Press vs Presidents: Tricky Relationships In History

PALO ALTO, CA -- When U.S. President Donald Trump's White House yanked a veteran reporter’s press credential after a tense standoff during a news conference, Stanford scholar James Hamilton shrugged off the notion that Americans had never seen this type of belligerent punishment given to the watchdogs of democracy. He flashed back to another U.S. president: Richard Nixon.

Hamilton knows the subject matter well. And with a name like his -- it's no wonder he's self proclaimed as two thirds of the federalist papers.

The acclaimed scholar is the Hearst Professor of Communication in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences and chair of the Department of Communication. He also co-launched the Stanford Journalism and Democracy Initiative. His most recent book, Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism, chronicles the impact of accountability reporting in the United States.

Hamilton told Patch that he's not surprised by the turbulence Trump has with the news media because of his sheer lack of understanding of how democracy works.

"He told his aides to think of working in the White House as a TV episode as you compete with rivals," he said. Think of it as an urban "Survivor" gone awry. When they return to work, he's told them: "Welcome back to the show."

For Hamilton, two dynamics are at work: a day in the life at the White House has become reality television in which the conquerer pits his enemy as someone who challenges him, so the name of the game is to devalidate the person or institution such as the First Amendment.

"It he undermines respect for truth telling (which is what journalists covet), there's so much doubt cast," Hamilton said.

The scholar had told the Stanford News Service that "few leaders readily invite scrutiny and welcome criticism. In the modern era, two presidents – Richard Nixon and Donald Trump – stand out for conscious efforts to undermine the accountability function of the media. As president-elect, Nixon admonished his Cabinet: 'Always remember, the men and women of the news media approach this as an adversary relationship. The time will come when they will run lies about you.'"

Fast forward to Donald Trump, Hamilton continued with the news service interview: "As president-elect, he shared a strikingly similar strategic view with journalist Lesley Stahl. When she asked him why he continuously attacked the media, she reported that he said he did it to “discredit” journalists. While Trump’s public rhetoric about journalists matches Nixon’s private conversations in the Oval Office, Nixon’s efforts to subvert the media’s watchdog role went beyond words. He ordered illegal wiretaps on the phones of journalists, instructed then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to assemble information on homosexuals in the Capitol press corps and instructed aides to develop and distribute damaging stories about reporters to “just kill the sons of bitches.”

--Image courtesy of Stanford News Service