There are two places where press watching is pretty useless, North Korea and Russia. You can pretty well expect that in both of those the press speaks to what the government wants to say, regardless of fact, one way or another. The Wall Street Journal seems to find it interesting that North Korea put Trumps visit on the front page, when they did too. Historical events are of interest to many countries with controlled press, but we don't want to put much stock in it. Tomorrow, President Trump could be replacing the Devil in Hell and that would be on the front pages of North Korea but not the US.
Time has an article last month on the Russian influence using social media in the US. and I was a little surprised that it left out the same influence by the press on public perception. In each case, the Russians have used the press to reinforce its bogus reports in social media. So, the social media starts the story, the press follows up or precedes the story and the the spin follows by referencing the stories in the press and starting all over. A series of leaks follows using private information that is made public. It is like a formula for a B movie. It isn't great, but it works well enough to make more.
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