U.S. MEDIA SLAMS TRUMP
Newspapers launch coordinated campaign defending free press
NEWSPAPERS big and small in United States hit back yesterday at President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks on the news media, launching a coordinated campaign of editorials stressing the importance of a free press.
Leading the charge was The Boston Globe, which had issued an appeal for this drive, accompanied by the hashtag #EnemyofNone, that has been joined by more than 200 newspapers in the country.
“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 US administration are the ‘enemy of the people’,” the Globe editorial said.
“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,” it added in a piece entitled “Journalists are not the Enemy”.
The coordinated effort comes amid Trump’s persistent claims that mainstream media outlets that publish articles critical of him are churning out “fake news”.
Free press advocates argue that Trump’s efforts threaten the role of the media as a check against abuse of power in government and imperil the constitutional First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.
The one of the most frequent targets of Trump’s criticism, ran a short, seven-paragraph editorial under a giant headline with all capital letters that read “A FREE PRESS NEEDS YOU” and with the statement that it is only right for people to criticise the press, say, for getting something wrong.
“But insisting that truths you don’t like are ‘fake news’ is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the ‘enemy of the people’ is dangerous, period,” the Times wrote.
But Ken Paulson, a former editor-in-chief of USA Today, who heads the Newseum’s First Amendment Center and is dean of communications at Middle Tennessee State University, questioned whether editorials would be effective.
“The people who read editorials don’t need to be convinced. They are not the ones trying to shout you down at presidential rallies.”
In the face of a White House onslaught, the media needed a broader marketing campaign to highlight the importance of a free press as a core value, he said.