Trump admitted he attacks press to shield himself from negative coverage, Lesley Stahl says

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Trump admitted he attacks press to shield himself from negative coverage, Lesley Stahl says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/22/trump-admitted-he-attacks-press-to-shield-himself-from-negative-coverage-60-minutes-reporter-says/?utm_term=.899bbb35a7a2


by Eli Rosenberg May 22 at 10:03 PM Email the author
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Lesley Stahl: Trump said he attacks the press to 'discredit' and 'demean'

"60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl said May 21 that President Trump admitted he attacks the press to shield himself from negative coverage. (The Deadline Club)

One of the foremost broadcast journalists in the country said this week that President Trump admitted to her that his relentless attacks on the press was a strategy to discredit reporters and news media organizations to shield himself from negative coverage.

Lesley Stahl, the 13-time Emmy award-winning “60 Minutes” correspondent whose work has spanned decades, made the disclosure Monday during an interview with Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour” at a journalism award presentation in New York.

At the Deadline Club Awards presentation, Woodruff asked Stahl about her November 2016 interview with Trump — his first after the election victory. Stahl described going to meet with him at Trump Tower in the months before the interview, along with one of her bosses, whom she did not name. After Trump began to unload on the news media, she said, she asked him whether he planned to stop attacking the press, which was a hallmark of his campaign.

“I said, you know that is getting tired, why are you doing this — you’re doing it over and over and it’s boring,” Stahl said. “He said you know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”


Stahl's striking anecdote fell into a silent moment in the room. Woodruff shook her head.

“He said that,” Stahl said, raising her eyebrows. “So put that in your head for a minute.”....................




@TimOBrien

Tim O'Brien Retweeted Hadas Gold

Worth noting the obvious: President Trump is using the same tactics against law enforcement, intel agencies, civil service and the judiciary that he deploys against the media — trying to discredit all of them so institutions that question or check his power are undermined.

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