The first six months of Donald Trump’s presidency have drawn to a close, and the broadcaster Televizija Slovenija decided to take a closer look at his administration. They invited American journalist and publicist with Slovenian roots Terry Anzur to be a guest on the Odmevi news programme hosted by Igor E. Bergant.
Bergant announced the interview by commenting that Trump had definitely left his personal mark on the presidency, but that he is still considered very divisive by the American public. In this way, Televizija Slovenija immediately attached a negative connotation to the first sixth months of the Trump administration, and there was no mention of the studies which reveal that the reason for the division amongst Americans was the bias of the American press against their president since people do not know whom to believe any more. However, after Trump was trampled by notorious correspondent Edvard Žitnik, the national broadcaster was suddenly taken by surprise – journalist Anzur came to Trump’s defence and in very clear terms criticised the persecution of the president of America by the press.
“Six months have passed since Donald Trump’s inaugural address, but based on his publicity, it feels as if he had been in the White House for at least two years,” Edvard Žitnik started, and he did not fail to mention that the publicity was predominantly negative. However, it is primarily the left-wing press that has been bombarding the American and global public with such stories since they are loyal to the democratic political elite in Washington, who just cannot accept that Hillary Clinton lost.
Notorious correspondent Edvard Žitnik still persists with conspiracy theories about Russia
“The hope that Trump would abandon his harsh rhetoric was soon dashed, especially in Europe, where people were shocked that he refused to support the Paris Agreement,” Žitnik said, but he failed to mention that the president of America was willing to return to the negotiating table and find a common ground with other countries. The Paris Agreement would have been very detrimental to the USA since the closing of factories and other industrial plants would cost millions of people their jobs and consequently their means for survival. This concerned one of Trump’s main pre-election promises, and he kept it.
Žitnik is one of those journalists who, instead of looking for the truth, prefer to spread the conspiracy theory that Trump’s victory was aided by Russian intelligence services. These rumours have never been proven, and based on certain disclosures, they were likely spread by the democrats after their candidate had lost.
Anzur: Reporters are supposed to be watchdogs. Instead they are attack dogs.
Terry Anzur is a renowned American journalist, a lecturer on journalism at several universities, a media advisor, and a publicist. Igor E. Bergant first asked her how she, from her expert point of view, sees the hostile relationship between the American press and the president, and she quickly silenced him with the response that “it’s out of control. They’re supposed to be a watchdog. Under Obama, they were more like a lapdog, but now we have a total attack dog. It’s not even a question of trying to find some truth or trying to find something to move the country forward, it’s only the most negative things about this administration.”
According to Anzur, a study from the prestigious Harvard University shows that almost 80 percent of all coverage in the USA concerning the Trump administration has been negative and that two of the biggest television stations in the country, CNN and NBC, have provided a coverage that was 93 percent negative. In other words, only 7 percent of the coverage from the above-mentioned news outlets has not been directed against Trump. This is unprecedented, Anzur noted.
Melania Trump should appear more in public and speak in Slovenian?
Igor E. Bergant finally relented and changed the topic – he wanted to know what Terry Anzur thought about the image of the first lady, Melania Trump, in the States. Anzur said that unfortunately the negative approach to the Trump administration had “spilled over” onto Melania, “who brings grace and dignity to the office. But because people are always looking for something negative about her husband, they approach her in the same way. For example, when she made the decision to live in New York for the first several months of the administration, people put a negative connotation on that – oh, there must be problems in the marriage – instead of a more positive interpretation, which would be simply that she’s a good mother taking care of her son’s education. It’s really the way Trump is treated as well,” she said.
As a conclusion, Anzur also revealed that she is learning Slovenian. She has only been studying for three weeks, so she is not very skilled in the language yet, but because she has obtained Slovenian nationality, she wants to be a good citizen. Her grandfather was a Slovenian who immigrated to the USA about a hundred years ago. She said that she is writing a travel blog focusing on Slovenia and that Slovenia is still an undiscovered country for Americans. “I hope to promote Slovenia to more Americans,” the guest concluded, and Bergant commented that he hopes to talk with her in Slovenian during their next interview.
We on the other hand hope that Televizija Slovenija has learned something from this interview and that next time their reporting on Donald Trump will be more professional and less biased.
Luka Svetina