Press. voanews.com.
In an
editorial meeting Tuesday with The New York Times, Donald Trump repudiated the
white supremacist alt-right movement, a fervent segment of the electorate that
supports the president-elect. "I don't want to energize the group, and I
disavow the group," according to a tweet from New York Times reporter
Maggie Haberman, who attended the meeting.
Follow
Maggie Haberman ✔ @maggieNYT
Trump on
alt-right supporters: "It's not a group I want to energize. And if they
are energized I want to look into it and find out why."
2:11 PM -
22 Nov 2016
1,155 1,155 Retweets 840 840 likes
Trump
sought to distance himself from the alt-right three days after white
nationalists shouted Nazi slogans at an event just blocks from the White House.
Trump
finally met with editorial staff members of The New York Times, who Trump has
frequently criticized, after announcing on Twitter he canceled the meeting due
what he said were changes to the editorial ground rules. Trump reversed his
decision a short time later.
Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔
@realDonaldTrump
I
cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and
conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
7:16 AM -
22 Nov 2016
15,032
15,032 Retweets 53,078 53,078 likes
Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔
@realDonaldTrump
The
meeting with the @nytimes is back on at 12:30 today. Look forward to it!
11:40 AM
- 22 Nov 2016
5,611 5,611 Retweets 22,122 22,122 likes
Tuesday
was the second day Trump spent meeting with news organizations that he
frequently sparred with during his 18-month presidential campaign.
"I
can't recall an incoming president gathering everybody up in a cattle call and
doing it all at once," Allan Louden, chairman of the Wake Forest
University Communications Department, said in an interview with VOA.
When
Trump met Monday with well-known television news figures, he criticized their
coverage of the presidential campaign and accused them of not seeing the signs
of his surprising win over Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
University
of Southern California journalism professor Geoffrey Cowan told VOA that Trump
is the first president-elect to use social media as effectively as he has.
"Donald
Trump is unquestionably an unconventional president … and one of the ways in
which he's unconventional is his relationship with the media and with the
press," Cowan said. With nearly 16 million followers on Twitter, more than
many news organizations have, Cowan said Trump can afford to spar with the
media.
"It
may play well for him," Cowan said.
With
Trump's upset presidential victory and a plethora of social media
communications channels at his disposal, Louden agreed that Trump has leverage
in his relationships with news organizations.
"He's
dressing them down and he's saying, ‘you guys better behave,’ and what's the
media has to do. They're going to have to come back," Louden said.
"This pleases his constituency. He looks like the tough guy and they have little
choice but to try to get the news as best they can. So I think he's got the
upper hand on this one."
Cowan
said the American press failed to see the groundswell of support Trump received
and should reevaluate how it covers political campaigns. "I think the
press has to do its own self-examination … and ask why did we miss it,"
Cowan said.
Trump's
latest encounters with the press come after a group of news media advocacy
organizations called on him last week to "preserve longstanding
traditions" to ensure the press is free to inform the public of his
presidential activities. In an
open letter, 18 news groups asked him to maintain a pool of reporters who cover
all of the president's activities and movements and to have regular briefings
with the media.
"The
role of the press pool is critically important to our country, whose citizens
depend on and deserve to know what the president is doing," the letter
said. Concerns about news media access to Trump during his presidency were
raised November 15 when he departed his Trump Tower residence in New York City
without his press pool, for a dinner. During his campaign, it was not uncommon
for Trump to hurl angry remarks at journalists or to ban news outlets from his
appearances.
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