DON: PRESS IS A RIVAL PARTY
United editorials spur Twitter rant
President Trump called the news media the “opposition party” on Thursday as hundreds of newspapers across the country published editorials condemining his claim that the press is “the enemy of the people.”
“THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country . . . . BUT WE ARE WINNING!” the president tweeted.
About an hour later, Trump returned to Twitter to say he supports a free press but not “FAKE NEWS.”
“There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!” he wrote.
Shortly afterward, the GOPcontrolled Senate unanimously passed a resolution that declared any effort to undermine the media to be an “attack on our democratic institutions.”
At a meeting of Cabinet members at the White House, Trump needled reporters that they had the “freedom” to remain.
“If you’d like, you can stay. If you’d like, you can leave,” he told them. “Freedom of the press.”
The Boston Globe led the effort in which more than 350 newspapers published editorials about Trump’s assaults on the media.
His rhetoric has resulted in his supporters harassing journalists at his recent campaign-style rallies.
“This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences,” the Globe wrote. “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.”
Publications from around the country took part — in big cities and small towns, in red states and blue.
Trump trashed the Globe for its “COLLUSION” with other news outlets and denounced a familiar foe, The New York Times, for taking a financial bath when it unloaded the Boston paper.
“The Boston Globe, which was sold to the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!” Trump tweeted.
The Times actually sold the Boston Globe in 2013 for $70 million. It purchased it 20 years earlier for $1.1 billion.
In its editorial, the Times urged readers to subscribe to their local newspapers, saying, “We’re all in this together.”