As one would expect, the apparent mandate from the top that the Media Research Center cheer Donald Trump petulantly revoking the Washington Post’s press credentials has trickled down to the MRC rank-and-file. Tom Blumer, a loyal NewsBusters misinformer, is totally on the Trump media shutdown train, using the same argument his bosses used:
Trump took special umbrage to the following headline at Jenna Johnson’s coverage of Trump’s reactions to the terrorist massacre in Orlando: “Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting.” The Post, claiming it did so before Trump made his move, is now carrying this revised headline: “Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting.” The trouble is, Johnson’s content, which deliberately injected scurrilous meaning which was not present into Trump’s comments, still contains the contention made in the earlier headline.
[…]
What Trump said indicates that he is as mystified and outraged as millions of other Americans are as to why President Barack Obama won’t identify Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen’s specifically stated Islamic radical motivations — and why Obama and his party insist on treating a terrorist massacre as an excuse for pushing more gun control measures which would not have prevented the carnage.It is therefore beyond dispute that Johnson wrote that Trump “seemed to” say that Obama was “involved” in Omar Mateen’s massacre of 49 people.
It’s quite a stretch to believe that any reasonable person could interpret Trump’s remarks as Johnson did by using the word “complicit.” As such, what she wrote would, to use her weasel words, “seem to” be libel (“defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures”). Whether it’s actionable in the legal system is a separate matter.
Of course, Trump has refused to clarify his statement — Trump himself said that “I’ll let people figure that out for themselves” — so, by definition, no interpretation of what he said can be wrong, let alone libelous, which makes Trump’s snit fit against the Post even more petulant. Even Blumer admits he’s guessing at what he thinks Trump “indicate[d]” — not what he definitively said.
But Blumer is too busy cheering on Trump to debate such a fine point. After asserting the Post was being “dishonorable, dishonest and inaccurate” on Trump’s remarks — again, despite the fact that Trump himself won’t clarify them — he rants:
One could argue that Donald Trump has in certain instances been too quick to take credentials away from other news outlets. It’s impossible to argue that this is one of them. Anyone with an ounce of self-respect wouldn’t allow unfettered access to a bunch of people who want their readers to believe that you think President Obama was complicit in a terrorist massacre.
How little self-respect does Blumer have to back a candidate who clearly can’t handle reporting that doesn’t make him look good?