Donald Trump’s first press conference since becoming president elect was full of fireworks. He addressed a story published by Buzzfeed which claimed that the CIA published a dossier that he was into sexual perversions, among other things. Before Buzzfeed published the dossier, CNN claimed that the same dossier claimed that Trump was presented with compromising information by the Russians.
 
Experts and others immediately dismissed the dossier as bogus. The online forum 4Chan claimed that the dossier was a prank sent to anti-Trump political consultant Rick Wilson who then passed it on to John McCain who then passed it on to the CIA. However, both Buzzfeed and Mediaite both dismiss the 4Chan prank theory.
 
That led to Wednesday’s Trump press conference at Trump Tower. Trump dismissed Buzzfeed as a “pathetic pile of garbage.” In addition, Trump refused to take a question from CNN’s Jim Acosta who was trying to ask him a question and labeled his network “fake news.” Acosta then meekly scolded Trump saying, “that’s not appropriate.”
 
 
The media is angry about Trump’s response to CNN, to say the least. Acosta whined that Trump’s staff threatened to throw him out of the press conference. Think Progress points out that Trump took a question from Breitbart which in their words “champions a white nationalist movement.” The Columbia Journalism Review’s Pete Vernon attacked reporters in attendance for not leaping to Acosta’s defense.
 
They’re not taking the fact that Donald Trump has as big of a microphone as they do very well. More importantly, Trump hits back at negative media coverage and his high profile critics. I say good for him.
 
Donald Trump does not give up his freedom of speech rights just because he president elect of the United States. That means he can take to Twitter and criticize journalists who write negative stories about him, mock critics, and even call news networks nasty things. None of that threatens freedom of the press.
 
The press deserves to be pushed back against. We won’t discuss Buzzfeed too much except to say they’re heading down the path of Gawker, which was forced into bankruptcy after losing a lawsuit filed by pro wrestler Hulk Hogan. CNN too acted recklessly with the dossier and earned its criticism as a “fake news” organization.
 
CNN announced the existence of the dossier and claimed that the Russians had compromising information about Donald Trump. However, they did not tell their audience what that information was. They intended to keep the cloud of suspicion hovering over Trump’s head throughout his presidency. In a way, Buzzfeed did Trump a favor but that doesn’t change the fact that CNN was referencing a likely bogus dossier in order to push their anti-Trump agenda.
 
The American people are tired of a dishonest media and their political agendas. According to a Gallup poll taken in September of last year, only 32% of Americans trust the media a great deal or a fair amount. The only demographic that still trusts the media are Democrats (you’re shocked I know).
 
The media has made it clear they’re going to war against President elect Trump. In fact, ABC News’ Terry Moran has even said it is acceptable to lie about Trump. Trump though fights back against his media critics and he will have growing support from the American people when he does. The media did it to themselves.