Providence Journal Takes Aim At Trump's War On Media

The Providence Journal was among hundreds of news outlets that answered The Boston Globe's call to fight back against what it called President Trump's "sustained assault on the free press."

The Journal's editorial, titled 'Trump attacks the messenger,' warned of the dangers Trump's anti-news media rhetoric bring.

"Without this window into the workings of government, our democratic republic would cease to work, leaving elected leaders without a needed check on their power," the Journal wrote. "But Mr. Trump does not seem to care about that."

The Globe last week called publishers to have an organized editorial response to Trump's war on the the media. More than 350 responded.

The Globe's editorial, titled 'Journalists are not the enemy,' was released online Wednesday night and in print Thursday morning.

"The greatness of America is dependent on the role of a free press to speak the truth to the powerful," the Globe wrote. "To label the press 'the enemy of the people' is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries."

Hundreds of news outlets - from major daily papers and local weeklies from across the country - took their shot Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Perhaps the loudest response came from the pages of The New York Times - which Trump has dubbed the "Failing New York Times" - in an editorial titled 'A Free Press Needs You:'

"But insisting that truths you don’t like are 'fake news' is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the 'enemy of the people' is dangerous, period."

On Thursday morning, Trump took to Twitter to react to the editorial barrage:

See more what more outlets said below. Check the rest out here.

The Martha's Vineyard Times

• We take our constitutional rights seriously. Sometimes referred to as the Fourth Estate, the press is not part of the three branches of government, but is instead a watchdog. We embrace that important ideal.

The Eugene Weekly

• Trump's incessant threats are a real danger, not just to the people who write, photograph, edit, and deliver the news - but to democracy itself.
  

The Akron Beacon Journal

• The concern isn’t that Trump is on the verge of becoming a strongman. Rather, it goes to the accumulated harm to the country’s decision-making, and its larger reputation, the quality of the debate no longer as admired in other countries.
  

The Plymouth Review

• It’s the attack potential dictators always make. Shut down or strangle newspapers like ours, silence radio stations, blur or subvert TV stations, and—in these digital times—boost unverifiable “social media”.
  

The Brattleboro Commons

• When our free press does its job, the president protects himself by blaming the messenger. That is not only wrong. It’s also un-American.
  

The Palm Beach Post

• 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.

The Albuquerque Journal

• And so, when a government leader — be it a president or a county commissioner — tries to delegitimize the media by hurling false accusations of “fake news” or accusing journalists of being the “enemy of the people,” that government leader is undermining our democracy
  

The Tampa Bay Times

• In such a toxic environment, Trump’s declarations undermine not just journalists and news organizations but the communities and democracy we endeavor to serve.
  

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