Trump: Fake News Machine Is ‘Real Opposition’

President Donald Trump continued his attack on the media in a new "Mainstream Media Accountability Survey."

In an email over the President's name, the Republican National Committee and Trump Make America Great Again Committee issued the survey with the President doubling down on his war with journalists and characterization of them as the enemies of the American people.

"Friend, I’ve said it before and I will say it again: the Fake News Media is the real opposition," the President said in an email intro to the survey. "It’s a 24/7 barrage of hit jobs, fake stories, and absolute hatred for everything we stand for as a movement. 

"And the same talking heads that said Hillary Clinton had a 99% chance of winning the election now think they can speak on behalf of the American people. It’s time to once again release our Mainstream Media Accountability Survey to show that the American people are fed up with the Fake News Machine.

"They don’t care about the truth. They don’t care about what’s right. They only care about propping up the liberal Democrats they worship," Trump continued. "There is nothing they won’t do to stop us. This is a fight we can’t afford to lose. The future of America hangs in the balance. Our country is at stake."

He asked supporters to take the quiz to help "fight back against the media’s attacks and deceptions," though he did not say what he planned to do with the information. 

The survey has many of the same questions as the one in February, but some are different including the new question: "Do you believe that the media is engaging in a witch hunt to take down President Trump?"

Witch hunt has been the President's term of art about the widely reported investigations by Congress and the Department of Justice into the campaign's, and White House officials', contacts with Russians.

Other questions include: "Do you believe that the mainstream media does not do their due diligence fact-checking before publishing stories on the Trump administration?" and "Do you believe that the media has been far too quick to spread false stories about our movement?"

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.