Howard Kurtz’s book “Media Madness” is fast-moving and lively, but it’s based on a false premise: that President Trump and the national press are at war with each other. But Trump also craves press attention, enjoys schmoozing with reporters and is, in some ways, far more accessible than some of his predecessors. Fox News’s conspiracy-mongering Trump toady Sean Hannity, for example, gets no harsh words, but the reality-based press is slammed mercilessly. Kurtz dubs this Trump conduct “defiance disorder.” But despite a similarity to Wolff’s book and a sharing of a few obvious sources — Bannon and Conway, in particular — “Media Madness” is far kinder to the Trump administration. Kurtz, apparently, is much more interested in preserving access, and, unlike Wolff’s book, this one is likely to be celebrated throughout the pro-Trump media landscape.

Source: Washington Post January 28, 2018 05:15 UTC