US newspapers ready editorials decrying Trump’s media attacks

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Brajesh Upadhyay, Washington
Published : 04:00, Aug 15, 2018 | Updated : 04:00, Aug 15, 2018

Trump, in almost every public rally, has referred to the press as “fake news” and called it “the enemy of the American people”. REUTERS/file photoMore than 100 newspapers in the United States will come together this Thursday to publicly denounce President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the press.
Each newspaper participating in the campaign will publish its own editorial challenging the claims made by President Trump and refuting the criticisms.
Trump, in almost every public rally, has referred to the press as “fake news” and called it “the enemy of the American people” and now some of the the newspapers have decided to fight back.
The campaign, organised by the Boston Globe, has been supported by the American Society of News Editors, the Press Association, the New England Newspaper and other press groups.
The Boston Globe has issued a statement saying: “The dirty war on the free press must end.”
“We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date,” read the statement.
The newspapers participating in the campaign include leading metropolitan dailies, like the Houston Chronicle, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Miami Herald and Denver Post, and also small weekly papers with circulations as low as 4,000 copies.
President Trump railed against the media even during his 2016 election campaign, but in the past weeks it’s been ramped up even further. He has called the press “disgusting” and asked his supporters to avoid paying attention to its reporting on his administration.
Recent polls have suggested that a large number of Americans, particularly Republicans, agree with Trump when he says the mainstream media intentionally reports fake news.
Analysts have called his attacks on media a dangerous trend that will seriously undermine the freedom of press in the long run.
The outgoing UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussain has called Trump’s anti-press rhetoric “very close to incitement of violence”.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Hussain said, “The US creates a demonstration effect, which then is picked up by other countries where the leadership tends to to be more authoritarian [in] character or aspires to be authoritarian,” he said.
Trump’s example was already being followed elsewhere; giving license to authoritarian leaders to crack down on the media in ways they had not previously dared to, said Hussain.

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