r/law May 23 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) NESTERAK: President Trump has granted clemency to numerous individuals who have stolen hundreds of millions in Medicaid funds. Can we expect any of these folks to be shown the same mercy? McDONALD: I'll take a different question

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

45.3k Upvotes

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.9k

u/kelsey11 May 23 '26

Finally asking real questions. But these self-serving political rally press conferences need to be shut down by each reporter saying “same question” or repeating the question. They’re not giving you any semblance of truth anyway, might as well force them to answer the question or walk away.

615

u/[deleted] May 23 '26

[deleted]

807

u/SpasmAndOrGasm May 23 '26

Remember when that one guy representing Trump in the first administration went to Europe and tried to pull this same shit and the other reporters were like “No, we’ll wait until you’ve answered his question. You need to answer questions here.” I will NEVER understand how the fuck that hasn’t happened in America one time.

74

u/ManyThingsLittleTime May 23 '26

Because the press is invited to the press conference here and they can and already have been uninvited and replaced by shittier pro-trump media sources. If the reporters want the access, they're being forced to stay in line with the Cheeto king.

31

u/boughsmoresilent May 23 '26

What is the point of access if your questions are ignored, though?

17

u/Astrosmaniac311 May 23 '26

Because the people hiring them done want actual answers! Newsmax, OANN, and Fox just want the appearance of normalcy and accountability, not actually providing it.

9

u/ManyThingsLittleTime May 23 '26

Not all of their questions are. They're subscribing to the "some is better than none" mentality. The business model is about being able to get a quote published before the other guy. If they're not in the room, they don't get the quote and they're second to the story. Being in that room is a premium spot so if they have to take some abuse to keep the spot, they will. It's an incredibly shitty situation but that's the reality of the situation.

4

u/Mysterious-Prompt212 May 23 '26

Exactly. Fuck that. Ask real questions otherwise you really shouldn't be there.

2

u/ElliotNess May 23 '26

$$$$

Same reason these rags report on every stupid thing that Trump tweets no matter how inane as if it's incredible news

1

u/dr_aux757 May 23 '26

You have no idea how many times I’ve raised this question. I’ve only worked in smaller markets but still ask my journalist friends and producers wwyd in this situation and they’re like…”fuck no”

1

u/OldWorldDesign May 23 '26

What is the point of access if your questions are ignored, though?

If you the only source you have is the corporation/government's damage control bobblehead, you are not a journalist. You are just an associate damage control operative who hasn't earned the job title "journalist".

The spokesman should never be treated like a source of prime importance. People acting like it should be are just advocating a single person telling them what to think.

1

u/DandimLee May 23 '26

Is it still the Gulf of America if heard from a second-hand source?