Long considered the guardians of the public’s right to know, and with its freedom to do so enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution, America’s press has done it again. Another in a long list of reports that will ensure our nation’s superiority over other nations was broken in Paris by Fox News reporters Shannon Bream and Bill Hemmer. With pictures to validate their conclusions, President Donald Trump and France’s President Emmanuel Macron share a “really long handshake”, and Trump simultaneously shook France’s first lady’s left hand with his left hand.
All this transpired during the Bastille Day celebration in Paris, and marked a new level of cooperation and appreciation between the two nations. To top it off, America’s First Lady, Melania Trump and Brigitte Macron followed with an extended embrace. Foreign affairs is an important subject for any American President, and Fox News is to lauded for breaking this vital story. What does it mean? Some will posit that the populist Trump and the left of center Macron have decided on a policy of detente during their reigns, a policy solidified by the intensity of greetings on France’s most holy of secular days.
But handshakes have been carefully analyzed by Trump watchers. At the G20 meetings in Hamburg, Germany, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and President Trump met for the first time. Trump, with his magnificent shock of yellow hair, towered over the balding Putin, but it was the handshake that got the attention and scrutiny. Trump and Putin grabbed each other’s hands, but Trump got the “upper hand” by placing his left hand on Putin’s back. What does this mean for our foreign policy? Body language would suggest that such a gesture indicates superiority over the shorter politician, but others might suggest a too close relationship between the two nations.
Just a short time before, when the President and First Lady visited Poland, another handshake garnered the attention of the ever vigilant press, which noted that Poland’s first lady “snubbed” President Trump. This made some denizens of the press go bonkers, until video of the alleged insult actually was seen. Seems that the two top men were shaking hands, and when Trump went to shake the Polish First Lady’s hand, she had already greeted Melania with her own firm handshake. Within a split second, Trump and the President of Poland’s wife grabbed hands. Was this an intended slight, caught by a press ready to pounce on any inerrant behavior? Will we ever know what was in the mind of these world leaders as they embraced each other?
Hands, in another setting, has already fueled the fervor of the press back here at home. It seems that President Trump met with a group of evangelical leaders, and at the end of the meeting, they all gathered ’round the President to pray for him. Gasp! These Christians were placing their hands on Mr. Trump as they prayed! And he is an avowed Presbyterian, not an evangelical. Have these born-again Christians made their deal with the devil? Of course, the Presbyterians have Bibles which do relate that in New Testament time, the “laying on of hands” was an established and acceptable practice. But when it comes to hands, our press will leave no sleeve unrolled to find the truth.
Although much of the hand wringing was done by the liberal press, conservatives should retaliate with some talk of how the Americans were quite superior to their foreign counterparts. Why not match the inanity of the left’s obsession with handshakes by comparing first ladies and women politicians of the various nations? We Americans have the most glamorous woman to live in the White House since Jackie Kennedy, and only a brief lineup of those women encountered on Trump’s trips abroad shows we are head and shoulders above our foreign foes. Melania, in looks and bearing, overshadows the dowdy Angela Merkel, makes Theresa May seem more dull and boring than she really is. Brigitte Macron is pretty good in her own right, but would only make second runner-up to Melania. Poland’s First Lady is really not in the contest for looks or bearing. What does this say for our leadership of the free world? Journalists could spend tons of time speculating how this administration will fare because of our superiority in the First Lady beauty pageant.
Other subjects beg for in-depth journalism. Why are Donald Trump’s ties so long? First Family pets also need to be examined, to give some insight into the mindset of those occupying the White House. Does Donald have his hair colored? He just might be channeling his inner Reagan in that respect, and if so, what does that mean for his policies, both foreign and domestic?
I find myself in awe of our fearsome reporters who spend so little time on the important things of government and government officials. Tax reform pales in comparison to handshakes. Health plans — why take up air time with that dull subject when we can watch our talking heads explode over the vital news of the day?
Gertrude Stein once claimed of Oakland, CA, “There is no there there”. And as we endure the wall to wall coverage of a Russian plot with no evidence produced, and we watch as handshakes are parsed minutely, it is no wonder that the public has very little confidence in the integrity of today’s journalists, and see in their work, “there is no there there”. If the highly paid newsmen and women would spend as much time on the important issues facing the United States and the world, we all would be better served and it would be useful once again to listen to and read the news reports.