Trump goes after First Amendment with attack on `60 Minutes'
Russia attacks Ukrainian city where former Lake George worker lives
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We don't have a Walter Cronkite anymore.
Or any of the other high-profile news anchors people generally trusted to give them the news straight in the 1970s when 74 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans gave a high degree of trust and confidence in the news media.
So many of our local newspapers are either gone or the quality eroded by cuts to staff and resources.
The Pew Institute, which studies things like media credibility, says that, "The rapid rise of social media as a source of news has shaped public attitudes about journalism in ways we are still trying to fully understand. Research has found that social media use has led to burnout and news avoidance, fueled general mistrust of all media, and introduced an epistemic crisis. Although social media users may be exposed to a negative view of news media based on algorithmic incentive structures that reward certain types of messages, there’s little evidence that these individuals are seeing kinder representations of the news media offline. Even as a majority of Americans now turn to social media as a source of news, they are even more wary of these platforms than they are of professional news organizations."
So that leads us to the events of this week where President Trump attacked the most popular news show in television history, 60 Minutes, on the social media platform he owns and said it should "pay a big price" for going after him.
First of all, if you don't watch 60 Minutes every week, you should. There is a reason it has remained one of the top-rated television shows for a half-century..
So what was 60 Minutes horrific offense?
Scott Pelley interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the war and his relationship with the United States and Donald Trump.
Jon Wertheim made a trip to Greenland to see what their citizens think about President Trump's proposal to annex the country.
Trump also wrote on social media that 60 Minutes was no longer a news show but “a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing.”
Both stories Sunday night were good, straight forward reports and while some of the interviews may reflect poorly on Donald Trump, there aren't many things that don't these days.
“Almost every week, 60 Minutes ... mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all,” the president said on his Truth Social platform.
It's hard not to do a story about Trump these days without being "derogatory" since it is what defines him as a person.
And here is where it gets more frightening for 60 Minutes.
"They should lose their license! Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this."
It was unclear what was the "unlawful and illegal behavior"
What was clear was that Trump was issuing an order to undermine the First Amendment and freedom of the press.
CNN's media reporter Brian Stelter asked Carr if he had any comment and never heard back.
Trump already has a $20 billion lawsuit - yes, billion - filed against 60 Minutes where he claimed 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make her look good even thought Trump went on to win the election so it might be difficult to show how he was damaged.
Despite the chilling affect of the lawsuit, 60 Minutes has continued to cover the Trump administration aggressively.
Pelley traveled to Ukraine to interview Zelensky on the site of a Russian attack where nine children were killed earlier this month.
Zelensky said he had 100 percent hatred of Vladimir Putin and invited Trump to see what Putin has done to his country.
Also Sunday, correspondent Jon Wertheim reported from Greenland on what some people in that nation are saying about Trump’s desire to annex it.
While 60 Minutes remains respected in journalism circles, the Pew Institute continues to see less and less trust of all media.
Is that because it is true or is it because politicians say it is true?
As an editor of a community newspaper for 21 years and a 40-year veteran of the news business, I never saw the bias.
Our editors and reporters repeatedly bent over backward to be fair and impartial.
That's what I saw on the front lines from colleagues all over the country.
That's what I see every week from 60 Minutes.
Liza update
On Feb. 28, I ran a story about a young Ukranian woman who was befriended by a man and woman in Lake George a few summers ago.
Liza Kobyletska was a lost 20-year-old when she ran into Susan Nichols and her friend Roman Jaroush. They helped a lost girl one evening giving her food and shelter and became friends that summer.
Liza is back in Ukraine and Susan reported on Facebook this week that Liza's town had been attacked on Sunday with 34 deaths.
"This morning on Palm Sunday, two Russian ballistic missile struck the heart city of Sumy which is Liza's hometown, killing dozens and wounding many including children," Susan wrote. "Liza, her Mom and Grandmother are fine but the devastation to their community and those who are mourning on this Palm Sunday in Sumy, Ukraine deserves our solidarity, our respect, our unwavering commitment and prayers."
With all the turmoil our country is going through, we've sort of forgotten about the horrors in Ukraine.
Susan also wrote this, "It is clear that Russia started this war, Putin is not our friend."
That's something we should remember as well.
DEC meeting
Over the years, many people have voiced their concerns about the air pollution coming out of the trash plant in Hudson Falls.
As The Post-Star reported today, the DEC is requiring the trash plant's operator, Wheelabrator, to hold a public participation meeting about its application for renewal of its Title V air permit.
If you have concerns about air quality locally, this is the time to speak up.
The meeting is set for Wednesday, April 16 (tonight) at 6 p.m. at the Kingsbury Volunteer Hose Company on Burgoyne Ave. in Hudson Falls.
For more information, or to register for the event, contact Matthew Herbert by calling 207-615-4330, or emailing comms@win-waste.com.
Overheard
Overhead conversation from the couple behind me after sitting three hours in the sun at a Tulane baseball game that was only in the top of the eighth while the Masters leaders were heading into the back nine:
Husband: Rory just started the back nine.
Wife (excitedly): We should go home and watch it.
Husband: But you don't like watching golf.
Wife: It won't be in the sun.
Senior suggestions
Roger Rosenblatt is an 85-year-old author who wrote a book called "Rules for Aging" 25 years ago. He just wrote a sequel.
Since so many of my readers here are contemporaries, I thought his suggestions at age 85 might be instructive for many of us.
Rosenblatt wrote in a guest essay in the New York Times on Monday that "he knows a thing or two about being old and provides us with a top 10 list of suggestions.
There is not enough written about these "golden" years, so I highly recommend you check out Rosenblatt's piece.
My favorite suggestion: Try to see fewer than five doctors. When I counted up my current doctors, I was already at five.
Hurricane concerns
It seems appropriate that the National Hurricane Conference would hold its annual meeting in New Orleans.
What seems especially inappropriate as hurricanes get larger, stronger and occur more often is that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - which forecasts hurricanes - and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - which provides disaster relief afterwards - will not be represented among the 1,600 attendees.
Officials at NOAA and FEMA often lead the panel discussions in front of weather forecasters, hurricane researchers and emergency responders.
But this year, travel restrictions have been placed on federal employees by the Trump administration.
Julie Roberts, a former NOAA official in the Trump and Bush administrations told The Times-Picayune that the two organizations share critical information to help organizations prepare and strategize for the upcoming hurricane season.
John Wilson, chairman of the conference, opened Monday's conference by saying, "We hope this is just a one-year happenstance that we're facing this year and we'll see our friends and folks and comrades next year at our conference in Orlando."
FEMA has been cutting programs and terminating employees since the beginning of the Trump administration and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has proposed eliminating the agency entirely.
Bigger fish
Following up on Monday's column about the worry over our basic freedoms, the New York Times reported that "Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens. Indeed, both President Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have proposed that very thing."
That is worrisome.
PBS funding gone?
The New York Post has obtained a White House memo sent to Congress that strips PBS and NPR of $1.1 billion of funding and includes provisions to take back the money appropriated this year.
White House budget director Russ Vought's memo justifies the move by calling public radio and TV "politically biased." The proposal is expected to be approved by the Senate and House.
I've been watching PBS NewsHour for years and consider it some of the most indepth and best reporting in the evening hour. I'm not seeing the bias. The cuts would also include much of the PBS children's programming.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
I have watched 60 Minutes for years, and it is definitely a highly respected program. This BS with trump has GOT to stop!!! If it's the truth, he wants to eliminate it. ANYONE who supports this piece of human garbage is no better.
There's a silver lining, if you can call it that, in Trump's effort to defund NPR and PBS. It seems he'll have to do it publicly through Congress, rather than secretly in the dead of night like his other unlawful federal funding and program cuts. Past efforts at defunding public media through Congress were never successful.
"The memo, which the administration plans to send to Congress when it reconvenes from recess on April 28, will open a 45-day window in which the House and Senate can either approve the rescission or allow the money to be restored." (NPR)
Where's Mr. Rogers when you need him?