“We’re proud of our coverage, and we’re going to keep at it”.
Advertisement
Post spokeswoman Kristine Coratti Kelly said in an email the headline was changed shortly after the story posted “to more properly reflect what Trump said”.
But it follows a pattern.
“Whoever chooses the people that get the press credentials, I wouldn’t even tamper with that, frankly”, he said.
The Post did not publish a huffy editorial last summer when the Clinton campaign banned right-leaning reporter David Martosko of the Britain’s Daily Mail from its print pool. But sometimes the denial of press credentials restricts access altogether. Sixty-three percent see Ms. Clinton unfavorably while 62 percent see Mr. Trump in the same way.
The Huffington Post tweeted at The Post on Monday afternoon and said “Welcome to the club”.
In none of these comments did Trump clearly tie Obama to the Orlando shooting or terrorism in general, nor did he say outright that Obama has terrorist sympathies.
The alleged suggestion came in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” Monday. “It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on”, he said, according to the Washington Post.
In fact, it is hard to say precisely what Trump had intended except vague insinuations about President Obama. (Friendly reminder this is the same man who has regularly cited different birther conspiracy theories about President Obama and may or may not be close friends with The National Enquirer’s CEO.) It’s likely Trump made a decision to ban The Post in light of its deservedly harsh portrayal of his response to Sunday’s Orlando shooting. And picking a side between a bombastic fabulist like Trump and one of the most-respected editors in the country, Marty Baron, shouldn’t cut any fresh furrows in anyone’s brow.
“We did so on our own; the Trump campaign never contacted us about it”, Coratti said. Among women, by contrast, Trump is far more unpopular – 77 percent rate him unfavorably, a new high on his part, vs. Clinton’s 47 percent. He regularly rails against reporters at campaign stops, calling journalists “the most dishonest people in America”.
But at the same time, the paper has been on the receiving end of the candidate’s anti-press tirades.
Later, he continued the Post “is being used by the owners of Amazon as their political lobbyist so that they don’t have to pay taxes and don’t get sued for monopolistic tendencies that have led to the destruction of department stores and the retail industry”. Bezos acquired the Post in 2013 for $250 million. They were cheering all over, even this savage from Orlando. Trump’s campaign has blocked access from numerous organizations including BuzzFeed, Politico and Univision.
When pressed to elaborate, Trump later appeared to backtrack on the suggestion.
Trump’s announcement on Monday was met with a chorus of opposition from members of the news media.
The newspaper’s editor, Martin Baron, said Trump’s action is an attack on a free press.
Advertisement
And he said his approach to the press would stay the same if he were elected to the White House: “Yeah, it is going to be like this”.
