Tuesday, September 22, 2026

0:00It's Tuesday, September 22, 2026. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Well as we went into the weekend, the big story was that the president of the United States had barred three major media outlets, CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House press room. That is a major action. It's not completely unprecedented, but it is a major action. The president also indicated his personal displeasure with those three news outlets. He has expressed, of course, displeasure with other media in the past. But when you talk about barring these organizations from the White House press room and access to the press pool and thus direct access in the White House to presidential staff and others, this does create a very interesting situation. Is it a constitutional crisis? No, not at this point. Could it become one? Well, yes, it's envisionable that it could reach that kind of status.

1:02And this is where you have the office of the president. The president of the United States, you have the White House. You have this as the center, the locus of activity for the executive branch of the U.S. government. You also have the press. And from the very beginning of the American experiment, the press has been a major feature. It's been a major issue. That's why, for instance, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are constitutionally guaranteed rights. Now exactly how all of that works is something that has been open to revision, open to development, and open to debate. One of the things I want to point out is that our democratic system of government, that is self-governing people who operate through democratic processes, this depends upon, even as our founders understood, a lively press, a free press, a press able to make arguments and also able to have access to government officials. Now this was, we just need to recognize a true innovation in terms of world history and political developments.

2:03The development of the press is older than the story of the United States of America. But when you look at some of the press issues that emerged in the crucible, the context of the American Revolution, the war for independence, there were some particular issues that certainly came to light. Now, one of the things we need to know is that even the composition of the press, the definition of the press, the way the press works, all of this has changed tremendously. So let's just look at that for a moment. If we're going to talk about freedom of the press, we're going to talk about the White House, the president of the United States, what in the world are we talking about? Well, first of all, when we talk about the press, you talk about our constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press that raises the question, what is the press? Who is the press? So in this sense, you're talking about the freedom of speech in terms primarily in the founding era of written documents. And so you had written publications, you had broadsides, you had early newspapers. And by the way, those early newspapers were often sensationalist broadsides that just

3:04really sought to have news and vent news, broadcast the news, they had political vantage points and all the rest. But the reality is that the press as we know it today, in terms of the modern, let's just say, exercise of journalism, journalism as a profession, journalism with certain standards, all that emerged particularly in the 20th century. And so I'm not saying there were no true journalists before, I am saying that the idea of journalism as a profession is really something of a 20th century experiment. Then you had, at one point, the reality that in the United States, the press generally meant newspapers. And you would have daily newspapers, sometimes multiple daily newspapers in major American cities. You could look at a city like New York at one time, it could have seven to thirteen, it has been estimated daily newspapers at one point in the 19th century. By the early 20th century, there's a thinning out and it's becoming a far more expensive proposition. So you actually begin to have some very considerable news, names, big brands emerged, such as the New

4:09York Times, for example, in New York City, celebrating, by the way, recently a big anniversary. But then you also look at the fact that you have the political side and politicians have to decide how to respond to the press, how to engage the press, and over the course of the 20th century, what we now know as a press conference became something of an institution when it came to the relationship between the press and the president. And of course, you had an entire White House office that eventually was developed, but there never was a period in which it was completely a honeymoon between presidents and the press. If there were such a moment, it was probably during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and in particular during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy seemed to relish the opportunity to be in front of the press. He was very good on his feet, extemporaneously. And so there did tend at certain points to be a situation in which the press and the presidents kind of even enjoyed each other's company.

5:09This has been far more true for Democratic presidents than for Republican presidents, because the other development that really became clear in the second half of the 20th century is the fact that the dominant mainstream media do and did lean left. Now at this point historically, we should make the observation that in the great day of newspapers, in which the newspapers are the main way that news was transmitted, that wasn't always the case. You had Republican papers, you had Democratic papers, you had more liberal editorial staffs, you had more conservative editorial staffs. But with the consolidation of media, first of all, into major daily newspapers, they tended to lean left to the great most influential papers. But this became particularly acute when you had the radio networks that also later were translated into television networks. Big names, CBS, NBC, ABC, by any measure, they tended to be, well, rather, directed towards the center left.

6:09And both of those words are important. Center? Yes, they tried to reach a mainstream American audience, but left. The early people who pioneered the field of journalism in the second half of the 20th century really did represent journalism as pretty much a context that was sociologically to the left. You saw that in particular with those three networks, and you had Republicans and conservatives who complained about it, and they did so vociferously. If you're talking about conflict between presidents and the press, it's not just a Republican pattern. There have been Democrats who have also had, well, let's just say, rather frustrating experiences with the press. In recent decades, you could look at Jimmy Carter's presidency, very difficult relationship with the press. But it is true that if the press leans left and you have Republican presidents that lean right, well, you have a situation that is built in for conflict. As you go back to the history of the presidential administration of Richard M. Nixon, it reached toxic proportions.

7:10The press basically came to hate Nixon and Nixon came to hate the press. Of course, that led at one point to a huge scandal that did involve the press and then the press covered it and Nixon claimed that the press was covering it unfairly. You also had the fact that the White House had an enemies list, an official enemies list, and there were journalists on that list. Let's just say that kind of defines a toxic relationship. When it comes to the modern presidency and it comes to the second term, a president, Donald J. Trump, you have a situation in which there has been conflict from the beginning. President Trump knows how to use the media. He has been very adept. This goes back to cable television. It goes back to his experience on television. He has a lot of experience working with the press. He does not mind, at least certainly does not seem to mind, at least some negative publicity. He likes publicity. He goes all the way back to his book, the art of the deal, and going back to his decades in terms of building a business enterprise.

8:11But there are clear frustrations and clear limitations. Now President Trump has said that CNN, MSNOW, and Politico are going to be barred from the White House and from direct access. Can the president do that? Well, I guess in the immediate sense, the answer would be yes, the president can do it. He did. When it comes to legal challenges already, CNN, MSNOW, and Politico have gone for relief from the federal courts. They have appealed, and by the way, there are some big issues there that are likely to come into play. For example, there are court cases and precedents already that indicate that the White House has a limited ability to decide who will and will not be represented in the press pool. You also have something else going on, and that is the fact that the press, the big press that have access to video, and in particular, we're talking here about CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox News. That last one is crucial. Fox News is in this consortium. They have a press pool when it comes to cameras.

9:11You can't have all these operating at one time. So they share the common video and the other products that come out of this. Then you take into account that out of this group, CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox News, CNN was up in terms of having the camera responsibilities. Then CNN was barred from the White House. You've heard a lot from that particular press pool. headline, Trump says he's banning CNN and MSNOW in political from the White House. You also have headlines. You have the networks who are saying they're not going to go along with this. You have the three who were barred, who are filing suit in the federal courts. You have a headline in the New York Times amid losses, Trump turns on the media, lashing at a familiar foe to shift attention. Okay. So now let's just step back for a moment. The president has some ability here to decide to whom he's going to respond, whose question he's going to answer, et cetera. But in one very clear legal and constitutional sense, the press, given developments over

10:13the last several decades, has the advantage here. In other words, it is unlikely that the president is going to be sustained and being able to bar CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. This is likely to be an issue that's going to be resolved by court action, but there's also political pressure here. One of the things we need to recognize, by the way, is that this is setting a precedent. And this is why you have both Republicans and Democrats who have a great stake in how this turns out. Because if Donald Trump, President Trump can get away with barring these three, then what can a Democratic president get away with when it comes to the same kind of issue? And this is where we just have to understand that when you're talking about the United States, there is a culture of the freedom of the press that actually, in terms of court presidents and all the rest, will make it very, very difficult for a president of the United States or any agent for the president in the White House to bar major media from access to the president and to the White House. This is an interesting political situation. It could be something close to a constitutional crisis.

11:16It is likely to be something that amounts to, well, something little more than a flash in the pan in terms of American politics and constitutional history. And that's because there are so many other big issues going on. And this kind of thing tends to just roll over into the next headline. But what's really important to understand is this. We are looking at the role of the press in a free society. And that is currently a contested and unsettled issue. And that's because we are looking at an entire gamut of worldviews being represented. And we're looking at some very big constitutional questions that are going to have to be determined. When it comes to the ongoing work of the White House and the press, it's another reminder of the fact that there is nothing absolutely clear about some of these principles. You can say, well, it's in the Constitution, the freedom of press and all the rest. Yes, it is. But that doesn't mean that the Constitution gives any particular game plan for how this is to be played out in a different political context, aged by age. But it does underline one big issue that very few in the American media are talking about.

12:21If you look at a place like Communist China, there is no freedom of the press. There is no such issue. This becomes an issue when you have to weigh certain moral and constitutional goods in a context in which they're going to be contested. But there's another basic reality here. And that is the fact that elected officials, and let's just say most importantly, presidents of the United States, regardless of whether they are democratic or republican, their access to the American people, even in communicating their own messaging, it basically goes through the American media. And so when it comes to the symbiosis here, that's actually the right word. Presidents need the press corps and the press corps needs access to presidents. No one ever said it was going to be easy. But when you look at this, some of the complications come down to the fact that someone who may be castigated, a journalist castigated by President Trump in terms of one of the official events on Air Force One or in the White House press room. It also turns out we know from experience that some of those journalists get calls in

13:21the night from none other than President Donald Trump, who gives them a story. In other words, all of this is far more complex than just the right and wrong, right and left, a Democrat and republican pattern that some people just want to present it always to be. That's an issue. No doubt about it. It's just not the whole story. No doubt about that, either. Okay. We've made mention of the fact that this week, the General Assembly of the United Nations will meet. And at least in one sense, the big issue here is going to be the publicity and the news coverage of what comes out. There's also a big story in who shows up and who doesn't. And when it comes to who does show up, President Donald Trump is going to be there at the General Assembly of the United Nations. But the Chinese leader Xi Jinping is not going to be present, but he is coming to the United States, but he's coming to Washington to meet on Friday with President Donald Trump in a summit. So how do you figure all that out? Well, for President Xi Jinping, it appears to be a statement that he doesn't consider the UN right now to be a primary issue.

14:23He does understand the relationship with the United States of America to be a primary issue. And this raises one of the big questions, what are President Trump and President Xi going to be talking about? And this has to do with artificial intelligence or AI. That is likely to be a major issue of that discussion. And this raises a huge issue. All leaders are gathering for the United Nations and the United Nations is getting ready to have a conversation about artificial intelligence. But you know what? The United Nations itself and most of the nations involved in the UN have actually very little impact on the current race about artificial intelligence. And that is because the current race is really between the United States and China pretty much period. The New York Times just involves released an article yesterday, quote, you in seeks relevance on AI as the US and China race ahead. Listen to this, quote, there is no shortage of tension between the two countries. And AI is just one of several issues the two sides are expected to discuss.

15:23But few issues are so contentious right now or as important to humanity, some say, is the race for AI dominance. Quote, the United States has repeatedly accused Chinese AI firms of stealing the intellectual property of American AI labs. China too continues to agitate against US restrictions on advanced computer chips needed to power AI models. Okay, listen to this, quote, the UN gathering and the White House meeting, remember President Xi's not going to be at the UN, but he is going to be at the White House meeting with President Trump, quote, underscore how much AI has become a race solely between two rival powers with the rest of the world largely pushed to the periphery. And here the paper sites foreign policy experts, Kyle Chan at the Brookings Institution said this quote, the UN to put it bluntly has been sidelined in the AI conversation. He went on to say that AI is now a two player game. It's kind of like nuclear weapons, he said. If you do not have them or are not on the verge of having them, it's hard to be relevant. And I think that's a very interesting development.

16:25And that's why an opinion piece that was recently published makes a lot of sense. It's about Kyle Chan at the Brookings Institution. And the headline is this, China is scared of AI just not the way we are. So this is a really insightful article. You talk about looking at world views in comparison in the United States. There are big concerns about artificial intelligence. And of course, we've had the headlines over the course of the last several weeks in which you've had AI insiders make the claim that we're facing an existential threat from AI, that AI threatens the future existence of humanity. And AI getting out of control could be a threat to the survival of humanity on the planet. Now as Christians look at that, we can see that. That certainly is a big issue. And as we look at it, we also see that it's hard to know whether these charges, these warnings are as explicit as they appear to be. Are they as well intended? Are the people really making these claims believing in this threat? Or is this something of a publicity stunt?

17:25The reality is that even as it probably is a publicity stunt, there really is a very serious issue behind it. We're looking at artificial intelligence being created by some people with the intention of believing that it could be not only smarter than human beings, but might even replace humanity. Okay, but in worldview analysis, there's also something really significant that this scholar at the Brookings Institution points out. Again, the headline is China is scared of AI, just not the way we are. So what's the way we are? What's the main concern in the United States is that personal identity might be stolen, that AI might take over governments and businesses, that AI might rival humanity or even declare a war on humanity. But then you look at China and the question is, why would their concerns be different? And then this gets really, really interesting. In the United States, our default, of course, is not only freedom of the press and freedom of speech, but intellectual freedom. And the biggest danger that many American firms and many American scientists and other

18:29observers of AI see is that there would somehow be a misuse of that freedom. When it comes to China, the big concern is there would be the existence of that freedom. And so as China looks at the threat of AI, the Communist Party, they're in China's concern that AI could become some kind of issue that would be subversive to the Communist regime. As a matter of fact, when you look at the United States challenge, just look at artificial intelligence in terms of some of the everyday issues that already arise. When you have an AI summary, how much trust can you put in that summary? Well we do know there could be some deliberate distortion, but the bigger issue is the AI is still learning. If we're going to use that expression, it is still gathering information and processing that information. I'm very reluctant to anthropomorphize here at all. Let's not say learning. Let's say, gather and analyze material analytically and electronically. You look at that and it is a danger. And I think we need to talk about that danger. We need to keep talking about that danger.

19:30But when you look at China, China is concerned with access to that information, not with so much the concern that the information is going to turn hostile to us, but that the information would actually reveal things that are contrary to what the regime, the Communist Party, wants the Chinese people to know. And so you look at that and you recognize, wow, this really is a very different context. In the United States, we're worried about the loss of personal identity. We're worried about the compromise of personal information and we're very concerned about artificial intelligence that could turn hostile to humanity. In China, it's a very different concern. They're concerned with people getting too much access. They're concerned with there being rival sources of authority and information to the Chinese Communist Party. So it is going to be interesting. You and I will not have access to the conversation between President Xi and President Trump. We don't know how much of this is going to be explicit. Many people looking at the entire process of diplomacy say that neither President Trump nor the Chinese president is likely to come straight out and say out loud what his priority

20:35is. The likelihood is that there will be something of a diplomatic dance around these issues, but that doesn't mean it won't matter. It could matter a very great deal. But it also means that you're looking at a situation that is unfolding minute by minute, maybe millisecond by millisecond in digital terms. So even by the time President Xi arrives for the meeting at the White House, the situation could already be at least partly reframed. By the way, another little footnote to that, international headlines came with the development that the Chinese president Xi Jinping had skipped a dinner where he was expected to be present. Now that might become news if it were a president of the United States. But when it comes to a Chinese Communist leader, this may be a very big tell. There are speculations that this could mean a health crisis or any number of things. And even in the United States, even in modern Western democracies, sometimes politicians don't want to reveal the true nature of their physical situation.

21:36But there's only so far a president of the United States can go in that regard. When it comes to the Chinese Communist Party and its totalitarian control, let's just say, totalitarian means totalitarian. But absence can become a big issue, isn't that interesting? It's the failure of the Chinese leader to show up at one dinner that is leading now to international speculation, and thus the stakes are even higher when it comes to the Chinese leader's visit to the White House coming at the end of this week. He better show up, or you can see what the speculation is likely to be. And when it comes to leadership in that kind of context, well, the big question is, who in the world will follow Xi as you're looking at the Chinese Communist Party? And you also have the historical background that he has basically, well, let's just say, eliminated most obvious competitors. And note, this is not just an issue for China. It's a huge issue for the free world, for the United States and for our allies as well. So when President Trump and President Xi shake hands, they might very well be as comedians

22:40that made fun over the decades. They may very well be shaking hands. They may very well also be checking one another's pulse. By the way, when it comes to the issues expected to be a part of the conversation between President Trump and President Xi, you have Reuters suggesting it comes down to issues such as jets, farm produce, and tech, war with Iran, Taiwan, artificial intelligence, fentanyl flows. That is flows of fentanyl and other illegal drugs. All that is likely to be on the table. I'll tell you one thing that we should hope will be on the table, and we should seek to encourage very much to be on the table. And that is the issue of religious liberty. And when you're looking at China, you're looking at a notoriously totalitarian and repressive intolerant regime. We're talking about a regime that not only seeks to suppress Christianity, but sees Christianity as one of its major enemies. In the history of humanity, it is very clear that China is going to go down as one of the most repressive regimes in all of human history when it comes to intolerance toward religious

23:43freedom, religious expression. And as you look at Christianity, Christianity has been in the center of the bull's eye. So we need to pray for Christians for believers there in China. And we also need to hope that the United States government will put appropriate pressure on China as much as possible to recognize and respect the religious liberty of its own citizens. But once again, we are looking at the titanic difference in worldview, a cataclysmic distinction in the worldview, between the worldview of the communist regime in China and the worldview in the United States that means we're talking about press freedom, and we're talking about freedom of speech, and we're talking about religious freedom as realities. And the question is, how does a government rightly respect those realities? We're talking about two very different worlds, with two very different understandings of who human beings are. In the Chinese understanding, the materialism of communism, they're just organic beings. When it comes to the Western tradition, and it comes to Christian influence, this is where the Christian understanding of human beings made in the image of God becomes absolutely

24:44crucial. The secularist attack seeks to subvert that, but the reality is, Western civilization is built upon the Christian presumption that human beings are made in the image of God. If we lose that, let's just remember in closing, we lose just about everything. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at albremolar.com. You can follow me on x or twitter by going to x.com forward slash albremolar for information on this other map to theological seminary, go to spts.edu. For information on voice college, just go to voicecollege.com. I'm speaking to you from Nashville, Tennessee. I'll meet you again tomorrow for the briefing.