NPR's Folkenflik Offers Angry 'Analysis' of Trump's Press Insults, Not Biden's Snarls
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NPR's Folkenflik Offers Angry 'Analysis' of Trump's Press Insults, Not Biden's Snarls

When reporters want to uncork righteous editorializing, they label it a "news analysis." That's what happened when NPR media reporter David Folkenflik unleashed his outrage on Thursday morning at Trump demeaning several members of the elitist liberal media.  Morning Edition anchor A Martinez introduced it: "This week brought fresh reminders of what President Trump does when he wants to deflect unwelcome questions from reporters - he insults and attempts to intimidate. In this analysis, NPR's David Folkenflik says the intimidation is meant for media bosses, too." Folkenflik began: When President Trump is confronted by a question he doesn't like, he rarely holds back. On Friday, asked aboard Air Force One whether there was something incriminating about him in the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump told Bloomberg News' Catherine Lucey, "quiet - quiet, piggy." Trump became, if anything, even more contentious toward another reporter Tuesday at the White House." He called ABC's Mary Bruce a "terrible reporter" from a "fake news" network. FOLKENFLIK: This isn't Trump in his Don Rickles Friars roast insult comic mode. This is Trump trying to silence reporters, just as he's done since he started his first run for office in 2015. Here's what Trump said after Megyn Kelly moderated the first Republican debate for Fox News. TRUMP clip: And she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. And, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. FOLKENFLIK: Trump mocked a New York Times reporter's congenital condition. He called a black reporter racist, told a Chinese American reporter she should go ask China about his handling of COVID. In his second term, Trump has gone even harder on the mainstream media, surrounding himself with reporters from sympathetic and even sycophantic outlets. So let's return to that exchange at the White House on Tuesday. Just listen to the way Trump takes issues with Bruce's questions to the two world leaders. TRUMP to Mary Bruce: You start off with a man who is highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question. FOLKENFLIK: Mary Bruce is not a subordinate. She doesn't work for the president or the prince. She works for ABC News, yet Trump wants deference from her and not just her. Mary Bruce acted like a subordinate for Joe Biden. But that's another issue.  Someone might want to ask Folkenflik a question: where was his outraged "Analysis" in 2022 when President Biden called Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch"? Try searching NPR.org. There's nothing from the media man. There is, however, pro-Biden/anti-Doocy comedy on their quiz show Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, from Muslim comedian guest host Negin Farsad:  NEGIN FARSAD: President Biden said what a stupid son of a bitch about Fox News reporter Peter Doocy. And, yes, it was a breach of decorum. But in Biden's defense, Doocy is a [expletive]… ALZO SLADE: I feel like Joe Biden is that old dude that just can say whatever he feels like saying, and because...Of his age, nobody is going to care. It's like, yeah, just - you know, that's Uncle Joe. Just let him be. Trump's loose talk about how ABC should "lose its license" -- networks don't lose licenses, although their stations could -- cause Folkenflik to fuss about Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC chairman, and how Trump is also intimidating media bosses: "So even as reporters pose tough questions to the president, Trump is asking their bosses a question of his own - with so much at stake, is it worth it?" Nowhere in Folkenflik's foam-flecked "analysis" is their any admission that Trump grants far more access to reporters than Biden. New York Times media reporter Michael Grynbaum worked that into his hostile news story: "Although Mr. Trump routinely denigrates the press, he also fields dozens of questions from White House correspondents over the course of a week, sometimes meeting with journalists several times in one day." Neither man acknowledges how reporters run around using insults like "fascist" and "authoritarian" and so on to describe Trump. It's worse than "piggy." But that's always fair game.