President Trump’s war on ‘fake news’ could actually make the mainstream media stronger

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[Commentary] Nothing immediately changed as a result of the decision by hundreds of newspapers across the country to run simultaneous, but independent, editorials defending freedom of the press and deploring President Donald Trump’s identification of the media as an enemy of the American people. Still, the newspapers’ action is a significant event. Depending on what happens in the next few years, it might even prove historic—for two reasons. First, the action is collective; second, it is institutional.

After enduring decades of abusive rhetoric that started long before President Trump, Aug 16’s coalition of the willing suggests that journalism is finding its institutional voice and its will to push back. One day’s editorials do not a revolution make. They are another welcome sign, however, that America’s civil society and civic culture retain resilience, despite being severely tested. Or because they are severely tested. Nixon and Watergate wounded up strengthening the institutions that Nixon hated the most, mainstream media chief among them. President Trump may end up having the same effect.

[Jonathan Racuh is a senior fellow for Governance Studies at Brookings]


President Trump’s war on ‘fake news’ could actually make the mainstream media stronger