Journalism

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming that "the press is not the enemy of the people":

President Donald Trump lashed out at the press, deriding it as the "opposition party" and "very bad" for the country, as scores of newspapers published editorials denouncing the president's attacks on journalists.

"THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY," he tweeted. "It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!" Trump's use of the term "opposition party" echoes a label for the media frequently deployed by his former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon.

Some play down the threats to journalists and press freedom. Here’s part of a brief fact list from the nonpartisan Committee to Protect Journalists:

I trust that the people of this country have not so lost their love of truth that they would allow their leaders to vilify our brothers and sisters who seek out and report on the truth so that we can aptly practice our democracy.  Who can argue with the importance of a free press to our nation, our democracy, our liberty? And who would try to turn the people against our own tool for holding government accountable? That is the work of tyrants – and tyrants are the true enemy of the people.

A well-informed public is best equipped to root out corruption and, over the long haul, promote liberty and justice. “Public discussion is a political duty,” the Supreme Court said in 1964. That discussion must be “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,” and “may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” In 2018, some of the most damaging attacks are coming from government officials.

Sen Tom Udall (D-NM) has signaled he will use some of his time questioning Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai at an Aug 16 FCC oversight hearing to make sure he has journalists' backs. That is the same day journalist organizations are getting together to push back on President Donald Trump's attacks on mainstream media as fake news outlets in league with his Democrat opponents to undermine his presidency and policies. Sen Udall will call on Chairman Pai "to defend the free press in light of repeated attacks from President Trump and members of his administration."

Russia’s social-media trolling operation began stepping up its Twitter presence to new heights in late July 2017 -- more than eight months after sowing discord and disinformation in the 2016 presidential election. The burst of activity -- revealed in a new, comprehensive dataset of nearly 3 million tweets -- had an overriding focus over the ensuing three months: popularizing headlines and news stories that were originally authored by a US-based news site called Truthfeed that supports President Donald Trump and specializes in hyper-partisan, factually incorrect stories.

[Commentary] Nothing flatters an independent journalist less than the sight of him forming a line to drink from the same fountain as his colleagues. Such a spectacle will unfold on Aug 16, as 200 or more editorial pages will heed the call sounded by Boston Globe op-ed page editor Marjorie Pritchard to run editorials opposing President Donald Trump’s unrelieved press-bashing. Participating dailies include the Houston Chronicle, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Miami Herald and the Denver Post, as well as the Globe.

As part of its ongoing Trust, Media and Democracy initiative, the John S. and James L.Knight Foundation partnered with Gallup to ask a representative sample of US adults for their views on the news editorial functions played by major internet companies. From a broad perspective, Americans credit major internet companies for connecting people and helping them become better-informed. At the same time, they are concerned about their role in spreading misinformation and in potentially limiting exposure to different viewpoints.

Voice of America's Mandarin Service correspondent and a multimedia journalist working for VOA were detained by Chinese police while attempting to interview a retired Chinese professor who was taken away by authorities during a live television interview with VOA nearly two weeks ago. Correspondent Yibing Feng and VOA contractor Allen Ai were taken into custody in Jinan, Shandong province after talking to professor Sun Wenguang, 84, through a closed door of his apartment. Sun told Feng details of his detention and thanked VOA for allowing him to express his freedom of speech on the air.