When you think of #FOX News, you think smooth sailing for Donald #trump. Or you did until the weekend just past. But following Friday's 77-minute press conference, in which Trump was said to declare war on main-stream media in America, the waters have gotten somewhat stormy. Shepard Smith, a Fox News stalwart, launched an impassioned plea that Trump stop telling lies that everyone knows are false. Smith also demanded that Trump come clean on Russian ties to his 2016 campaign.

FOX versus Trump?

Then the unthinkable happened. If you had to think of a figurehead for the best of FOX news, many would give the nod to Chris Wallace.

He projects an aura of authority and reason. So when he weighed in with the most cutting of all responses to Trump's attack, you had to ask two questions. 1. Is this a sea change that will prove Trump's war on media is a war on his very presidency? 2. Or is this just another day in or around the oval office?.

if past is prologue, Trump will not be fazed. There will be no apology. There will be retrenchment and hunkering down. And then there will be a counter-attack just as there has been at every point in the battle that is underway. If you can't stand the heat, consider vacating the kitchen. Or rise above it and practice critical thinking. Listen carefully to what Trump says.

Trump won't cave

(Three minutes in for Trump's Friday press conference media remarks.)

Anyone who has followed Trump understands why he will not back down. He doesn't need to. He lives day to day and he has the controls. Sound bite politics is not going anywhere. The bites will vary with the points of view. Trump wants you to believe we are making great progress.

The media want's you to wonder at a man who has a record of provocation that's miles long. And this is not a new thing. All Presidents have the same problem, Only with Trump everything is magnified.

Chris Wallace used the O word. He consigned Trump to the back row. But Trump probably counts his attack on media as a big victory.

So the battle will go on. And the outcome of Trump's remaking of America will be known by deeds, not sound bites. Bear in mind that the US has been stalled seemingly forever when it comes to governance. And yet the wheels keep turning. Only as simple facts pile up, facts that defy sound bites, will we know if Trump is succeeding. Often it takes years and even decades to answer the question of success or failure. The present answer is not to be swayed by what is said. on all sides.

That answer is a value at the heart of goodness -- critical thinking.

Think critically. When Trump says the media are unfair, ask yourself, are they? When Trump says he has nothing to do with Putin or Russia, ask, really? Critical thinking is our best friend in an environment of rampant, binary back and forth. It is the foundation of tolerance and helpfulness and even of democracy itself.

And there is truth on all sides.
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