Jim Acosta

[Dill]

(11-09-2018, 03:33 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: Right, Obama got hammered no where near as much in 8 years as Trump has been in just 2 years.
Quit trying to play stupid.

That's stupid, Why does one of the most powerful men in the world have to show a reporter any respect?

He's already earned the respect that comes with the title POTUS. You show the POTUS respect and maybe he will show you respect back.

That's the problem with many of these snowflakes today. Take take take.

First point, Obama was a competent president and did not tweet daily personal insults to anyone who disagreed with him. Trump personally and publicly abuses even his own staff and appointees.   Aside from the numerous political/legal missteps which plague this WH, that alone would keep negative stories in the news. Add to that the fact he and his supporters blame the media for reporting what Trump does, not Trump for doing what he does. That is a story too. 

Second, your concept of leadership, and of "respect" for leaders, does not accord with the norms of liberal democracy, where leaders are SERVANTS of the people, transparent government is a standard, and the press represents the interests of the people at press briefings. 

Thus an elected leader, especially of the "free world," is expected to take difficult questions and show respect for the PROCESS even if he does not like an individual reporter.  And he is expected to respect EVERY citizen, regardless of power differential. Dictators like Saddam Hussein or the Shah of Iran or, now, Putin and Kim, DO NOT have to show reporters respect because in their political arenas democratic norms do not prevail. Everyone around the dear leader must show him respect and the press must not ask discomfiting questions or print what the leader doesn't want printed. 

"Power"--and power alone--is respected in dictatorships. Dictators do not therefore lose respect if they personally abuse staff and citizens. They only lose respect if they lose power.  If their incompetence is ever called out, their accusers are immediately defined as enemies and traitors--as in ENEMIES of THE PEOPLE.

You claim Trump has "earned" respect and it "comes with the title."  You don't sound open to the idea that a president can win and election without earning respect, or if he ever had it, can deservedly lose it because of his behavior.

In short, your post implies a president should have dictatorial powers, and our political culture itself should be one in which in which "winning" and "power" are the standards, while civic norms and all that ethics crap are for snowflakes.

It is this rejection of democratic process, ethics and civil norms in favor of "power" which keeps Trump's base behind him and unfazed by his unfitness for leadership in a democracy.