The Globe’s Editorial Push Has Gotten Under Trump’s Skin
The president unloaded on the paper and the press in general in a series of tweets.
Brick photo via iStock/123ducu
It’s not clear yet if the Boston Globe’s call for newspapers around the country to defend the concept of a free press in their editorial pages—a call that more than 350 publications answered—will change anyone’s mind about whether the media is in fact the “enemy of the people.” My gut tells me the kind of audience willing to believe the mainstream press just makes up sources is going to believe it no matter what the Globe editorial board or anyone else who makes their living in the news says.
But what is without dispute is that the deluge of pro-facts editorials has gotten under the big guy’s skin. In a furious string of caps-ridden tweets on Thursday morning, Trump sounded off on the media and name-checked the vaunted Boston media outlet by name.
He also mocked the paper by claiming inaccurately that the New York Times sold it for $1. The Times in fact sold the company and a package of other assets that included the Worcester Telegram & Gazette for $70 million to John Henry in 2013 (this isn’t the first time Trump has made the inaccurate $1 claim). He also accused the Globe of being “in COLLUSION with other papers” and puzzlingly added the words “PROVE IT!”
THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country….BUT WE ARE WINNING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2018
Later in the morning, the Globe’s editorial board responded to the presidential tweet, calling his bile-spewing about journalists “as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries.”
To label the press “the enemy of the people” is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries. See how 350+ newsrooms around the country are defending the #FreePress in their own words. https://t.co/cuePNXewog https://t.co/6NE0HqejlC
— Boston Globe Opinion (@GlobeOpinion) August 16, 2018
