As a former journalist, I appreciate that being in the Oval Office with the current president might be challenging, if not a bit intimidating. But as Mitch has suggested, support each other in the face of the president’s inappropriate and disrespectful personal attacks against any of you. If you don’t call him on it “in the moment,” call him on it in your reports to the public. And don’t allow him to avoid a question by using bully tactics against the journalist asking a legitimate question. Thank you.
Easier said than done, unfortunately. We have seen what happened to decent reporters like Terry Moran, Jim Acosta, Joy Reid, and many others. If the reporters did what you suggested, then they run the risk of their journalism bosses firing them. You MUST include the bosses of these reporters in this blog post. WHO are the bosses - the people who pay the paychecks of these reporters?
Mitch, thank you for your courage and articulate description of the situations that we face in today's reality. When I see reporters not standing up for one another it is very frustrating. It is also very frustrating that Trump is allowed to lie and call you names and nobody holds him accountable seemingly out of fear of not getting to be on the plane or in the oval office or ever allowed to ask questions again. I honestly would much prefer that everybody push the president as hard as possible and if it ends up that there is no more press in the room and the cameras go away then at least maybe all of us will have some peace. It is so frustrating to endure Trump and the rest of his administration cronies attacking members of the press for trying to hold them accountable for the stupid things that they're doing thank you
If any journalists subscribe to "Uncensored Objection. Cross Examining Political B.S.", please share with your colleagues and start doing your job. Ask the hard questions. Follow harder. No deflections allowed. Call out the lies on the fly. It may cost you your seat in the room, but you can leave with your head held high. And one more time the administration is put on notice and made to squirm. What is happening cannot be allowed to stand. Be the quality reporter you are each capable of being.
Journalists were people we trusted to tell the truth, without emotion. (I am almost 68., for context) We never knew their party affiliation, their beliefs, their religion. We trusted journalists to tell the truth, without emotion, without editorializing (unless they told us that they were editorializing). Today, I do not trust much from journalists, it is just exhausting to hear the “breaking news” non-stop. As I lump all into a group for this post (apologies for that), it appears journalists now “play” for the ratings, for their jobs, for fame, and likely for money. What has happened in the past decade I lay blame a lot on MSM. They normalized the abnormal, they did not relentlessly pursue the obvious failures of this administration to abide by their oaths and the rules of each person’s office held, to stay true to rule of law and to work for their constituents. We the people no longer trust journalists, but the reason is a result of your own actions. Is this the America you want? Or have you also put yourself above ethics, humanity, and our country? Freedom of the press is critical for a functioning democracy. A state media destroys it. When you were 18, which direction, when you chose journalism as your career, did you want to go?
Dear journalists, we the people need you to stand up and be courageous. People’s hearts and minds are influenced by what we see and read. Your job is to ferret out the facts and hold liars accountable. Uphold the 1st Amendment! We are counting on you. I know your worried about your jobs and maybe even your safety, but the 4th Estate must stay strong. Thank you 💙
First, ask questions the public wants to know or needs to be educated on; doggedly pursue the truth; in short, for our sake never waste a question. ( We know you work hard on this).
Second, dont be cowed; ask a follow up question with or without explicit permission (and then another, even if you are being talked over/ bullied). But always in a civil way- dont get dragged down to their nastiness. Your job is to get the truth out, so we the public can see it for ourselves. So for cryin' out loud take the high road but challenge the nonresponsive nonsense, dont just be cowed.
Third, for this to work, you all have got to change from old school and have eachothers' back. If a good inquiry is derailed by Trump or spokesperson blather, pick up the ball and pursue that good inquiry... and at the least to prove the legitimacy of the Q and the dodgy- ness of the responses. Realize you can act as a team and each get a "win" for your own employer ( hence your job/ reputation) by together pursuing not a sound bite but TRUTH. Decide now not to fall prey to the divide- and- conquer dance.
Fourth- Again, ee feel your job is to reveal truth to us, the public. The facts, and their disconnect from the official narrative, need to be revealed and I believe they will out if you choose the above. Thanks for listening.
America's Founding Fathers viewed freedom of the press as a cornerstone of liberty, essential for an informed citizenry to hold government accountable, with figures like Madison calling it a "bulwark of liberty" and Jefferson famously preferring newspapers over government if forced to choose. They enshrined this in the First Amendment, understanding it as vital for public debate and in preventing tyranny. Trump uses The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels' principles of discrediting the media to control the narrative and to "blame others of that which you are guilty yourself!" As well as blame immigrants for the troubles of the nation. He claims he, and only he, can fix the very things he himself broke.
Some journalists go into war-ridden areas to get the story; they are under fire, with their lives at stake. It is no different; you must be willing to take on the expected barrage of insults and endless tirade of lies that Trump will most likely hit you with when you ask the hard questions. He should have never even made it to the oval office. I'd have asked "When you say Make America Great Again, what exact time period are we comparing as the GREAT Time we are trying to get back to? Because anything beyond the 1970s, and you have major civil rights issues."
I'd also point out that for all his claims and all his promises, all I have seen is that he Made America Plagued Again with more racism, sexism, division, bully tactics, media suppression, lies, trade wars, inflation, economic downturn, and an actual plague. A plague that perhaps had he not made an enemy of China through his trade wars we might have helped to stop. Had we been good neighbors and helped China we could have stopped the Coronavirus from sperading wtoo quickly. before it became a worldwide pandemic. Perhaps had he not diverted funding away from disease control to fund his wall project we could have avoided the pandemic shutdowns of 2019 and 2020.
I'd also point out eerie parallels between him, Hitler, and Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars Franchise. His rise to power and attempts to seize even more power are on par with the way Palpatine and Hitler rose to power. And how he's creating the very emergencies that he says he needs more military power to quell. It is his own words and rhetoric that are causing such a huge division between Americans, and that his own words have undermined our election process, the very democracy we all hold so dear, and have caused a huge increase in political violence and outrage.
I am 83 years old. I spent 12 years as a CIA field agent and technical security officer. I was hired by the CIA out of college in 1964. The Vietnam War was going strong. I put my life on the line for our country for more than a decade. I earned my spurs. I still suffer PTSD as a result. James W. McCord Jr. was my CIA division chief and life long friend. Jim blew the whistle on Nixon and Watergate.
I have been saying as much for so long. Maybe I am spoiled because I grew up with Seymour Hersh's expose of the My Lai massacre and cover-up, Daniel Ellsberg's leaking of the Pentagon Papers, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's great investigative journalism leading to the revelations about the Watergate break-in. Where the hell is this kind of reporting today? In all of the ultra-brief mentions of the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean as possible war crimes, I heard one passing mention of My Lai and Abu Ghraib. It seems like everyone in this Internet Age, including reporters, have a 10-second attention span. Nobody is pointing out similarities between today's government abuses and past atrocities. When the current administration fails to answer a reporter's question, the reporter gives up almost immediately. Journalists, *please* focus and stay on target to hold these politicians accountable! You are the Fourth Estate! We need you!
We need journalists who will hold the regime's feet to the fire. We need to have the lies, manipulation, propaganda and the hypocrisy called out. Every day.
When Trump or KKKaroline spews b.s., it needs to be pointed out. When they attack DEI for example, and preach about "merit", a good response would be...
"Speaking of "merit," almost everyone in this administration is unqualified for their position and are in fact incompetent and or inept. And they endanger Americans, tarnish the office they hold, while embarrassing the nation in the process.
Pete Kegsbreath as Sec Def is an incompetent weekend Fox "News" host, who has endangerad our military personnel with his fumbling ineptitude and disrespected our military with his "warrior ethos" nonsense. He is a beta all day.
Kash Patel is a podcast host and a bafoon, who has botched his role as FBI director with his pettiness, incompetence, fealty to Trump and galavanting on the taxpayer's dollar.
Kristi Noam is an icy, corrupt extremist with zero empathy or competence to lead DHS, and her negligence to activate FEMA aid cost lives during the Texas floods.
Stephen miller is a fascist Nazi wannabe, who echoes Joseph Goebbles, with his plagiarism of his "Storm is Coming" speech at the Kirk memorial Nazi rally. And every day, Miller rants on camera like he's in the middle of having a stroke, spewing hatred, division, lies and fascist trash."
You get the idea.
We can't keep allowing these people to control the narrative and bend truth to meet their fascist agenda.
And speaking of fascism, it must be continually called out as such. No more prancing around it with choice words and phrases like, "Trump pushes the limits of presidential power" or "Trump defies court orders, in disagreement with judge's ruling."
Pivot instead to...
Trump is a fascist, who is trying to be a dictator.
Trump defies court orders because he wants to be a king.
Obviously you can express these things more delicately, but we MUST PUSH BACK ALWAYS with deliberate language that leaves no wiggle room. Democracy is on the line and our reporters need to treat every day as such.
And can SOMEONE PLEASE ask to get some close-up shots of Trump's ear. We need to see the scar because his miraculous recovery after the "shooting" is a marvel of science.
Also, how about calling out Trump's capitulation to Putin? If there was no "collusion" in 2016 (or since), why has every action of this administration only benefited Russia? Sure seems like a massive coincidence to me.
And while we're at it...
Ask: "Mr. President, if you aren't guilty of anything, why are you so desperate to not release the Epstein files? Why are you so openly hostile to anyone who presses you on it."
Lastly, can you all PLEASE stand up for your women colleagues when Trump berates them? He has zero right to do that and needs to be publicly held accountable.
It is difficult and I do not envy journalists right now, especially those in the W.H. press pool, but this is THE JOB and what the American People expect in this dire time. We appreciate every brave journalist, who puts truth ahead of everything and holds power accountable.
I’d like more context included in reporting, including sentences like, “in response to questioning, President Trump repeated a lie he’s used more than 150 times (fill in the number).” Do not repeat his quote, that only gives the lie more power. Quote him when he says something new and label it as a lie, his opinion, or whatever it happens to be, especially if it happens to be true.
Reporters should first fact check questions they are going to ask and then when they get bullshit answers back, as always, they must confront this misinformation on the spot not giving in to the abuse they are sure to receive. They must support each other on the spot not accepting abuse individually without the others condemnation of such abuse. Stated clearly the American People demand real information to these important questions.
The whole situation is Trump thinks he's a dictator and is acting as invincible. Trump thinks he can just bully his way as a ruler and get away with it. Until you prove him wrong this will continue and things will get worse. He should never have been able to get this far as a Facist Dictator. We should have shut him down a long time ago but here we are and now we must fight for our country for democracy and for our sanity.
DONT GIVE IN TO THIS PIECE OF SHIT, HOLD HIS FEET TO THE FIRE!!?
As a former journalist, I appreciate that being in the Oval Office with the current president might be challenging, if not a bit intimidating. But as Mitch has suggested, support each other in the face of the president’s inappropriate and disrespectful personal attacks against any of you. If you don’t call him on it “in the moment,” call him on it in your reports to the public. And don’t allow him to avoid a question by using bully tactics against the journalist asking a legitimate question. Thank you.
As professionals who are "in the room where it happens", you have an opportunity most of us won't ever get. Don't waste it.
Easier said than done, unfortunately. We have seen what happened to decent reporters like Terry Moran, Jim Acosta, Joy Reid, and many others. If the reporters did what you suggested, then they run the risk of their journalism bosses firing them. You MUST include the bosses of these reporters in this blog post. WHO are the bosses - the people who pay the paychecks of these reporters?
Mitch, thank you for your courage and articulate description of the situations that we face in today's reality. When I see reporters not standing up for one another it is very frustrating. It is also very frustrating that Trump is allowed to lie and call you names and nobody holds him accountable seemingly out of fear of not getting to be on the plane or in the oval office or ever allowed to ask questions again. I honestly would much prefer that everybody push the president as hard as possible and if it ends up that there is no more press in the room and the cameras go away then at least maybe all of us will have some peace. It is so frustrating to endure Trump and the rest of his administration cronies attacking members of the press for trying to hold them accountable for the stupid things that they're doing thank you
If any journalists subscribe to "Uncensored Objection. Cross Examining Political B.S.", please share with your colleagues and start doing your job. Ask the hard questions. Follow harder. No deflections allowed. Call out the lies on the fly. It may cost you your seat in the room, but you can leave with your head held high. And one more time the administration is put on notice and made to squirm. What is happening cannot be allowed to stand. Be the quality reporter you are each capable of being.
Journalists were people we trusted to tell the truth, without emotion. (I am almost 68., for context) We never knew their party affiliation, their beliefs, their religion. We trusted journalists to tell the truth, without emotion, without editorializing (unless they told us that they were editorializing). Today, I do not trust much from journalists, it is just exhausting to hear the “breaking news” non-stop. As I lump all into a group for this post (apologies for that), it appears journalists now “play” for the ratings, for their jobs, for fame, and likely for money. What has happened in the past decade I lay blame a lot on MSM. They normalized the abnormal, they did not relentlessly pursue the obvious failures of this administration to abide by their oaths and the rules of each person’s office held, to stay true to rule of law and to work for their constituents. We the people no longer trust journalists, but the reason is a result of your own actions. Is this the America you want? Or have you also put yourself above ethics, humanity, and our country? Freedom of the press is critical for a functioning democracy. A state media destroys it. When you were 18, which direction, when you chose journalism as your career, did you want to go?
Dear journalists, we the people need you to stand up and be courageous. People’s hearts and minds are influenced by what we see and read. Your job is to ferret out the facts and hold liars accountable. Uphold the 1st Amendment! We are counting on you. I know your worried about your jobs and maybe even your safety, but the 4th Estate must stay strong. Thank you 💙
First, ask questions the public wants to know or needs to be educated on; doggedly pursue the truth; in short, for our sake never waste a question. ( We know you work hard on this).
Second, dont be cowed; ask a follow up question with or without explicit permission (and then another, even if you are being talked over/ bullied). But always in a civil way- dont get dragged down to their nastiness. Your job is to get the truth out, so we the public can see it for ourselves. So for cryin' out loud take the high road but challenge the nonresponsive nonsense, dont just be cowed.
Third, for this to work, you all have got to change from old school and have eachothers' back. If a good inquiry is derailed by Trump or spokesperson blather, pick up the ball and pursue that good inquiry... and at the least to prove the legitimacy of the Q and the dodgy- ness of the responses. Realize you can act as a team and each get a "win" for your own employer ( hence your job/ reputation) by together pursuing not a sound bite but TRUTH. Decide now not to fall prey to the divide- and- conquer dance.
Fourth- Again, ee feel your job is to reveal truth to us, the public. The facts, and their disconnect from the official narrative, need to be revealed and I believe they will out if you choose the above. Thanks for listening.
America's Founding Fathers viewed freedom of the press as a cornerstone of liberty, essential for an informed citizenry to hold government accountable, with figures like Madison calling it a "bulwark of liberty" and Jefferson famously preferring newspapers over government if forced to choose. They enshrined this in the First Amendment, understanding it as vital for public debate and in preventing tyranny. Trump uses The Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels' principles of discrediting the media to control the narrative and to "blame others of that which you are guilty yourself!" As well as blame immigrants for the troubles of the nation. He claims he, and only he, can fix the very things he himself broke.
Some journalists go into war-ridden areas to get the story; they are under fire, with their lives at stake. It is no different; you must be willing to take on the expected barrage of insults and endless tirade of lies that Trump will most likely hit you with when you ask the hard questions. He should have never even made it to the oval office. I'd have asked "When you say Make America Great Again, what exact time period are we comparing as the GREAT Time we are trying to get back to? Because anything beyond the 1970s, and you have major civil rights issues."
I'd also point out that for all his claims and all his promises, all I have seen is that he Made America Plagued Again with more racism, sexism, division, bully tactics, media suppression, lies, trade wars, inflation, economic downturn, and an actual plague. A plague that perhaps had he not made an enemy of China through his trade wars we might have helped to stop. Had we been good neighbors and helped China we could have stopped the Coronavirus from sperading wtoo quickly. before it became a worldwide pandemic. Perhaps had he not diverted funding away from disease control to fund his wall project we could have avoided the pandemic shutdowns of 2019 and 2020.
I'd also point out eerie parallels between him, Hitler, and Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars Franchise. His rise to power and attempts to seize even more power are on par with the way Palpatine and Hitler rose to power. And how he's creating the very emergencies that he says he needs more military power to quell. It is his own words and rhetoric that are causing such a huge division between Americans, and that his own words have undermined our election process, the very democracy we all hold so dear, and have caused a huge increase in political violence and outrage.
I am 83 years old. I spent 12 years as a CIA field agent and technical security officer. I was hired by the CIA out of college in 1964. The Vietnam War was going strong. I put my life on the line for our country for more than a decade. I earned my spurs. I still suffer PTSD as a result. James W. McCord Jr. was my CIA division chief and life long friend. Jim blew the whistle on Nixon and Watergate.
Samuel O. Sedivy (My CIA pseudonym)
I have been saying as much for so long. Maybe I am spoiled because I grew up with Seymour Hersh's expose of the My Lai massacre and cover-up, Daniel Ellsberg's leaking of the Pentagon Papers, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's great investigative journalism leading to the revelations about the Watergate break-in. Where the hell is this kind of reporting today? In all of the ultra-brief mentions of the bombing of small boats in the Caribbean as possible war crimes, I heard one passing mention of My Lai and Abu Ghraib. It seems like everyone in this Internet Age, including reporters, have a 10-second attention span. Nobody is pointing out similarities between today's government abuses and past atrocities. When the current administration fails to answer a reporter's question, the reporter gives up almost immediately. Journalists, *please* focus and stay on target to hold these politicians accountable! You are the Fourth Estate! We need you!
We need journalists who will hold the regime's feet to the fire. We need to have the lies, manipulation, propaganda and the hypocrisy called out. Every day.
When Trump or KKKaroline spews b.s., it needs to be pointed out. When they attack DEI for example, and preach about "merit", a good response would be...
"Speaking of "merit," almost everyone in this administration is unqualified for their position and are in fact incompetent and or inept. And they endanger Americans, tarnish the office they hold, while embarrassing the nation in the process.
Pete Kegsbreath as Sec Def is an incompetent weekend Fox "News" host, who has endangerad our military personnel with his fumbling ineptitude and disrespected our military with his "warrior ethos" nonsense. He is a beta all day.
Kash Patel is a podcast host and a bafoon, who has botched his role as FBI director with his pettiness, incompetence, fealty to Trump and galavanting on the taxpayer's dollar.
Kristi Noam is an icy, corrupt extremist with zero empathy or competence to lead DHS, and her negligence to activate FEMA aid cost lives during the Texas floods.
Stephen miller is a fascist Nazi wannabe, who echoes Joseph Goebbles, with his plagiarism of his "Storm is Coming" speech at the Kirk memorial Nazi rally. And every day, Miller rants on camera like he's in the middle of having a stroke, spewing hatred, division, lies and fascist trash."
You get the idea.
We can't keep allowing these people to control the narrative and bend truth to meet their fascist agenda.
And speaking of fascism, it must be continually called out as such. No more prancing around it with choice words and phrases like, "Trump pushes the limits of presidential power" or "Trump defies court orders, in disagreement with judge's ruling."
Pivot instead to...
Trump is a fascist, who is trying to be a dictator.
Trump defies court orders because he wants to be a king.
Obviously you can express these things more delicately, but we MUST PUSH BACK ALWAYS with deliberate language that leaves no wiggle room. Democracy is on the line and our reporters need to treat every day as such.
And can SOMEONE PLEASE ask to get some close-up shots of Trump's ear. We need to see the scar because his miraculous recovery after the "shooting" is a marvel of science.
Also, how about calling out Trump's capitulation to Putin? If there was no "collusion" in 2016 (or since), why has every action of this administration only benefited Russia? Sure seems like a massive coincidence to me.
And while we're at it...
Ask: "Mr. President, if you aren't guilty of anything, why are you so desperate to not release the Epstein files? Why are you so openly hostile to anyone who presses you on it."
Lastly, can you all PLEASE stand up for your women colleagues when Trump berates them? He has zero right to do that and needs to be publicly held accountable.
It is difficult and I do not envy journalists right now, especially those in the W.H. press pool, but this is THE JOB and what the American People expect in this dire time. We appreciate every brave journalist, who puts truth ahead of everything and holds power accountable.
Thank you for your dedication and integrity.
I’d like more context included in reporting, including sentences like, “in response to questioning, President Trump repeated a lie he’s used more than 150 times (fill in the number).” Do not repeat his quote, that only gives the lie more power. Quote him when he says something new and label it as a lie, his opinion, or whatever it happens to be, especially if it happens to be true.
Reporters should first fact check questions they are going to ask and then when they get bullshit answers back, as always, they must confront this misinformation on the spot not giving in to the abuse they are sure to receive. They must support each other on the spot not accepting abuse individually without the others condemnation of such abuse. Stated clearly the American People demand real information to these important questions.
The whole situation is Trump thinks he's a dictator and is acting as invincible. Trump thinks he can just bully his way as a ruler and get away with it. Until you prove him wrong this will continue and things will get worse. He should never have been able to get this far as a Facist Dictator. We should have shut him down a long time ago but here we are and now we must fight for our country for democracy and for our sanity.
DONT GIVE IN TO THIS PIECE OF SHIT, HOLD HIS FEET TO THE FIRE!!?
Who, what, when, where, why.
I've explained how reporters can hold Trump and his spokespeople accountable in a pair of LinkedIn articles:
1. Liars Can be Held Accountable, On The Spot. Here’s How. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/liars-can-held-accountable-spot-heres-how-paul-stregevsky-9roye/
2. Deflectors Must be Confronted in Real Time. Here’s How. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/deflectors-must-confronted-real-time-heres-how-paul-stregevsky-hxzpf/