One Newspaper Blasts Another Over Trump Story

Wall Street Journal editorial page sees bias in Washington Post coverage of Iraq trip
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 27, 2018 1:00 PM CST
One Newspaper Blasts Another Over Trump Story
President Trump speaks to US troops in a hanger at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Trump says the mainstream media is biased against him, and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal thinks coverage of his surprise trip to Iraq proves the point. The editorial page, which has a conservative bent, specifically faults the Washington Post for the story that went up on its website when news broke of the visit. It began like this: "President Trump touched down Wednesday in Iraq in his first visit to a conflict zone as commander in chief, a week after announcing a victory over the Islamic State that his own Pentagon and State Department days earlier said remained incomplete." The next paragraph pointed out that the trip "follows months of public pressure for him to spend time with troops deployed to conflicts in the Middle East and punctuates the biggest week of turmoil the Pentagon has faced during his presidency.”

The editors say they stopped reading at that point. "These reporters can’t even begin a news account of a presidential visit to a military base without working in a compilation of Mr. Trump’s controversies, contradictions, and failings," they complain. This kind of "gratuitously negative" coverage undermines media credibility without Trump having to say a word. "Can anyone reading those opening two sentences wonder why millions of Americans believe Donald Trump when he tells them that he can’t get a fair shake from the press?" Read the full editorial here. (Trump went on to make a second visit to troops.)

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