Questioning the Question

("Trolling the Press Corps")

What could be more perfect complement to fake news than real news conferences with fake reporters?

Mr. Spicer's tongue is tied up in knots every time he has to provide cover for one of President Trump's off the cuff or off the rails remarks. Seemingly confused of his own accord, Spicer is clearly no Kellyanne Conway, the master at misdirection and deflection. He is overmatched and overwhelmed. And he is in desperate need of help.

The pure glee that Mr. Wintrich and Mr. Hoft exhibited as they contemplated best how to distance themselves from any shred of journalistic integrity is but unadulterated extension of Mr. Trump's avowed intent to destroy forces aligned against him. On the campaign trail, some "adversarial" press corps members,  like Katy Tur, were maligned and scorned, treated more like enemy combatants than people taking a serious job, seriously. 

Mr. Trump's press conference had the feel of a mockumentary, a satire of what a Trump press conference would look like. But at a moment in time when the line between fake and real is blurred almost to the point of extinction, when Melissa McCarthy sounds more like Sean Spicer than does Sean Spicer, the President of the United States can, without hint of irony or self-recrimination, look for a question from a "friendly reporter."
 

Your reference to the President's exchange with Jake Turx, the Jewish reporter, is perfect example of what we may expect now and in the foreseeable future. "See, he said he was going to ask a very simple question, easy question and it was not." Contending that the inquiry on how he intended to respond to the rash of anti-Semetic activity around the nation, was not a "fair question" Mr. Trump twice requested Mr. Turx to "sit down."
 

And to that response, those like Mr. Wintrich and Mr. Hoft, rise to their feet to applaud, ready, willing and able to play the required game of softball with their leader.