350 dailies take on Trump for free press

Los Angeles, August 16

Hundreds of US newspapers on Thursday launched a coordinated defence of press freedom and a rebuke of President Donald Trump for denouncing some media organisations as enemies of the American people.

The Boston Globe and the New York Times took part along with more than 350 other newspapers of all sizes, including some in states that Trump won during the 2016 presidential election.

The Globe said it coordinated publication among the newspapers and carried details of it on a database on its website. Each paper ran an editorial, which is usually an unsigned article that reflects the opinion of an editorial board and is separate from the news and other sections in a paper.

The Globe’s editorial accused Trump of carrying out a “sustained assault on the free press”. “The greatness of America is dependent on the role of a free press to speak the truth to the powerful,” it said. “To label the press ‘the enemy of the people’ is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries.”

Trump has frequently criticised journalists and described news reports that contradict his opinion or policy positions as fake news.

He lashed out again on Thursday, tweeting: “The fake news media  is the  opposition party. It is very bad for our Great Country....But we are winning!” His comments reflect a view held by many conservatives that most newspapers and other news outlets distort, make up or omit facts because of a bias against them. A representative for the White House could not immediately be reached for comment on the editorials.

The New York Times editorial said it was right to criticise the news media for underplaying or overplaying stories or for getting something wrong in a story. “News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes. Correcting them is core to our job,” it said. “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 coordinated editorials were criticised by some in the media, including a CBS News commentary that described them as a “self-defeating act of journalistic groupthink”. “Seriously — Who’s going to be persuaded by this effort, or be impressed that a few hundred newspapers can hum the same tune?” the commentary asked. — Reuters

What the editorials said

• The Boston Globe editorial ‘Journalists Are Not The Enemy, argued that a free press had been a core American principle for more than 200 years
• The New York Times chose the headline A Free Press Needs You, calling Trump’s attacks “dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy”
• The Philadelphia Inquirer said its city was the birthplace of US democracy, writing: “If the press is not free from reprisal, punishment or suspicion for unpopular views or information, neither is the country. Neither are its people”

Won’t be scared into silence: Ex-CIA boss 

• Former CIA Director John Brennan fired back at President Donald Trump on Thursday with a New York Times op-ed one day after the President revoked the Obama-era official’s security clearance, saying he would not be scared into silence
• “Trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to him, which is why he made the politically motivated decision to revoke my security clearance in a bid to scare into silence others who might dare to challenge him,” Brennan wrote in the op-ed