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Melania Trump Gets Pep Talk From Sara Netanyahu About The Media [Video]

By Robert Jonathan
Published on: 09:17 PST, May 22, 2017

Melania Trump received some glowing praise and encouragement from Sara Netanyahu today.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s wife was overheard on a hot mic throwing shade on the media in the process.

President Trump, along with his family, is in the midst of his first international trip as commander in chief. He first visited Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where in a historic speech called upon Muslim-majority nations to take the lead in combatting extremism.

Today, the Trumps landed in Tel Aviv, after which they will head to Rome to meet with Pope Francis. In Jerusalem, President Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall.

According to the Gateway Pundit, the Air Force One visit is apparently the first-ever direct flight between Saudi Arabia and Israel (the two countries do not have diplomatic relations). During the welcoming ceremony, the president reaffirmed the “unbreakable bond” between the U.S. and the Jewish state.

While on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport, Mrs. Netanyahu made these comments about Melania as she welcomed the POTUS and the First Lady to Israel (see clip below).

“”I love her; I’m also her fan. I talk every place about her, how great she is. And how great you are. Because a majority of the people in Israel, unlike the media, they love us. So we tell them how you are great so they love you. We have very much in common. We’ll talk about it over dinner.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can be heard asserting that “I can testify to that” as far as wife’s praise of Melania is concerned. President Trump, who has feuded with many media outlets, agrees that “we have very much in common,” while the prime minister says “sounds familiar.”

According to Politico, Melania Trump has privately expressed dissatisfaction with the White House PR operation and “has raised concerns that some on [the president’s] communications and press team aren’t doing enough to defend him.”

Based on the most recent elections, Israel is a center-right country, although many media outlets there position themselves on the left.

“Both Trump and Netanyahu have had famously fraught relationships with the media, describing critical stories as ‘witch hunts’ and dismissing some reporters as biased against them… Like Trump, Netanyahu has taken to social media to assail the press, some of whose members he has targeted specifically,” the New York Post explained.

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Trump has famously branded CNN, in particular, as “very fake news” and has similarly scolded mainstream or legacy liberal news organizations such as the New York Times and the Washington Post for scoops based on anonymous sources and leaks. He has also made it clear that he thinks the media has ignored the accomplishments of his administration in its first four months in favor of portraying it unfavorably.

If a new study from Harvard University is valid, the president may have a point.

A report from Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy suggests that media coverage in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency has been overwhelming negative on all issues based on an evaluation of CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and three European news outlets.

On CBS, CNN, and NBC, 93 percent of the coverage of the Trump administration was negative. The Times and the Post clocked in at 87 percent and 83 percent negative, respectively, with the WSJ publishing 70 percent negative stories. Contrary to popular perceptions, 52 percent of the Fox News coverage was also negative.

In contrast, Obama received almost 60 percent positive coverage during his first 100 days in office.

The Harvard think tank, which leveled some criticism at Trump as well, summarized its findings about President Trump and the media.

“Trump’s coverage during his first 100 days set a new standard for negativity. Of news reports with a clear tone, negative reports outpaced positive ones by 80 percent to 20 percent….Trump’s coverage during his first 100 days was negative even by the standards of today’s hyper-critical press…the sheer level of negative coverage gives weight to Trump’s contention, one shared by his core constituency, that the media are hell bent on destroying his presidency…”

For the media to regain its credibility during the Donald Trump presidency, it needs to regain its role as an impartial broker of news, which includes journalists getting out of the Washington bubble and finding out what’s really going in America, the Shorenstein Center recommended.

[Featured Image by Evan Vucci/AP Images]

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