No longer ‘objective’ media said to broaden attack on Trump by targeting his supporters

by WorldTribune Staff, September 1, 2016

Dispensing with the guise of “objectivity,” major media outlets are not just aiming their guns at candidate Donald Trump. They are also targeting his family, his supporters and the families of his supporters.

Big media “has suspended even the illusion of objectivity,” in the 2016 presidential election, Ken Kurson wrote for the New York Observer on Aug. 31.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump enters the stage as he takes part in a town hall event moderated by Anderson Cooper March 29, 2016 in Milwaukee. /Darren Hauck/Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump enters the stage as he takes part in a town hall event moderated by Anderson Cooper March 29, 2016 in Milwaukee. /Darren Hauck/Getty Images

“That opposition has extended into new and uncharted territory.”

The so-called mainstream media’s “coordinated effort” to stop what it calls “a dangerous candidate” has now moved on to “extracting a price even from those who support him,” the Observer report said.

New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg even instructed journalists “to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career.”

That approach, the Kurson noted, is reflected in a few recent headlines:

  • Daily Beast: “Trump’s Doctor ‘Overmedicated’ Patients Who Died in His Care”
  • Washington Post: “The contractor that designs Ivanka Trump’s clothes does not offer a single day of paid maternity leave”
  • New York Times: “Peter Thiel’s Embrace of Trump Has Silicon Valley Squirming”

Kurson wrote he “doesn’t doubt that self-identified right-wing sites would look into the record of Hillary Clinton’s doctors, it’s much harder to imagine a site like Daily Beast, which fancies itself a centrist outlet, expending that kind of investigative energy on Hillary’s non-political professionals. The message is clear: If you associate with Trump, we will rummage through your past.”

The message of the Post piece “was equally clear,” Kurson wrote.

“While children of presidential candidates have long been considered off limits by the mainstream media, the Post clearly smelled danger in the crossover appeal of a successful, presentable working mother. Ivanka Trump (who, for the thousandth time, is married to the Observer’s publisher) runs a company that is not only among the 10 percent to provide paid maternity leave, but also offers unlimited vacation and sick days and flexible work schedules. So the Post attacked a company that Ivanka’s company does business with, only they implied that Ivanka was responsible for that company’s business practices. The Post later attached an editor’s note and clarified the story to ‘indicate that Ivanka Trump has no direct managerial role in G-III Apparel Group,’ but the damage had been done and the misleading headline remains to this day. Plus, there’s the original URL of the story —which is important in search engine optimization. It has not been corrected and still gives the false implication that Ivanka herself is not providing paid maternity leave.”

Kurson continued: “Then there’s the Peter Thiel story. His actions in supporting Trump supposedly have his industry peers ‘squirming,’ according to The New York Times. Yet Clinton supporters who represent industries in which she is unpopular are portrayed as principled and loyal Democrats. Consider that Politico reported ‘Clinton haunted by coal country comment.’ Clinton said, ‘We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.’ Local officials sent a letter to Sen. Joe Manchin saying, ‘Bill and Hillary Clinton are simply not welcome in our town.’ So how come not a single supporter of hers, including Sen. Manchin and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, is said to be making West Virginia ‘squirm’?”

Kushner adds that the media’s assault on Trump supporters extends “even beyond Trump relatives to include, bizarrely, the relatives of supporters.”

“Buzzfeed did a whole story on whether Josh Kushner’s business would be hurt by the fact that — can you follow this? — his brother’s wife’s father is the presidential candidate. Is that the standard? Has there been a single article anywhere about the business prospects of Marc Mezvinsky’s siblings? The writer of the Buzzfeed story — the talented reporter Nitasha Tiku, who worked at the Observer and was happy to cash checks signed by Jared Kushner when she did — contacted several colleagues of Josh Kushner to determine whether they’d still be comfortable doing business with Kushner’s investment firm, Thrive Capital. The Trump-opposing tech investor Chris Sacca is characterized by Tiku as saying, ‘The Trump connection might have affected Thrive directly.’

“The message from the MSM is clear: Support Donald Trump, and you — and maybe even your family — will be ridiculed, investigated and ignored.”

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