In Trump’s America, truth is held hostage

It has been appalling to see how the new administration in the United States has run roughshod over a large segment of the news media – outright barring reporters from such White House-coverage stalwarts as CNN, the BBC, New York Times and Washington Post from daily press briefings. President Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated these and other outlets that have rightly criticised him on many fronts as nothing more than purveyors of “fake news”. The news they produce, he insists to his cheering admirers in the electorate, is simply lies. 
In the eyes of the world, American prestige and moral standing appear to be plummeting by the hour. Trump’s crusade against the mainstream media is only making matters worse. What the White House and its supporters forget is the fact that countless other nations have experienced state suppression of the press, the end result inevitably being populaces that cherish freedom of the press. In this regard at least, none can criticise Trump or the voters who chose him to take just such severe moves. The critics would risk being characterised as pots calling the kettle black.
The First Amendment to the US constitution guarantees media freedom and public access to information. Trump might be willing to uphold that statute – as long as he can define the media and the information. In his view, truth as it has traditionally been known no longer exists. He wants to be the sole source of a new kind of truth, delivered in tweets and extemporaneous asides in his speeches. How much this skewing of perspective damages US relations with the world and affects the global order remains to be seen.
Trump and his adherents’ vilification of the news media as the collective Public Enemy No 1 threatens to make the US president an enemy of the world. He has spent countless public moments and unknown private moments since his inauguration on January 20 spouting nonsense. With a handful of exceptions trying to make political hay in their own backyards, few foreign leaders take him seriously, and some have made their distaste clear, but Trump is unfazed. 
In the Thai context, Trump has much in common with Srithanonchai, the scurrilous cheat of the Siamese literary classic “Khun Chang Khun Phaen”. Trump’s fondness for prevarication leads him to denigrate the voices that seek to counter his lies with honesty and facts. He knows many Americans mistrust the mainstream media and uses that to dismiss press attacks on his misbehaviour and unsuitability for high office. Already reeling after their misguided analyses of the election campaign and likely outcome, the media find themselves unable to effectively convey facts now, when they’re needed most. The White House and its entranced supporters are no longer willing to accept “truth” as presented in the dictionary, in science textbooks or even in the venerable constitution itself, let alone the mainstream media. There are other media sources they trust more now, and for many, anyway, the fundamental truth is found somewhere among the contradictions of the Bible’s old and new testaments.
Media and rights watchdogs will surely not sit still for such misled reorganisation of the news landscape. Suppression of any segment of the media invites totalitarianism and is thus unacceptable in a democracy. As many prominent Americans outside the press have warned, with this move, the US is lurching towards dictatorship. 
It is understandable that each country, each population will shape its media culture to fit local circumstances. However, contrary to Trump’s untruthful rants about how terrible American life has become because of his predecessors’ neglect, conditions there are nowhere near so bad that constitutional protections must be swept aside by authoritarian measures.