The President's Tweets

I do not have a Twitter account.  Nor do I expect to open one.  So far as I can see, the space-limited blurbs in which this form of communication specializes are too shallow and egocentric for my tastes.  My preference is for books and columns that are better thought through.

As a consequence, I never expected to write something about Donald Trump’s tweets.  While I understood that this was one of the tools he used to get elected and that he continues to employ it to circumvent a hostile media, my own interests lie elsewhere.

What changed my mind is that our president’s Twitter remarks have come to dominate the news.  Not what he does in his official capacity, but what he composes in the dead of night or in response to his detractors has captured the imagination of the reporters who cover him.

Journalistic disapproval of what he conveys has become the cudgel with which his enemies beat him around the head and shoulders.  These harpies are ready to pounce any time he writes something that can be unfavorably construed.  They obviously hope some of their blows will prove fatal.

The latest brouhaha concerned Mika Brzezinski.  She, along with her MSNBC co-host Joe Scarborough, has been leveling malicious insults at Trump for months.  Although they were once on apparently on friendly terms, the recent allegations have been scathing.

In any event, the president decided to fight back.  Not only did he decry what was said, but he made an unflattering remark about Mika bleeding during a visit to his home.  He implied that this was caused by a facelift.

That’s all he said, but it was enough for the sky to fall on his head.  For days, this utterance pushed every other piece of news off the front pages.  A travel ban had gone into effect, sanctions were levied against China to induce it to help with North Korea, and negotiations to repeal and replace ObamaCare remained under way.

Nevertheless, the offending tweet counted for more.  During an ensuing press briefing, at least three quarters of the questions concerned it.  Actually, they were not questions.  They were accusations disguised as questions.

Thus, the big one asked of Sarah Huckabee Sanders was: Isn’t the president ashamed of what he wrote?  Then she was asked if she was ashamed of what he said.  Next she was asked is members of congress were ashamed.  The obvious intent was to elicit an admission that they should all be ashamed.

Now, I admit that what Trump tweeted was not gentlemanly.  It is not something I would have said.  Nonetheless, the things that Brzezinski said were not ladylike.  Opining not once, but many times, that the president was “crazy” is not customarily regarded that the proper etiquette for a political critique.

Sanders described the president as fighting fire with fire.  It may also be assumed that months of discourteous recriminations occasionally get under his skin.  These do not excuse his crudity, but they help explain it—especially when coming from a New York City street fighter.

But let us keep in mind that female journalists can also go over the line.  Trump was characterized as having insulted all women, yet that assumes any rough handling of a woman reporter is, ipso facto, out of bounds.  Truman said, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  Shouldn’t that apply to women when they launch public attacks?

Some pundits claim that Trump is stomping on his own message when he makes intemperate tweets.  They consequently recommend that he keep his candid responses to himself.  Actually they did the same to Truman when he came to the defense of his daughter Margaret’s singing ability.

The fact is that no matter what Trump says or does, the reporters who despise him will find something to turn into a scandal.  The president could cancel his Twitter account and it would make no difference.

These twitter storms are, in reality, an amusing sideshow.  While they can be unpresidential, the response to them has not been journalistic.  Reporters, who are convinced that something untoward is happening, should first look in the mirror.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University