Columnists

The war on the press

One of the biggest conflicts in Washington next year will be the one between the mainstream media and the most anti-press president since at least Richard Nixon.

Donald Trump not only has shown contempt for much of the media, equating fairness with favorable coverage, but also he's vowed to "open up our libel laws."

So "when the New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace," he said, "we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected. You see, with me, they're not protected."

He also has threatened Jeff Bezos, Amazon's chief executive, who owns the Washington Post, which has published stories that have infuriated him. Bezos, he said, has "a huge antitrust problem" and ought to be paying more taxes.

The president-elect has frequently whipped up his followers by labeling specific reporters liars. In at least one instance, the Secret Service had to escort a reporter to her car at a rally during which she was threatened by people in the crowd.

Trump uses his personal Twitter feed and some sycophantic news media, including Brietbart News, whose former executive chairman Steve Bannon is now his top counselor.

A daunting challenge for the media is that more than any other major figure in recent memory--there is no polite way to put this--Trump has lied repeatedly. He has done so about opposing the war in Iraq before it started, about mocking a reporter with severe physical disabilities, and about his rationale for withholding his tax returns as a candidate.

Yet the responsibility of the press is to hold a president accountable for his actions, integrity and ethics. It is not new or unusual for presidents--or presidents-elect--to be angry about news coverage. Bill Clinton used to fly into a rage about his. Barack Obama has been contemptuous of what he considers the shallowness of much of the media. These presidents, like most politicians, provide the most access to journalists they favor. But few seriously worried that Presidents Clinton, Obama, Reagan or George H.W. Bush would seek revenge, legally or otherwise, upon media critics. That same comfort doesn't exist with Trump.

And Trump is not surrounded by people likely to dissuade him. President John F. Kennedy, who understood and basically appreciated the role of the press in a democratic society, once intemperately told his Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow to complain to NBC News about a story. A short while later, Minow called a White House aide and said Kennedy was "lucky to have an FCC chairman who doesn't do what the president tells him."

There don't appear to be any Newton Minows in the Trump entourage.

Editorial on 12/03/2016

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