Dan Rather Compares Press Covering Trump to ‘Facing a Fertilizer Spreader in a Windstorm’
Dan Rather said it’s important for the press to act as a “truth squad” when covering any presidency, but called it “absolutely imperative” with the Trump administration.
“I think it’s absolutely imperative,” the veteran journalist said in an interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter on Sunday. “Now more than ever is when the press needs to be a kind of truth squad for this and every other president. It’s perhaps more important with President Trump because there are more untruths to set the record straight.
“But if journalists cower — as many in Congress both some Republican and some Democrats are cowering with the NRA – if journalists cower, then how long can we sing ‘we’re the home of the brave’?”
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According to The Washington Post, President Trump made 2,140 false or misleading claims and flip-flops in his first year in office, averaging more than 5.6 per day. Rather said although Trump’s false claims are “past the point of shock,” he thinks that most Americans understand what the press is dealing with.
“I do think that most people get it,” Rather said. “That most people understand that they’re facing on a daily basis from the White House and from the president himself the rough equivalent of you’re facing a fertilizer spreader in a windstorm.”
Watch a portion of the interview below.
Video: @DanRather to @BrianStelter on CNN’s @ReliableSources: “If journalists cower” to the @NRA, as have many in Congress, “then how long can we sing we’re ‘the home of the brave’?” #TTT pic.twitter.com/803bRGdbae
– Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) February 25, 2018
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