Author: Eddie Scarry
Description: Many members of the national media seem to hate President Trump so much that they'll even defend North Korea if it keeps them consistent in...
Keywords: Missile Test,Media Desk,Eddie Scarry,Kim Jong Un,Nuclear Weapons,Media,Donald Trump,North Korea,White House,Opinion,Beltway Confidential

Washington Examiner
OPINION

# The media take North Korea's side

by Eddie Scarry | Sep 23, 2017, 12:01 AM
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in an extraordinary and direct rebuke, called President Trump "deranged" and said he will "pay dearly" for his threats, a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

Many members of the national media hate President Trump so much that they'll even defend North Korea if it keeps them consistent in their opposition to everything he does.

After Trump said at the United Nations General Assembly this week that the U.S. would crush the little Asian country should Kim Jong Un attack the U.S. or our allies, reporters and commentators reacted as if he had just threatened Switzerland on a whimsy.

Trump had simply said that the U.S. "has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," a relatively measured response to years of hostilities from Kim's regime.

"There were gasps in the hall: A forum for peace was used to threaten to annihilate a nation of 25 million people," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote Thursday, surely still emotionally wrecked by the experience.

His colleague Gail Collins said the "big takeaway" of Trump's address to the U.N. was "that the president of the United States had threatened to destroy a country with 25 million people."

USA Today called Trump's remarks "unsettling."

It's as if up until Trump's presidency, Kim had been sending us love notes.

Just in 2016, North Korea threatened to blow up Manhattan with a hydrogen bomb, reduce the U.S. to "flames and ashes," and announced that it was close to launching a "pre-emptive" nuclear attack.

If there were just one area of agreement between the media and Trump, it should be that Kim is a lunatic, former President Barack Obama's "strategic patience" failed, and it's time to try something new.

Trump is trying something new.

And yet, ABC anchor Terry Moran said Trump's vow to retaliate "borders on the threat of committing a war crime," the kind of comment you'd mock an MSNBC prime-time host for saying. (Lawrence O'Donnell actually did say the same thing. "At UN Trump threatened to commit a war crime," he tweeted Tuesday.)

> At UN Trump threatened to commit a war crime: "totally destroy North Korea."— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) September 19, 2017

Jessica Schulberg, a reporter for the liberal Huffington Post, even suggested that Trump's comments justify North Korea's provocations. "Gee, Kim Jon-un is so irrational for wanting nuclear weapons," she said on Twitter.

Kim starves his own people and the media are siding with him over them and, more importantly, us.

On Thursday, Kim responded to Trump through North Korea's state media, calling the president a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard," adding that he would make Trump "pay dearly for his speech."

The mostly forgotten Chelsea Handler said on Twitter that the response was "a little bit more sane" than Trump, then asked if the U.S. and Korea could "trade" leaders.

North Korea is quickly advancing its capability to reach any major U.S. city with a missile carrying a nuclear bomb, something Trump said in January "won't happen!"

It's happening, and now it's them or us.

We know which side the media are on.

Eddie Scarry is a media reporter for the Washington Examiner.

Missile Test Media Desk Eddie Scarry Kim Jong Un Nuclear Weapons Media Donald Trump North Korea White House Opinion Beltway Confidential

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