Hundreds of U.S. newspapers devoted print space on Thursday to a coordinated defense of press freedom and a rebuke of President Donald Trump for saying some media organizations are enemies of the American people.
Last week, the Boston Globe pledged to write an editorial on Aug. 16 on the dangers of the U.S. administration's “dirty war” against the press.
Using the hashtag #EnemyOfNone and #FreePress, close to 350 publications, including the U.K.’s Guardian, the New York Times, the New York Post, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, joined the campaign and denounced the president’s war against the media.
The Boston Globe, with the headline “Journalists Are Not The Enemy,” stated that a free press was the essence of American media for over two centuries.
“A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “The enemy of the people.” This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences,” the editorial read.
The New York Times’ editorial, headlined “A Free Press Needs You,” called out to Trump saying, “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.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously attacked certain media outlets, calling them the “FAKE NEWS MEDIA” and the “enemy of the American people.”
The Globe said it coordinated publication among the newspapers and carried details of it on a database on its website.
Trump has frequently criticized journalists and described news reports that contradict his opinion or policy positions as fake news.
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.
In January, U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, said Trump had embraced the despotic language of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
