THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRESS – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  One of the most fascinating trends in the conflict between President Trump and the media is that the American people are consistently siding with Trump.  From IBD: 

The mainstream media's open hostility to President Trump may be starting to backfire, according to the latest IBD/TIPP poll.

The poll found that 55% of the public says they've grown "weary from the media's persistently negative coverage of President Trump." A roughly equal share (54%) also believe that the news media "has assumed the role of the opposition party, constantly opposing the president and his policies at every turn."

Not surprisingly, Republicans overwhelmingly hold these views (88% say they're tired of the relentless negativity), but the media's attacks are also turning off independents (55% of whom say they're weary of the negative coverage) and moderates (54% of whom are weary). Most also believe that the press has assumed the role of the opposition party.

The poll, conducted from Feb. 24 through March 4, included 909 responses who were surveyed using live interviewers on cellphone and landlines. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.

The results are understandable, given the unusually hostile relationship the press has with Trump.

A study by the nonpartisan group Media Tenor found that only 3% of network news stories in the first month of the Trump administration could be described as positive. Of the rest, 43% were deemed negative, and 54% neutral. That's a stark contrast to the overwhelmingly positive coverage of the early Obama administration, despite the fact that Obama had his own share of early stumbles.

COMMENT:  Obama?  Why, he was a godlike figure, come to save us.  At least, that's what the mainstream press and its northeast amen corner told us. 

Some journalists are now explaining their clear bias by saying that their job is to hold Trump accountable.  Sure it is.  It was also their job to hold Saint Barack accountable, but we didn't see much holding, did we? 

The press bends to the left, and the bend is getting deeper every day.  News organizations are simply giving up their credibility to bash President Trump whenever possible.  They are living out the 1960s notion of "making a difference."  The difference they make, though, can easily turn out to be tragic, just as "speaking truth to power" can be tragic if the speakers don't actually have the truth. 

March 7, 2017