Jobe McDermott

ENC2135

Project Two Draft One

Trump vs. the Media

For my genre analysis, I decided to focus on one of the most widely discussed topics in

American politics right now: the war between Trump and the mainstream media. Both sides

blame the other, creating a divide that calls into question the character and motives of each party.

For my artifacts, I chose one political cartoon, and one article, that both focus on the feud

between the two.

My first artifact was a political cartoon by Dana Summers from the Tribune Content

Agency. The cartoon depicts The Lefts Control Room, attempting to depict how the liberal

media generates content. On one side of the image is the Department of Gathering News,

which shows a man staring aimlessly at a blank computer screen. The other side shows a woman

working in the Department of Blaming Trump, fixing to throw a dart at a dartboard full of

headlines and topics relating to Donald Trump. The image aims to take a blow at liberal media,

basically saying they no longer provide real news and instead focus only on irrelevant topics that

have nothing to do with Trump, and are constantly blaming him for everything.

The two most jarring sights in the image are the two departments in the office: the

Department of Gathering News and the Department of Blaming Trump. Since the news

department is bland, colorless, and the screen is blank, the artist is insinuating that liberal news

outlets arent covering actual news anymore. Further, the Trump department is colorful,

attracting the viewers gaze. The artist further discredits the media by showing them imply

throwing darts at a board, implying that there is no merit behind their claims, only random
attacks on him for no reason. The dart board is filled with headlines on everything from

offensive to tweets to Russia, all terms the public has grown accustomed to associating

with Trump throughout the last year.

Looking further, everyones faces are dull, and bored looking. The people appear to be

taking no joy in their jobs. This could be a move by the artist to imply that the liberal media is

inhumane, and is simply creating stories with no care on what is being produced.

Overall, the image paints the news in a negative light, and reinforces the idea that the

media cannot be trusted. It attempts to shift the blame away from Trump, and make him appear

less confrontational and aggressive.

My second artifact is an article from American Project by David Greenberg, which

analyzes the relationship between the President and the media. This article takes an entirely

opposite stance, because it comes from a liberal and progressive magazine that places the blame

almost equally on Trump and the media. The article explains how Trump has attempted to

weaken the medias power, which has simultaneously weakened and strengthened it.

It begins by tracing all the way back to the days of the Nixon administration, and draws

parallels between the two presidencies and their criticisms of the media. Greenberg explains how

Nixon had this innate hatred and dislike of the media, yet always remained decorous towards

them. Trump, however, makes it well known who he likes and dislikes, throwing all previous

reservations and political correctness to the wayside.

From there, Greenberg explains how Trumps constant and incessant use of Twitter limits

the medias power. Since Trump is constantly tweeting directly to his followers, the media no

longer has as important a role of acting as the middle man to deliver information to the public. In
addition, they now can only primarily cover his erratic tweet habits, making them look less

legitimate.

Greenbergs article does a good job of accurately portraying the conflict, even though

slight bias towards the media is present. By addressing similarities between the Nixon and

Trump administration, he discretely introduces the idea that Trump is inherently bad. Everyone

associates Nixon with the Watergate Scandal, so when people are reading that Nixon and Trump

have similarities, they will automatically make the connection that Trump must be bad in some

way as well. The strategy is extremely effective in diverting the blame away from the media,

especially when coupled with the language used to describe Trump. Words like, deranged and

over-the-top portray him as a wild-card who is insane.

The two artifacts are extremely useful because they are on almost opposite ends of the

spectrum. Each one is blaming the other side, while simultaneously doing what the other is

criticizing. They address the same issue of the conflict between the President and the media, but

attempt to illustrate their point through different means.