Amid international outcry over President Donald Trump’s treatment of the news media, more than 100 newspapers are planning to publish editorials this Thursday pushing back against his repeated claims that journalists are “the enemy of the people” and defending their right to cover his administration and actions.
Denouncing Trump’s “dirty war on the free press,” the Boston Globe wrote to dozens of news outlets across the country calling on them to band together in defense of their work.
“We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date,” wrote the Globe‘s editors.
Large newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and the Miami Herald have committed to writing editorials, as well as smaller local outlets.
“Publications, whatever their politics, could make a powerful statement by standing together in the common defense of their profession and the vital role it plays in government for and by the people.” —Boston Globe The campaign comes after repeated attacks by the president on the news media, beginning before he was elected president in November 2016. During his campaign Trump popularized the term “fake news,” applying it frequently to CNN and other cable news outlets when their coverage of his campaign was deemed too negative.
Since his inauguration Trump has steadily ramped up his attacks, calling for NBC‘s license to be revoked after it published a report about his request to increase the nation’s nuclear arsenal, and telling his supporters that American journalists are “really bad people.”
In recent weeks tensions between the White House and the press have grown even more pronounced, after Trump applauded the harassment of CNN journalist Jim Acosta at his rally in Tampa, Florida.
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