Big day today in print media

[Amused]

And here is an interactive list of all papers participating in today's protest with their original, self written editorials protesting Trump's Attacks on the free press:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...press-local-journalism-news-donald-trump.html

 

[Amused]

Let's keep this up! Let's keep posting their words instead of letting a strawman post attempt to duhvert from them!!

 

[Amused]

Arizona Free Star

https://tucson.com/opinion/local/st...cle_2606f264-76cd-59b0-95f8-c618c0c02053.html


Star Opinion: The free press is not the 'enemy of the people'

The Arizona Daily Star is participating in a nationwide effort by newspaper editorial boards to speak against President Trump’s demonization of the free press by calling us the “enemy of the people.”

We unwaveringly reject Trump’s slander. But this isn’t only about us, the press.

You have a dog in this fight.


Journalists hold dear the First Amendment, but it wasn’t written for us. It was written to protect the public from government officials — including presidents — who seek to hold power through secrecy and deception.

The First Amendment protects your right — your need — to know more than what your government tells you.

At a practical level, we journalists sit through boring government meetings and learn about public school financing formulas, so you don’t have to. It’s not as lofty a statement as the First Amendment, but it serves.

Why would you give that away?

When President Trump points to journalists and calls us the “enemy of the people,” when he wants you to believe that coverage of his own actions and his own words is “fake news,” Trump is asking you to join him in a grand charade.

When Trump weaponizes and perverts the very concept of truth and a free press by trafficking in bold lies with a smile on his face, he does so with a purpose:

To hold the American people hostage to his whim, to his control, to his reality. Don’t believe what the press tells you, he repeats.

“Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening,” Trump told a VFW gathering in Kansas City in June.

If this were a personal relationship, alarm bells would be going off.

And while Trump is often disparaging the New York Times, CNN and other national news outlets, the distrust he peddles doesn’t make a distinction for local journalism.

Local journalists, such as those at the Arizona Daily Star, view our job as a service to you — our community. We live here, some of us were born here, and we care deeply about Tucson and Southern Arizona.


We work so you’ll know how elected officials are spending your tax money and what they’re doing in your name.

Journalists talk to people, hunt down documents and ask questions so you’ll know if the charity soliciting you for donations is legitimate; if there’s a problem with 911 dispatching; if the public mental health system works.

If local government wants you to pay more for recycling, we’ll tell you why and how much. If water wells are contaminated, we’ll explain how it happened, and what’s next.

And, if you see a factual error in our reporting, tell us and we will check it out and correct it.

If you disagree with a Star opinion we share on the Star’s Editorial Page, tell us. Write a letter to the editor and explain your point of view.

It is vital that we not allow Trump, or anyone else, to sever the relationship between the American people and the press.

Journalists are not the “enemy of the American people.”

We, like you, are the American people.

 

[Hugo Stiglitz]

How cute, maybe we can lay off one less dead tree newspaper worker today to celebrate their success. Or maybe we can "hire" another AI reporter to do their job.

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/robots-wrote-this-story/

Howard Beale was right.

 

[Amused]

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...ters-newspaper-editorials-20180815-story.html

How we restore faith in journalism

The president of the United States enjoys hurling insults, like a howitzer firing shells, at American institutions. The court system. The FBI. The “Justice” Department. The media. The U.S. Congress. As is true for all 487 people, places and things that The New York Times says Donald Trump has insulted on Twitter since declaring his presidential candidacy, none of these institutions is perfect. They make mistakes. Like the presidency, they also make a difference in people’s daily lives.

Consider the potential of tens of thousands of news media members. Consider the potential of The San Diego Union-Tribune’s staff.

These journalists seek the truth and report it while minimizing harm every day. They don’t promote any single person, ideology or political agenda. Their only agenda is the truth.

Related: Readers react to free press editorials from nation's newspapers

Just one example? Without the hard work of journalists at several local news outlets, the region’s deadly hepatitis A outbreak may have been much worse. When The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board named the 20 unidentified people who died during the crisis as its 2017 people of the year, we wrote, “These 20 hepatitis A deaths represent the real cost of a series of public policy errors, missteps and inaction.” If not for journalists, these government lapses would have been more egregious.

That’s why the president’s recent tweet that “the fake news” is “the Enemy of the People” and “very dangerous & sick” is itself dangerous. Flooded with Trump’s anti-press sentiments, people increasingly agree with the president; when asked “which comes closer to your point of view: the news media is the enemy of the people, or the news media is an important part of democracy?” 26 percent said the former in a new Quinnipiac Universitypoll of 1,175 U.S. voters. Forty-four percent said they are concerned Trump’s criticism of the news media will lead to violence against people working in it.

While his words inflict harm, Trump didn’t invent the term “fake news.” It dates back to the 1800s. He also isn’t the first to weaponize media mistrust.

When Richard Nixon conceded the California governor’s race in a speech in 1962, he told reporters, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore,” and he urged editors “to put one reporter on the campaign who will report what the candidate says now and then.”

Eight years later, at a speech in San Diego, then-President Nixon’s vice president, Spiro Agnew, famously decried “the nattering nabobs of negativism” who “have formed their own 4-H Club — the hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.” Agnew’s speechwriter, William Safire, wrote years later that the sweeping indictment decried “defeatists in general rather than the press in particular.” But less than a year after The New York Times quoted the line in correct context while covering it live, a Newsday columnist cited “nattering nabobs” as an attack on the press and The Times and Time got it wrong later, too, as writer Norman P. Lewis reported in 2010.

By then, Lewis says, veteran journalists from David Broder to Helen Thomas had repeated the line as a classic example of the Nixon administration’s assault on the press. In that anecdote can be seen the perils of a press that gets it wrong or even not quite right. As Lewis put it, “Journalists who wear the ‘nattering nabobs’ phrase as a badge of honor are merely proving that Agnew was right about their penchant for repeating inaccurate information.”

Agnew’s 50-cent words have given way decades later to blunt Trumpian terms like “disgusting,” “dishonest,” “phony” and “fake” that play to his base’s belief that the news media as an entity is out to get Trump. “Just remember,” Trump said in Missouri last month, “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

Yet the news media as a single entity is a myth. Yes, more than 350 newspaper editorial boards chose Thursday, at the suggestion of The Boston Globe, to write a wave of editorials that would criticize Trump’s false claims of “fake news.” But individual journalists at individual outlets chose the individual words. And in a separate effort, The San Diego Union-Tribune added a page to its website this week — see it at sdut.us/whatwedo — to explain how we seek the truth every day. How we strive for accuracy, fairness and inclusion. How we correct errors and separate news from opinion. How we earn trust one story, one reader at a time.

Journalism is a public service, and fewer readers means fewer reporters means fewer stories about how people live and die in San Diego. An investment in the U-T is an investment in community, the future, democracy.

The San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists named U-T Watchdog reporters Jeff McDonald and Morgan Cook as its 2015 and 2017 journalists of the year and editorial cartoonist Steve Breen as its 2018 Excellence in Journalism Award winner. Pursuit of the truth is what motivated all three. McDonald and Cook held government officials accountable. Breen’s sketches of homeless residents empowered the powerless.

Even if sudden violence stuns our industry, the free press safeguarded in the U.S. Constitution will endure. Why? Because there are 7,591 words in the U.S. Constitution but none more important than the first three, “We the People.”

The Constitution doesn’t call journalists enemies or divide Americans into us and them.

Distrust is not easy to dismantle. But journalists at The San Diego Union-Tribune and nationwide will keep advocating for a free and fair press. With this president. And the next. And the next. And the next. And all who follow.

 

[Amused]

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/16/denver-post-truth-in-journalism/


We tell the truth: Denver Post decries Trump’s attacks on journalists
There’s no political filter or agenda belying our printed words, just a desire to inform the public


Journalists in The Denver Post newsroom spend their days in pursuit of the truth.

There’s no political filter or agenda belying their printed words, just a desire to inform the public.

It’s true that sometimes a news story leaves much to be desired. Larry Bailey recently told us he has been a longtime subscriber to The Post but feels there is a slant against Trump. “If you haven’t told the whole truth then you haven’t told the truth,” he said.

Bailey reached out to The Post when he learned this board was participating in a nationwide campaign among more than 200 editorial boards to publish editorials Thursday decrying Trump’s attack on the press.

He’s right — errors of omission do occur. Sometimes there’s simply not space to print all the news or time to get all the reporting done. And yes, sometimes stories or facts are bypassed due to the natural bias that everyone carries with them. Journalists are fallible, but the reporters and editors who work to bring you your news are not conspiring to misinform.

Consider our newsroom’s immigration coverage: the same reporters who write about moms taking asylum in churches so they aren’t uprooted from the lives they have built are also covering the criminals here illegally who commit murder or run elaborate drug rings. Both are stories that need to be told and are stories that have been told in these pages.

“It’s a mistake,” Bailey said of this editorial. “You’re really making Trump’s point.”

We certainly hope not, but we could see how editorial boards working together to present a message opposing Trump’s assault on the media could be construed as confirming the president’s fake news conspiracy theory.

This coordinated response, however, is limited to pushing back against Trump’s efforts to undermine the work of journalists across the nation. We are simply standing up for what we believe in as journalists.

We believe that an informed electorate is critical to Democracy; that the public has a right to know what elected officials, public figures and government bureaucracies are doing behind closed doors; that journalism is integral to the checks and balances of power; and that the public can trust the facts it reads in this newspaper and those facts coming from the mainstream media.

Trump is a difficult politician to cover. His tweets and factually inaccurate statements frequently put him at loggerheads with the media. In a vacuum void of his outlandish statements, some of Trump’s policies would earn more straightforward media coverage. It has become a destructive cycle where the media covers Trump’s words and instead of self-reflection following scathing media reports, Trump cries fake news.

It’s a dangerous cry coming from the White House.

And so we are taking this opportunity to assure our readers that The Denver Post newsroom and opinion pages are dedicated to bringing you all the facts. We are also encouraging our readers to point it out when we are missing the mark of telling “the whole truth.” We are listening and capable of self reflection.

 

[hal2kilo]

Well Russia hadnt toppled the US government at that point in time had it? It took Trump to do that. Just come clean and tell us you'd rather be a russian than a democrat .. we will leave you alone, I promise.

Besides, whats your fucking point? Cause Obama so fuck you? You realize you be fucking yourself right?

It's like all these people really have hated the United States for quite a while now. They don't care what form of government they end up with, as long as white people are in charge.

 

[Amused]

Long Beach Post

https://lbpost.com/commentary/the-media-are-your-enemy-is-perhaps-trumps-biggest-lie/

The media as ‘your enemy’ is perhaps Trump’s biggest lie



In an effort to fight back against Trump’s recklessly incendiary words regarding the mainstream media, the Boston Globe, a publication that has been a friend of the American people since its founding in 1872, is asking news organizations today to join in a coordinated response to President Trump’s ever-increasing attack on the Fourth Estate.

Advertise with the Post
It’s problematic, and a little embarrassing, to have to insist that we, the press, are not the enemy of the American people. But we find ourselves in the awkward position of having to urge many people to believe it, because the accusation comes directly from the president of the United States, a man admired, still — still—by millions of Americans.

To believe any statement made by Trump, you need to understand that much, if not most, of what he says is untrue by any standard. Untrue by being simply false, untrue by being willfully misleading or untrue as being unsupported by any evidence. It’s a staggering number.

As of the end of July, the Washington Post, one of many media organizations keeping track of Trump’s false and misleading claims, found that, after 558 days in office, Trump had made 4,229 such claims.

But the Washington Post is part of the mainstream media, and is therefore, in Trump’s world, an enemy of the American people and, so, it could be argued (we suppose) that Trump has, in fact, never lied.

But let’s put that little fantasy aside.

In fact, the mainstream media reports on things the president has done. Let’s look at golf. It seems like one of the most trivial of complaints, but it’s illustrative of both Trump’s twin fondnesses for untruths and excess that, despite saying repeatedly during the campaign that once elected, he would be too busy to play golf, he has, as of Wednesday, spent 163 days at golfing clubs at a cost to taxpayers of $74 million. The press doesn’t make this stuff up. We are not the enemy.

The press didn’t make up Trump’s “good people on both sides” remark in the wake of last year’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rather than take the opportunity to attack racism, Trump said what he said. The press reported it. We are not the enemy.

Google “children in cages” and guess which U.S. president’s name comes up in virtually every instance. The press told readers of the horrific effects of Trump’s zero-tolerance migrant-separation policy. We are not the enemy.

Trump downplayed the effects of Hurricane Maria and tossed some paper towels to a few survivors. The press has reported 4,000 people have died as a result of the hurricane, and federal response remains tragically slow. Reporting that fact does not make us the enemy.

The mainstream media has not referred to people seeking asylum in the United States or other immigrants as murderers, rapists, vermin or animals. We have reported it when the president has used those terms, but, no, that doesn’t make us the enemy.

When Trump fawned over Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and sided with the Russian ruler while assaulting his own country’s intelligence organizations, it was duly reported by the mainstream press. You’re familiar with the phrase “don’t kill the messenger”? We are not the enemy.

The fact that the earth is in great peril, at least in terms of being a place fit for human life, has been reported frequently by the mainstream media, as has the fact that Trump’s policies, appointments and words have ignored the issue and accelerated the danger. The press has never called climate change a hoax, but noted it when Trump used that word. We are not the enemy.

Trump’s recent tweet regarding the California wildfires was both reckless and (at the risk of redundancy) false, and included such accusations that California’s environmental laws and policies resulted in taking water that could have been used by firefighters and instead diverting it into the Pacific Ocean, as if Gov. Jerry Brown stood cackling madly, backlit by raging wildfires, while throwing a secret switch that sends roaring rivers out to the sea. Both firefighting agencies and state officials rebutted the tweet, and the media reported both the tweet and the rebuttals.

But, again, we are not the enemy.

Of course, the media doesn’t spend all of its time on Trump. Journalists report about your world, your nation, your state, your city on every level, sometimes as watchdogs when corruption, moral misdeeds and financial abuse occurs, and sometimes as cheerleaders when there are so many happy and heroic things to share with readers: triumphs and victories, moments of great inspiration and bravery.

Marvelous and wonderous things still happen every day, and every day the mainstream media reports on these.

But now, more than ever, the media has to keep an extraordinarily vigilant watch over the actions and words of the leader of this country. In happier times it didn’t need to be said that a free press is essential to democracy. Now, sadly, it does.

We come in peace; we are not your enemy.

 

[Amused]

http://www.news-journalonline.com/o...rumps-cynical-effort-to-cast-press-as-enemies

Daytona Beach News Journal

OUR VIEW: Trump’s cynical effort to cast the press as ‘enemies’



“Fake News.” Trump wields that phrase like a bully with a truncheon.



Today, The News-Journal joins more than 300 editorial pages around the nation in defending press freedom against increasingly hostile attacks.

In the narcissistic world of President Donald Trump, any news that’s not absolutely flattering is to be attacked with insults. So it’s no surprise that Trump often hurls invective at the media. His almost daily diatribes would be comical if they weren’t so dangerous to free speech — yours and ours.

At rallies, in Tweets, and during interviews with carefully selected “friendly” journalists, Trump diminishes and belittles the work of the nation’s free press. He bars individual journalists from open press conferences. He confines reporters to small, caged areas at rallies, and then encourages his supporters to heckle them — which they enthusiastically do. To Trump, freedom of the press is “disgusting.” Journalists are “a stain on America.” We’re the “enemy of the people,” the “corrupt mainstream media.”

Most of all, we are “Fake News.” Trump wields that phrase like a bully with a truncheon. Questioned about his attacks, he rolls out the justification that his criticisms are only aimed at “purposely incorrect stories.” But his attacks are clearly broadsides aimed at damaging the credibility of the media as a whole. He rarely, if ever, presents real evidence to support the very serious allegations he makes about the media. Instead, he doubles down on the rhetoric.

Such attacks have been a long-running theme for Trump. “I would never kill them, but I do hate them,” he said of journalists in December 2015, as he was emerging as the presidential front-runner.

Some of his loyal followers have seized upon Trump’s angry rhetoric, to the point that even local stories in independent community newspapers like The News-Journal are sometimes now tagged “Fake News” — not because of inaccuracy, but because of the facts reported.


Who benefits when political operatives unfairly discredit the media? Certainly not citizens, who lose the benefits of hard news reporting on topics that are important to them, from the smallest town council up to the halls of Congress and the White House.

At every level, most media outlets have refrained from firing back at Trump. We strive to be rational and fair, even when our opponents aren’t. When we fall short of the standards readers should expect — when we make mistakes, or move too quickly on a story — we work to set the record straight. We adhere to these principles because we understand how crucial a third-party observer can be to the integrity of the government process. That vigilance can be uncomfortable for politicians, but from this nation’s birth, American statesmen have acknowledged and nurtured the integral role of a free press.

Without media oversight, there would be far less pressure on elected officials and civil servants to do the right thing, to spend taxpayer dollars wisely, and to use their office for public advancement instead of private gain.

You tell us this is what you expect from us. And this is what we strive to deliver. We’re never perfect. But every day, we try again to bring you the information you need.

That is why today, The News-Journal and hundreds of newspapers across the nation are speaking up, through their editorial pages, to make one thing clear: We are not your enemy. In fact, we are your ally. We will keep exposing corruption and wrongdoing even as we celebrate the good in our communities. We will continue to strive for accuracy and balance in our news reports. We will continue to offer our readers a forum for their own opinions — even when readers are critical of us.

For those who are still skeptical: We don’t ask you to change your mind right now. But we do ask you to question, even if only a little bit, the cries of “Fake news!” Ask yourself who stands to gain when oversight is undermined.

 

[Amused]

Jacksonville FL Folio Weekly:
http://folioweekly.com/stories/the-kings-speech,20382
The King's Speech
The greatest threat to our country is the assault on truth


Our nation is being gas-lit by a two-bit huckster would-be king in a ten-thousand-dollar suit, a fork-tongued buffoon crashing about hither and thither, straddling a wrecking ball that swings between greed and narcissism, all bluster and id, swaying and shouting and preening, a lusty lothario careening and grabbing and lying … oh, how he lies. He tells lies on lies on lies—he has intended a lie and stumbled into the truth.

The highest crime in this king’s court is hearing other than the king would hear, seeing other than the king would see, telling other than the king would tell. In the view of this inglorious, feckless louse of a king, he is the living embodiment of his subjects—we are he and he is wee—the slightest slight against the liege as an act of war on the louse's largesse.

To wit: The king has named enemies of the mirror that reflects his pocks, the scribe who scribbles his gaffes, the jester who mimics his faults.

Yet our self-styled lordship has no greater foe than the press. Our insolence is plain as the perfect noses on the pale faces of some very fine people such as he, for we do not love him with unquestioning loyalty. Rather, we dare tell of his words and deeds and their effect, even when such casts him in an unflattering light or causes his nemeses delight—high treason, if he ever saw it, and indeed he has, up close and personal, in fact.

The king will tell you that he has tried to reason with us infidels. Who among us has not borne witness to his graciousness allowing the press near the throne room to be addressed by his proxies Spicer and Sanders? No questions, please. He does such charity out of the goodness of his heart—there is no law greater than the king’s law, no thought greater than the king’s thought, yet he lowers himself and permits us press pool plebeians these glimpses into the inner workings of the monarchy which we have no right to know, much less to criticize. Tragically, not even this concession assuages the callous hordes of op-ed writers, reporters, broadcasters, tweeters and YouTubers, who cannot be trusted to speak as the king would speak, hear as the king would hear, or see as the king would see. With so few on his side, our lord feels he has no choice but to talk at his vassals in 280-character fonts of knowledge straight from the horse’s ass to their eyes and ears, no alternative but to remind the menial chattel again and again and again how the rotten press fails to tell them that which he would have them know and, instead, insists on telling them that which he would rather they not be aware—as is the king’s exclusive prerogative.

It is the enfant terrible of a king’s greatest hope that the people will rise against us media tyrants who hold his monarchy hostage, wielding our mighty pens of insistence to verify facts and tell objective truths, of analyzing and critiquing and speaking truth to power, of presenting a broad variety of views, so long as these be based in reality. He would love nothing more than to see his legions rip us from the middle-class SUVs and sedans in which we ride against the king, disarm us of our pens and pads and, most important, phones, so that we may not spoil another of his rounds of golf or pieces of beautiful chocolate cake. But, alas, his are a peaceful, complacent people long accustomed to the bounties he alone creates, of Hulu and NetFlix and public Wi-Fi, fettering away the hours intermittently trolling and admiring pretties on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, 4Chan, and Instagram. They have no time for war.

So, instead, the king has concocted a very stable, genius plan to disarm us without firing so much as a shot—good thing, too, as his bone spurs won’t permit him to ride into battle, be it by motorcade or Air Force One—a technique he learned at the feet of one of the finest people the world has known (though none can match the king, obviously): A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.

Hence, our king will swing and sway and stuff and fondle, say whatever dances into and out of his hulking orange head, a gushing torrent that stuns all who hear it, and in that putrid spout of gibberish, madness and inanity, there will be a golden stream that initially leaves a fetid tang, but over time develops the clear taste of truth: The press is your enemy, the press is your enemy, the press is your enemy. They lie, they lie, they lie. #FakeNews #FakeNews #FakeNews

Many will #resist the malodorous funk of noxious homily, but as the converted spread the gospel of the king’s word on social media, radio, in papers and, best of all, on TV, one by one by one, the reporters and broadcasters and bloggers will either fall in line or fall like dominoes, until all in the kingdom know there is but one real and abiding truth: Whatever the king says it is.

Someday we may have forgotten, but while it can still be said for the record: If this comes to pass, the republic is damned—and the king with it.

For if there is no one to seek and report the truth, we will not know the truth; if we cannot know the truth, there is no truth. If there is no truth, there can be no fealty; if no fealty, none will recognize a man as their king.

 

[Jhhnn]

How cute, maybe we can lay off one less dead tree newspaper worker today to celebrate their success. Or maybe we can "hire" another AI reporter to do their job.

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/robots-wrote-this-story/

And... So what in the context of the discussion?

 

[Amused]

THE HIGHLANDS NEWS-SUNSEBRING, FLA.

https://www.yoursun.com/sebring/bad...cle_aa52a690-9f3d-11e8-ac22-2bd7cdd5df68.html

Bad for our democracy



“In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” Those are the words written in 1971 by Judge Hugo Black in the 6-3 (New York Times Co. vs United States) landmark Supreme Court decision on the First Amendment.

That essential role in our democracy is to make sure our government agencies and elected officials are transparent in their actions. It is a role that President Donald Trump continues to bash with every opportunity he is given.

Do we make mistakes? Yes. We are humans, but we strive to be accurate.


When we, the media, make a mistake, it doesn’t take any time at all for our public servants to point out our error. Our hope is that we are quick and transparent in admitting those mistakes, even when they are hard for us to admit. But, to be human, to make a mistake, is to be real.

Does that mean you, the reader, will agree with everything that we write? No. While accurate reporting of this community is our goal, whether we are fair is always an opinion that differs from one individual to another.

We respect our public servants. Theirs is a hard job, one that not many of us, journalists and citizens alike, would want for ourselves. Who wants a job where probably 30 percent of the population disagrees with your decision as a public servant, regardless of what you do? Facing that number of unhappy constituents is never easy, particularly in small towns where everyone seems to know one another.

Sometimes the goal to be accurate in our reporting, coupled with the responsibility we have to make sure our elected officials and government agencies are transparent in their work, will create conflict between the newspaper and our public servants. That dynamic tension between the press and politicians is part of the long-held democratic vision of America, going back to our Founding Fathers.

There are those who suggest the news media, large and small, report fake news. Some refer to the news media as an enemy of the people, an enemy of the state. Those people aren’t hurting the news media. Instead, that hateful speech actually encourages people to consume more news. Readership is actually up at most news outlets, as it is here at the Highlands News-Sun.


Calling our work fake news or the individuals who work here the enemy of the people is not a successful attack on the media. It is an attack on how our democracy works. This fake news rhetoric is an attack on the vision of our Founding Fathers. The enemy of the state rhetoric weakens our democratic notion of checks and balances for future generations.

More of Judge Black’s iconic decision as quoted in Meryl Streep’s “The Post” earlier this year. “The government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people …”

That “government” includes the local council that oversees even the smallest cities and towns, their employees, and our elected officials all the way from the local mayor to the President of the United States of America. The news media always has had an important role to play in holding accountable our public servants.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”

This fake news rhetoric is good for our business, but it is bad for our democracy.

 

[Amused]

THE MIAMI HERALD MIAMI, FLA.

President Trump, we’re not ‘enemies of the people.’ End your war on our free press


No American president, or any city council member, for that matter, has ever unreservedly delighted in the way he or she was presented in the press. “I so appreciate the accuracy of their reporting on my perceived flaws!” said no official ever. “And good for them for holding me accountable.”

But President Donald Trump has veered into unfamiliar and perilous territory with his unceasing all-out assault on the free press and the First Amendment. Of course, the irony of Trump’s attacks on the “SICK!” and “very dishonest people” in “the fake media” he accuses of purveying, yes, “fake news” is that he himself is a product of the New York tabloids. He’s as savvy about manipulating his coverage as he is adept in undermining it.

But today the consequences of the president’s perpetual battle against journalists extend far beyond the Manhattan gossip pages. And the animus you see directed at CNN’s Jim Acostaisn’t just reserved for the White House press corps. Everywhere in the country, any matter that an official doesn’t want to talk about or that a reader doesn’t want to hear about is “fake news” now.

In our business, we know how much words matter. We know, too, that Trump’s references to us as the “enemy of the American People” are no less dangerous because they happen to be strategic. That is what Nazis called Jews. It’s how Joseph Stalin’s critics were marked for execution.


Every reporter who has ever covered a Trump rally knows the scratch of a threat that’s conveyed during that ritual moment when he aims the attention of the crowd to reporters, many of whom no longer stand in the press pen in the back for that reason.

And as real as the threat of physical violence is, especially after the murder of our colleagues in Annapolis, Maryland, Trump’s aggressive posture toward the First Amendment worries us even more.

That’s why nearly all of McClatchy’s 30 daily newspapers, which almost never speak with one voice, are doing so now. That’s why we’re joining with fellow journalists across the country in calling for an end to the president’s war of words against our free press.

It’s an affront to the U.S. Constitution when President Trump threatens to eliminate the First Amendment protections the Supreme Court has built into our nation’s libel laws — or when he suggests revoking the FCC licenses of broadcast news organizations whose reporting he doesn’t like.

The White House’s besmirching of journalists who are doing their jobs is dangerous to the public as well as to the press. It’s not just that we dislike being called “fake news.” That misnomer discredits facts and creates what Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway called “alternative facts,” making reasoned and informed debate basically impossible.

We all — as citizens — have a stake in this fight, and the battle lines seem pretty clear. If one first comes successfully for the press as an “enemy of the American People,” what stops someone for coming next for your friends? Your family? Or you?

Not even President Richard Nixon, whose original “enemies list” of the 20 private citizens he hoped to use his public office to “screw” included three journalists, tried to incite violence against reporters. While stewing privately about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as “enemies ... trying to stick the knife right in our groin,” not even Nixon tagged the lot of us, Soviet-style, as “enemies of the people.” Nor did even he dare to take on the idea that our free press is worth protecting.

Donald Trump swore on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible to uphold the Constitution. And the First Amendment’s guarantee that “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” implies that no branch of government will do so.

That 44 percent of Republicans polled recently said Trump should have the autocrat’s power to shut down news outlets shows how successful his efforts have already been.

Like Nixon, Trump still pines for the kind of coverage his behavior makes impossible. But his place in history will be far less mixed than Nixon’s if he continues to menace James Madison’s best work.

 

[Amused]

THE PALM BEACH POST WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.

Editorial: In defense of democracy’s defenders



We aren’t the enemy.

It doesn’t matter how many times the president of the United States calls the news media “the enemy of the American people,” or attaches the word “fake” to “stories,” “media” or “polls.”

All the repetitions in the world can’t make the slander true — though, in some minds, the repetition can make the slander believed.

We cringe when we see colleagues berated and accosted at political rallies. Just for being present. We despair at cries of “fake news” from the powerful, and would-be powerful. Just for telling the truth. And we mourn when journalists are gunned down in their own newsroom. Just for doing their jobs.

President Donald Trump’s anti-press rhetoric is “very close to inciting violence,” warns the departing United Nations human rights commissioner. Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, of Jordan, told The Guardian that the attacks on the press could lead to journalists censoring themselves or being attacked. And they’re encouraging authoritarian leaders to crack down on media overseas with newfound aggression.

So today, the Editorial Board of The Palm Beach Post stands with scores of editorial boards across the nation in a concerted effort to denounce what The Boston Globe, which proposed the joint action, calls “a dirty war against the free press.”

We are concerned about far more than any journalist’s personal safety, as important as that is.

A democracy can remain healthy only when citizens are well-informed and can make decisions based on facts. Why else would the Founding Fathers, with the First Amendment, make sure to protect this one profession in the Constitution? It’s no accident that when authoritarians come to power, they quickly start harassing or shutting down independent media. As in George Orwell’s “1984,” “facts” are what the state says they are. Thus, on state TV in China or Russia, the leader is always strong, the government is always wise, the suppression of so-called unruly elements is always necessary.

We aren’t the enemy. The Palm Beach Post, here for 102 years, is deeply committed to serving its community. On our news pages, we’ve exposed corrupt politicians, revealed abuses against the environment, cast an unsparing spotlight on the opioid crisis. We tell you what your town’s government is voting on, when a new restaurant is debuting, where the next traffic crunch will be.

On our opinion pages, we’ve urged action to increase the stock of affordable housing, improve gun safety, raise teacher salaries, plan for sea-level rise — all of this, and more, in the public interest. If we criticize the governor or the president, it isn’t out of disloyalty to country; it’s in keeping with the most basic of American values, the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment.

By being a subscriber, you are helping to provide a crucial service — real local journalism — that keeps our community informed about what’s really going on. As the most complete source of local news and information, we introduce you to people who are the heart and soul of our community.

We aren’t the enemy. And the loose talk calling us that has to stop. Before somebody — before the very country we all love — gets hurt.

It’s no accident that when authoritarians come to power, their first objectives include harassing or shutting down independent media.

 

[Amused]

THE BOISE WEEKLY BOISE, IDAHO

https://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/n...-have-been-never-will-be/Content?oid=13211516

No, We're Not Your Enemy. Never Have Been. Never Will Be.
It may seem obvious, but at this particular moment in our nation's history it's important to say these words with clarity: There is nothing fake, disgusting or sick about pursuing the truth.



I'm humbled to report that Boise Weekly is one of hundreds of newspapers across the U.S. that are, this week, calling out the clear and present danger of President Donald Trump's attack on journalism. Trump is not the first U.S. President to tangle with the media, yet he chooses to define his administration via vitriolic rhetoric, calling the press "fake," "disgusting," "liars," "sick," and most recently, "the enemy of the people." The barrage is more than ugly. It's a reckless attempt to corrode a key pillar of democracy.

Boise Weekly and its brethren among the Association of Alternative Newsmedia have been regularly targeted over the years by a select group of men and women who have wielded power as if it were a mallet rather than a privilege. I can personally testify to being harassed and/or threatened for reporting in BW about failures of the powerful to protect the very values they're sworn to defend. In every instance, common sense, decency and, above all, truth prevailed. Those victories didn't come by default. They were the result of a not-so-simple pursuit of truth. It may seem obvious, but at this particular moment in our nation's history it's important to say these words with clarity: There is nothing fake, disgusting or sick about pursuing the truth.

Marjorie Pritchard, deputy editorial page editor of the Boston Globe, whose paper coordinated this week's nationwide editorial effort, wrote that Trump's assault on journalism may "look different in Boise than it does in Boston," but adds, "at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming."

To be sure, there is nobility, selflessness and even greatness in people from Boston to Boise (and beyond); but the current climate of divisiveness stoked by a rash but charismatic leader has eroded some trust in one another and, quite possibly. ourselves.

Enemy of the people? Not a chance. Agree or disagree with our pursuit, but we'll always be your advocate for the truth.

 

[Amused]

THE LEDGER LAKELAND, FLA.

Editorial: As Lincoln advised, this, too, shall pass



Today more than 200 newspapers across America are expected to editorialize their opposition to President Donald Trump’s use of the terms “fake news” and “enemy of the people” in referring to reporters who cover him and his administration. This targeted, coordinated response was led by the Boston Globe in an effort to reiterate to the public that the news media is performing its traditional societal and cultural function in reporting on Trump’s actions, and that Trump’s rhetoric presents a unique threat to their work, the future of their industry and maybe their personal safety.

As we recently noted in this space, our colleagues covering Trump are not the “enemy of the people.” America has many foes who threaten our well-being daily. Journalists, however, are not among them.

We also think that Trump’s routine media-bashing is more of a political ploy that does not apply to local media like The Ledger, whose reporters strive daily and diligently to chronicle the story of this community and publicize the government policies and actions that affect Polk County residents directly.

Still, we think the complaint that led to this gauntlet being thrown down before Trump today has much merit, even as we are skeptical about the utility of pouring gas on a raging fire. A recent poll explains why.

Largely in response to Trump’s frequent over-the-top rhetoric, an Ipsos poll found that a surprising 26 percent of all Americans, and 43 percent of Republicans, agree with the statement that the president “should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in bad behavior.” Moreover, a large majority of Americans of all political stripes — 72 percent — think “it should be easier to sue reporters who knowingly publish false information.”

“Bad behavior” apparently wasn’t defined, but suffice to say it would be unconstitutional and un-American to give any president such authority in any situation. Remember: what power you give the president today will one day be possessed by a president you don’t like. And then it will be too late to undo the damage. Moreover, the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press doesn’t mean that anyone, including the president, is immune from the effects of that liberty. Of course, no journalist should ever “knowingly publish false information,” yet America has some of the toughest libel laws in the world in order to prevent powerful people, including the president, from capriciously silencing their critics.


Like our colleagues across the country, we urge the president to stop the madness. His comments about the media are often counterproductive to the functioning of the country, and often wrongfully filter down to a local level, such as The Ledger, where they are applied to reporters who do not deserve such treatment.

Still, our hope — albeit unlikely to come to fruition — would be that those same news outlets who rebuke the president today also pause for momentary self-reflection.

They likewise should go after anti-Trump Antifa thugs who in recent days in places like Portland and Washington have actually physically assaulted journalists covering their protests. They should weigh the media’s role in driving Trump’s criticism with stories that at times report incorrect or incomplete information, hype trivialities, or exclude critical details. They should ponder that journalists, whose work is protected by the First Amendment and critical to our republic, still are not a separate, elite class of Americans, and that their endeavors, counter to a Notre Dame professor’s recent argument, are not equal to those of the soldiers who fight our wars. They should recall, despite Trump’s visceral, often contemptible message about the media, that our government is not jailing, attacking, or murdering reporters as other governments do.

One other point about Trump’s comments. All of us should understand that this tension is as old as our republic.

President Barack Obama actually seized reporters’ records, spied on one and threatened another with jail over reporting leaked information, labeled Fox News “destructive” and attempted to ban its reporters from events. President Richard Nixon ordered the IRS to audit journalists on his “enemies list” and threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses. President Franklin Roosevelt repeatedly complained about the media’s “poisonous propaganda,” and during World War II once presented a Nazi Iron Cross to a columnist for his critical writings. President Theodore Roosevelt once sued newspapers over unfavorable editorials about the proposed Panama Canal, and declared one editor to be “a conspicuous offender against the laws of honesty and truthfulness.” Under President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, Union soldiers arrested journalists and shut down more than 300 newspapers. And finally, some editorials today may quote Thomas Jefferson favorably as a defender of the media, but ignore that after becoming president, Jefferson observed, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.” In short, fake news.

Today we journalists can wring our hands about, and point our fingers at, unsavory behavior by America’s chief executive, who is unlikely to change his ways, but perhaps we should instead recall Lincoln’s words in 1859: This, too, shall pass away. Presidents for more than 200 years have griped about the media and sought to rid themselves of journalism’s pesky seekers of truth. In that regard, they’ve all failed, and this one will too.

 

[Amused]

Oh please, OP. Tell us more about how they're all publishing ":the same editorial"

How dare you diminish the independent actions of the free press in a country made great by the very concept of a free and independent press.

People like you are how people like Hitler gained power. You're an idiot who can't even understand WHY you are free. You're so stupid you think a tyrannical strong man will save you from "big government."

 

[ivwshane]

Yeah, you should absolutely do that. They're all running the exact same editorial but if buying a few works for you on some level, I say go for it. Set a budget and stick to it.

I wish he'd quit with some of the tweeting. But I don't expect a leopard to change its spots and certainly not because I desire it. I don't have any desire to control other people.

Absolutely not. Why are you attributing your thoughts on what you believe to be my thoughts in this manner? Have you quit beating your wife?

Yes. He has certainly made some bad choices as have all presidents. I am able to read information on the turnover of staff of a preceding president and correlate it to the current president. The key here may be that I am reading the information versus reading one-sided information. Additionally, any progressive that truly thinks a president of a political party that represents the opposition to their views is going to hire people that they approve of is delusional - to put it mildly. I didn't expect 0bama to hire anybody I approved of and that's exactly the way it turned out. And there is a difference between bitching about it and obsessing about it. Brennan's past including him voting for a Communist Party candidate. I was not in the least surprised that 0bama made him CIA director. I didn't like it but obsess over it? Nope.

They weren't? They were muzzled? Kept from reporting? How? Additionally, one man's 'clownery' is another man's wisdom. It's all a matter of perception. I don't care if you think anything is 'clownery' and have no interest in changing your mind. Can you say the same for my views?

I've said countless times here that I post for my own amusement. Anyone that reads what I say or responds to what I say should keep that in mind. The notion that I could ever change anyone's mind here never enters the equation. I have seen people accept arguments here that two days later are back posting their original views many, many times. Take this forum for exactly what it is, entertainment.

I'm 100% positive Obama doesn't know you so his inability to appoint someone you approve of is pretty ridiculous. That being said Obama did have people in his cabinet from the opposing party, in fact he had quite a bit, relatively speaking.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-.../barack-obama/Three-Republicans-Cabinet-Most/

That doesn't even cover Republicans like comey, who he didn't fire, or Republican John huntsman as ambassador, Chuck hagel, and been Bernanke to name a few.

I'm glad you recognize that you have zero capability in changing peoples minds but it isn't because people are stuck in their ways or feelings, it's because your posts aren't based in reality (as I just demonstrated).

The problem isn't everyone else, the problem is you. That entertainment you get from posting here is a masking for your own shortcomings and total incompetence, its like a nervous laughter, an insecurity if you will.

 

[ivwshane]

Boomerang just posts to troll. He gets a chubby every time someone calls him stupid.

That's a whole lot of boners!

 

[esquared]

Ooo oooh can I play this "WHATABOUT!" card I have laying around????

What about Sinclair doing a coordinated Pro-Trump seance across their stations all at once?

You won't get him to even acknowledge that post.

edit:
I just looked and I was right. he completely ignored it.
Ok, for the righties to do their "stand with the TV station" but when the press does the same thing he's whining.

 

[cytg111]

Ooo oooh can I play this "WHATABOUT!" card I have laying around????

What about Sinclair doing a coordinated Pro-Trump seance across their stations all at once?

I get the chills every time I watch that...

 

[dyna]

These media members are demonstrating a narrow view of their industry. They absolutely sensualize news, starting with the headlines then followed by a negative narrative. These editorials show no self criticism for this practice of obscuring the facts in their writing until judgements have been made. Not all journalist are tools like the ones that Trump refers to which are likely comprised of the non-main stream sources, maybe as a whole there are more writers that fit into that bucket but the mainstream media spews out complete garbage on a daily basis. Those of us that are savvy about news writing, know that headlines mislead and usually the facts are buried at the bottom of the written topic. I feel sorry for the journalists that these editorials write about but those are not the ones that Trump is referring to.

 

[zinfamous]

These media members are demonstrating a narrow view of their industry. They absolutely sensualize news, starting with the headlines then followed by a negative narrative. These editorials show no self criticism for this practice of obscuring the facts in their writing until judgements have been made. Not all journalist are tools like the ones that Trump refers to which are likely comprised of the non-main stream sources, maybe as a whole there are more writers that fit into that bucket but the mainstream media spews out complete garbage on a daily basis. Those of us that are savvy about news writing, know that headlines mislead and usually the facts are buried at the bottom of the written topic. I feel sorry for the journalists that these editorials write about but those are not the ones that Trump is referring to.

Jesus fucking christ.

 

[VRAMdemon]

These media members are demonstrating a narrow view of their industry. They absolutely sensualize news, starting with the headlines then followed by a negative narrative. These editorials show no self criticism for this practice of obscuring the facts in their writing until judgements have been made. Not all journalist are tools like the ones that Trump refers to which are likely comprised of the non-main stream sources, maybe as a whole there are more writers that fit into that bucket but the mainstream media spews out complete garbage on a daily basis. Those of us that are savvy about news writing, know that headlines mislead and usually the facts are buried at the bottom of the written topic. I feel sorry for the journalists that these editorials write about but those are not the ones that Trump is referring to.

Ok...I'll bite, which "journalists" IS Trump "referring to". The journalists who write stuff that he doesn't like?

 

[repoman0]

The Boston Globe got so many threats today that they evacuated the entire building. A coworker of my girlfriend used to work in that building so was getting info as it was happening.

boomertard must be proud!