An Arrogant Letter To President-Elect Trump "from the US press corps"

Depending on your sense of humor, you'll either find this "Open Letter" to be either offensive or deeply funny. It was published by the Columbia Journalism Review's and it was written by a fellow named Sean Pope. As you're about to see, the fellow is easy to nickname "Pope Sean."

"An open letter to Trump from the US press corps"

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT ELECT:

In these final days before your inauguration, we thought it might be helpful to clarify how we see the relationship between your administration and the American press corps.

If you know the type, you know what's coming. The intro is filled with complaints about him, at least one of which is rooted in arguably fake news.

Of course, being good with the glib, Pope Sean tries to strike a somewhat conciliatory tone...

All of this, of course, is your choice and, in a way, your right. While the Constitution protects the freedom of the press, it doesn’t dictate how the president must honor that; regular press conferences aren’t enshrined in the document.

...before gettin' tough:

But while you have every right to decide your ground rules for engaging with the press, we have some, too. It is, after all, our airtime and column inches that you are seeking to influence. We, not you, decide how best to serve our readers, listeners, and viewers. So think of what follows as a backgrounder on what to expect from us over the next four years.

(Image from here.)

Please Tell Us Your Demands...

Access is preferable, but not critical.

Off the record and other ground rules are ours—not yours—to set

We decide how much airtime to give your spokespeople and surrogates.

We believe there is an objective truth, and we will hold you to that.

We’ll obsess over the details of government

We will set higher standards for ourselves than ever before

We’re going to work together.

We’re playing the long game.

---

(Image roundup: in order, they came from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Commentary

This...self-confident letter can be taken in one of two ways, which is why it's an...interesting document. If you're a loyal Trump supporter, this picture of The Donald say it all:

(Image from here.)

But there's another way to take it: Pope Sean is showing that the mainstream media still does have a lot of power - and they intend to use it. That's why the last talkback meme I included featured Yes, Minister's Sir Humphrey.

Have a lookie at this excerpt from Wikipedia's summary of The Writing On The Wall:

Sometime later, Sir Humphrey invites Bernard for an informal chat. He has not yet seen the Minister's redraft of the policy review and wonders why. At first, Bernard is tightlipped, reminding Sir Humphrey that he is the Minister's Principal Private Secretary. His superior does not like this approach and points out that ministers come and go, whereas Bernard would be hoping for a long career in the civil service. Bernard takes the hint and asks Sir Humphrey if he had a duty to inform him if — to take a purely hypothetical example — a minister and his political advisors had decided to redraft a report between them and then submit it to committee at the last moment, before it could be amended by anyone else. Sir Humphrey tells him that he should not, particularly if such information was given in confidence. However, he is now sufficiently pleased to offer Bernard a drink.

with emphasis added.

A lot of the mainstream media's power is rooted in staying power. Essentially, they benefit from a huge network effect: they depend upon force of habit. So, there is a case that laughing off Pope Sean is blithe.

The Opportunity For Alternate Media, Including Steemit!

There's also a good case to be made that the staying power of liberal media is good for alternate-media platforms, including Steemit. The most venerable alt-media player, Matt Drudge, hit the big time because he published details about the Monica Lewinsky scandal when the mainstream media was covering them up. He's never looked back.

New media thrives on the biases and blind spots of regular media. It's only a matter of time before Steemit benefits too. We already are, in a rudimentary way. Just think of how many posts there have been on #Pizzagate !

It's only a matter of time before some new-media journalists discovers that Steemit not only incentivizes content but also provides a censorship-resistant platform. What is published here, is very difficult to un-publish.

So it's actually good for us that the legacy media is stubborning up. Donald Trump has already demonstrated that centrally-administered new media is the perfect counter-weapon. Gab has already demonstrated that people who are censored by those platforms will scatter to a venue where they're not censored. When they see what Steemit brings to the world, we'll be ready for them!

(Image from here, courtesy of @omfedor .)