Who Are You Calling The “Enemy Of The People ?”

Two days ago, more than 300 newspapers across America said, “enough is enough” and  rose up to protest the despicable and relentless barrage of attacks against the news media by the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Enemy of the People??

Anyone who has watched a Trump rally on TV (either by accident, or because you couldn’t switch channels quickly enough, or simply because it’s mesmerizing in the same way that watching a cobra devouring a sheep is mesmerizing) knows how Trump goes off on the media at every opportunity. Most perniciously, he points the finger at those reporters covering the rally, calling them the “enemies of the people” and accuses them of publishing  “fake news” without ever citing one of those fake stories.

Even someone as apparently ignorant of history as Trump, must know by now that the phrase “enemies of the people” was used by the worst dictators of the last century, like Stalin and Mao Zedong, to silence and slaughter journalists and political opponents.

As he ignores his sacred oath to uphold the Constitution and the First Amendment, Trump has been warned that by stirring up his supporters in this way, he is “close” to inciting violence against members of the Press. This hasn’t slowed him down.

Call To Arms — & Keyboards

So, a couple of weeks ago, the venerable, Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe reached out to the editorial boards of newspapers across the country and invited them to join in its condemnation of Trump’s tirades against the press. More than 300 responded to the call.

I have nothing original to add to all the editorials written this week, but it would be sadly remiss of me not to give a blog “shoutout” to the members of a profession which I entered more than four decades ago.

I was just 21 when I joined the staff of one of Britain’s biggest-circulation regional dailies, The Birmingham Post, after graduating from university. Eventually, I made it to London’s Fleet Street (the equivalent of Broadway for actors) and onto The Evening News as an investigative reporter.

Rookie Reporter’s Highlights

An investigation launched by the chief of that investigations unit led us to find the gunman hired to kill Norman Scott, the  homosexual lover of Jeremy Thorpe, who, at the time, was leader of Britain’s Liberal Party (yes, another politician called to account by the free press, this time charged with conspiracy to murder.) And, if that plotline sounds at all familiar, you must have seen Hugh Grant as Thorpe in A Very English Scandal on Amazon Prime (and more on that in a future blog.

Subsequently, my first steady employment in New York City was as a news writer for Channel Five’s Ten O’Clock News, where, among other things,  I became the writer/researcher on Irish Eyes — an Emmy Award-winning documentary about the violent thirty-year conflict in Northern Ireland that was ongoing at the time of the documentary.

 

A United & Unanimous Voice

So, of course, I whole-heartedly support the editorial boards of the newspapers who rose on Thursday in unanimous protest against the press-baiting wannabe autocrat and his attempts to cow the news media organizations in this country.

In recognition of their united voice on this grave and important issue, I re-publish some excerpts from the editorials and columns that appeared across the country on Thursday:

In my hometown newspaper, The Southampton Press, the editorial stated: “Being labeled ‘the enemy of the American people’ isn’t hurtful. We’re tougher than that. But journalists universally worry about the damage it does not just to our industry but to democracy itself.”

My other hometown newspaper, The Palm Beach Post wrote: “A democracy can remain healthy only when citizens are well-informed… 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.”

The Record- Journal in Meriden, Conn wrote:  “News the president finds ill suited to the preciousness of his ego is called “fake news.” Unable to carry on in the light, the president attempts to drag us all into a dark labyrinth where rules don’t apply… This is the playground of “alternative facts.”

From The Idyllwild Town Crier in California : “When President Trump attempts to brand [established news media organizations] as “enemies of the people” he tells us far more about himself than he does them. When — as he did regarding the Charlottesville incident — he states one opinion on Saturday, says the opposite on Monday, returns to his original statement on Tuesday, and then on Thursday denies any contradictions at all, he marks his own statements as unreliable — even as to his opinions. He has repeatedly, virtually daily, made misrepresentations to the American people.”

Consider also these editorial opinions :

From The Mercury News & East Bay Times (Ca.): “He (Trump) has called us the “enemy of the American people.” He disparages our work as fake news.” At his rallies, he verbally abuses us. Not surprisingly, some of his supporters have taken it to the next step, threatening violence […]This isn’t OK. ”

“Donald Trump uses this nation’s highest office to attack one of our country’s core principles, and it has to stop [… ] A president trying to escape scrutiny by declaring the press the nation’s enemy goes too far […] Our country’s leader shouldn’t be making it easier for dictators to harass and silence journalists in places where freedom of the press remains a dream.”  (From The Sun Sentinel, Florida.)

The Miami Herald in Florida stated: “Politicians often grumble about journalists. But President Donald Trump has upped the ante to a level unprecedented in modern times… The animus you see directed at CNN’s Jim Acosta isn’t just reserved for the White House press corps. Everywhere in the country, any matter that an official doesn’t want to talk about is “fake news” now.”

The Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass wrote: “The assault has come from Donald Trump, who has consistently railed against news-gathering organizations with a vitriolic stream of hatred that has replaced legitimate discussion with diatribe, facts with falsehoods, and reason with rage… [the Cape Cod Times joins newspapers] to highlight the danger to democracy that occurs when a self-styled demagogue uses his access to the same media he proclaims to hate to sow seeds of confusion, discontent and distrust.”

Every editorial published on Thursday may be accessed here courtesy of the New York Times which re-printed them all.