An Enemy of the People

 My former employer joined more than 300 newspapers around the country today with an editorial saying it is not an enemy of the people. Most readers never thought it was. (How long did you subscribe to Pravda?) Fifty-one percent of Republicans, according to the Quinnipiac  Poll,  think it is.
 Their minds won't be changed  since they heard that from their president.
 The tepid defense of its non-enemy status this morning was, like most of the paper's recent editorials, carefully crafted not to offend anybody. The MAGA folks will be neither offended or not offended. They will simply fall in line behind His Petulance. Who will take the coordinated self-defense as evidence of the plot against him.



 Several MAGAs will write letters saying, "Methinks thou dost protest too much." They think that line displays erudition. But they think it's from the Bible.
 Y'all know I have my problems with the press.  There is, for example, me-tooism. Today's me-toos involve the withdrawal of John Brennan's security clearance -- although you have to look long and hard to find out why people like Brennan get to keep their clearances. Trump thinks it is professional courtesy. That shows again how little he knows.
 The other big me-too is the Pennsylvania Catholic Church story, most of which covers events that are decades old. The only public purpose the fevered coverage serves is to confirm haters of the Church and sneerers at religion that they were right all along. (Thank you, shepherds of the flock. Some of us thought what we were doing was important to our immortal souls. You, obviously, had other fish to fry.)
 But way more important, for public purposes, than John Brennan or the Pittsburgh diocese is the fact that the bureaucrats of our national kidnap agency still have more than 500 child hostages. The ransom has been paid; their parents went home. But now the kidnappers either can't or won't bother to reunite the families. In our name. With our taxes.

 Leave that aside, though for just one minute.
 The press isn't perfect. But neither is it un-American. I exists to find out what people need to know and tell them. If it fails to do that, don't read it.
 His Petulance is getting tougher coverage than his predecessors, but he brought it on himself. And it is late coming.
 Remember, all through the campaign he evinced congenital lying and a massive ego. But nearly all the papers went along with the thought that he would grow up in the White House. Not! They still think he is some kind of great  businessman, even though there has to be a reason he won't release his tax returns.
 He still gets the breaks of reportorial equivalency. So if it is mentioned that his administration is kidnapping little children who come with their parents, the news has to be equalized by pointing out that the Obama administration held older children who came alone. See? They all do it!
 Press-baiting from the Oval Office and the briefing room is dangerous. Some of his MAGAs aren't very well constructed to start with, and with a little goading there is no telling what they will do.
 But the worst of it is, most of the papers still are not as tough on him as he deserves.
 The most famous use of the phrase "enemy of the people" was by Ibsen in his play of that name. Remember, the "enemy" was the guy who warned that the town's curative waters were dangerously polluted.
 The enemy of he people happened to be correct.