The president signed the Muslim Ban Executive Order in hiding and released the photos to the media. CNN did not fall for the trap. They are maintaining their recent stance (Jake Tapper, Wolf Blitzer) on holding the president accountable.
CNN are playing their journalist card appropriately
CNN made sure Trump did not control the message that Americans saw. The discriminatory ban is one of Trump’s signature promises to those that were instrumental in him winning the electoral college.
It was clear that Trump would want a photo op. He intended to talk about fulfilling his promises to his base. But his actions stepped on the event he had scheduled for today. The media, who cannot seem to cover multiple events of consequence simultaneously, are hyper-fixed on his tweet accusing President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower.
So he had the signing of his signature bill in private, in hiding. Followingly he released the photos. CNN threw a wrench in his gears. They did not acquiesce to Trump’s cowardliness and refused to air any of the pictures.
“The fact that,” John King said. “We won’t show you the picture of the President signing the Executive Order. It is incredibly important to his administration. It is a very important policy debate in our country. We won’t show you the picture because we have a policy that you can’t have canned press release pictures from a White House. You have to let the reporters in. The President is a big boy. He doesn’t have to answer questions if they are shouted at him. But they wouldn’t let anyone in because of the other issue front and center today. That is the President saying that he believes his predecessor somehow wiretapped him somehow during last year’s campaign.”
Now if the media at large would work together, they could force the hand of this president. The question is, will they?