The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Trump is wrong to rail against a free press
Words matter. Your choice of words can soothe or can inflame. They can inspire, or disgust. They can linger in our consciousness or dissipate like spit in the wind.
And when the leader of a country says them, words carry extra weight. So when President Donald J. Trump says the press is the “enemy of the people” the words cause a reaction. Some actually believe him.
I would like to ignore what he said, but I can’t. He continues to deride the press and individual reporters who happen to annoy him by asking questions — which is what reporters are supposed to do.
The “enemy of the people” phrase came out in April within a tweet, which seems to be Trump’s favored form of communication. Here’s exactly what he tweeted at 1:41 p.m. on April 5: “The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
(By the way, using all capital letters to make a point is a weak way of communicating; that’s what I tell Letter to the Editor writers and they get it.)
There’s much to deconstruct in that tweet (magnificence? done more than virtually any other administration in the first two years?), but let’s focus on “enemy of the people.”
That couldn’t be further from the truth. The press exists to inform the people, and to hold government accountable to the people.
His assault on the press goes back to his campaign days when he coined the incendiary phrase “Fake News” and applied it to anything with which he disagreed. And it continues to this day.
On Wednesday the president became confrontational while speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.
Peter Alexander of NBC News asked a question. Let’s listen in:
Alexander: “Sir, Joe Biden’s gaffes. You like to attack Joe Biden for his gaffes. … You said that the mass shooting happened in Toledo when it happened in Dayton. So is that fair game?”
Trump: “This guy is the most biased reporter. NBC. You know I made a lot of money for NBC with ‘The Apprentice’ and I used to like them but they are the most biased. Peter is such a biased … you should be able to ask a question, same question, in a better way. You are so obviously biased and that’s why the public has no confidence in the media.”
He goes on:
“Let me tell you, in six years, or maybe 10 or maybe 14, right? In six years, when I’m not here, The New York Times goes out of business very quickly. And you know who else goes out? Like NBC News. NBC News has less credibility in my opinion with guys like you than CNN . ... ”
Alexander’s question was awkwardly phrased and certainly there are far more important issues to question the president on, but the reporter was not biased in asking the president about gaffes. And what president takes glee in predicting a venerable paper would shut down?
Objectivity
There was a time when the press was biased, and that was clear to everyone.
The American press was partisan from the beginning of the Republic. The Federalists had their newspapers and the Jeffersonian Democrats had theirs and the editors regularly exchanged insults.
And Trump is not the first president — by far — to denounce the press.
Even Thomas Jefferson — often quoted for this sentiment in a letter written Jan. 16, 1787 in Paris: “... the basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter” — became critical.
By the last year of his presidency he wrote a friend June 11, 1807: “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.”
What changed? For one, James Callendar, a political writer and newspaper editor, alleged in a series of articles beginning in 1802 that Jefferson had children by Sally Hemings, a slave. DNA testing more than a century later would prove it true.
Before Jefferson, President John Adams enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, which could fine and imprison those who “write, print, utter, or publish ... any false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the government.
More than 20 newspaper editors (of the opposition party) were arrested, and even a congressman, Matthew Lyon of Vermont, was sent to prison for his letter that criticized Adams for “unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and self avarice.”
Jefferson reversed the Alien and Sedition Acts; democracy survived.
Objectivity in reporting and publishing did not become a journalism goal until nearly a century ago. It was adopted in the 1922 Canons of Journalism by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which included values such as responsibility, independence and fair play.
“These principles are intended to preserve, protect and strengthen the bond of trust and respect between American journalists and the American people, a bond that is essential to sustain the grant of freedom entrusted to both by the nation’s founders,” the nowcalled Statement of Principles concludes.
President Trump is trying to rip apart that “bond of trust and respect” and I fear that some will believe him. And ultimately that would hurt all.
Be informed
When I talk to groups or classes, I emphasize the difference between news and opinion in a newspaper. This column, and others where you see the writer’s picture, is the opinion of one person. Opinion should be provocative. On the editorial page, readers have the chance to talk back and express their opinions. It can be a robust community dialogue.
The news pages are different. Reporters are objective in gathering the news and distilling it for readers; their opinions do not influence the coverage.
(Cable news shows are another matter. Everyone knows that you’ll hear a conservative viewpoint on Fox News and a liberal perspective on MSNBC.)
Words, and who is speaking them, matter.
Tuesday morning U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D5th, was speaking to the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce in Brookfield. For nearly an hour she spoke extemporaneously on many issues, seldom referring to her notes. But for one moment, a few heartbeats, she was speechless.
In addressing racism, and alluding to Trump’s tweets and taunts, she began, “What is so incredibly dangerous...” And filled with emotion, she had to pause. “...is that our children are watching us.”
“When we continue to ‘otherize’ people, we have a problem,” she said.
And that is what is happening today, on many fronts. A wise leader does not try to divide the people, does not demonize the press that is responsible for reporting on government.
What can you do? Be informed, express your opinions, be a participant in democracy. Support your local press.