Partisan Crowds at Trump Rallies Menace and Frighten News Media

Donald Trump’s efforts to discredit news media organizations, painting them as part of a broad conspiracy with the Hillary Clinton campaign, have reached an intensity never before seen from a presidential candidate — so much so that the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, a nonprofit group often focused on defending press freedoms in war-torn and totalitarian countries, made a rare statement regarding the American elections. “Donald Trump, through his words and actions as a candidate for president of the United States, has consistently betrayed First Amendment values,” Sandra Mims Rowe, the chairwoman for the group, said in a statement announcing that the group “passed a resolution declaring Trump an unprecedented threat to the rights of journalists and to CPJ’s ability to advocate for press freedom around the world.”

The news media has often been a frequent target of Trump’s wrath, but he has escalated his attacks over the last two days after news accounts that he behaved abusively toward some women. By attacking the news media, Trump appears to be seeking to delegitimize an industry he views as an impediment to his presidential ambitions, while riling up his base of supporters. On Oct 13, there were noticeably more Secret Service agents monitoring the new media’s pen, though the agency declined to comment about the protection. Both CNN and NBC News have their own security at Trump rallies to protect their reporters and cameramen.