Sarah Ellison at WP:
President Donald Trump has long railed against the “fake news” as an “enemy of the people.” But this week, the president showed how far he has come in finding a new use for the media: as props.
Friendly influencers were summoned to the White House on Wednesday afternoon, as they have been throughout Trump’s second term, to bolster his agenda and attack his targets of the moment. Reporters from mainstream news organizations remained part of the presentation, but mostly as silent foils and heels to be disparaged and critiqued.
“I read more of your stories than I do theirs,” FBI Director Kash Patel told the influencers, gesturing to the reporters at the back of the room, “because you guys are putting out the truth.”
Leigh Kimmins at The Daily Beast:
ICE Barbie Kristi Noem is now starring in Trump administration airport propaganda.
A slickly produced video featuring the Homeland Security chief began airing Thursday on airport monitors across the country, blaming Democrats for the nine-day-old government shutdown that has already caused massive flight delays and left thousands of aviation employees working without pay.
“Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay,” Noem says in the clip, which a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to Reuters is now being blasted out in airports nationwide.
