Jeff Danziger’s award-winning drawings are published by more than 600 newspapers and websites. He has been a cartoonist for the Rutland Herald, the New York Daily News and the Christian Science Monitor; his work has appeared in newspapers from theWall Street Journal to Le Monde and Izvestia. Represented by the Washington Post Writers Group, he is a recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army as a linguist and intelligence officer in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. Danziger has published ten books of cartoons and a novel about the Vietnam War. He was born in New York City, and now lives in Manhattan and Vermont. A video of the artist at work can be viewed here.
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Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters
Toward the end of their broadcasts Monday, two of President Donald Trump's favorite shows converged on one of his favorite topics: his purported mistreatment by the very nasty and unfair press which supposedly prefers Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Trump booster Maria Bartiromo responded to clips of commentators at other networks highlighting Trump's failed response to the novel coronavirus pandemic by complaining about the "constant, nonstop criticism of this president by the media." She went on to praise Trump's handling of the virus, in an interview simulcast on Fox News' Fox & Friends and Fox Business's Mornings with Maria. Trump instantly chimed in, tweeting that he was the victim of a "Fake News media conspiracy" in which journalists were exaggerating the danger posed by the virus to damage him politically.
<p>Trump has used the press as a foil throughout his presidency, and attacks on other news outlets are a staple of Fox's programming. But eight days out from an election, with the president <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">trailing</a> Biden in national and battleground state polls, their media denunciations are taking on a new tone of desperation. </p><p>Trump and his propagandists appear to be setting up journalists to be the scapegoat if he is defeated at the polls next week. They are poised to blame the press, rather than acknowledging that Trump's actions have made him a historically unpopular president -- which would be an implicit critique of the Fox machine that has both praised and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/15-examples-fox-news-unrivaled-federal-influence-over-last-two-years" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">counseled his administration</a> through every turn. </p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" data-aaad="true"></div>
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<div id="vid"></div><p>Guest after guest on Monday's <em>Fox & Friends</em> and <em>Mornings with Maria</em> decried the purported bias of the press, particularly with regard to its <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/new-york-post/new-york-posts-hunter-biden-story-flops-right-wing-media-rage-mainstream-outlets-wont" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">handling</a> of the dubious <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rudy-giuliani/rudy-giuliani-trying-manipulate-press-it-isnt-working-yet" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hunter Biden email story</a>. Fox contributor Dan Bongino <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908581" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lashed out</a> at the media for having "no interest whatsoever in entertaining this story, only because it makes Biden not look bad, but look horrendous." "Why aren't Hunter Biden's dealings being covered far and wide by every mainstream newspaper or media organization? Because they are in the bag for anything that is left-wing and liberal, and that is frightening," Fox Business' Dagen McDowell likewise <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908606" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">grumbled</a>. </p><p>For Ken Starr, who defended Trump during his Senate impeachment trial for abuse of power, this <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908611" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">amounted</a> to "a moral collapse of the mainstream media in the United States." Starr, who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/us/ken-starr-resigns-as-professor-cutting-last-tie-to-baylor-university.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">drummed out of his post</a> as president of Baylor University in 2016 following a scathing investigation which concluded that the university "had done little to respond to accusations of sexual assault involving football players," added, "I think it's moral corruption and moral failure that they're not saying, we want to know the facts [about Hunter Biden's business dealings]." </p><p>The network's right-wing guests also put forward a plethora of other gripes with the media's coverage. Right-wing podcaster Ben Shapiro <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908586" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">complained</a> that the "praetorian guard of the media" hasn't grilled vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris over being a "wild leftist." White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908591" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lamented</a> that the press "tries to degrade" the president's supporters.<em> New York Post </em>columnist Michael Goodwin <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908596" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">bemoaned</a> the media's priorities in the face of his purported successes. <em>Washington Free Beacon</em> reporter Chrissy Clark <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908601" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">offered the conspiracy theory</a> that the press is deliberately cherry-picking poll numbers favorable to Biden in red states as part of a "Democratic ploy to push the get-out-the-vote effort." And Wall Street Journal editorial board member James Freeman <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3908616" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">quibbled</a> with CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl's lack of fluency with the Obamagate conspiracy theory. </p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3" data-aaad="true"></div><p>At the same time, Trump offered his own attacks on journalists, calling them "Losers," claiming they were "working overtime" to help Biden, and even suggesting their critical coverage of his handling of the pandemic amounted to an "election law violation."</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b7d87d65f674b8505c34bae0974fb2f6" id="88783"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1320711322284281862"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Fake News Media is riding COVID, COVID, COVID, all the way to the Election. Losers!</div> — Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1320711322284281862">1603717091.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bbb11016c132267cc891b53b49ab9875" id="e1d6e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1320690788628598784"><div style="margin:1em 0">We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the… https://t.co/3gNeu2d4AT</div> — Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1320690788628598784">1603712195.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br/></p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ef52ee0d231cf3ff3189d8d2c97f7fd" id="9443e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1320689314506964997"><div style="margin:1em 0">Joe Biden called me George yesterday. Couldn’t remember my name. Got some help from the anchor to get him through t… https://t.co/NbdE04IZMo</div> — Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1320689314506964997">1603711844.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Trump repeatedly hammered the media during a rally later that day in Pennsylvania, calling out <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1320757526875557894" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stahl</a> ("a zippo") and NBC's <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1320761226335555585" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Savannah Guthrie</a> ("terrible," "crazed") by name and <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1320768329561395204" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">describing</a> CNN as "corrupt" and "the enemy of the people."</p><p>Pinning the blame on the press sets Trump up nicely if he is defeated and decides to start his own media company, as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kushner-talking-up-trump-branded-media-outlet-gop-sources-say-2020-10" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">has been rumored</a>. It also positions Fox to continue to tell its audience that its pro-Trump hosts are the only ones who will provide viewers with the truth, and thus keep the network's cash machine running. Meanwhile, the Republican Party will stay stuck in a Fox News feedback loop. </p>
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