Over 300 newspapers from across the United States have published editorials in a coordinated response to ongoing attacks by President Donald Trump.
Boston Globe:
A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “The enemy of the people.” This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences. We asked editorial boards from around the country – liberal and conservative, large and small – to join us today to address this fundamental threat in their own words.
NBC News: Newspapers across U.S. denounce Trump’s media attacks with coordinated editorials
The widespread effort comes as the president’s attacks on the press continue — but some are worried the editorials could backfire.
Newspapers and media outlets across the U.S. launched a widespread effort Thursday aimed at combating the constant attacks from President Donald Trump as well as negative feelings about the media’s role in society.
More than 300 newspapers around the nation joined together to each publish editorials that explained the role of journalists and amplified the positive role journalism plays in society.
So far newspapers big and small have joined the effort, and not just ones from blue states. They include The New York Times, The Arizona Daily Sun and The North Little Rock Times.
The Topeka Capital Journal, a newspaper based in Topeka, Kansas, that supported Trump, joined in the coordinated action.
“No one will be happy all the time with what a journalist or news outlet produces,” The Capital Journal editorial said. “But being called an enemy — and not of a politician or cause, but of the whole people of a nation — that’s something else entirely. It’s sinister. It’s destructive. And it must end now.”
Trump has targeted the media with criticism and accusations since early on in his presidential campaign, with those attacks continuing — and sometimes escalating — since he became president. At a rally in August, Trump described the press covering the event as “fake, fake disgusting news.” Trump has made fun of the media by announcing a “fake news awards.” He’s also threatened to enact new libel laws and frequently attacked news outlets via Twitter.
True to form, Trump responded:
Very ironic, and very Trump. If honesty wins, then he must be one of the biggest losers – as are US democracy and credibility.
Why single out the Boston Globe? This could have something to do with it.
The effort was spearheaded by Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor of the editorial page at The Boston Globe, who asked other editors to combat frequent attacks made on the press by Trump.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Pritchard explained her inspiration for the initiative:
“I hope it would educate readers to realize that an attack on the First Amendment is unacceptable. We are a free and independent press; it is one of the most sacred principles enshrined in the Constitution.”
Not everyone was in favour of the coordinated campaign.
Not every news outlet was on board. The Wall Street Journal, whose editorial board is strongly conservative, published an article that was critical of the initiative, suggesting the president has a right to free speech and that newspapers have been “colluding.” Jack Shafer, senior media writer at Politico, wrote that the coordinated effort “is sure to backfire.”
“It will provide Trump with circumstantial evidence of the existence of a national press cabal that has been convened solely to oppose him,” Shafer wrote. “When the editorials roll off the press on Thursday, all singing from the same script, Trump will reap enough fresh material to whale on the media for at least a month.”
I don’t think it will make much difference – Trump will lurch from attack to attack depending on what unfavourable news unfolds.
The media has many faults and flaws, but it is an essential part of an open democracy, and essential check on power.
One of the biggest potential problems is if Trump escalates his attacks and promotes and encourages division and violence, and there are signs it is coming to this already.
Trump may benefit from his ongoing onslaught – people become numb to shock with each outlandish outburst or attack.
But it is almost certain to backfire on him eventually. His accumulation of ill-will and dysfunctional relationships – with the media, with politicians, with countries, with sports people, with a growing number of disaffected whistle blowers – is sure to work against him.
Just as people are becoming immune to shock from his behaviour, it will take more for him to achieve the levels of shock he seems to be determined to achieve. This means he could get more shocking, and trample further over the line of decency and responsibility.
The Boston Globe’s editorial “JOURNALISTS ARE NOT THE ENEMY”
Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current U.S. administration are the “enemy of the people.” This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president much like an old-time charlatan threw out “magic” dust or water on a hopeful crowd.
“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom,” wrote John Adams.
For more than two centuries, this foundational American principle has protected journalists at home and served as a model for free nations abroad. Today it is under serious threat. And it sends an alarming signal to despots, from Ankara to Moscow, Beijing to Baghdad, that journalists can be treated as a domestic enemy.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018I’m with Trump.
Gezza
/ August 17, 2018Good. Tell him to stop tweeting. And get his autograph for me. In one of those Executive Orders folders. Send it to PG when you get back. I’ll let him know my address so he can courier it up.
And get one for yourself. They’ll be worth a mint one day.
Kitty Catkin
/ August 17, 2018A peppermint.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E547580215359459328&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Ftech%2F2018%2F08%2F16%2Ftwitter-verifies-new-york-times-bigot-sarah-jeong-despite-racist-tweets%2F
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/08/16/twitter-verifies-new-york-times-bigot-sarah-jeong-despite-racist-tweets/
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018https://quillette.com/2018/08/17/a-closer-look-at-anti-white-rhetoric/
Corky
/ August 17, 2018I guess the press had it so good for so long it’s hard for them to give up their Masters Of The Universe position. In Trump they meet themselves…hi guys!
David
/ August 17, 2018They have just proved Trumps point that the news is out to get him and its personal for them, to get 300 outlets to sing from the same song sheet because Trump used some hurty words in response to unrelenting attacks makes them look like pathetic snowflakes.
Blazer
/ August 17, 2018Gezza
/ August 17, 2018He’s the one doing all the whining. It must sound like a bloody Jet engine when he gets onto Twitter every day.
He started accusing newspapers of fake news as soon as he got on the campaign trail & they simply recorded & played or reported the many shitty or stupid things he said – & then recorded & reported him denying it – as if the videos weren’t there.
He started a war on the press from the outset. Now he’s going rabid about them & they’ve gone feral on him. All that remains to be seen is which one is still standing at the end of his tenure.
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018a fundamental truth: It is and always has been in the interests of the powerful to dismiss and discredit those who could prove a check on their power. trump’s not the first politician to openly attack the media for fulfilling its watchdog role, but he’s the most blatant and whiniest.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018The problem with your thesis is that the media and the politicians are in each others pocket QED Public Address (A blog for journalists).
Gerrit
/ August 17, 2018In a perverse way the 300+ have, in their frustration, provided the best example yet why Trump is the Teflon Don.
For nearly four years they have tried to take Trump down with fake news yet the Teflon Don is still there.
From now on, having come out against Trump en masse, he can simply call bias reporting as fake news each and every time.
Bet he is loving every minute of this, the press tying themselves up in knots.
Gezza
/ August 17, 2018Bet he is loving every minute of this, the press tying themselves up in knots.
They’re not. Trump & they both enjoying living off each other.
Kitty Catkin
/ August 17, 2018Fake news is not biassed reporting, it’s complete fabrications like those that come from non-existent news sources.
Trump is distorting the meaning of fake news to make it mean anything that doesn’t fawn on him.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018Also the more Trump is Trump the greater his real factor is compared to a smooth manufactured/calculated/ looks different from either end statement.
Pete George
/ August 17, 2018The drip feed continues:
Gerrit
/ August 17, 2018That is the problem, it drip feeds from one fake news story to the next. The more there are the less likely people will believe the stories.
Somewhere there might be a true story or two but they are drowned out by the fake ones.
With the 300+ now in one camp, it is far easier for Trump to call fake news on any story. And quite frankly who would you believe after the crap being promoted as “news” by the fourth estate.
Huge own goal by the MSM.
A strategic advantage to Trump.
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018How are Omarosa’s recordinmgs fake? Are yoiu claiming they have been doctored? Are they voiced by actors?
Or are you buying into Wilkinson’s frothy right “fake news” meme – anything he disagrees with is fake news.
Would you rather be surrounded by yes-men? Because what your position implies is that the First Amendment right to free speech should be limited to those who stroke trump’s ego.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018I have rarely if ever called anything “fake news” and only one of us froths, Joe, and it isn’t me.
Gerrit
/ August 17, 2018As I said, the real news gets mixed up with the fake news and people won’t know what is real or fake.
Gezza
/ August 17, 2018Al just sloganises.
Gezza
/ August 17, 2018Altho, to be fair, he does also post the occasional brain fart.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018That’s what the guy who’s still waiting for the video says.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Here’s what G misses while waiting for a video:
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/402095-with-bash-trump-day-press-acts-like-opposition-party
Gezza
/ August 17, 2018Luckily, I’m capable of reading articles AND watching videos, Al.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018That wasn’t what you said before. And you always want a precis to save you the trouble.
Griff.
/ August 17, 2018Hello Alan
Trump has been framing the media as his Opposition for how long now ?
He gets upset when they point out his lies .
That is the function of the press in a democracy.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018I have no problem with checking and correcting facts, Griff. I have a problem with unconcealed bias and hatred.
Gezza
/ August 17, 2018That wasn’t what you said before. And you always want a precis to save you the trouble.
I’m a busy man. I have an estate to run & daily wildlife rangering duties, Sir Alan.
As the Avian Aviation Authority I also have stream air traffic control, monitoring, & investigation responsibilities.
The pay is rubbish, unfortunately. And a lot of it is in Gezza’s Stream.
Where I also have waste removal duties.
I do my best to supply the equally busy but discerning readers with pertinent excerpts & commentary on many of my posts so they may be assisted to decide if the linked article is worth reading.
And I try to put a bit of effort into explaining myself in other comments in order to inform the reader of my views with at least some precision.
You have become intellectually lazy, Sirrah.
Yours despairingly, as always
Sir Gerald
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018All of my links are worth reading, Sir Gerald.
Griff.
/ August 17, 2018Only if you want to know how gullible you are Alan.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018I cast my pearls before the swine, Griff. I take no responsibility for what they do with them.
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018There’s nothing at “The Hill” that should be taken at face value without other knowledge or corroboration. It is truly a shit site that relies on click-harvesting paraphrasing of stories from other news sites and bullshit.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Way to go with your usual ad hominems, Joe. The Hill was founded and run by New York Democrats. How embarrassing that it publishes stuff that doesn’t fit your agenda.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018here’s a good read
https://quillette.com/2018/08/17/a-closer-look-at-anti-white-rhetoric/
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018Trump is like a plumber. As long as he gets the water flowing that is what counts.
If Trump does use the N word people will (perhaps) think “Obama put Churchill’s bust in the lavatory”. These days what counts for social justice is anti-white.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Most of the press is the enemy of the President. That’s all folks.
Patzcuaro
/ August 17, 2018Truth and Trump alien concepts to each other.
Patzcuaro
/ August 17, 2018The dark side
Kitty Catkin
/ August 17, 2018WHY are they Trump’s enemies ? Does he ask himself that ? (ha ha)
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018They never wanted him from the moment he announced he would run. Also there is a fair degree of group think as you can see from Patz’s cartoons which they share around and laugh at together. He is attacking the basis of their pride, self-esteem and beliefs – that they know politics best, are entitled to tell the peasants what they should think and that the most powerful people in the land fear and respect them. They are also mostly Democrats who bitterly oppose every Republican administration anyway.
So Trump had the choice between what every other Republican President has done – ignoring or placating them – or going all out attack in response. He chose the latter and maintains it.
Kitty Catkin
/ August 17, 2018What a generalisation; you are lumping many thousands of individuals together as if they were clones who all think and act alike.
He seems to be attacking because he is so narcissistic that he can’t stand criticism.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018The point of this post is that they are thinking and acting alike.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018The two main ideologies today are globalism and nationalism. The media are globalists. As Paul Spoonley gloats: “it’s very lonely on the right”.
High Flying Duck
/ August 17, 2018Griff.
/ August 17, 2018Brietbart
rofl
Its sad how easily manipulated you idiots are.
Hows the wall going?
Obama care replaced with something better ?
All those new trade agreements signed up yet?
North Korea stopped its nuclear program?
Hows the national dept?
We get a never ending number of controversy’s were Trumps handpicked best team ever is sacked for being useless or corrupt.
Still you think he is winning.
Winning at destroying the USA’s global reputation and giving taxpayers money away to prop up his support.
High Flying Duck
/ August 17, 2018Didn’t read the article Griff – pretty irrelevant to the tweet.
Brennan’s op-ed was absurd. He uses Trumps joke about the Russians getting emails and misrepresents what he said as evidence of his collusion FFS.
And then he says he is aware of how bad the collusion is “because of the free press”.
High Flying Duck
/ August 17, 2018“To be clear, Brennan doesn’t provide any new evidence of collusion between Trump or his associates and Russia — this isn’t some big reveal of classified information from a former intelligence official who is finally speaking out. This is merely Brennan looking at the publicly available facts and coming to his own conclusions — the same conclusions he’s made over and over publicly before.
The only evidence he actually provides of possible collusion by Trump himself is just that statement from the campaign trail about Russia hacking Hillary’s emails. Brennan insinuates a lot, but his case for collusion by Trump isn’t anything we haven’t already heard before.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/16/17698228/john-brennan-security-clearance-op-ed-trump
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Brennan
Rofl
How did Obama ever put that lunatic in charge of his asylum?
admiralvonspee
/ August 17, 2018Pin this one for claim chowder, folks.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018In the midst of our turbulent political and cultural moment there endures an intellectual sub-culture that refuses to be dislodged by the relativism prevalent on the Left and the Right. In the crosshairs of postmodernist excess and ‘alternative facts,’ a number intellectuals and institutions are prioritizing moral and empirical truth over ideology. This is a space that includes organisations like the Heterodox Academy and the cluster of academics and public thinkers now known as the Intellectual Dark Web.
One of the brightest stars in this constellation is the conservative pundit Ben Shapiro—a gifted polemicist who has debated his way to prominence in American politics. With a podcast that reaches millions and a reputation for being as willing to criticize conservatives as he is to engage conventionally liberal thinkers in far-reaching conversations, Shapiro has given a face to popular conservatism that is strikingly more empirical and intellectually honest than that offered by the likes of Candace Owens, Steven Crowder, and Tomi Lahren. Nevertheless, one aspect of Shapiro’s message constitutes an over-correction that is itself in need of correction.
Shapiro is famous, in part, for touring college campuses and ‘destroying’ idealistic and emotional young progressives with the aphorism “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” However, there is an argument to be made on behalf of empathy in our discourse that is being heedlessly trampled by Shapiro’s defiant mode of aggressive argumentation. The narrow emphasis on ‘facts not feelings’ reflects a widespread misunderstanding of the role evidence plays in the apprehension of truth, which thwarts our ability to properly pursue empirical and ethical truth in the first place.
https://quillette.com/2018/08/13/the-problem-with-facts-not-feelings/
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018an open letter from Admiral William H. McRaven to BLOTUS:
Navy Admiral (Ret’d)
Commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014.
Oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018McRaven’s attacks on politicians have a history pre-dating Trump:
https://www.tbo.com/list/news-opinion-commentary/william-mcraven-a-warriors-career-sacrificed-for-politics-20160424/
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018For good reason – while Brennan and McRaven were teaming up to hunt down and kill bin Laden, trump was busy having affairs with porn stars.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Exhibit A above: Joe’s notion of a good reason.
David
/ August 17, 2018I hope Brennan becomes a daily feature, they can cycle between him and James Clapper and perhaps chuck in Michael Avanetti to break up the monotony to commentate on everything.
One thing I dont get is if Clapper and Brennan thought the Russians were influencing the election, infiltrating the Trump campaign and all these other dastardly things why didnt they do anything about it. All very well bleating now but they were in charge at the time.
Patzcuaro
/ August 17, 2018Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018For all trump’s (and Wilkinson’s) bluster about the press being the enemy, over half of the 600 newsletters put out by the White House under trump use material from and link to mainstream outlets like The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CBS – all publications that have been targeted in trump’s bullshit tweets.
Go frickin’ figure. 🙄
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Of course most of the press is the enemy. That doesn’t mean it all is. Just about 80%.
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018Dear oh dear, rosebud. The reason trump’s newsletters use the NYT, WaPO, and the rest of the alphabet soup as sources is because they write favourable articles about him. Go, see for yourself.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Had a quick skim through the current 1600 Daily newsletter and it just seemed to pull factual info relative to current policy initiatives from various news sources. What is your point?
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018This is my point:
For all trump’s (and Wilkinson’s) bluster about the press being the enemy, over half of the 600 newsletters put out by the White House under trump use material from and link to mainstream outlets like The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CBS – all publications that have been targeted in trump’s bullshit tweets.
They’re used as sources because they portray trump in a favourable light.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018No, the ones I just looked at didn’t portray Trump in a favourable light or mention him at all in the extracts cited. They just provided information rather than opinion which is the real duty of the press.
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018There is no threat to press freedom. There is valid criticism of press bias.
Joe Bloggs
/ August 17, 2018Bullshit. Nearly half of republicans think trump should have the power to shut down media operations.
This isn’t about press bias. It’s about the free press and the powerful.
Alan Wilkinson
/ August 17, 2018Shut down media operations or just turf out journalists who incessantly scream over everyone else at press conferences? There is no indication of any action against press freedom by Trump unlike the instances cited in my link above where Obama did attack journalistic freedoms. Here it is again for your belated education:
http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/402095-with-bash-trump-day-press-acts-like-opposition-party
David
/ August 17, 2018Aside from a pool reporter not being allowed to ask a question after prior screaching and Democrat Bill De Blasio having security manhandle a NY Times reporter away where has the press been stopped from doing their normal stuff.
They were asleep for 8 years of Obama and near bankrupt now they are thriving and more profitable than ever, CNN excluded, as the official opposition.
Tom
/ August 17, 2018All you accomplished is prove that what Trump says about biased left wing media/ Fake News colluding against him is true.
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018https://www.nas.org/articles/homogenous_political_affiliations_of_elite_liberal
sorethumb
/ August 17, 2018The Media (Communications) 108 Democrat to (zero) Republicans.