Former President Donald Trump said the United States is no longer a free society, most notably because of the press and Big Tech going “wild.”
“No. We don’t have freedom of the press for one thing,” Trump told Lisa Boothe on her new podcast when asked if the U.S. is still a free society. “You don’t have freedom of the press. Big Tech has gone wild.”
“And I’m able to get the word out because, you know, I’m able to get it, and then everybody picks it up, including Big Tech, which is sort of interesting.”
Trump added that other people don’t have the opportunity to send out press releases and statements like he is able to, which has added to the silencing of those who have been “canceled.”
Freedom of the press is absolutely gone. And the press is just very dishonest. You see the way they cover the border,” he added. “They’re not going to talk about the border and other things, plenty of other things, I could go through a whole list, but it’s really a terrible thing. It’s never happened to this extent ever before, never happened.”
Trump touted Boothe’s new podcast on Monday morning in a press release from his office, adding that Boothe “has been doing an outstanding job at Fox News” and encouraging others to listen to the interview.
Trump criticized the media on a near-daily basis during his time in office for coverage of the Russia investigation, his immigration policies, frequent combative questions during press conferences, and other instances he labeled as “fake news.”
The media is the biggest problem we have as far as I’m concerned, single biggest problem, the fake news and the Big Tech,” Trump said during a rally on Jan. 6, ahead of the storming of the Capitol.
Trump’s comments about the media losing reliability fall in line with a poll investigating the public’s views on the matter, finding that trust in the media hit an all-time low this year.
Just 46% of people trust traditional news media, and trust in social media has plummeted to 27%, according to a barometer published by Axios in January.
In addition, 56% of the poll respondents said they agreed with the statement, “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.”
Author : Emma Colton
Source : Washington Examiner : Trump says America is no longer a free society and slams ‘dishonest’ media and Big Tech going ‘wild’
