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Opinion: Calling The Press The Enemy Of The People Is A Menacing Move (NPR)
NPR ^ | Aug 4 '18 | Scott Simon

Posted on 08/05/2018 11:11:18 AM PDT by Drango

"Enemy of the people" is an incendiary phrase. It's been uttered by some of history's most vicious thugs — Robespierre, Goebbels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao — to vilify their opponents ... who were often murdered.

President Trump must know that history by now when he calls the press "the enemy of the people." As he must also know the anti-Semitic and racist history of the America First slogan, by which the president describes many of his policies.

But Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, pointedly declined the chance this week to say, as Ivanka Tump did, "I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people."

We should be careful about calling President Trump's attacks on the press unprecedented. Abraham Lincoln shut down newspapers during the Civil War. President Wilson signed the Espionage Act that made it illegal to print, "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States," which would put many Americans behind bars today for a tweet.

Richard Nixon had journalists on his enemies list. President Obama's Justice Department used Wilson's old Espionage Act to prosecute government whistleblowers.

But in this age of trolling, public profanity, and angry, frothing crowds who harass reporters at rallies and sputter coarse slogans, there is something menacing about a president of the United States who cheers on mobs and brands a free press, "the enemy of the people."

I am not starry-eyed about the news business — and it is a business. A lot of us got into journalism with a high-minded ambition to inform the American public. But I think a lot of us make it a living because it's gratifying and fun to try to find and tell stories, see history in the face, ask sharp, critical questions of people in power, and tell the stories of people who feel overlooked.

A free press is the fresh air you need to keep a democracy breathing.

But journalism, as this president, who became a media celebrity because of the New York tabloids should know, can be a contact sport. Civility and professionalism are welcome. But reporting is the profession of All The President's Men, not Mary Poppins. Its purpose is to find flaws, raise doubts, discover secrets and air differences.

If the president had called reporters nosy, cranky, contentious, or smart-alecky, many reporters would have laughed and agreed. But calling them — us — enemies of the people is the kind of curse made by tyrants.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 4thestate5thcolumn; defundnpr; defundpbs; domesticenemies; donaldtrump; enemedia; enemyofthepeople; fakemedia; fakenews; globalists; governmentmedia; lugenpresse; lyingpress; mediawingofthednc; ministryofpropaganda; ministryoftruth; nevertrumpers; npr; partisanmedia; partisanmediashills; pbs; presstitutes; propaganda; sarahjeong; smearmachine; tds; trump
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To: ifinnegan
Right.
Pres. Trump calls Fake News Media an enemy of the people.

It's The Fake News Media that says Pres. Trump calls the media\press the enemy of the people.

People read that and the "accepted" message lie now becomes: Pres. Trump calls the media the enemy of the people.
41 posted on 08/05/2018 11:31:41 AM PDT by stylin19a (Best.Election.Of.All-Times.Ever.In.The.History.Of.Ever)
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To: ifinnegan
Right.
Pres. Trump calls Fake News Media an enemy of the people.

It's The Fake News Media that says Pres. Trump calls the media\press the enemy of the people.

People read that and the "accepted" message lie now becomes: Pres. Trump calls the media the enemy of the people.
42 posted on 08/05/2018 11:31:41 AM PDT by stylin19a (Best.Election.Of.All-Times.Ever.In.The.History.Of.Ever)
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To: Drango

It is the enema of the people.


43 posted on 08/05/2018 11:32:33 AM PDT by I want the USA back (This week's hypocritical hysteria: Manafort/Russia Probe again!)
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To: Drango

Okay, a threat to the “REPUBLIC” then. Since, as I recall, that is what we are.


44 posted on 08/05/2018 11:32:44 AM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: Drango

You and your ilk have been menacing me for YEARS. Your philosophy has gotten me removed from job. Liberals can spout their filth and keep theirs. No holds barred. Bring it on.


45 posted on 08/05/2018 11:33:39 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Drango

I wish the President would drop the ‘Enemy of the American people’ line ( it’s been used to death ) and switch over to ‘The Media is the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party’.


46 posted on 08/05/2018 11:35:16 AM PDT by heights
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To: Drango

DRAMA QUEEN


47 posted on 08/05/2018 11:35:33 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (President Trump divides Americans . . . from anti-Americans.)
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To: Drango

Calling someone a “Nazi” is a dangerous thing; calling someone a “fascist” is a dangerous thing; calling someone “treasonous” is a dangerous thing; calling someone “Hitler” is a dangerous thing; calling someone a “dictator” is a dangerous thing, especially when the person who is called all of those things is nothing like them at all.


48 posted on 08/05/2018 11:41:43 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Jeff Chandler
TAX FUNDED DRAMA QUEEN
49 posted on 08/05/2018 11:44:28 AM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Drango

When opinion, fabrication, and misrepresentation are reported as fact, the press is indeed an enemy.


50 posted on 08/05/2018 11:45:45 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: Drango

OK...the Fourth Estate is The FIFTH COLUMN in this country!! Is that better, you TAXPAYER DOLLARS SUCKING PIG?


51 posted on 08/05/2018 11:51:55 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Drango

Dear media: Quit throwing negative opinions and editorials and hit pieces labeling them front page news and we’ll stop calling a spade a spade. Get a grip. Until then ,YOU ARE FAKE NEWS.


52 posted on 08/05/2018 11:52:00 AM PDT by Karliner (Jeremiah29:11,Romans8:28 Isa 17, Damascus has fallen)
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To: ifinnegan

Fake news is the enemy of the Republic
If you are peddling fake news, then expect the criticism


53 posted on 08/05/2018 11:53:25 AM PDT by silverleaf (A man who kneels for the national anthem doesn't stand for much of anything)
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To: Drango
First of all, they are NOT "the press." They are corporate media organizations (CMOs).

The press in the Constitutional sense is a device that can be used by people to publish their thoughts and opinions.

Every American, including those who run or work for CMOs, has a right to freely use a press to disseminate his or her views on any subject at any time.

But the reporters at NPR, NYT, Washington POS, CNN, MSNBC and all the other networks (including Fox News) do NOT have any constitutional right to have access and be heard at White House "Press" conferences.

They don't have that right, because neither I nor anybody else who posts opinions in print, by broadcast or online has that right, even though we use the press to publish our opinions, as I do regularly on Free Republic. (After all, the Internet is a means of publishing thoughts and opinions and therefore is a "press" in the Constitutional sense.)

And another "right" that these CMOs definitely DO NOT have, is the right not to be insulted by the President, who did not surrender his own First Amendment right to free speech when took the oath of office.

Being invited to participate in a White House "press" conference is therefore a privilege that can be extended or withdrawn purely at the discretion of the White House (or Congress, or the Judiciary in their own venues).

I so wish that at Trump's next "press conference," he will state this reality once and for all. And then I hope he will take a question from Jim Acosta, after prefacing it with the following statement:

"I'm going now to take a question now from Jim Acosta purely as a courtesy, albeit an undeserved one, because this is going to be his last White House 'press conference' during my administration. Additionally, I am revoking the press credentials of CNN,the racist New York Times, and a number of other Corporate Media Organizations who will soon be notified of their change in status. OK Jim, what's your question?"

Then I hope that Trump in the future, the White House will issue "Media Passes" to other respectable press users - bloggers, authors, YouTubers, etc. who will be invited to future Media Conferences, provided that they show courtesy, intelligence and respect.

And as for the CMOs, they can watch the President's Media Conferences on C-SPAN and then write whatever the hell they want to about them.

54 posted on 08/05/2018 11:55:36 AM PDT by Maceman (We need a temporary ban on Muslims just until churches and synagogues can be built in Mecca.)
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To: onedoug
The Enemy of the People is very apt and accurate.

I would have to disagree. Being an enemy of "the people" is a distinction that's more appropriate for a democracy.

The Press .. aka, the Mainstream Media .. is an enemy of The Republic. In my mind, that's far worse than being called an enemy of "the people", especially when most of those same "people" deserve to be swinging from the same gibbet as should be the members of "the press".

55 posted on 08/05/2018 11:58:21 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Antifa and Social Justice Warriors (SJWs) = SturmAbteilung)
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To: Drango

Scott, your first sentence is menacing. Grow up.


56 posted on 08/05/2018 12:00:30 PM PDT by Maris Crane
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To: Drango

From the lying, leftist liberals at NPR.

Gee, what a surprise. /s


57 posted on 08/05/2018 12:04:27 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: Drango
What a fraud this writer is.

How about you and those in your profession follow these simple code of ethics instead of being the marketing arm of political movements.

Specifically ones that seek to destroy our Constitutional Free Republic dick!


58 posted on 08/05/2018 12:06:08 PM PDT by Eddie01
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To: Eddie01

Contact the NPR Ombudsman. https://help.npr.org/customer/portal/emails/new?i=8

(Won’t do any good)


59 posted on 08/05/2018 12:09:08 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Drango

Scott, you purposely left out that the 0bama regime spied on journalists too.

You should know all their names, Scott.

I do.

5.56mm


60 posted on 08/05/2018 12:12:55 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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