Washington journalists share challenges covering 100 days of Trump
Donald Trump has made it clear that he's no fan of the mainstream media.
"The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people," Trump has said, calling the media "the enemy of the people."
And for the media, it's clear that covering a president like Trump is not business as usual.
White House bureau chief for the Washington Post Philip Rucker thinks of himself in a more positive light than "an enemy."
Even though Trump continually pushes the media down, Rucker suggests their relationship is essential,
"He knows he needs the media, and he spends an inordinate amount of time trying to shape the way he's covered —shaped the narrative if you will," Rucker tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
[Trump] still needs the media to spread most of his message out there.- Journalist Jason Russell
"His advisers talk regularly to reporters on and off the record. They care a lot about what is said about him because they know that the president reads what's written about him … he's a little bit obsessed with it frankly."
"And even though there are so many new ways to reach the people directly, you know through Twitter, through social media, he still needs the media to spread most of his message out there," Russell tells Tremonti.
Rucker says as a reporter, the hardest part of covering Trump is determining the truth because there are so many factions within the White House.
"So many of his aides have different ideological points of view and are competing against each other over ideas, but doing so in the public square — in the media — that it can be very difficult sometimes to figure out what the reality is."
As a reporter, Rucker explains, it means talking to four or five White House officials to find the accurate story. It's an approach that wasn't needed before because in the past, he says, a designated talker would be the point person for the media on an issue.
"You could go to that person to find out what the administration's position is on that issue and pretty much take it to the bank."
Rucker suggests the damaged relationship the media has with Trump has not only affected the credibility of journalism but also the public's ability to have information about the government — "an accountability measure for our public officials."
He says under Obama, the White House visitor logs were open to the public, but Trump has closed the door on this.
"There was a regular release — a list of all of the people who visited the White House for meetings and that's important to know sort of which industries are trying to influence the administration officials and so forth."
Rucker says Trump's administration claims it's a national security threat.
"But I think that speaks more to the hostility with the media and the feeling that the media could not be trusted to report on the visitors to the White House fairly."
Listen to the full segment at the top of this web post.
The Current's Washington special was produced by Howard Goldenthal, Willow Smith and Kathleen Goldhar.