Page 29 - aruba-today-20170311

A29
PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 11 March 2017
Media the enemy? Trump sure is an insatiable consumer

JONATHAN LEMIRE And social media has be-
Associated Press come a way for some news
NEW YORK (AP) — Be- sources to gain an audi-
fore most people are out ence with the president.
of bed, Donald Trump is Last Thursday, as questions
watching cable news. swirled around contacts
With Twitter app at the between Attorney General
ready, the man who con- Jeff Sessions and the Rus-
demns the media as “the sian ambassador, a Red-
enemy of the people” dit user posted a picture of
may be the most voracious Russian President Vladimir
consumer of news in mod- Putin and New York Sen.
ern presidential history. Charles Schumer from a
Trump usually rises before 6 2003 photo op. Two hours
a.m. and first watches TV in later, the blog The Gate-
the residence before later way Pundit reprinted the
moving to a small dining photo with the headline
room in the West Wing. A “Where’s the Outrage?”
short time later, he’s given The image careened
a stack of newspapers — across the internet from
including The New York an Infowars editor’s post
Times, The Wall Street Jour- to the Drudge Report to
nal, The Financial Times, Trump’s own Twitter ac-
The Washington Post and, count as he delivered that
long his favorite, The New outrage, demanding an in-
York Post — as well as pile vestigation into Schumer’s
of printed articles from oth- alleged ties to Putin.
er sources including con- That wasn’t the only time
servative online outlets like last week when Trump put
Breitbart News. the White House stamp on
The TVs stay on all day. The President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in a theory that originated on
president often checks in Washington, Thursday, March 9, 2017 the edges of the conserva-
at lunch and again in the Associated Press tive movement. Radio host
evening, when he retires to news.” Though he used to ferred morning show, “Fox es, including White House Mark Levin voiced without
the residence, cellphone in watch “Morning Joe,” a & Friends.” Press Secretary Sean Spic- evidence the idea that
hand. Trump aide said the presi- MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, er’s daily briefing. Aides Obama had wiretapped
It is a central paradox of dent has grown frustrated a frequent Trump critic, have been known to shape Trump Tower. That ac-
the Trump presidency. with his coverage on the told The Associated Press their public comments to cusation was picked up
Despite his fervent media MSNBC program and has that she finds it “unsettling” please the president or try the next day by Breitbart
criticism, Trump is a faith- largely stopped. that Trump “may be get- to influence him. News, the site formerly run
ful newspaper reader who For Trump, watching cable ting most of his understand- Trump’s consumption of by Trump’s current chief
enjoys jousting with report- is often an interactive ex- ing of the world based cable news differs con- strategist Steve Bannon.
ers, an avid cable TV news perience. More than dozen on whatever he stumbles siderably from previous An aide placed that piece
viewer who frequently live- times since his election, he upon on cable.” commanders in chief, who in Trump’s daily reading
tweets what he’s watch- has tweeted about what While pleased that Trump is have at least claimed to pile, said a White House of-
ing, and a reader of web- he saw on TV just minutes following the media, Mad- be disconnected from the ficial, who like other aides
sites that have been illumi- before. dow noted that “the White cable chatter. Jay Carney, would not be named dis-
nated by his presidential On Nov. 29, he posted House is designed as an in- White House press secre- cussing the president’s
spotlight, showcasing the about instituting potentially strument to feed the presi- tary under Barack Obama, private routine. Fueled by
at-times conspiratorial cor- unconstitutional penalties dent of the United States has claimed that Obama that report on Saturday,
ners of the internet. for burning the American expertly curated and high- “doesn’t watch cable Trump unleashed a series
No recent president has flag 30 minutes after Fox ran ly selective, well-vetted in- news,” though that did not of jaw-dropping tweets
been so public about his a segment on the subject. formation from every cor- keep the former president that accused his prede-
interest in his media cov- On Jan. 24, he threatened ner of the world.” from criticizing the medium. cessor of spying on him.
erage, nor seemed so will- to “send in the Feds!” to Others note the president is Where Trump differs most “It’s not the normal Belt-
ing to mobilize the powers Chicago a short time after there may be some smart from his presidential pre- way echo chamber. This
of the federal government watching a CNN segment politics behind Trump’s me- decessors is his reliance is a very different echo
based on a media report on violence in the city. On dia diet. on getting news online — chamber: Something will
that he has just read, heard Feb. 6, after CNN reported He “advertised getting his even though he rarely uses bounce from cable to the
or watched. about a “Saturday Night news the same way his a computer and prefers internet to Trump,” said
In fact, the power of Live” skit on the increasing supporters do, which helps aides to print out articles for Berkovitz, the communica-
Trump’s media diet is so power of the president’s make a connection,” said him to read. tions professor.
potent that White House advisers, Trump just 11 Tobe Berkovitz, a communi- What he was seeing on Twit- The president’s clip file is
staffers have, to varying minutes later tweeted, “I cations professor at Boston ter and conservative web- assembled by junior aides,
degrees of success, tried to call my own shots, largely University. sites like the Drudge Report though senior staffers oc-
limit his television watching based on an accumula- The president’s advisers try and the conspiracy-laden casionally slip in an article
and control some of what tion of data, and everyone to curb his cable consump- Infowars helped forge his they want him to see. Of-
he reads. knows it!” tion during the workday. political persona — and his ten he’ll sit with staff and
The president’s cable TV On Tuesday, Trump tweet- But there are no limits when public misinformation cam- use a Sharpie marker to
menu fluctuates. Fox News ed five different times he returns to the residence. paign questioning whether scrawl instructions — or
is a constant, and he also about the news of the day He also avidly watches his Obama was born in the complaints to push back
frequently watches CNN being discussed on his pre- own staff’s TV performanc- United States. on — on the pages.q
despite deriding it as “fake