National Journal senior columnist Ron Fournier, a former Washington bureau chief for Associated Press (and an AP reporter in Little Rock when the Clintons ran the place), is very upset Donald Trump won't match the "precedent" of releasing his tax returns. This means war, he suggests in The Atlantic, and deserves an unprecedented media crackdown: ban him from TV interviews until he cries Uncle:
The media is nothing if it can’t hold a presidential candidates accountable—if newsrooms and editorialists can’t force a White House aspirant to keep a promise, uphold precedent, and address suspicions that he’s a tool of Moscow.
Journalism is a joke if we let Donald Trump slide.
And so I have an idea for CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and the three broadcast networks:
Stop interviewing Trump, and stop paying his surrogates, until he releases his tax records.
"Tool of Moscow"? We know how Democrats think about straitjackets and a rubber room when that accusation gets pointed at them.
Joe Concha at The Hill newspaper reported the article, and asked experts for reaction. Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan, argued that "while Fournier's idea is unique, it would set a dangerous precedent and ultimately be impossible to enforce."
"While a novel idea from Ron, this seems a bit extreme even for advocacy journalists,” said Kall.
Obviously, Fournier singled out Trump for this journalistic pressure tactic. Fournier admitted you could do the same to Hillary, but that's not what he wants to write about. She's apparently not a suspected "tool of Moscow"!
Yes, of course: They should consider strong-arming other politicians, including Hillary Clinton (“Want a prime-time hit on my network? Bring your Wall Street transcripts”). But this column is about Trump, his Russian backer, and the possibility that a foreign government is trying to pick the next U.S. president.
If the networks take his ego hostage, he’ll pay the ransom.
How interesting. The other day on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Fournier explained he was out to dinner with the Democrats, and they were terrified of what the Russians could do if they had Hillary e-mails she refused to turn over:
I can tell you there's a lot of senior Democrats in this town, I was out having dinner with a bunch of them last night, who, that's what they're worried about. What if those emails, that they wanted her to release, more than a year ago, what if those emails get out, and there's some damaging material in them.
A few minutes later, Fournier started his demands: "Donald Trump has gotta release his tax returns. I want to know what he has done with the Russian government like yesterday, gotta be done. And every time he comes on this show, I’m sorry, but that should be the first question that is asked and with three or four follow-ups. Where are your tax returns?"
Fournier and his "senior Democrat" dining buddies want to know.
