{"id":33757,"date":"2017-02-01T18:04:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T02:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33757"},"modified":"2017-02-01T18:11:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T02:11:57","slug":"reuters-editor-warns-that-covering-trumps-america-is-like-covering-china-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33757","title":{"rendered":"Reuters Editor Warns That Covering Trump’s America Is Like Covering China, Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The increasing hostility toward the press from Donald Trump and his staff has resulted in a deteriorating relationship. Not that it was ever particularly healthy. Trump spent most of his campaign insulting reporters and demonizing the media in general. It got so bad that the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a warning<\/a><\/strong> that “A Trump presidency would represent a threat to press freedom in the United States.”<\/em> The National Press Club released a similar statement condemning Trump\u2019s anti-press tactics as “unacceptable and dangerous to our democracy.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Donald
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the election things have not improved. Trump is still maligning mainstream news organizations as “fake news”<\/em> and punishing reporters that he regards as insufficiently adoring. His press secretary, Sean Spicer, has upended the White House briefing by adding fringe “news”<\/em> outlets. He is reportedly considering granting press credentials<\/a><\/strong> to Infowar’s Alex Jones, a notorious conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter. Meanwhile, the Trump press team has revoked press credentials<\/a><\/strong> for the Washington Post and other legitimate news enterprises. What’s more, they have refused<\/a><\/strong> to provide spokespeople to CNN for several weeks in an attempt to isolate them.<\/p>\n

In this environment, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote a memo<\/a><\/strong> to his reporters to guide them on how to cover Trump. The memo begins by describing the current conditions that the media face:<\/p>\n

“The first 12 days of the Trump presidency (yes, that\u2019s all it\u2019s been!) have been memorable for all \u2013 and especially challenging for us in the news business. It\u2019s not every day that a U.S. president calls journalists \u201camong the most dishonest human beings on earth\u201d or that his chief strategist dubs the media \u201cthe opposition party.\u201d It\u2019s hardly surprising that the air is thick with questions and theories about how to cover the new Administration.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, Trump has led an unprecedented assault on the free press. His attacks have been severe and personal. And in every case he is flailing wildly without offering much in the way of a rebuttal. He is only concerned with any negative impression of him, and that results in a furious temper tantrum. Adler’s approach to this behavior is to remind his reporters that they have experienced similar challenges in the past. And he provides examples to make his point:<\/p>\n

“I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the secret to covering Trump is to apply the experience gained from covering dictators in regimes that have little respect for a free press. His advice is to be prepared for legal harassment and physical threats. Both of those are tactics that Trump has already deployed. He has said that he wants to “open up our libel laws”<\/a><\/strong><\/em> so that he can sue the media. And on at least one occasion a reporter required secret service protection<\/a><\/strong> following a Trump rally due to overt threats.<\/p>\n

\n

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
\nFox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a>
\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s fair to assume that the Trump administration will continue to foment discord with the media. Trump’s “malignant narcissism”<\/a><\/strong> and tendency to bully others is not likely change any time soon. Hopefully the media will have the courage and integrity to stand up to whatever is thrown at them. They are the last line of defense against the kind of tyranny that Adler warns about in his memo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The increasing hostility toward the press from Donald Trump and his staff has resulted in a deteriorating relationship. Not that it was ever particularly healthy. Trump spent most of his campaign insulting reporters and demonizing the media in general. It got so bad that the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a warning that “A Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,1,4,1200],"tags":[875,42,554,1185,1221,1208,241],"class_list":["post-33757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free-press","category-general","category-news","category-politics","tag-alex-jones","tag-cnn","tag-donald-trump","tag-infowars","tag-reuters","tag-sean-spicer","tag-washington-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-time.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-8Mt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65447,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=65447","url_meta":{"origin":33757,"position":0},"title":"What If Trump Gave His State of the (Soviet) Union Speech and No Media Was There to Hear It?","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/4\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday, March 4, 2025, is the designated day for Donald Trump to deliver what is referred to as a \"Joint Session of Congress Address.\" It serves as the first state of the union speech for the first year of a newly elected president. 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