Stop the Press

Trump banned CNN, MS Now (formerly MSNBC), and Politico from the White House press corps.

Apparently, they called the Great Lake next to upstate New York Lake Ontario.

Trump defended the expulsion by saying that these news media outlets on the basis of the deceptive and negative coverage of his regime.  Well, I guess that makes sense, at least as far as deception goes, because of all that sanewashing the mainstream media outlets do, but how is sanewashed reporting on Trump "negative?"  Well, it is a negative development, to be sure, but not in the way Trump would frame it.

One CNN reporter who isn't sugar-coating coverage of Trump is Kaitlan Collins, who is known for asking Trump questions as sharp as the tip of her nose.  Indeed, Collins may be the primary reason that CNN has been banned.  She does her job well - too well, perhaps, now that the deal for the Ellison family to buy CNN's parent company is going through, a deal enabled and facilitates by . . . Gavin Newsom?  Alas, this is so.  Expect Collins to be fired once Bari Weiss takes over the CNN channel - and then expect her to start her own channel on YouTube.

And expect Newsom not to be considered a strong contender for the 2028 presidential campaign.

Anyway, the three media outlets, CNN MS Now and Politico (Politico? A Republican-friendly publication that tries to go straight down the middle?) sued, and the rest of the mainstream media outlets - even Fox News! - are showing solidarity with them by boycotting the White House press pool.  So when Trump appears at an event, it doesn't get covered - or it does get covered by NewsMax or OAN and there's no sound because they're too small to provide sound themselves.  A federal judge just ruled in favor of the press outlets banned, and they've been allowed back in the White House, but you can bet that Trump is finding a way to boot them out again. For one thing, he's vowed to defy the ruling, and he may yet do that.  Go ahead, Trump - that's just one more thing you'll be indicted for when you're finally out of office. 

I'm glad the mainstream media are finally waking up.  But it may be too late.  As with MAGA voters who feel conned and duped by Trump now that there own situations suck, the epiphany the press just had could be the equivalent of the moment in Shakespeare's King Lear where the Earl of Gloucester realizes too late - just before his eyes get put out - that he trusted the wrong son.