McCain On Trump Declaring The Media An Enemy: "That's How Dictators Get Started"
Republican Senator Arizona Senator told NBC News in a clip released Saturday (above) that President Donald Trump's most recent attack on the media is an example of "how dictators get started."
Chuck Todd, host of "Meet the Press," asked McCain about
Trump's tweet Friday, in which the president declared that the media is "the enemy of the American people."
"If you want to preserve Democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press, and without it I'm afraid we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started," McCain responded.
"They get started by suppressing a free press," he added. "In other words, a consolidation of power, when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do, is shut down the press. I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history."
McCain On Trump Declaring The Media An Enemy: "That's How Dictators Get Started"
Amen, John! The problem is - Trump doesn't know anything about history. He may not even know how Hitler started. It's scary...
We've had a free press all along and still do, now if we could just get an unbiased press. We haven't had one for a few decades.
I agree.
I have always maintained that there is not a single problem in this country that would not be solved quickly if we had an honest, aggressive, and diligent press. If we had that, everything else that is worthwhile and fair would follow. Joseph Pulitzer understood the awesome power of the press:
"There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them, attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public opinion will sweep them away. Publicity may not be the only thing that is needed, but it is the one thing without which all other agencies will fail."
“Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together," Pulitzer wrote. "An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will produce in time a people as base as itself. The power to mold the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations.”
―
Joseph Pulitzer
Pulitzer was right; as the press goes, so goes the country. Unfortunately, when the press withholds or distorts the news in favor of a personal political agenda they become an enemy more dangerous by far than any foreign threat could ever be. The greatest threat to our country's security is not Russia or China but the unholy alliance between the MSM and the Soros-backed Democratic Party.
Hillary's personal campaign of tyranny came to an end because Americans learned the truth about her. They caught her in lie after lie after lie. They discovered her role in the senseless death and destruction in the Middle East. They heard the war monger laugh when she took credit for the murder of Gaddafi: “We came, we saw he died.” They became aware of her plans for open borders, an open invitation for criminals and terrorists to enter our country. They learned of her plans to establish a no-fly zone in Syria, a plan which even Obama did not approve and her own military leaders warned would lead to war with Russia. The truth defeated Hillary Clinton and the truth came from the Internet not the MSM. The Democrats want to silence the Internet because they cannot control it.
The Internet is our last line of defense against a corrupt and dangerous political system and the only people trying to muzzle the Internet are those who are part of that deplorable system. But for the Internet, a corrupt, dishonest, war mongering megalomaniac would be President of the United States. With the open support of the MSM Clinton came dangerously close. The Internet literally saved our country.
Trump is not trying to muzzle the press. He is confronting the press openly. That's exactly what he should do. I may disagree with Trump on other things, but his counter-attack strategy against the media is a necessary, courageous and noble effort. If he doesn't win, we all lose except, of course, for those who benefit from secrecy and lies.
