Current Events > Trump and the NYT have rather different accounts of their meeting

(+) Yeah! (+)

Trump:
Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, Enemy of the People. Sad!

New York Times
Earlier this month, A.G. received a request from the White House to meet with President Trump. This was not unusual; there has been a long tradition of New York Times publishers holding such meetings with presidents and other public figures who have concerns about coverage.

On July 20th, A.G. went to the White House, accompanied by James Bennet, who oversees the editorial page of The Times. Mr. Trumps aides requested that the meeting be off the record, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past.

But with Mr. Trumps tweet this morning, he has put the meeting on the record, so A.G. has decided to respond to the presidents characterization of their conversation, based on detailed notes A.G. and James took.

Statement of A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher, The New York Times:

My main purpose for accepting the meeting was to raise concerns about the presidents deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.

I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous.

I told him that although the phrase fake news is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists the enemy of the people. I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.

I repeatedly stressed that this is particularly true abroad, where the presidents rhetoric is being used by some regimes to justify sweeping crackdowns on journalists. I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our countrys greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press.

Throughout the conversation I emphasized that if President Trump, like previous presidents, was upset with coverage of his administration he was of course free to tell the world. I made clear repeatedly that I was not asking for him to soften his attacks on The Times if he felt our coverage was unfair. Instead, I implored him to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country.
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Thing is, with Trump, he wants the press to be attacked and possibly killed, he had to be shamed to lower the flag for those shooting victims after all. That being said, I'm sure he's going to bitch about this later and at whatever his next cult meeting takes place.
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My favorite detail about this is that he asked for the meeting to be off the record and then immediately tweeted about it
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lmao what a jackass
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Mr. Trumps aides requested that the meeting be off the record, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past.

But then Trump had to go and tweet about the meeting, probably yet again without telling his cabinet before hand, thus throwing them & Sarah Sanders out of the loop when journalists ask questions about it.

I almost feel sorry for them. Some of them may feel stuck there because as weve seen with previous members of that cabinet that quit or get fired, their prospects arent good after that. Working for him is like a badge of shame. But then I remember that they chose to work for a man who had already shown himself to be vile.
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iPhone_7 posted...

Mr. Trumps aides requested that the meeting be off the record, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past.

But then Trump had to go and tweet about the meeting, probably yet again without telling his cabinet before hand, thus throwing them & Sarah Sanders out of the loop when journalists ask questions about it.

I almost feel sorry for them. Some of them may feel stuck there because as weve seen with previous members of that cabinet that quit or get fired, their prospects arent good after that. Working for him is like a badge of shame. But then I remember that they chose to work for a man who had already shown himself to be vile.

Requesting that a meeting be off the record and then tweeting about it basically means he wants to have the only say about what happened.
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frozenshock posted...

iPhone_7 posted...

Mr. Trumps aides requested that the meeting be off the record, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past.

But then Trump had to go and tweet about the meeting, probably yet again without telling his cabinet before hand, thus throwing them & Sarah Sanders out of the loop when journalists ask questions about it.

I almost feel sorry for them. Some of them may feel stuck there because as weve seen with previous members of that cabinet that quit or get fired, their prospects arent good after that. Working for him is like a badge of shame. But then I remember that they chose to work for a man who had already shown himself to be vile.

Requesting that a meeting be off the record and then tweeting about it basically means he wants to have the only say about what happened.

Of course, thats not really how it works, but hes not very smart
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bump
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Yeah he doesn't care about Annapolis at all.
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ledbowman posted...

Yeah he doesn't care about Annapolis at all.

Wouldn't be shocked if he was secretly a little happy about it. "Fake news sons of bitches getting what they deserve"
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I trust Russia's account of their meeting
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The only person to get one of these meetings with Trump in the hopes of steering him and come out looking successful for it is Kim Kardashian.
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Trump is against freedom of the press and would like nothing more then for the state to control the press. He us using the rights distrust of mainstream news to further his own agenda. People who work in the news industry even at Fox and other conservative sources have a right to be worried. Getting rid of people he disagree with would just be a start, complete control over what they can and cannot say is the end goal.
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frozenshock posted...

iPhone_7 posted...

Mr. Trumps aides requested that the meeting be off the record, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past.

But then Trump had to go and tweet about the meeting, probably yet again without telling his cabinet before hand, thus throwing them & Sarah Sanders out of the loop when journalists ask questions about it.

I almost feel sorry for them. Some of them may feel stuck there because as weve seen with previous members of that cabinet that quit or get fired, their prospects arent good after that. Working for him is like a badge of shame. But then I remember that they chose to work for a man who had already shown himself to be vile.

Requesting that a meeting be off the record and then tweeting about it basically means he wants to have the only say about what happened.

Which means he thinks rules don't apply to him. Which I think is obvious to everyone.
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Mr_Biscuit posted...

ledbowman posted...

Yeah he doesn't care about Annapolis at all.

Wouldn't be shocked if he was secretly a little happy about it. "Fake news sons of bitches getting what they deserve"

I have no doubt.
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Trump would order their public execution if he could
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yusiko posted...

Trump would order their public execution if he could

A decent amount of the Christian right would be there cheering
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