Like her boss, Donald J. Trump, Sarah Sanders does not support the free press. Stonewalling and silent treatment is the modus operandi of the Press Secretary who only supports the conservative outlets who write favorable content of the Trump administration.
Sarah Sanders says that she supports the free Press, but in order for us to believe her, she, for one, would need to treat all members of the press corps fairly.
According to the most recent polls, the press freedom index does not show the best results for our nation. America has fallen to 45th place in the global press freedom ranking and mostly because of President Trump’s attacks on journalists.
At the press briefing at the White House today, Sanders said that “we support a free press but we also support a fair press.” Supporting free press on condition of fairness, aka “favorable content” is not what press freedom is about.
It does not take much for Hillary Clinton to notice that the free press in America is under “open assault”. Like soldiers of the Fourth estate, defenders of the First Amendment, warriors with nothing but our pen and independent thought, we take the hit every single day.
"We are living through an all-out war on truth, facts and reason." — @HillaryClinton on the Trump era, at last night's Arthur Miller #FreedomToWrite lecture, the crowning event of #PENfest. via @chicagotribune. https://t.co/nASLHCQ32V
— PEN America (@PENamerican) April 23, 2018
The presumption of fairness Sanders is calling us out for would only make sense if she would hold herself accountable to the same standard. In reality, there is no fairness and there is no equality in the way either Trump or she treat the members of the press corps. The only difference is that while President Trump is openly assaulting the press, the Press Secretary is using a silent treatment method.
Silent Treatment and Stonewalling from the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders neither treats the press fairly nor equally. She does not respond to emails and requests, and the politics of falsehood the administration she is a member of employs on a daily basis is perpetuated and well kept alive by her own mistreatment of the media.
The Press Secretary knows that she cannot be openly hostile to the members of the press corps in the way her boss is, as no matter how competitive our cohort in the White House Press Corps is, it will stand together and join forces to speak against discrimination of any member of the media. Sanders knows that.
What’s said on camera are talking points, one-way statements that perhaps work in the military chain of command but not with the representatives of the Fourth Estate. The press briefings at the White House have lost any real purpose, they are reduced to hours-long wait of delayed briefings during which no real answers are provided.
The capacity of Trump administration to criticize the media without any capability of self-reflection is appalling. As it is a high school level lecturing of the media from the podium of the White House Briefing Room. Nothing makes sense anymore, except for Kanye.
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