Enemy of the people? ... Who us?

“The only security of all is in a free press.”

—Thomas Jefferson

***

I had full intentions of writing a different column, one that discussed the changing landscape of technology and how it was forcing newspapers to evolve. Following the live-streams of the debates at the Bear Trap and the Platte Valley Community Center, it seemed fitting to discuss the use of social media in journalism.

I was looking forward to it, too.

That changed with a tweet sent in the early morning hours of Aug. 5, though.

“The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick”!

This tweet came from the account of Donald Trump during one his many Twitter rants that have become the focus of four-person panels on every cable news network. It was around the same time that he referred to CNN anchor Don Lemon and NBA star LeBron James as “stupid.” It also came a little over a month after a shooter killed five employees of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, MD.

Between Jan. 24, 2017 (days after his inauguration) and Aug. 19, 2018, Trump has referred to the press as “fake news” 286 times. The website http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com keeps an updated record of all of the tweets that have been sent out by the president which are searchable by date or keyword, among other options. It was only recently, starting about June of this year, that he began calling the press the “enemy of the people” on a regular basis.

According to an article from the New York Times (“‘Enemy of the People’: Trump Breaks Out This Phrase During Moments of Peak Criticism”, July 19, 2018), however, Trump has used this term previously, beginning in February 2017 shortly after reports of contact between members of his campaign and Russian intelligence.

***

“I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our country’s greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press.”

—Statement from A.G. Sulzberger, New York

Times publisher, following a meeting with President Donald Trump

***

Presidents, congress members, governors and countless other government officials have been the focus of less than flattering coverage from local, state and national news. The decisions, or lack thereof, of the Commander-in-Chief have been called into question more than once over the decades.

The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers despite threats from the Nixon Administration. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate Scandal which, ultimately, led to Nixon’s resignation.

For the president to take to a social media platform, one in where he has over 53 million followers, and declare the press “the enemy of the people” is dangerous.

It’s equally dangerous for him to do the same thing at the rallies he holds on a semi-regular basis throughout the country. Whatever his feelings on the press, and he has made them clearly known on several occasions, the press was deemed important enough by the Founding Fathers to include it in the First Amendment of the Constitution alongside the freedoms of religion, speech and peaceful assembly. It is the only profession mentioned in the constitution.

***

“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”

—Albert Camus

***

Not long after one of the latest tweets referring to the press as “fake news,” Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) received a call from someone who would only identify themselves as “Don” and threatened CNN employees Brian Stelter and Lemon saying “I see them, I’m going to shoot them” after expressing frustration at Trump voters and supporters being called racist.

In an article from the online magazine Slate, (“CNN’s Brian Stelter Airs C-SPAN Caller Threatening to Shoot Him and Don Lemon,” Aug. 5, 2018) Stelter admits in the interview that threats of violence have been increasing in their frequency. According to the article, MSNBC’s Katy Tur is just one of several female broadcast journalists that have received threats of sexual assault and death.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens recently received a death threat in the form of a voicemail, which he quoted in his Aug. 3, 2018 column “Trump Will Have Blood On His Hands.” The voicemail, according to Stephens, began with asking him if the pen was mightier than the sword or if the AR (armalite rifle) was mightier than the pen.

“You’re worthless,” the unnamed caller continued, “the press is the enemy of the United States people.”

On Aug. 16, the Republican controlled United States Senate unanimously (meaning Wyoming senators, too) passed a resolution declaring the media is not “the enemy of the people.” Though largely symbolic, it was seen by some as a rebuke of Trump’s ongoing tweets and statements. The resolution included quotes from the Founding Fathers as well as former President Ronald Reagan and former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

A day earlier, on Aug. 15, newspapers across the country published editorials affirming the need for a free press.

“If you haven’t already,” wrote the New York Times in an editorial, “please subscribe to your local papers. Praise them when you think they’ve done a good job and criticize them when you think they could do better. We’re all in this together.”

I hope that these threats are empty. I hope that most people can determine that much of what is said about the press being the “enemy of the people” is rhetoric and hyperbole, used in an attempt to disregard unflattering coverage. The increasing death threats combined with the staggering number of journalists killed worldwide last year, 42, dampens that hope, though.

Prove me wrong.

Please.