US media hits back at Trump’s attack on free press

WASHINGTON: US newspapers big and small hit back Thursday at President Donald Trump's relentless attacks on the news media, with a coordinated campaign of editorials highlighting the importance of a free press.

Leading the charge was The Boston Globe, which had issued an appeal for the drive accompanied by the hashtag #EnemyofNone that has been joined by more than 300 newspapers around 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 effort comes amid Trump’s persistent claims that mainstream media outlets that publish articles critical of him are churning out “fake news.”

The New York Times, a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, ran a seven-paragraph editorial under a giant headline with all capital letters that read

“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.

Other newspapers said Trump’s attacks diminish the importance of journalists in their communities.

“For more than two centuries — since the birth of our nation — the press has served as a check on power, informing the American people about corruption and greed, triumphs and tragedies, grave mistakes and misdeeds and even ineptitude and dysfunction,” wrote the Albuquerque Journal in New Mexico.

Iowa’s Des Moines Register said, “The true enemies of the people — and democracy — are those who try to suffocate truth by vilifying and demonizing the messenger.”

Trump doubled down on his criticism on Thursday in a fresh attack on the media.

It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!” the president wrote on Twitter. Free press advocates argue that Trump’s attacks threaten the role of the news media as a check against abuse of power in government and imperil the constitutional First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.