Steve Bannon’s role as the Trump administration’s chief strategist now appears to involve his taking on a new duty as attack dog.
His target? The media, which he calls the “opposition party.”
Knock it off, Mr. Strategist. You know nothing of which you speak.
Bannon said the media should be “humiliated” and should just “keep quiet and listen for a while.”
That’s not the way it works, Mr. Strategist.
Here’s the deal. The media are empowered to speak freely and openly. It’s in the Constitution. Take a look at it, Mr. Strategist. It’s easy to find … right there in the very First Amendment.
Thus, the media have the protection to blab all they want about whatever floats their boat. If they believe the president is mistaken on a policy matter, it becomes the media’s job to comment and to offer a different perspective.
Just maybe, Mr. Strategist, y’all ought to hear what the media have to say, take a moment and listen to what much of the rest of the country is saying as well about your boss’s ideas.
Building the wall and making Mexico pay for it? Banning all refugees from entering the United States, if only temporarily? Rolling back trade policies? Repealing the Affordable Care Act with nothing in the wings to replace it?
Some of us out here, Mr. Strategist, think some of Donald Trump’s ideas are flat wrong. We rely on the media to speak out for us. And, oh yes, some of us have our own vehicles with which to speak. Yours truly is using one of them right now — at this very moment — to do just that.
The media aren’t the “opposition party,” Mr. Strategist. The media simply are doing their job, just as you are doing your job.