Tag Archives: April Ryan

And So It Continues …

Posted on by under Free Press Issues, Political commentary

Yesterday I wrote a post, And So It Begins, about the White House, aka Donald Trump, suspending the press credentials of CNN’s Jim Acosta simply because Acosta had the temerity to ask Trump the tough questions that we should all be asking.  Later in the day, the White House released a manipulated video that attempted to prove their point that Acosta had grabbed the arm of the intern who was trying to take his microphone away from him.  The video was immediately exposed as having been ‘doctored’ by experts and Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders were left looking like even bigger fools than before, though I doubt they realized it.

Today, Trump threatened to revoke the credentials of more reporters if they didn’t “treat the White House with respect”.  Anybody feel a chill in the air?  But he didn’t stop there.  No, he went on to hurl criticisms at other reporters … completely unfounded and untrue criticisms.

Of April Ryan, also a CNN reporter, he said …

“You talk about somebody that’s a loser; she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. She gets publicity and then she gets a pay raise or a contract with, I think, CNN. But she’s very nasty. And she shouldn’t be. She shouldn’t be. You’ve got to treat the White House and the office of the presidency with respect.”

Might I remind Donald Trump that ‘respect’ is something that must be earned?  In his 22 months in office, not once has Donald Trump treated the press (other than state-run Fox News) with any respect, but rather has taunted and harassed them at every opportunity.  The office of the president was once respected, but frankly Donald Trump has not earned any degree of respect from the press and is well along in the process of sullying the office and the White House.

In response to a question by another reporter, he said …

“What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. But I watch you a lot — you ask a lot of stupid questions.”

The question was not at all stupid but was concerning whether the Mueller investigation would be ‘reined in’ with the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General.  A valid question and one which we are all asking.

Yesterday, in response to my post about Acosta’s revoked press credentials, a reader commented with the following quote by President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

“Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.”

Now do you feel the chill in the air?

And So It Begins …

Posted on by under Free Press Issues, Political commentary
Acosta

Jim Acosta

Jim Acosta, one of CNN’s most astute reporters, has had his press pass, his access to the White House, revoked “until further notice”.  Why?  Because he was doing his job, he was asking questions.  The same as Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs was doing when then-candidate for the U.S. Congress, Greg Gianforte, took umbrage and knocked Mr. Jacobs to the ground and proceeded to beat him.  A year later, Donald Trump praised Gianforte for his actions, and now Trump has barred Mr. Acosta.

Jim Acosta was doing his job … he was asking Trump questions like why he lied about the migrant caravan, calling it an ‘invasion’, asking why he was demonizing immigrants.  He was, in other words, doing precisely what we want our free press to do … holding the president accountable for his words and actions.  See for yourself …

As you can see, an intern attempted to take the microphone from Acosta and he did nothing but hold onto the microphone and turn slightly to keep her from taking it from him, for he had not gotten an answer to his question about the highly controversial, racist ad that Trump ran at the end of the mid-term campaign.  Trump put an end to Acosta’s questions, calling him a “rude, terrible person”, and the microphone was removed from Acosta’s hand by a White House staffer.

Later in the day, Acosta attempted to return to the White House for a scheduled program with Anderson Cooper, but was stopped outside the White House by Secret Service agents, one of whom blocked his way, and another of whom asked Mr. Acosta to hand over his press credentials, which he did without argument.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied … blatantly lied about the interaction between the intern and Mr. Acosta, saying …

“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable.”**

CNN Producer Allie Malloy responded to Sanders via Twitter: “This is a complete lie. The woman grabbed Jim’s arm repeatedly. He never once touched her. In fact at one point @Acosta tells her politely ‘pardon me, mam’ as she’s yanking on his arm.”  As you saw in the video, Acosta did not “place his hands” on the intern.

Ryan

April Ryan

The news conference lasted one hour and 26 minutes, and Acosta was not the only reporter denigrated by Trump.  April Ryan, also with CNN, attempted to ask a question about voter suppression concerns, when Trump said to her …

“Sit down please. Sit down. I didn’t call you, I didn’t call you, I didn’t call you.”

Alcindor

Yamiche Alcindor

Toward the end of the event, Yamiche Alcindor, a correspondent for PBS “NewsHour,” asked Trump about the widely shared view that his rhetoric has emboldened white nationalists.  Trump’s response was to tell her that it was a ‘racist question’ and then proceeded to tell her (falsely) that he had the highest poll numbers ever among African-Americans.  Watch …

The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) issued the following statement in response to Acosta’s press credentials being suspended:

“Journalists may use a range of approaches to carry out their jobs and the WHCA does not police the tone or frequency of the questions its members ask of powerful senior government officials, including the President. Such interactions, however uncomfortable they may appear to be, help define the strength of our national institutions. We urge the White House to immediately reverse this weak and misguided action.”

Friends, this is the most egregious abuse of power, the most blatant attempt to shut down the free press, that we have seen from Donald Trump to-date.  This cannot go unnoticed, cannot be allowed to pass without comment.  Please ask yourself this question:  What next?  The answer should scare you … it scares the hell out of me.

**Here is the full White House statement:

“President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history. Contrary to CNN’s assertions, there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not being supportive of a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters over the course of an hour and a half — including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it is an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration. As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.” — Sarah Sanders

Idiot of the Week – Sean Spicer

Posted on by under Idiot of the Week

Idiot of the Week medal

I almost feel badly for this week’s award recipient, almost feel sorry for him.  Note that I said ‘almost’.  Yet I do not feel badly enough to give him a pass on this one, as I have been giving him passes for several months now and he just does not learn from his mistakes.  Who, you ask?  Why, none other than the White House Press Secretary, Mr. Sean Spicer, of course!  And most of you know exactly why I could no longer leave him alone, but in case any have been living on a desert island for the past few days, I shall enlighten you.

On Tuesday (11 April 2017), at the daily White House press briefing, Spicer was asked about the U.S. response to Assad using chemical weapons in attacks in Syria last week. His response, which will surely go into the annals of history as one of the stupidest things ever said by a WH Press Secretary, was:

“I think a couple things. You, look — we didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II. You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

A bit later, after being reminded of the Holocaust in which Hitler and the Nazis gassed millions to death, Spicer attempted to clarify with …

“I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no — he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing. I mean, there was clearly, I understand your point. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. There was not, in the, he brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that. But I’m saying, in the way that Assad used them where he went into towns, dropped them down to innocent—into the middle of towns, it was brought, the use of it. I appreciate the clarification. That was not the intent.”

Sometimes, the more one says, the deeper he digs his grave.

So why do I almost feel sorry for Mr. Idiot Spicer?  Because, quite simply, he is a lightweight who is out of his league.  Possibly the worst decision he ever made in his life was to accept his current position.  Think about it … yes, certainly there is a great deal of prestige associated with being the man out front, the liaison between the man sitting in the Oval Office and the press corps, and the job pays a living wage of $176,000 per year plus bennies.  But some jobs just aren’t worth it. How would you like waking up every single morning, knowing that your job would require you to go in front of millions of people and tell whatever lies your boss wanted told that day.  How would you like being forced to defend one of the most vile men on earth … every single day?  I couldn’t do it … wouldn’t do it … there simply is not enough money. But the reason I stop short of full-fledged empathy for Spicer is that he made the choice to accept the position, and having previously worked on Trump’s campaign, he already knew what sort of person Trump is and should have anticipated what the job would entail, yet he accepted the position.  And in the 82 days since the inauguration, he has willingly lied, covered lies with more lies, verbally abused and shut-down members of the press, and indulged in childish temper tantrums.  So no, Sean, I do NOT feel sorry for you, and I find you most deserving of Filosofa’s Idiot of the Week award!

Spicer covers Trumps ass

But we all know that it takes more than just a single act of idiocy to qualify for this award, so let us look back over the past 82 days to see what else Sean has done to qualify.

  • The very day after the inauguration and two days before he would give his first press conference, Spicer told his first lie and ignited his first controversy. He claimed, in support of Trump’s prior claim, that the inauguration had drawn the “largest audience to ever to witness an inauguration, period – both in person and around the globe.”  This was not only a lie, but it was a whopper … the granddaddy of all lies … and the truth was verifiable!  There were aerial photos, parking data, Metro ridership data, and more to prove that both of President Obama’s inaugurations were far better attended.  Yet, Spicer accused the media of being the ones telling the lie and stood by his data-free claim.
  • The next day, when confronted with hard data tht disputed his claim, Spicer said that, “sometimes we can disagree with the facts” … a ridiculous statement that then led an alumni of the idiot of the Week award, Kellyanne Conway, to coin the phrase “alternative facts”.
  • Sean is not well-spoken, articulate, and often tumbles & fumbles his words (that’s how liars are), then gets annoyed and slings a slur or two at the press in attendance. In February, speaking about the reportedly tense phone call between Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Spicer referred to the Prime Minister as Trumble instead of Turnbull.  Then later that month, he referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Joe Trudeau”.
  • When his boss (who, by the way, won an Idiot of the Year award in 2016 and is on target for another in 2017) claimed, falsely and without a shred of evidence, that President Obama had “wiretapped” him during the campaign, Spicer stood loyally behind him. When asked about the claim, Spicer  said — with a straight face, mind you — that Trump used the term “wiretap” in quotes not because he’s terrible at grammar (and kinda stupid), but because he was using the specific term as a stand-in for a broader forms of surveillance.  “The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”

spicer-air-quotes.jpg

Then during a mid-March press conference, April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks was attempting to ask a question:

“With all these investigations, questions of what is is, how does this administration try to revamp its image? Two and a half months in you got this Yates story today, you got other things going on, you got Russia, you got wiretapping…”

“No we don’t have that,” Spicer interrupted. “I’ve said it from the day that i got here until whatever, that there’s no connection. You’ve got Russia. If the president puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russian connection!”

Ryan tried to respond, he kept speaking over her, saying, “But every single person, well no, I appreciate your agenda here, but the reality is, no no no, hold on, at some point, report the facts.”

To his credit, Spicer did at least apologize for his Hitler faux pas, something that I cannot recall any other member of the Trump team doing since they overran the White House.  He still remains Filosofa’s Idiot of the Week, however.  I like the way Andrew Rosenthal, writing for the New York Times, put it: “Spicer twists the truth as frequently as regular people change their socks.”

By the way, in case you were wondering about the cover picture … that is Sean in the bunny suit with President George W. Bush back in 2008.

spicer-bunny

So, Mr. Sean Spicer, to honour you for all your lies, bumbling and abusive treatment of journalists, I hereby award you the highly coveted Idiot of the Week award.  I imagine you will want to hang it in your office … your boss, by the way, has one very similar, as does another of your co-workers, Ms. Conway!  Enjoy your award!