New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said that he took US President Donald Trump to task for “deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric” that is “not just divisive, but increasingly dangerous” when the two met privately at the White House this month.
Trump on Sunday disclosed the meeting on Twitter, saying that he and Sulzberger “[s]pent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, ‘Enemy of the People.’ Sad!”
“Enemy of the People” is the phrase Trump uses to broadly describe most journalists.
The July 20 meeting was “very good and interesting,” he said.
Sulzberger, who succeeded his father in the role on Jan. 1, said that his main purpose for accepting the meeting was to “raise concerns about the president’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.”
He said he told Trump that while the phrase “fake news” is untrue and harmful, “I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists ‘the enemy of the people.’ I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.”
Sulzberger stressed to Trump that leaders of other countries have adopted his rhetoric to justify cracking down on journalists, he said, adding that he was accompanied to the meeting by New York Times Editorial page editor James Bennet.
“I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation and that it was eroding one of our country’s greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press,” the publisher said.
Sulzberger added that he made clear to Trump that he was not asking him to soften his attacks on the Times if he thinks the newspaper is being unfair.
“Instead, I implored him to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country,” he said.
Trump reads the Times and gives interviews to its reporters, but regularly derides the newspaper as the “failing New York Times.”
The Times’ ownership company in May reported a 3.8 percent increase in first-quarter revenue from the same period last year.
Trump, who lashes out about media coverage that he believes to be unfair, has broadly labeled the news media the “enemy of the people” and regularly accuses reporters of spreading “fake news.”
Hours after the tweet about the meeting, Trump lobbed fresh attacks against the media in a series of posts that included a pledge not to let the country “be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the... dying newspaper industry.”
Trump also said that reporters disclose “internal deliberations of government” that can endanger “the lives of many.”
He cited no examples, but wrote “[v]ery unpatriotic!” and said that freedom of the press “comes with a responsibility to report the news ... accurately.”
Trump also claimed that 90 percent of the coverage of his administration is negative, leading to an “all time low” in public confidence in the media.
He cited the New York Times and the Washington Post, two repeat targets, saying that “[they] will never change.”
Last week, Trump told hundreds of people attending the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Missouri: “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news,” as he gestured toward journalists at the back of the room.
He also told them to remember “what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
Sulzberger said he accepted the invitation to meet Trump because Times publishers have a history of meeting with presidential administrations and other public figures who have concerns with the publication’s coverage of them.
He said he decided to comment after Trump revealed that they had met.
The White House had asked for the meeting to be kept off the record.
On the Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo, enthusiastic slackers share their tips: Fill up a thermos with whiskey, do planks or stretches in the work pantry at regular intervals, drink liters of water to prompt lots of trips to the toilet on work time, and, once there, spend time on social media or playing games on your phone. “Not working hard is everyone’s basic right,” one commenter wrote. “With or without legal protection, everyone has the right to not work hard.” Young Chinese people are pushing back against an engrained culture of overwork, and embracing a philosophy of laziness known as “touching
‘STUNNED’: With help from an official at the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump reportedly planned to oust the acting attorney general in a bid to overturn the election Former US president Donald Trump was at his Florida resort on Saturday, beginning post-presidency life while US President Joe Biden settled into the White House, but in Washington and beyond, the chaos of the 45th president’s final days in office continued to throw out damaging aftershocks. In yet another earth-shaking report, the New York Times said that Trump plotted with an official at the US Department of Justice to fire the acting attorney general, then force Georgia Republicans to overturn his defeat in that state. Meanwhile, former acting US secretary of defense Christopher Miller made an extraordinary admission, telling Vanity Fair that
The Palauan president-elect has vowed to stand up to Chinese “bullying” in the Pacific, saying that the archipelago nation is set to stand by its alliances with “true friends,” Taiwan and the US. Surangel Whipps Jr, 52, a supermarket owner and two-time senator from a prominent Palauan family, is to be sworn in as the new president tomorrow, succeeding his brother-in-law, Tommy Remengesau Jr. In a forthright interview, Whipps said that the US had demonstrated over the years that it was a reliable friend of Palau, most recently shown by its delivery of 6,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. “It’s important for
Boeing set a target of designing and certifying its jetliners to fly on 100 percent sustainable fuels by 2030, amid rising pressure on planemakers to take climate change seriously. Regulators allow a 50-50 blend of sustainable and conventional fuels, and Boeing on Friday said it would work with authorities to raise the limit. Rival Airbus is considering another tack: a futuristic lineup of hydrogen-powered aircraft that would reach the skies by 2035. The aircraft manufacturers face growing public clamor to cut emissions in the aviation industry, which added more than 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in 2019, according to
RSS