From cartoonist Clay Jones about ‘Trumping the Press’
Just because I don’t draw enough Donald Trump cartoons.
The media tends to stick up for each other. When Obama tried to keep Fox News out of White House press briefings, the other journalists in the White House Press Pool stood up for the Fox News reporters. Say what you will about Fox, but they ARE the media (no matter how much they and their viewers complain about the media).
Tuesday Donald Trump started his Iowa press conference by throwing out Univision’s Jorge Ramos. The second question he received, “Why did you throw out Mr. Ramos?”
I immediately thought “Here we go again” and “I know what the press will be talking about for the next two days…and what I’m going to draw about next.”
Trump claimed he didn’t throw Ramos out, though it was his bodyguard hustling him out the door with his hands on him the entire time. He also claimed he didn’t know Ramos, though he stated “Go back to Univision” as if it’s a town in Mexico (I stole that line from editorial cartoonist Lalo Alcarez). And he’s suing Univision for $5 million.
There’s usually different protocols for different politicians at press conferences. For Trump, he selects who can ask him a question. Before he started his press conference, Ramos was asking questions pretty loudly. At a lot of press conferences, that’s how it’s done. You try to shout out a question louder than other reporters. It’s why everyone covets a front row seat. Ramos wouldn’t stop talking. Eventually Trump let Ramos back in and sparred with him over immigration for about five minutes.
Trump has extremely thin skin. He doesn’t take kindly to being asked a difficult question like “Can you be more specific?” The “I’m rich” and “I’m very successful” responses don’t always satisfy a journalist’s question on something as intricate like “How are you going to build that 1,933 mile wall?” or “How will you go about abolishing the 14th Amendment?” Them be some head scratchers. Trump doesn’t like to think too hard and scratch his head. He might mess up his comb over.
He also doesn’t think it’s fair to ask him “Why do you treat women unfairly by calling them fat pigs?” He’s been going at Fox News’ Megyn Kelly for a few weeks now. He gets angry at Fox and then Roger Ailes calls him and they mend fences and suddenly Kelly is on a surprise vacation. After she returns from vacation, Trump goes off again, says she sucks and he’s doing well in polls. Ailes comes out in defense of Kelly and says Fox is doing well in ratings and they’re “Fair And Balanced” blah blah blah. Rachel Maddow is right. Watching Trump and Fox spar is like trying to choose a favorite between Godzilla and Rodan (or was it Mothra?) You know, I think Trump will win and Fox will cave. I totally expect Megyn Kelly to be on hurricane coverage in the near future.
Trump’s fight with the press goes back even farther. Do you know which media organization was not present at his press conference in Iowa? Only Iowa’s largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register. A few months ago the Register’s editorial page called on Trump to quit his presidential run. Never mind the fact that Trump says Hillary should quit, and Bush should quit, and Rubio should quit, and Paul should quit, etc. The only thing Trump wants to quit is Oreos (he hates anything that’s black and white. Ask Obama). He didn’t take kindly to that and has banned the Register’s reporters from attending his events. Someone has probably attempted to explain to him that a newspaper’s editorial page is separate from it’s news room but that might require a little more depth of understanding than Trump is capable.
My negative cartoon coverage of Trump (and their being shown on CNN) is probably why Trump doesn’t let me hang out with him. He never calls.
http://claytoonz.com/2015/08/26/trumping-the-press/
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