Throughout time we have seen moments in American history when the press has been revered and honoured, and moments when its reputation has suffered. We have seen great and noble work by journalists in the United States and around the world, and we have seen embarrassing mistakes and lapses of judgment. But what we have never seen, until now, is an attack by a sitting US president on the press’s very role as a democratic institution.
For more than a year now, Donald Trump – first as a candidate, then as president – has waged a war against the press. He has attacked individual journalists and declared entire news organisations to be working against America’s interests.
President Trump’s attacks, despite the dishonesty at their core, are starting to have actual effects in the real world. His rhetoric and threats include loosened libel laws, a war against whistleblowers, and the banning of reporters he doesn’t like. But even scarier is the message that is trickling down to state and local elected officials, as well as to some of the president’s more extreme supporters. The message is: The press is the enemy; nothing it says should be believed; and there is no role or need for the press in American democracy.
Image | Reporters with various forms of "fake news" from an 1894 illustration by Frederick Burr Opper
