President Trump's "CNN Clash" is Not News, Opines Prof. Jeff McCall '76

July 19, 2018

"CNN and the news industry as a whole have plenty of avenues to rail against Trump’s mistreatment of the press -- and, clearly, Trump does mistreat and disrespect the press," writes Jeffrey M. McCall, professor of communication, in The Hill. In an op-ed column following comments from Fox News reporter John Roberts in defense of CNN, which the president has criticized, McCall writes, "Roberts need not be the focal point of the journalism industry’s defense. There is something to be said for journalists to collectively support each other in the face of government pressure, but a presidential press conference is an ineffective choice of venue for that effort."

According to McCall, "Every minute of a presidential news conference is important, and there are more newsworthy matters to cover than Trump’s running CNN clash, which just doesn’t move the news-o-meter anymore. There was no need for Roberts to intervene in the Trump-CNN fuss. The reality is that any protest from Roberts would have been wasted time. Trump is not going to change his attitude about CNN."

mccall may242010 You'll find the column at the newspaper's website.

Jeff McCall is a 1976 graduate of DePauw, where he was a Rector Scholar and speech (communication) major and worked on student radio station WGRE, which he now serves as faculty adviser. McCall earned a master's degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. He joined the DePauw faculty in 1985 and authored Viewer Discretion Advised: Taking Control of Mass Media Influences.

Regularly cited in reports on media matters, Dr. McCall was quoted earlier this week in a Washington Post story on President Trump's relationship with Fox News. Last week he authored a column for The Hill on NBC News and was cited recently in an Associated Press report previewing President Donald Trump's announcement of his nominee to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.