Media - a Defender or an Enemy to Democracy? (Trump-Media War)

• 03.02.2017, 16:53
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  America,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World

Recently, the top subject of the American media has become, as they call "Trump-Media War." The debate over the topic became even active, when the US president Donald Trump openly called some media agencies (New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, CNN) "the enemy of the nation", while the White House banned their participation in the answer-and-questions sessions organized by the spokesperson of the White House.   

In the active discussions on the topic, even parallels are made between Trump and the 37^th president of the US, Richard Nixon, who was engaged in the Watergate scandal. It is known that the US 37^th president, every reading the news in the morning, made notes for his administration, which media agencies he liked, which not. Afterwards, he ordered to act accordingly. As a result of the Watergate scandal, it turned out that Nixon’s administration secretly wiretapped the phone conversations of it opponents, including also those of reporters, and was engaged in a secret investigation against them. As a result of the scandal, Nixon became the first and the only US president, who resigned before his term, and this was considered a media victory.  

To be impartial, it should be noted that the administrations of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump were not the only ones that expressed and acted against the media. For example, it was not by chance, that in 2014, 38 media agencies wrote a joint letter to then the US president Barrack Obama complaining that the administration hindered their media activities. While George H. W. Bush, during his presidency, posing against the media, openly stated that media agencies do not represent all the groups of the society, while they represent the interests of different groups, against whom the American society should struggle.    

If we return to the "Trump-Media War", then we should state that the policy of Trump against the media, which is based on building barricades and spreading enmity, can hardly be considered a right one. However, it is difficult to say who started this war: Trump or his opponents. In reality the roots of the problem go deeper. The problem started when many media agencies stopped being the defenders of democracy and turned into a tool for different political forces to struggle against each other. The problem, which by the way, is common not only to the US, but to many countries, even the ones, who are considered democratic countries.