Donald Trump: US media dishonest, lobbying tool

President Donald Trump called a majority of the mainstream American media dishonest, bad and a"lobbying tool" for allegedly giving a platform to hate groups after the violence at a white supremacist rally in Virginia. Trump, whose controversial remarks on the violence in Charlottesville on August 12 drew widespread criticism, said most of the media was propagating incorrect information about him and fomenting divisions in the United States.

Trump had earlier said that "both sides" were to blame for the clashes. But he changed course after severe back lash and said there was no room for prejudice, bigotry and hate. At a campaign-style rally yesterday in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump singled out popular media organisations like The NewYork Times, The Washington Post and CNN for his criticism. He, however, praised Fox News for its coverage of his presidency. "For the most part honestly, these are really dishonest people, they're bad people," Trump said. "I really think they don't like our country, I really believe that." He claimed The Times apologised to him after he won the November election and called The Post "a lobbying tool for Amazon" or ''CNN, which is so bad and so pathetic, and their ratings are going down," he said. "They are trying to take away our history our heritage, you see that," he said in an apparent reference to the removal of monuments of Confederate generals following thethe death of a woman during clashes among hundreds of white supremacists and counter protesters in Charlottesville.

"The only people giving a platform to these hate groupsis the media itself and the fake news," he said and added thathad it not been for the social media, where he is very active, he would not have been in the White House. The media "don't want to make our country great again," he said. "They have double standards. You never heard them saythat. And in fact, if you use the term you'd get criticised.But with me, they wanted me to say it, and I said it.

And I said it very clearly, but they refused to put it on," he said. Trump also alleged that the mainstream media "turns ablind eye to the gang violence on our streets, the failures ofour public school, the destruction of our wealth at the handsof the terrible, terrible trade deals made by politicians thatshould have never been allowed to be politicians.