US President Donald Trump counterattacked the media at the most recent Thursday press conference.
"Tomorrow, they will say, Donald Trump rants and raves at the press. I'm not ranting and raving. I'm telling you you're dishonest people, but I'm not ranting and raving. I love this. I'm having a good time doing it," Trump said during the conference.
"There's never been a presidential news conference like the one Donald Trump conducted at the White House Thursday afternoon," Jake Novak of CNBC wrote commenting on the event, "That's because we saw a president who is not shy about fighting back against the news media."
Predictably, some media resources strongly resented Trump's criticism and rushed to strike back.
"[Trump's] 77-minute news conference was dominated by an extraordinarily raw and angry defense of both his administration and his character," The New York Times reported Thursday.
"At times abrupt, often rambling, characteristically boastful yet seemingly pained at the portrayals of him, Mr. Trump kept summoning the spirit of his successful campaign after a month of grinding governance to remind his audience, again, that he won," the media outlet said.
For its part, the Guardian went so far as to dub Trump's conference "an exhausting 77-minute extravaganza."
However, the New York Post went even further and called the presidential news conference the "wildest show on earth."
"Ringmaster Don whips media in epic rant," the newspaper's cover read.
However, it appears that the blowback has not caught Trump off guard.
"Thank you for all of the nice statements on the Press Conference yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said one of greatest ever. Fake media not happy!" the US President tweeted Friday.
Thank you for all of the nice statements on the Press Conference yesterday. Rush Limbaugh said one of greatest ever. Fake media not happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 17 февраля 2017 г.
The question then arises, what made representatives of leading American and European news outlets so unhappy with Trump's speech.
"The press has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk about it. We have to find out what's going on because the press, honestly, is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control," the US president said in the course of the conference.
"Some of the media's fantastic, I have to say, honest and fantastic — but much of it is not," he added.
Trump criticized journalists for distorting information and ignoring the progress his cabinet has made.
"I turn on the TV, open the newspaper and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine," he said, "We have made incredible progress. I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we've done."
"As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. A mess. At home, and abroad. A mess," he stressed.
Commenting on General Michael Flynn's resignation over his phone conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, Trump called attention to the fact that it had not been the first time when classified information found its way into media.
"And I'm saying, the first thing I thought of when I heard about it, is how does the press get this information that's classified? How do they do it? You know why? Because it's an illegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves, but more importantly, the people that gave out information to the press should be ashamed of themselves. Really a shame," Trump said.
"You know, you can talk all you want about Russia, which was all, you know, 'fake news' fabricated deal to try to make up for the loss of the Democrats and the press plays right into it," he stressed.
"Look, I want to see an honest press. When I started out today by saying it's so important to the public to get an honest press. The public doesn't believe you people anymore," Trump told reporters.
Not all America's media were up in arms about Trump's news conference — some tried to be objective.
Fox News' Howard Kurtz argues that Americans saw a "quintessential" and "passionate" Donald Trump, who controlled the situation.
"It was, like all things Trump, a Rorschach test. Those who support this president thought it was a brilliant takedown of a corrupt media. Those who oppose this president thought he seemed somewhat crazed-unhinged," Kurtz wrote.
Indeed, after the Associated Press came in touch with Trump's supporters across the country it found out that the US President's voters praised his "combative" news conference.
Trump's supporters saw "a champion of Middle America who is taking on the establishment and making good on his campaign promises to put the country first," the media outlet admitted.
