Friends, Everyone in the world knows how much Trump craves attention, especially televised attention. After all, his political career emerged from reality TV. He’s known to watch several television screens simultaneously in the White House. He views much of what he and his regime do through the lenses of television (even deciding on cabinet and sub-cabinet officials on the basis of how they look on TV). So today’s TV blackout of his trip to the United Nations General Assembly must cause him some anguish. He has no one to blame but himself. On Friday he announced he was banning CNN, Politico, and MSNOW from the White House because he objected to their coverage of him and his regime. Over the weekend, reporters from the organizations were denied entry to the complex and had their credentials confiscated. In a commendable show of media solidarity, Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News then suspended their television coverage of Trump today — coverage that also entails distributing their footage to news organizations worldwide. They said in a joint statement: “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” the four other major news organizations.” Which means Trump has no TV coverage today because the above-mentioned networks — plus CNN — had long performed the television duties on a rotation, and CNN had been slated to provide coverage for Trump’s travel today to New York. (Trump’s activities today are still expected to be covered by print, radio and wire journalists, along with still photographers.) The American public is ill-served by a megalomaniacal authoritarian in the White House who refuses to allow negative coverage. But the solidarity of the media reveals a fundamental truth about this megalomaniac: The most successful way to respond to him is to unite against him. Had the big universities he attacked united against him, his power over them would have been far more limited. Same with the law firms he bullied. Similarly with nations. (Canada’s move toward the European Union in light of Trump’s bullying is exactly right.) Bullies can’t continue to bully if the people and institutions they seek to bully won’t succumb to the bullying — especially if they unite.
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