In the midst of several unprecedented moves by the Trump administration, it has been announced that the administration will be choosing a select group of reporters and media outlets to be a part of the presidential press pool. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made this announcement on Feb. 25, much to the shock and dismay of journalists and media organizations.
“For decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces,” Leavitt said. “Not anymore […]. Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team.”
At first listen, Leavitt seems to be a proponent of fair and just media representation. After all, she is advocating for giving more support and opportunities to smaller media outlets. However, a more critical look at this unprecedented announcement reveals the uncomfortable truth that this is yet another move by the Trump administration to present the president in a positive light through misinformation and selective reporting.
This decision appears to be a response to the Associated Press suing three Trump administration officials for restricting their access to presidential events. The Trump administration began blocking the Associated Press after they refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
This reaction from the Trump administration is immature at best and detrimental to freedom of the press at worst. To me, this choice to restrict media coverage of the president is eerily reminiscent of state-controlled media that would be most often found in nations plagued by authoritarian regimes. Yet it is Trump, who has gained power through his anti-establishment populist rhetoric, who is now a proponent of the elite dictating what the people see and hear.
I believe that it is because of his populist rhetoric that he is able to get away with these inherently undemocratic orders. Individuals who only know Trump as somebody with a plan to “drain the swamp” might not be expecting him to be one of the very elites he vows to rid the country of. But a critical eye can see through his populist rhetoric and become aware of the threat he poses to our democracy.
So if Trump and his team have become expert manipulators of the public through their rhetorical strategies, how can the American public possibly stop him? While organizations, such as the non-profit White House Correspondents’ Association in the case of the presidential press pool, are working to address this issue, the rest of us cannot be silent.
Most of us read books like “1984” and “A Brave New World” while we were in high school, but as these books are facing frequent bans and what formerly felt like fiction becomes our reality, we must continue reading and encourage those around us to stay alert for signs of dwindling democracy. We must seek out non-partisan and non-state-controlled media, and we must support local journalism.
An educated and well-read public is the only public that can stop an impending authoritarian regime. We need to take proactive moves to protect education and information access before the Trump administration can ban the teaching of anti-authoritarian literature.
As of now, Trump’s populist promise to ‘drain the swamp’ seems to have been nothing more than a phony tactic used to manipulate undereducated populations into voting for him. The only thing Trump is sending down the drain is democracy.
