Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:02 pm
Donald Trump is now threatening to abolish First Amendment press freedoms if he is elected president.
A New York Times article about the fact that Trump is running out of time to right his sinking campaign set the Republican nominee off.
Trump tweeted:
Crooked Hillary Clinton is being protected by the media. She is not a talented person or politician. The dishonest media refuses to expose!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
I am not only fighting Crooked Hillary, I am fighting the dishonest and corrupt media and her government protection process. People get it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
It is not "freedom of the press" when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016
The first two tweets were the standard rantings of a candidate who is losing, but trying to work the media refs. It is the last tweet that has Constitutional experts and journalists concerned.
Trump doesn’t understand that the First Amendment gives the press protection to publish any information or opinion that they desire. If Donald Trump thinks that the press has published something false about him, he is free to sue for libel. In May, Trump held a press conference where personally attacked members of the media.
CNN’s Dana Bash responded by explaining live on the air, the role of a free press in our society, ” Number one, it is our jobs to ask questions particularly of public figures especially somebody who wants to be the leader of the free world when they make a promise, and they do it in a very public way like he did with this big rally for veterans, it is our job to say where’s the money? Where did it go? How much did you raise? It is a fundamental requirement of a free press. It’s what makes us different than North Korea or other places. And he hasn’t had to answer questions like this in his prior life, he’s been a public figure for decades, and he hasn’t had to answer questions because he’s been a public figure in the press if you will, but he’s been a private citizen. It’s a different ballgame now, so it is up to us to ask the questions.”
Donald Trump doesn’t believe in the free press. He wants state run media who lavish unquestioning praise on him like the regimes in Russia, China, and North Korea receive from state-run media.
Trump has already promised to launch a full-fledged assault on the free press. In February 2016, Trump said that he was “gonna open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”
The Republican nominee is making his intentions clear. If he is elected president, America will no longer be a free society, and the first target for elimination will be the free press.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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