{"id":1628444,"date":"2022-08-31T14:17:37","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T18:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1628444"},"modified":"2022-08-31T14:17:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T18:17:59","slug":"media-decried-trumps-putin-posture-but-hail-mikhail-gorbachev-as-a-good-communist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-decried-trumps-putin-posture-but-hail-mikhail-gorbachev-as-a-good-communist\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Decried Trump\u2019s Putin Posture But Hail Mikhail Gorbachev As A Good Communist"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmedia-decried-trumps-putin-posture-but-hail-mikhail-gorbachev-as-a-good-communist%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1628444&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In death as in life, Mikhail Gorbachev was a muse for the leftist media to perfect the tradecraft of propaganda.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91,\u201d Reuters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/mikhail-gorbachev-who-ended-cold-war-dies-aged-92-agencies-2022-08-30\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">framed<\/a> yesterday\u2019s news of the death of the Soviet Union\u2019s last president.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Extolling the communist leader for ending \u201cthe Cold War without bloodshed\u201d represents a laughable spin on the reality that Ronald Reagan\u2019s foreign policy prowess, coupled with assists from England\u2019s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/spencerbrown\/2022\/08\/30\/last-leader-of-soviet-evil-empire-mikhail-gorbachev-dies-at-91-n2612446\">defeated<\/a> the evil empire and achieved peace through strength.<\/p>\n<p>The press\u2019s praise of Gorbachev as a moderate communist \u2014 an oxymoron if there ever were one \u2014 over the last 24 hours seems a recent rewriting of history. But the left-wing media\u2019s contemporaneous reporting on Gorbachev reveals that American outlets uniformly pushed flattering profiles of the Soviet Union\u2019s former communist president.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Revisiting this reporting now, decades later, after the fall of the U.S.S.R., proves especially fascinating given that for the last six years the dishonest press portrayed any positive statements former President Donald Trump made about Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin as proof of collusion between the two leaders. Further, the entertainment and media worlds\u2019 obsession with Trump allows for a comparison of the press\u2019s treatment of the New York businessman both before and after he entered the political arena as a Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For decades, Trump has captivated the public eye, leaving media outlets willing to enter relationships based on mutual manipulation: For his part, Trump garnered the attention he seeks to build his brand \u2014 or merely bolster his machismo \u2014 and those covering the former New Yorker profit from the public\u2019s interest in The Donald. While scandals erupted intermittently throughout the year before Trump\u2019s entry into politics, they centered on sexual ones, most prominently Trump\u2019s affair with Marla Maples.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No mention was made during this time-period suggesting an untoward relationship between Trump and Russia. On the contrary, reporting from 1987, when Trump dined with the then-Soviet leader Gorbachev at a State Department dinner, merited just a passing mention. In covering that gathering, The Washington Post cast Trump as one of two \u201cindustrialists\u201d attending the 250-person event, with H. Ross Perot filling the other slot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Post reported nothing nefarious about Trump\u2019s attendance at the event and instead focused on Gorbachev, and glowingly so. Even with our country\u2019s relations with the Soviet Union still chilled by the ongoing Cold War, the paper\u2019s Moscow correspondent, David Remnick, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/lifestyle\/1987\/12\/10\/day-2-the-gorbachevs-washington-orbit\/f319811d-442c-4256-bdd3-7b55c657aaca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">presented<\/a> the communist leader as \u201ccharming\u201d and \u201cwith an extraordinary sense of his own power of persuasion and wit.\u201d Remnick wrote of guests fawning over the Soviet leader\u2019s \u201cnifty performance\u201d of \u201cMoscow Nights,\u201d saying \u201chis singing got better reviews than many divas did.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The politicians in attendance held similarly positive views of the communist leader, Remnick reported uncritically. \u201cHe\u2019s strong, he\u2019s tough as hell, and he likes that reputation,\u201d Sen. Alan K. Simpson, R-Wyo., remarked. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., was also reportedly impressed, saying the Soviet leader was \u201can inspiring politician. It takes a politician to know a politician. He\u2019s a fast learner.\u201d And according to Remnick, Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., \u201cwas so impressed with Gorbachev\u2019s speech at lunch that he took a long stream of notes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The press\u2019s fawning stance toward the Soviet leader, exemplified by The Washington Post\u2019s coverage of his State Department dinner in 1987, left many Westerners with the misapprehension that Gorbachev represented a kinder, gentler, communist. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/html\/hidden-history-evil-13281.html\">didn\u2019t<\/a>. Nor did Russia, after the fall of the Soviet Union, represent the retrograde joke former President Barack Obama sought to relegate the country to during his presidential debate with Mitt Romney.<\/p>\n<p>But after spending the \u201980s admiring Gorbachev, the press pointed to similar praise of Putin by Trump as evidence that the latter had colluded with Russia. No matter your opinion on Trump\u2019s apparent \u201cdisarm them with flattering\u201d approach to foreign policy, the media\u2019s hypocrisy abounds. The left-wing press pandered to Gorbachev while calling Trump a co-conspirator for complimenting Putin.<\/p>\n<p>Further, words aside, through his leadership, Trump placed the biggest brake on Putin\u2019s aggression in the region. Soon after Biden\u2019s election, however, Russia went on the offensive, attacking Ukraine. Since then, Biden has proven himself ineffective to combat the Russian president. In fact, before the invasion of Ukraine, Biden\u2019s public <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/01\/21\/if-trump-had-greenlighted-russia-to-invade-ukraine-like-biden-just-did-media-would-have-gone-nuts\/\">comments<\/a> about the situation suggested he was giving Putin a green light to invade the neighboring country. Such comments, had they come from Trump, also would have <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/01\/21\/if-trump-had-greenlighted-russia-to-invade-ukraine-like-biden-just-did-media-would-have-gone-nuts\/\">prompted<\/a> further accusations that Trump was conspiring with Putin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There was no Trump-Russia conspiracy, however, regardless of the praise Trump bestowed on Putin. And there is no good communist either, notwithstanding the lauding of Gorbachev \u2014 both now and four decades ago.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In death as in life, Mikhail Gorbachev was a muse for the leftist media to perfect the tradecraft of propaganda.\u00a0 \u201cMikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1628444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}