Cheeto's New Tactics With the Press Follow the Old-School Authoritarian Model . . . With a Twist

[fleur-de-lisa]

http://www.alternet.org/media/trumps-new-tactics-press-follow-old-school-authoritarian-model-twist

Cheeto is fulfilling the role of an authoritarian demagogue so thoroughly that if this whole disaster was a movie, it would be criticized for being too lazily formulaic and cliched. His frequently-expressed hostility toward the media comes right out of a well-worn copy of The Dictator’s Playbook, and he has repeatedly revealed himself to be an enemy of a free press. The latest example comes as Pee Boy and his team attempt to alienate the media from the White House by shutting down the press room, which has been in operation since the Nixon years. The Golden Pisser’s war on the press is also attracting candidates to his administration who are helping PEETUS devise ways to make journalists’ jobs harder, including by mandating that those who cover the White House undergo biannual drug tests.

Esquire was the first to report that Cheeto, on the heels of his first press conference in six months -- which he used to denigrate the media for occasionally doing their jobs -- is mulling over evicting the press corps from the West Wing. According to the outlet, the move would relocate press corps to digs in the nearby White House Conference Center or the Old Executive Office Building.

Press secretary Scott Spicer suggested the move is being considered because the last media briefing showed there is an uniquely high interest in president Cheeto. “When we had that press conference the other day, we had thousands of requests, and we capped it at four hundred,” said Spicer, who is definitely pretending not to know that PEETUS’s refusal to answer press questions for an unprecedented amount of time had exactly the effect the team intended, in terms of demand for access. “"A question is: Is a room that has forty-nine seats adequate?...Is there an opportunity to potentially allow more members of the media to be part of this? That's something we're discussing."

The High Pisser Chief of Staff Rancid Penis is repeated this talking point during a tour of Sunday morning news shows. But another senior official didn’t bother pretending that the relocation is anything other than it appears: a transparent attempt to block press access so Pee Boy can avoid explaining, defining, defending, or detailing the what, when, where and how involved in his administration’s plans.