Good, Bad and Mad: Andrew Rosenthal on the News

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/insider/good-bad-and-mad-andrew-rosenthal-on-the-news.html

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Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times. In this podcast, Andrew Rosenthal, a Times opinion columnist, talks about the news — the good, the bad and that which makes him mad.

We are but one week into President Trump’s administration, and already it feels like we are living in “a dystopian nightmare” says the Times columnist Andrew Rosenthal, who spotted nearly omnipresent signs of bad news in President Trump’s efforts to build a wall on the Mexican border, restrict immigration (especially among Muslims), limit access to abortion, reverse course on the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines and reopen C.I.A. “black” sites and reconsider torture.

Acknowledging that the week’s bad and most maddening news tend to swirl together, Mr. Rosenthal says that the most maddening thing about President Trump’s first days is the “utter contempt” he has for the public as evidenced by the “string of baldfaced lies” that issue from the White House, particularly from the president’s “propaganda officer,” Kellyanne Conway, and his press secretary, Sean Spicer. “Trump knows that he can say anything he wants, and the right wing media will validate it, and his base won’t challenge it.”

(“Here’s a little prediction,” says Mr. Rosenthal. “If things go as badly as I fear they will, in a decade or so, there will be public opinion poll showing that Trump lost in 2016.”)

The good news? The obvious good news came in the form of protests held all over the weekend, all over the world, which Mr. Rosenthal says can have a real impact. He also cites the announcement of Oscar nominations this week that, he says, suggest “the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has finally started recognizing there are African-Americans actors, directors, and producers in the United States.” That’s progress, he says, and is worth saluting.

Susan Lehman is host.