who dares to criticize him. In doing so, it helps to destroy the democracy of the United States a little more.
