This July, President Donald Trump met behind closed doors in the White House with publisher of the New York Times A.G. Sulzberger to talk about current media-related issues. Although the meeting was supposed to be off-the-record, Mr. Trump who echews an editor and is his own reporter and publisher on Twitter, quickly tweeted:
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Two hours later, Mr. Sulzberger responded with a different story. “I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous. I told him that although 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.” This is especially dire in foreign nations where journalists’ lives are threatened due to government suppression.
The phrase “enemy of the people” dates back to The French Revolution when political criminals were put to death for being “ennemi du peuple.” Over the course of history; dictators, autocrats, and tyrants have used this exact phrase to attack any form of opposition and justify cruel punishments.
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Mr. Trump spewed angry but crafty tweets in response, “I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the dying newspaper industry. The failing New York Times and Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements — and they will never change!”
The “fake news” slogan had been a consistent rallying call during the Trump campaign and remains one as the current Trump administration constantly clashes with the news media. The strategy has been to discredit anyone who does not speak well of or agree with Mr. Trump. Ultimately, this denouncement of the news media outlets is a form of suppression that Mr. Sulzberger sees as “undermining the democratic ideals of our nation.”