Trump Praises First Amendment, Calls for Media Suppression and Fewer Protests – New York Magazine
A man who loves free speech more than you do. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
On Friday, president Trump said that the media shouldnt be allowed to cite anonymous sources because Americas most respected newspapers routinely make up such sources, and publish stories of their own invention. He reiterated his contention that fake news outlets like the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS, and CNN are the enemy of the people, and suggested that Americans should not protest their government in between elections.
The president also said, I love the First Amendment nobody loves it more than me.
Trump and his administration have been waging a war on objective reality and those tasked with describing it from the moment he was sworn in. In his first appearance as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer demanded that reporters believe the presidents estimate of the size of his inaugural crowd over their own lying eyes. As Trumps tumultuous (and not terribly productive) first month in office progressed, he grew ever more preoccupied with discrediting the Fourth Estate.
On Thursday, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Steve Bannon and Reince Preibus instructed the audience not to believe any negative news they read about the administration, over and over again. By the end of their conversation, the word media had been spoken 19 times, and the phrase opposition party, Bannons favorite synonym for the mainstream press, six times.
It wasnt terribly surprising, then, that the president opened his remarks to CPAC with a long diatribe against the media. But Trumps speech did represent a significant escalation in his crusade against independent journalism.
Previously, the president had criticized the press for printing illegal leaks from anonymous government officials and suggested that those officials have often shared false information. But hed never before claimed that major newspapers were fabricating sources out of whole cloth and presenting works of fictions as reportage.
The leaks are real. Youre the one that wrote about them and reported them, I mean, the leaks are real, Trump told reporters at a press conference last Thursday. You know what they said, you saw it and the leaks are absolutely real.
As of Friday morning, the president still maintained that the anonymous officials quoted in the media were genuine members of the government.
But hours later Trump suggested that reporters cant find actual government officials to leak to them, and thus are forced to invent them.
A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people, Trump said. Because they have no sources, they just make em up when there are none Im against the people that make up stories and make up sources.
The people that make up stories ostensibly includes all of the major outlets listed in this recent tweet.
Late Thursday night, the Trump administration admitted that it had encouraged the FBI to anonymously leak exculpating information about the presidents relationship with Russia. On Friday morning, Trump declared, They shouldnt be allowed to use sources unless they use somebodys name They should put the name of the person. You will see stories dry up like youve never seen before.
Then, after briefly praising the First Amendment, the president said that media doesnt represent the people, and were going to do something about it.
Trumps only substantive argument for why his audience shouldnt trust the media was that most of these outlets pre-election polling suggested that he would not win. He then credited the Los Angeles Times poll for its singular accuracy. That poll predicted that Trump would win the popular vote, making it one of the least accurate national polls of the 2016 cycle.
But in the presidents telling, fake news outlets and skewed pollsters arent the only ones who have been abusing their First Amendment rights the other enemies of the American people are the American people who didnt vote for Donald Trump.
Referring to the town hall protests in support of Obamacare, Trump said, The people that youre watching, theyre not you. Theyre largely many of them are the side that lost, you know they lost the election. Its like, how many elections do we have to have?
The election is over. The worlds biggest fan of the First Amendment won. So, if you voted against him, its time to shut up.
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Trump Praises First Amendment, Calls for Media Suppression and Fewer Protests - New York Magazine