Burriss: Trump, media off to rough start

By LARRY BURRISS

It's been said you shouldn't try to argue with someone who buys ink in 55 gallon drums. And although the president may be the most powerful person in the world there is another cliché that applies: the pen is mightier than the sword.

It looks as though President-Elect Trump and the news media have hit it off to a rocky start, with charges and counter changes already flying from both sides. Not since Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew has there appeared to be as much potential for animosity between an administration and the press.

Even in the turbulent days when the Nixon administration took active, and perhaps illegal, measures against reporters and media businesses, it is instructive to note it was eventually the president who was brought down, not reporters and their employers.

But now there is even less opportunity to intimidate and retaliate against reporters and news organizations.

In the past, officials tried to isolate reporters by closing them out of news conferences and blocking access to significant events. But now, with the proliferation of social media, it is all but impossible to shut reporters out.

As far back as World War II, Edward R. Murrow said reporters who were prevented from filing their stories would be covered by their colleagues. And that is truer today than ever before.

Over the years we have seen numerous instances where important stories were blocked by officials, or even by media organi-zations them-selves. Yet in almost every case the story or the facts have still ended up in front of the public.

There certainly is not a conspiracy among news organizations, but there is an effort to make sure the public has all of the information it needs to make intelligent decisions.

To paraphrase yet another non-news source, Princess Leia Organa: the more the administration tightens its grip, the more stories will slip through its fingers.