American President Donald Trump has done a great job as the White House has cancelled the subscription of the New York Times and the Washington Post. Trump has often railed against the coverage of him and his administration if it is not to his liking. He has time and again singled out the two newspapers that have been told to be banned by all the federal agencies. Trump has made complaints about the US media a regular staple at his campaign rallies itineraries and it is one of the poll planks that made him reach the top of the political ladder in Washington. Trump had said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Monday which he sees as a friendly ally that the White House would likely cut its subscriptions to the two newspapers. “We don’t even want it in the White House any more. We’re going to probably terminate that the New York Times and The Washington Post. They’re fake,” Trump had iterated. On Friday the Trump administration did come out with the order of cancelling the subscription and with this move, he has taken his fight with media he deems hostile to a new low. “We did not renew our subscription, that is correct. This will be a significant cost saving to taxpayers,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told AFP when asked to confirm the reports. Grisham further explained to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that the White House plans to require all federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions of the two newspapers.
The Times and particularly the Post may not be the biggest newspapers by circulation, but they have an enormous influence in national politics and especially in coverage of the White House. Often being the critics of the government which certainly does not goes down well with Mr Trump. It has been reported that President Trump likes to call these two publications “failing Times” and the “Amazon Post”, which has the Post pointed out in a report Thursday, were inaccurate. The Times is an immensely profitable company and the Post is owned by Amazon founder and owner Jeff Bezos, but is not affiliated to Amazon, the company. The Times and Post have been sitting atop the president’s list of news publications he had deemed hostile and unfavourable to him and his administration, along with CNN, whose Jim Acosta had his White House press credential very controversially cancelled briefly, until he went to court and had it restored to him.
Trump has a penchant for terming anything going against him as ‘fake news’ and his now-iconic “You’re fake news” has become a catchphrase of sorts in the modern meme culture. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that Trump severed ties with the two newspapers who are infamous for their highly blasphemous and biased reporting. Even in India, New York Times and Washington Post are not well-accepted as they have time and again toed anti-India line in the wake of abrogation of article 370. Keeping this in mind Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar had also purposely avoided such media houses on his recent trip to the US and instead talked and made strategic outreach to the think-tanks.
