It's really cool how David Gregory has affection for a job he never did.
Mister "No Follow Up Questions" yearns for the time with a POTUS appreciated the "symbiotic relationship" the White House ideally has with the press corps.
And that President is George W. Bush.
DAVID GREGORY: But Ronald Reagan was the one who perfected the use of television and John Kennedy was the forerunner of that and before that FDR who mastered the use of the radio. What was he doing? He was going outside of the White House. He was going directly to the people. so every president tries to do it. what's important to remember is if you're covering the White House you have a group of reporters there, It helps our democracy, It helps public understanding of what the President is doing, what his staff is engaged in when you have a press corps that's well briefed, that understand what is they're thinking strategically, substantively and can communicate that and challenge them. Bush once said to me, he said "Gregory, we have a symbiotic relationship." And by that, it was not that we scratch each other's back but that he -- there was a role for the press to play that was good for him.
...The president has a bit of an elitist view. Not a bit, an elitist view that the media is silly....
He was very deliberate about those he respected and those he didn't. I think he felt that there was the kind of, the game and the noise of media that he thought was silly and that undermined the serious things he was trying to do."
And so this morning David Gregory is the darling of the Breitbart crowd. April Ryan did her best to point out the differences that the words "first Black President" made in press coverage, but in the end this was an anxiety therapy session for David Gregory and Ann Compton, to express their worry that the pampered and vain White House Press Corps was about to lose all their privileges because Trump doesn't give a rat's butt about them unless they make him look good. Yes this is true about all Presidents but no other President got this in the run-up to his Presidency:
(Via Mediaite)
The empty Trump podium covered by all three cable news networks for over 30 minutes.
And for a little comparison? The overall Trump media coverage from the 2016 campaign (via Fair.org):
And post-election in the middle of holidays? Cable news runs Trump rallies live and uninterrupted. Because in the absense of a plane crash or a baby in a well, nothing gets eyeballs more than the world "LIVE" in the corner of the screen. And it's low cost low staff filler for the cable "news" networks-- whose ONLY job is to sell moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis ads.
Gregory's right, all Presidents have tried to play the media in general and White House Press Corps in particular to their own ends. Trump just by-passes any criticism from them by using their thirst for content in a 24 hour news cycle, along with their vanity and self-interest in being celebrities in their own right (White House Correspondent's Dinner, anyone?) to get away with everything from the abandonment of "norms" to outright fascism
and White supremacy in his cabinet.
Gosh, David, did you think trading access for honesty would get you respect from Trump? Really.
