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.
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