Earlier this week, president-elect Donald Trump continued his attacks on the media, directing his ire at comedian Seth Meyers after the NBC late-night host made jokes at Trump’s expense.
Trump’s response to the jokes — and subsequent threats against the company that owns the network itself — are the latest indication that he may aim to quell dissent and First Amendment speech freedoms when he enters the White House next week.
After Meyers blasted the president-elect during a regular segment on his program called “Closer Look,” Trump took to his Truth Social account on Tuesday morning, deriding Meyers for being a “bad” comedian and calling him a “moron” and “untalented.”
During the segment, Meyers stated that little is known about what Trump has planned for his second term “given that he has no fixed principles or core beliefs or coherent ideas or constructive solutions or plans or proposals or policies or values or thoughts of any kind.”
Trump “watches TV and then he scream-posts about what he just saw on TV,” Meyers explained, adding that he views the president-elect as “an intellectual Roomba…[that] goes in one direction until he bumps into something and then he just goes off into another direction.”
Trump complained that the commentary amounted to an in-kind donation to Democrats — even though Meyers was only referring to Trump, and didn’t say anything positive about the Democratic party.
“These are not shows or entertainment, they are simply political hits, 100% of the time, to me and the Republican Party,” Trump said.
Trump also proposed that Comcast, the company that owns NBCUniversal, should “pay a BIG price for this!”
Trump, who claims he’s for a free press, has frequently derided the media as the “enemy of the people,” attacking them for accurately reporting on his foibles and policy positions. He has called for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take away “licenses” from media outlets that fact check his lies, for example.
Trump has also encouraged violence against members of the media. At a rally during his 2024 campaign, he downplayed what he thought was a man attacking news reporters, telling his followers that the individual was “on our side” as they were booing him. At another rally, he pointed out that a would-be assassin would “have to shoot through” reporters in order to reach him. “I don’t mind that so much,” he added.
While Meyers and other late-night comedians continue to showcase Trump’s views to a mass audience, news media are starting to capitulate to the president-elect. (Recently, for example, ABC News agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit Trump made against them instead of challenging his dubious legal arguments, demonstrating that his attacks are seemingly working.)
“This will be a prime MO of the second Trump administration,” The Nation’s Chris Lehmann said in a recent interview with Democracy Now. “And it’s very worrisome that even before Trump takes office, [news networks are], without cause, giving in. It sends a very distressing signal.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
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