10
Currents
October 2018
> continued from page 9
winning smile and friendly media coverage. Are they
right? Maybe, maybe not. But it's what they believe.
When President Obama said, "I complained
plenty about Fox News – but you never heard me
threaten to shut them down, or call them enemies of
the people," conservatives who watch that "wrong TV
network" and listen to the "wrong radio" burst into
laughter. They know the many times the Obama
White House tried to get Fox News marginalized as
a media source. They recall the Obama administra-
tion spying on Associate Press
reporters, labeling Fox News's
James Rosen a "criminal co-con-
spirator" over his coverage of
North Korea policy and investigat-
ing his family. Obama opened
more "Espionage Act" investiga-
tions into the working press than
all previous administrations com-
bined.
Even the Washington Post
conceded, "Shocked by Trump
aggression against reporters and
sources? The blueprint was
drawn by Obama."
When
Obama
wondered
aloud, "What has happened to the
Republican Party" and com-
plained that the Trump adminis-
tration is "undermining our
alliances, cozying up to Russia,"
some Trump supporters tweeted
each other "Did the 1980s get
their foreign policy back?" That
was a reference to Obama's
mockery of Mitt Romney during
their 2012 debate, when Romney
called Russia America's greatest
geo-political threat. Others posted
pictures of the big red button Sec-
retary of State Hillary Clinton pre-
sented to Russian Foreign Minis-
ter Sergey Lavrov with "reset"
written in Russia across the top.
(As Lavrov noted, Hillary's button
actually had the wrong Russian
word.)
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