200 Newspapers Colluding To Take Coordinated Action Against Trump on August 16
Over 200 newspapers have joined forces in a combined effort to publish editorials on Thursday against President Donald Trump’s frequent criticism of the mainstream media.
The Boston Globe on Friday began reaching out to newspapers across the country to publish editorials on Aug. 16 denouncing what it called a “dirty war against the free press,” according to a report in The Boston Globe itself.
“We are not the enemy of the people,” said Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe.
As of Wednesday morning, 200 newspapers have joined The Globe in its efforts including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Denver Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Chicago Sun-Times, according to The Globe.
The Globe said that the decision to call for a combined editorial effort came after Trump’s most recent rhetoric.
The president has repeatedly labeled the mainstream media as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.”
At an Aug. 2 rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Trump called the media “fake, fake disgusting news,” according to The Globe.
“What ever happened to the free press? What ever happened to honest reporting? They don’t report it. They only make up stories,” Trump said, The Associated Press reported.
On Aug. 5, he tweeted, “The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE.”
The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018
The Globe’s appeal said, “Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming.”
Pritchard has high hopes for the combined editorial publishing. “I hope it would educate readers to realize that an attack on the First Amendment is unacceptable,” she said. “We are a free and independent press; it is one of the most sacred principles enshrined in the Constitution.”
Not every news publication thinks this combined effort will be an adequate stand against Trump’s rhetoric. Jack Shafer wrote in Politico that “this Globe-sponsored coordinated editorial response is sure to backfire.”
“When the editorials roll off the press on Thursday, all singing from the same script, Trump will reap enough fresh material to whale on the media for at least a month,” Shafer wrote. “His forthcoming speeches almost write themselves: ‘By colluding against me, the fake media proved once and for all, that they are in cahoots with the Democrats and have declared themselves to be my true political opposition.'”
The Globe has previously run editorials against Trump. In April 2016, the Globe ran an editorial against Trump with a front page depicting what Trump’s presidency would mean for America.
This led to Trump labeling the Globe as “stupid” and “worthless” the following day during a rally in New York.
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