Journalism

President Donald Trump says railing against his enemies in the media helped him win — and that his supporters like him more when he cranks up the "enemy of the people" rhetoric. President Trump said, "I think I'm doing a service [by attacking the press] when people write stories about me that are so wrong." He said, "I know what I do good and what I do bad. I really get it, OK?

President Donald Trump defended his proclivity to spread misleading statements and falsehoods, saying that he tells the truth when he can. “Well, I try. I do try...and I always want to tell the truth,” President Trump said. “When I can, I tell the truth. And sometimes it turns out to be where something happens that’s different or there’s a change, but I always like to be truthful." President Trump also took issue with the media’s estimates of the sizes of caravans of Central American migrants slowly making their way toward the United States.

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted over the past fractious, violent week shows a majority of voters think that President Donald Trump has done more to divide the country than unite it since he took office in 2017 — but that the national news media are even worse. Just 3 in 10 voters, 30 percent, said President Trump has done more to unite the country, compared with 56 percent who said he’s done more to divide it. Even more voters, 64 percent, said the media have done more to divide the country, while only 17 percent say they have done more to unite it. 

This blog post addresses how the business side of journalism needs to evolve to maintain sustainable news production necessary for a healthy democracy. I discuss the basic business models for supporting journalism that have endured throughout the last few centuries of technological change, how these may be successfully adapted to the 21st Century, and what policies would facilitate the transition to these new models.

While President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media are usually centered on national outlets like CNN and The New York Times, the attitudes unleashed have filtered down to journalists on the street covering news in local communities across the country. When a president describes the press as enemies of the people, “attitudes shift and the field crews get the brunt of the abuse,” wrote Lori Bentley-Law, a television news photographer for Los Angeles; KNBC-TV. “And it’s not just from one side.

President Donald Trump sent out a couple of tweets Oct 29 pushing back on the idea that he’s called the media the “enemy of the people.” It’s the “fake news” media, he specified. “A very big difference.” The first time that President Trump used the phrase, “enemy of the American people,” he identified the New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, and CNN. He’s also called the Washington Post “fake news” several times. In a Sept 16 tweet, he characterized all of mainstream media as “fake news.” 

President Donald Trump complained about the news coverage he has received related to the alleged pipe bomber, saying a different standard was applied to then-President Barack Obama when nine black worshipers were killed at a church in Charleston (SC) during his tenure. “I was in the headline of The Washington Post, my name associated with this crazy bomber,” President Trump said.

President Donald Trump lashed out anew at the news media, calling it “the true Enemy of the People,” and he again blamed what he called “fraudulent” reporting for anger that has led to a spate of recent violence in the country. "There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly.

“Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, ‘it’s just not Presidential!’” So began Day 645 of a presidency that has made denigrating the news media one of its identifying features. After mocking and insulting penned-in reporters on the campaign trail, President Doanld Trump continued going after journalists the day after he was sworn in, over the size of his Inauguration Day crowd.

Just hours after the news broke that explosive devices had been sent to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other prominent Democrats, a conspiracy theory began to take shape in certain corners of conservative media. The bombs, this theory went, were not actually part of a plot to harm Democrats, but were a “false flag” operation concocted by leftists in order to paint conservatives as violent radicals ahead of the elections.