Know that millions upon millions of American citizens have your backs! We are ready to pour into the streets of every city, town, and village in this country to protect the press from Trump and his Quisling Republican Congress.
4
Only Dictators Fear a Free Press.
4
Simply, AMEN!!!!!!!!
2
Thank you everyone at the NYT.
3
Free press is the foundation of a free society, you cannot have one without the other, Therefore, an assault on the press is an assault on freedom. Destroy the foundation of democracy, you destroy democracy.
2
To: The people who work at The New York Times and the company's investors
Keep calling the balls and strikes the way you see them. Whether we agree or disagree with you on a given issue, we need you. We have your backs.
1
Freedom of the press as guaranteed by the US Constitution does not mean that the free press is not allowed to be criticized.
And when push comes to shove, as the liberals and progressives are working overtime to make come to pass, they do not have a sole and exclusive right to that right.
The wounds to the Fourth Estate come not from Trump but from their performance over the past decade. Trump's only sins are that he clearly points out the press's errors and rubs salt in the wounds.
Needless to say, much of the animosity that is displayed by the press corp has more to do with Trump not needing them to "curate" his offering and their fear of being rented as irrelevant as the printed press has become in the age of the internet...
sSorry, no sympathy from me. You shot yourselves in the foot quite regularly for the past decade...And you are continuing to do so in spite of all the salted gashes you show to your reading public!
3
I lived in Australia for many years and have Australian citizenship and enjoyed the news and current affairs programs of the ABC. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is hated equally by both Labour and Liberal (conservatives) when they are in government. Both sides when in government accuse the ABC of anti- government bias so I must conclude that the ABC is doing its job properly. I find the coverage of news in the US ( apart from Fox) to be fairly neutral and compare the present administration as heading towards totlalarianism by trying to muzzle the media.
If your point of view hurts my feelings, damages my prestige, or refutes my credibility, then it must be "fake". That means your view has an evil intent designed to undermine truth from the word get-go.
That would be a description of Fox News.
I was visiting a friend and using his computor to surf the news, He noticed I was reading Fox news and exclamed, "You read that stuff?" I said sue otherwise I won't have an idea of the other side's view.
As a 16-year old high school newspaper editor, I occasionally caught heat for writing editorials that offended some, I welcomed other points of view and printed the other side to be fair and open. It is the "espirite de coups".
We must keep our press free and open and strive for truth in reporting.
Support free press at the polls..............VOTE AGAINST REPUBLICANS.
5
Yes, I know. I am not rich, and it is a first year ever when I am paying the subscriptions for both, New York Times and Washington Post (while reading almost only NYT), and also making donations to Guardian and a few smaller sites.
Because I believe in action. Believe that I can defend my country and its freedom. First, with donations and voting. And later, if everything fails, it is not a problem for me to take up weapons and put my life in line fighting for the Freedom.
2
Democratic societies are susceptible to manipulation by those who mean to exploit them. Manipulation is especially easy when citizens are poorly educated and news media are mere propaganda outlets. In such situations citizens behaves as a mob listening to the loudest most outlandish voice.
That was the lesson Thomas Jefferson learned. That was the threat Alexander Hamilton feared when he argued that choosing America's leaders should not be left to the common people. Many of the newspapers in the early days of our republic were like present day Fox, biased for political interests, willing to spread outright lies.
As Americans became better educated newspaper manipulation of truth waned; readers were better able to discern facts from fiction and held newspapers accountable. Newspapers became more principled, dedicated to good journalism.
Today most news media are tirelessly reporting facts, uncovering and reporting abuses of the public good, focusing attention on government malfeasance and attempts to manipulate the citizenry. They defend our democratic society. This is why Donald Trump attacks the press. He does not want the public to know the truth and he has Fox and other right-wing propaganda outlets help him manipulate the public.
And sadly the poorly educated and non-thinking are manipulated, reduced to a mob, they follow a loud pompous and dangerous fool.
Besides supporting good journalism we need to do a better job educating citizens in deprived Republican states.
God forgives all, except hypocrisy
Trumps unforgivable hypocrisy, attacking honest news media for uncovering and reporting the truth of his lies, while praising and glorifying the lies and blatant bias of Fox News
One thing is telling a true history and other is trying to distort the truth with comments.
1
Kudos to the Boston Globe for thinking of this, and to the N.Y. Times for recognizing the value of compiling and printing nationwide responses. Thank you.
3
The press is complicit in the existence and maintenance of the current regime. Trump is not president because he is newsworthy, but because the press followed his campaign as though it were. Rather than report his lies, in future, the press should just note, for example, that -the president spoke today and referred to' health care, or education, or foreign policy and THEN report the truth about whatever issue he is obfuscating. No need to report the details of his lies. It is NOT NEWS that is fit to print. The ignorant will not be informed and will believe his lies if reported or, at least, need correct information to evaluate them. Remove the oxygen and the creature dies.
1
I applaud and thank the NY Times for joining with other members of the press to stand for their freedom and ours.
There is a time to stand individually and a time to stand united. I regret that my current hometown paper, the LA Times, did not decide to join with you.
"... Thomas Jefferson famously wrote to a friend, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
It seems he had not heard of Fox!
as one of Japanese,
Objection from Many US Media against their "Leader" look enviable movement.
Also Japan is under very similar situation but Japanese mainstream Media cannot do same thing.
For example,
Chairman or executives of Japanese Major Media often enjoy to dine with Prime Minister Abe.
One of them,TV Asahi has weakened Criticism of Plural News Shows by self-censorship or hesitation to Abe Government and its Supporters.
and,Government's vindicator who justify even Anti-LGBT politicians become anchor of noon time weekday news show.
Criticism against Abe Government has decreased from Japanese Major Media year by year.
3
I fear about 35% of the country has no idea of the vital role an independent news media has in a functioning democracy. A democracy can't survive without it. Ronald Reagan dismantled the fairness doctrine and ushered in cable entertainment news. "News" tailored to your political proclivities and to entertain for ratings. We have an entire voting generation raised on this. I work with people, Trump supporters, who I can guarantee don't actively read news that didn't come to them any other way than their Facebook feed. One of them was unaware that Facebook allowed Cambridge Analytica to illegally data mine millions of Facebook users. I guess Facebook doesn't shove that story in their feeds. These lazy people don't read legitimate news sources and don't bother to verify questionable stories. They just think the news should agree with them. It's weird. They get angry when their pet politician gets caught lying or stealing but they get angry with the source that informed them of the crime instead of their pet politician for doing it. You can't reason with this level of stupidity you just have to out vote it.
6
Oh that it should come to this! The press now has to defend its existence. I just read an editorial that was more like a paper begging people to understand why it is necessary than chastising those who would dare question the value of a free press.
I think the LA times had the better approach ,ie.don't even get any ink to this ridiculous assertion that the press is the enemy of the people.
I've got your back. Carry on!
I think the press has been outstanding in its coverage of the last 18 months since the ascent of Donald Trump. The press (well not FOX) has been courageous, intrepid, thorough and constantly alert to abuses of power, lies and subterfuges. We need you now more than ever. Thank you.
1
Thank you for publishing. I hope and pray that the American people will listen to the accounts of reputable, syndicated journalists, most of whom work diligently to get the facts right, and will listen to those accounts. Though imperfect, they are closer to the truth than the rhetoric of an administration that has much to gain from presenting only its side of the story and encouraging the public to look the other way rather than question it.
I worry that, by the time the public realizes how essential a free press is to our livelihood and prosperity, it will be too late. To do so would be far from unprecedented in the World, and until Trump was elected I had thought the loss of a free press was something for failing states to observe and thought that it could never happen here. It could.
1
Thank you to every courageous journalist who works hard and risks much to inform and enlighten the public about the actions of our political representatives. The free press is critical to the health and vitality of our democratic republic. Please, keep shining light on dark places.
2
Trump's attack against a free press is a cornerstone of his attack on democracy. A free press, the rule of law, and elections in which citizens can vote without fear and without external meddling are the necessary ingredients and at no time in American history have they been at greater risk. The world trembles as the United States- the model of democracy for many generations - teeters dangerously under assault from a rogue president. The fate of the United States and with it- the fate of all Western democracies - is for the first time in this septuagenarian's life uncertain. May your rallying of newspapers from around the country help stiffen the resolve of all reporters not to give in to fear.
5
Prime US newspapers are excellent, professional and informative products. But on political or other controversial issues they have agendas. And the aim to tell the truth includes just as much to allow divergent views, and that's where much is left to wish for.
As a foreigner I much revere The Nation, the 150+ year old paper with a progressive outlook on the world. But most of all I appreciate the dissidents who are mostly not allowed into the mainstream media at all (such as the giant Noam Chomsky).
If I were the editor of an established newspaper I would look in the rear-view mirror time and again. There is a rapidly growing army of progressives revealing inconvenient truths on the Internet, the media of the future.
Watch out for AOC and what will follow in her footsteps!
2
Just out visiting a somewhat rural area which my family helped settle. My 80-year old uncle--with voice raised--decried the fake news coming from the NY Times, WaPo, and CNN. Where to begin?
1
Raised in northern New England we watched the news, subscribed to the newspapers. Some of my 7+ decades I've neglected paying attention. Now I am grateful for the 3 national newspapers I subscribe to. Truth is critical in these sometimes confusing times. Some journalists seem like good friends. It will be all of you who help us out of these troubled waters. Thank you for the hard work & these 300+ editorials. So glad to be alive to see it.
2
I noticed that only one newspaper in Oklahoma, the Tulsa World, wrote an opinion piece on a free press. Shame on the rest of the papers in the state, especially The Daily Oklahoman that was always the mouthpiece for people like Scott Pruitt when he was the attorney general of the state.
2
A free press that is not beholden to shareholders is as important to a country as the military. For without this, there can be no knowing of the truth for all but the few things each citizen experiences for him or herself. Without the truth, we cannot make informed (i.e. good) decisions, including the very important one of electing a leader.
Each country ought to have a federal budget that is dedicated to the proper funding of this all-important enterprise, just like most countries have a "defence budget". Yes, most countries do have funding for a "national broadcaster(s)", but this pales into insignificance when compared to the one for "defence".
While reading this article, "A Free Press Needs You", I was struck by how much our society relies upon one another. After all, almost anything and everything can be said in a country with the right to free speech. As citizens of the United States, media partakers, and humans, it is our responsibility to inform and collaborate with others. Today we have so many platforms to do so-blogs, Facebook, nstagram, comment sections in newspapers- the list goes on. But do we take advantage of these opportunities? Often we hear people complain about "fake news". Although bringing this to attention is great, instead we should be letting our voice be heard, sharing the real news with our friends and encouraging others to think. So yes, sign up for your newspaper, but also, speak up, others could need to hear your voice.
1
The free press is what separates democracy from autocracy. It is the institution that hold leaders to account, and attacking the media is tantamount to attacking freedom. The public should be appreciative of rigorous, competent journalism. Journalists are human and mistakes like all of us, but they work to follow up and own up to them. All Americans should support a free press.
4
As always great job for brining this issue to the forefront! As frustrated as we
citizens feel and embarrassment to our world neighbors it is our freedoms that
keeps our democracy strong and enduring! However, I'm deeply concerned
about this President and his tactics! We stay together as a democracy as Freedom of the Press is one of our cornerstones which helps us keep in check
ignorance {like this President)! Thank-you "Press" for keeping us balanced
and together as the issues challenge us everyday!!!!
3
Thank you for this unified effort. With bullies, an effective strategy is exposing the bully then linking arms in defiance. Please however, heed the advise of not feeding the monster by humoring and giving so much attention to his lies/attention seeking. He is like a serial killer or terrorist, who love reading about themselves after their assaults. We the readers who rely on your hard work need info, without overkill. Good luck with finding that balance.
1
The mistakes made regarding the invasion of Iraq, such as the false reporting by Judith Miller, showed that the U.S. media is indeed fallible. But if it is guilty of any bias, it's a bias in favour of conservative ideas. There wasn't any real reckoning of that dark period of U.S. journalism, that time after 9-11 when journalists bought the Bush Administration's lies. And now the pressure is to become even more compliant and less critical of government. I applaud this effort to resist the pressure, but I also hope it will be accompanied by more rigorous self-awareness of the inherent conservative bias among American journalists.
1
Never has there been a more important time for the press to stand together in the face of unrelenting tyranny against truth. I commend the Times, Boston Globe and others involved for taking a united stand against this McCarthyite and his attacks on free press.
Australia stands with you!
1
Thank you to all of the journalists who provide us with the facts we need to make our own judgments on a daily basis. This president lies constantly and without shame and his band of Republican enablers are so afraid of his hold on "the base" that they are unwilling to challenge him for fear of losing their seats in a primary challenge. Any other politician would have been doomed by any one of the disgraceful actions of this president let alone the collective impact of them all. His salvation seems to be that he is such a loathsome person that you become weary of listening to him or to people talking about him. The 25% of the population that rabidly supports him are not going to be swayed from his spell by facts so it is incumbent upon the rest of us to vote his cronies out in 2018 and him in 2020. The most satisfying response to Trump would be to hand him a landslide loss in 2020. Impeachment is not a viable option given his hold on the Senate. VOTE!
2
Thank you, Boston Globe & the NYT's, and lots of other newspapers for standing up against the tyranny of ignorance.
America's children need to learn the value of reading a daily newspaper, for soon they will be adults caring for our nation.
Mr. Trump has struggled all his life with reading and dyslexia. Mr. Trump does not read a fraction of the newspapers that the previous 44 presidents routinely studied to understand the nation he took an oath to protect and defend.
Three cheers for such a journalistic undertaking of defending our nation's Bill of Rights First and most important Amendment!
Our Children one day will thank all of your courageous efforts to defend their Rights under our constitution.
1
Please add The Record-Review in Bedford, NY, a community weekly serving three towns in Northern Westchester, to your list of participating newspapers.
Our editorial titled "A war on the press is a war on democracy" is here:
https://bit.ly/2MmC7nh.
It will appear in the Aug. 17, 2018 print edition.
Thanks.
1
These are wise words and remind me why I love this paper so much.
The lambasting of using the "fake news" smear against press you don't like also reminds me that my beloved former employer here was too quick to jump on the Hillary campaign bandwagon of blaming fake news for swaying the election and being a threat to democracy. At least the lesson was quickly learned when Trump adopted the smear tactic from her.
I criticize because this institution is so important. This editorial is a reminder of how important it is.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/health/fake-news-conservative-liberal...
1
I am honored, and a bit surprised that my hometown local paper, The Ridgewood Times has signed this letter. Honored, because it is standing tall, and letting everyone know that our very democracy is at stake if these attacks on our press continues. Surprised, because Ridgewood has traditionally been a bastion of conservatism. I am very happy to see newspapers that endorsed Trump, and others who did not. That is what America means to me; we're all in this together.
Don't go by the NYT list of of participating newspapers. The New Jersey Star Ledger posted this: https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2018/08/your_enemy_is_not_the_free_...
but is not included in the NYT list.
1
The problem at this moment is not free or not free press. The problem is the self-censorship.
1
And then there's this rather mealy-mouthed statement from my hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol-enter-the-fray-the-los-angeles-time...
As a long-time home delivery subscriber to the LA Times (and the NY Times and a digital subscriber to WaPo), I'm frankly shocked at their editorial board's stance.
I know the paper has undergone a lot of ownership turmoil lately, but that's just no excuse for this drivel, frankly.
3
Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our Democracy. I support freedom of the press even when it appears that freedom has been abused, such as the Hearst yellow press. We need to listen with an open mind, look at different news services and check the facts. We cannot be a nation of flamingoes or lemmings.
1
I did not vote for trump and it doesn’t look as if I will next time. He is failing as an executive, dividing, not uniting the nation behind clear policies and objectives, partly because he doesn’t bother to explain them. That said, I can’t support the Times and much of the press, either, because it, too, is failing to do what it is supposed to do, reporting factually and objectively what’s going on in the country. To take the Times, its story selection on the front page is clearly tilted to telling a progressive story of current America. It favors left politics, left economics, identity politics. Liz Spayd, former public editor was right, and the Times editorial board got rid of her. It gives cover to Trump to blame the press as at fault. The Wall Street Journal does a much better job of confining its point of view to the editorial page. Take a leaf from their book.
5
EVERY media in this country has to decide which events to cover and which not, and which ones to give a prominent place and which not.
There IS no objective way to make this kind of choice. Everything depends on your own deepest values as editor, including your own political philosophy.
That's why since newspapers exist, they have been openly affiliated with one or the other political philosophy, and why in any democracy there have been conservative and liberal newspapers.
As with all human sciences, our own perspective inevitably informs the way we look. The main difference between good and bad journalism as that good journalism:
1. explicitly admits its own political perspective, so that readers can know it and then complement what they read by consulting newspapers with a different political perspective.
2. constantly fact-checks everything that CAN be fact-checked, and adds links to prove or mention the source of the facts they're using in an article - which allows readers to fact-check too - AND does NOT claim that those sources say things which you cannot but notice, once you consult them, that they don't say at all.
So what is NOT allowed is "alternative facts" such as "Trump had the biggest inauguration crowd in history", which is demonstrably false. A fact is a fact.
3. Readers have their own political bias too. That the WSJ seems to be more "objective" to you is just because your perspective matches theirs better than what's the case with the NYT...
2
This is a powerful and moving collection of editorials from around the country, but I regret that you omitted the stirring editorial in our home town newspaper, the Barre Montpelier (VT) Time Argus, which was as hard-hitting and well written or better than those you quote hear.
Thank you!
Where were you in 2015 - 2016, in the lead-up to the election when it could of mattered?
Your non-stop coverage of Trump which barely touched the surface of his infantile behavior and your consistent attack on Hillary Clinton along with 77,000 third-party voters in battleground states gave us this administration.
It is getting tougher by the day to put that Genie back in the bottle.
thanks a lot.
2
once in a great while, a wake-up call is needed regarding the sources we get our information from.
I have become a far more critical thinker and it began in 2016. I began to read and listen to all sorts of news sources and, when necessary from around the globe.
Local and state news has always been a prioty for this is my community and issues directly impact my day-to-day life. In the not so distant past an important issue in my town lead me to run and win a seat in our government. I felt it became too much of a "club" of long time locals vs the voice of the whole community.
No the free press is not dead, you cn't kill it. It is subject to the' art of cricitcal' thinking long over due.
Your paper begins my day for you have earned my trust.
1
My first thought: if you want people to respect you (the newspaper) you must take the politics out of your reporting. You can't just report for the people who agree with your positions, but also for those that don't. You must choose your stories not based on those that reinforce your political positions, but for those that enlighten your readers.
I subscribe because I appreciate in depth and well-written articles on science and health, and as a source for current events. However, I find that even your choice of whose opinion to offer (and a failure to check the facts presented) detracts from your message: "All the News Fit to Print."
6
I agree Barry. The only reason why I keep my subscription to NYT is because of the science, health and cooking sections.
4
Journalism is not a science. Journalism means reporting what just happened, in the most objective way POSSIBLE.
When describing what just happened, you can fact-check your perceptions, as a journalist (and it's obvious that the NYT pays its reporters a lot in order to have the time to do so), but there will also always be a PERSPECTIVE ON those facts. Psychological studies have shown that we all have, when we witness something happening (or even just watch a movie).
As most of what journalists write about, moreover, are political events, and each and every human being has his own political perspective, it's obvious that NO journal can ever be 100% politically neutral.
That's why:
a) a democracy is much better than a dictatorship, as it guarantees freedom of the press, which means that ALL perspectives will be represented through different media/newspapers.
b) in order for ordinary citizens to get constantly closer to an (inherently complex) political truth, you HAVE to read more than one newspaper, and HAVE to read newspapers of different political affiliation/philosophy.
THAT is what Obama told his supporters during his rallies, even when Fox News was spreading the most outrageous lies about him and his policies and "liberals". And THAT is what a strong leader does.
So instead of calling for no op-eds/editorials anymore, or newspapers without any political perspective, we should accept debate as crucial to get closer to the truth - because it's the only possible way
1
I couldn’t agree more, Barry. The Times used to have editors like Abe Rosenthal, who labored mightily to keep the paper straight. In those days, it was a truly great newspaper. Today, even the headlines reek of editorializing.
The fact that it still carries much outstanding journalism only goes to show that it’s hard for even the poorest leadership to totally ruin a venerable institution.
1
"The next time the president starts in on the press, remember: Journalists who report facts that powerful people don’t want you to know are not the enemy; they’re the strongest ally democracy has." - Houston Chronicle Editorial Board, 16Aug2018
3
I am glad to see the newspapers gather together and show "the occupant of the White House" that you will work together and give the facts as they are found and the opinions accordingly. I was glad also to see the reporters last week to join with Mr. Acosta from CNN when he was backballed--for a short time. As has been quoted a number of times over the past year We may have our own opinions but we do not have our own facts. I was glad to see most "red" states also joined in even if they backed Mr. Trump in 2016. We must march together but not march in lockstep!
1
Not sure why Alaska newspapers are not included in the NYT's list, but here you go. From the Anchorage Daily News:
https://www.adn.com/opinions/editorials/2018/08/15/why-attacks-on-free-s...
2
God bless the press and our reporters and journalists...never give up...the truth will come as it always does and the current administration eventually consigned to the dustbin of history. Hopefully we can recover from the damage and what will be known as the absolute worst government administration in our entire history.
1
Thank you NY Times, thank you Boston Globe, and thank you newspapers all across the country. Someone has to speak up for the Constitution and American values. Someone has to stand up for the democratic rights of the American people. The President won’t do it. The current Congress won’t do it. And at this point, the jury is out on the Suprime Court. Looks like it’s now up to newspapers, together with we the people.
3
How can it be that you say Fox news expressed solidarity when they are not and have never been a "news" Organization?
It is well known that they were planned and created as a republican propaganda network and that is all they have ever been. They have never at any time been a journalistic enterprise or news reporting organization. The do propaganda and nothing else.
2
I am very grateful to see this, and other editorials around the country today. A vital, honest, free press is essential to the citizenry of a democratic republic if it is to survive.
That said, part of the reason we are where we are today is that the news media, including this paper, forgot what they were there to do. "Infotainment" was frequently more prevalent than news, cheerleading for the invasion of the war replaced the skepticism that was both required and proper, and reporter Judith Miller disgraced both herself and the Times.
When Trump is finally booted off the world stage, he will have done two positive things: he will have waked up the liberal/progressive Left, and forced the news media to once again become the Fourth Estate.
1
I am totally in sympathy with your editorial. President Trump’s attacks on the press, and those of many of his staff and ex-staff, are clear reminders of just how important a free press is. Oddly, I have never heard President Trump assert that he saw fake news in a news organ that was sycophantically sympathetic to his views, e.g., Breitbart News, The Hill, Fox News, etc. This just cannot be and again illustrates how deceitful the President’s attacks on the free press are. These attacks are very dangerous. It may not seem so in the very short term, but such attacks slowly erode confidence in dependable sources of news.
Full disclosure, I have limited press exposure living as expat in China and stopped watching TV. fifty years ago, but do read a lot and share the view that Free Press is a mythical concept for America where over 90% of what people see, read, or hear is owned (and thereby influence) by six, or is it now 5 due to recent mergers, billionaires. The Times may be the best coverage but it too carries a discernable bias as readers pealed off during the 2016 primary campaign in protest. What is left as media for most in the country is a dumbed down contest for advertizing revenue and that is not much.
So it goes; no change in sight e.g. the undisguised War on Terror.
“Future historians may well see such uncoordinated mayhem as commencing the third – and the longest and strangest – of all world wars: one that approximates, in its ubiquity, a global civil war,” Pankaj Mishra in his Age of Anger: A History of the Present, Read a book.
1
I've not been able to scan all the comments, but I celebrate this piece articulating the rationale for the NY Times' participation in this crucially important joint action. My understanding--at 7:00 Central in Chicago--is that the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, and leading sites like Politico have decided not to take part, for recognizable--but not persuasive to me--reasons in each case. In this particular moment, when a Person Posing as President is mounting a full scale attack on the legitimacy and the function of a free press,
the danger of being sucked into precisely the kind of polarizing conflict on which this PPP thrives, or the danger of appearing to "collude," is worth engaging. Collude on, please, in the fullest and most diverse expression of independent, incisive, and above all critical (in the best sense of that word) journalism!
2
Trump is bigly wrong, again. But, there's one change that would be helpful. The major network talking heads have a terrible habit of interviewing each other. Reporters should report facts, and anchors should be content to be the entertainers they are trained to be. Opinion pieces are great, if they come from someone with something more than a BA in journalism or political science. Nothing more. When Don Lemon asks Cooper or Blitzer what they think, it isn't journalism; it's just showbiz.
1
If you want to support a free press then look to California Senate Bill No. 313 as model legislation. This bill requires that if you can start a paper online then you must be able to also cancel online.
Canceling the New York Times or any other major newspaper is a lesson in humiliation. It's easier having a tooth extracted. And once you go through this experience you never want to go through it again.
Help save newspapers from themselves. Because this kind of gangster approach to customer service is hurting a free press as well.
2
Even though I moved away from NYC 5 years ago (after 30 yrs), I REsubscribed to the NYTimes the moment I first heard Trump malign the US press & the NYTimes in particular.
Anyone with half a brain is suspicious and dismissive of people who make blanket critical judgments, especially when those judgments attack anyone & anything that happens to disagree with the critic.
PLEASE DONT CHANGE A THING you're doing.
KEEP THE FAITH and ..... THANK YOU!!!!
New York Times,
Just a thank you. I am 82 and a Democrat lost in a sea of Republicans, but as most important I try to be a Patriot to this great country. My brothers served in WWII, my father-in-law an original Green Beret much decorated with WWII, Korea and 3 tours in Viet Nam. We are proud Americans an know all too well that our freedom is not free. Thank you for defending this Republic and telling the truth about this insidious President. We'll survive him and maybe he will have taught us all a needed lesson about our responsibilities. Keep up the good work, you make getting this ole body up every morning as I head first for the NYT,s.
Bud W. Stephenson, Ph.D., JD,
Professor Emeritus of Psychology
P.S. Qualified to offer an opinon if not a diagnosis on Trump: He is a Paranoid Psychotic
2
Actually, Dean/AG - gotta tell you...
A year ago, Breitbart often sounded pretty reasonable compared to you folks...
But, Google and Facebook have since pointed the way to moral journalistic clarity – often without meaning to...
It's not what you put on your webpage – it's who puts an ad on your webpage...
You've got a ways to go - but can remember when Michael Dell said Apple should be shut down and parted out because it'd be worth more in pieces...
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/technology/michael-dell-should-eat-hi...
Kicked a hornet's nest, he did – and forgot to run...
Trump is not the enemy...
At least not the only one...
1
So, there were no newspapers in Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Hawaii that could stand up for a free press? It may be obvious why regarding Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia and Wyoming, but Hawaii???
The NYT can't simultaneously support the 1st and reject the 2nd. They are all protected under the Bill of Rights. They all work together. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-seco...
3
How anyone can trust a pathological liar like Donald Trump more than our free press but there is a certain segment of the population that can be easily manipulated by his outright lies. Trump has lied to all three of his wives and paid hush money to a porn star but he is the model for truth telling for his rabid and delusional groupies. Seriously, what kind of parent are you that you actually hold up Trump as a model for your children ? Trump incites violence toward anyone who questions him and points out his lies ! His references to women are despicable and vile ... shame on any self-respecting woman stll making excuses for his lack of respect for women or anyone for that matter. Do we ever see him doing anything with Barron, I never have seen him with his arm around his son ... EVER ! It’s all about him, Trump is an arrogant, lying narcissistic child. He can’t show interest in Barron because he has have all the attention. Thank god for our free press and, hopefully, the cancer will be removed from the Oval Office.
When the press does not act responsibly, they become an enemy of the people. and when some 300 newspapers get together to promote their ideology, then they no longer are the press...they become a propaganda machine.
3
I watched George Bush “take it on the chin” from the media for 99.9% of his tenure as President while remaining silent…that infuriated me. NOW you have a duly elected US President being attacked on a daily basis, the likes of which have never been seen and he is NOT taking it lying down!
He certainly goes too far with his tweets, responding to issues with irrelevant personalities, beneath the office of the President of the United States but he is NOT going to take this lying down!
US PRESS/MSM coverage seems 100% negative coverage toward President Trump! MSM goal is to take him down or advocate for a Mid-Term “Blue Wave” to stop him at every turn, up to and including impeachment.
The ONLY media outlet that tries to show support for President Trump…FOX NEWS, is a target of your attacks and it seems, a goal of yours to berate and demonize Fox News in an effort take them down. Will you not allow one dissenting/opposing media voice in this country? Is this what you call FREE PRESS?
Bill Clinton…got a pass [for the most part], Barack Obama got a 100% pass on ANYTHING he did. I did not agree with either of these gentlemen but I hold NO ILL WILL toward either.
I ascribe to the quote attributed to Sun Tzu; “keep your friends close and your enemies closer, thus I intentionally have MSN, an aggregator of liberal news, as my home page.
You guys JUST DO NOT GET IT…NEVER WILL!
5
I'm sorry but the press, while performing an important function, is not filled with all heroes. There is a long tradition of stirring up tension (even helping to start wars) to help these for-profit businesses or further the agendas of their owners. I know some will instinctively have an emotional response to that statement but is is a fact - an indisputable fact. Blindly trusting the press is nearly as bad as believing something Trump says.
It is just to police the press just as it is just for the press to police Trump.
2
I am very proud of the small newspapers across the country that have joined this effort, including the Rappahannock News in a very small county in Virginia. I am very dismayed that some of our most influential newspapers did not. Shame on them and their cowardice.
1
Reading excerpts of these editorials from across the nation was very moving. Simply, thank you for your work.
Yes, I agree!
Get a digital subscription to a local or national newspaper and think of it as a charitable contribution instead of an expense.
Republican Congress reaction on Trump's brazen abuse of power :
CRICKETS!
Thank you for being there!
1
I have always been a supporter of the first amendment but sadly our free press, for the most part, does not support all of our rights. It constantly comes out against the second amendment. When will it realize that they cant just pick and chose those rights that they agree with? Without accepting the legitimacy of the second amendment how can they expect the first to survive the onslaught of attacks on the first?
5
I believe, and I think many Americans believe, that Freedom of the Press is one of the true and right principles enshrined in the American Constitution's First Amendment. I think that anyone looking around at countries where the press is sidelined, threatened, demonized, physically harassed, or called the Enemy of the People would probably assume they were looking at a dictatorship or a country heading in that direction. Most U.S. Presidents have used the principles of the First Amendment to shine a light into some of the darker corners of this world as a way to demonstrate the Hope of America. Our role, yours and mine, is to make sure that light is not dimmed.
Thank you! Freedom rings and rings loudly thanks to our Press! It is We, the people of America, no matter our political tilt, who need you, the Press. For without the Press, we cannot be the great living Democracy, the beacon for the world, only a shadow of what could have been. A Free America Needs You!
Thank you Press, in all your forms, all over our Nation.
1
A free press is only worth defending if it is honest, objective, fair, and truthful. Press that propagandizes, peddles fiction as truth, and employs editorial double standards is not worth defending. Sadly, much of the press today engages in the latter and not the former. America is harmed by media outlets that behave this way. If the press wants to be fully defended by the First Amendment, then they should behave in a manner worthy of protection.
8
Thank you for this fine editorial I LOVE newspapers and grew up with the Akron Beacon Journal hitting the front porch every afternoon.
I now live in the Bay Area and subscribe to the paper San Francisco Chronicle and the paper and/or digital Palo Alto Weekly. I subscribe to the digital NY Times and love the reporting here.
I am just appalled at the animus toward newspapers and journalists expressed by Trump Administration officials. There are some quite conservative newspapers in this country and I applaud their existence, even if I don't agree with their editorial views.
3
We need a free, and fact-driven, issue-focused press to "inform our consent," or else democracy doesn't work.
Unfortunately, in the 2016 election, the press incessantly wrote about email servers while the TV favored breathless reporters beside an empty podium where Trump was about to appear instead of substantive policy talks by Clinton.
This result of the failure to "inform our consent" in the 2016 election confronts us every day, and serves to further emphasize the need for a free press, one that takes its role in democracy seriously.
2
The printed word give us a continuing story of our Life on Earth. Yes, sometimes things are out of balance but when the printed word points out what we need to do to help our Planet, it is a positive. Free press is a gift that must be continued as a gift that needs respect as it evolves. Blessings to All
1
Indeed, we need a free press. We the citizenry must promote it. The press by and large has been unbiased and objective. Free press is the oxygen of Democracy. Dictators quell free press & control news outlets.
Our president's principal and first instincts have been to attack the press that are critical of him. He calls them the fake news media. Still the free press thrives.
Even Fox News TV is not too biased. Except for Sean Hannity & Fox & friends, they do show more than a modicum of Fair & Balanced reporting.
2
I am making a correction to a parenthetical insert in a comment -- a reply -- that I made earlier this morning on Mr. Brennan's opinion piece.
Early this morning, when I checked the Times' on-line list of participating newspapers that answered the call of the Boston Globe to counter Trump's constant attacks on journalists of whatever medium and newspapers, the newspapers of the town where I was born and lived for so long -- Orlando (Orlando Sentinel) -- and the town in which I now live -- Albuquerque (Albuquerque Journal) -- were not listed.
Nearing day's end, I have checked the list again and I am happy and proud to see that both papers did join this call to action to defend the fourth estate in safeguarding our republic with necessary information and checks and balances.
Thank you to the Editorial Boards.
Unbelievable that such an action is necessary!
1
"Praise them when you think they’ve done a good job and criticize them when you think they could do better." OK - your criticism of President Trump for his criticism of "fake news" brings to mind - "you doth protest too much." If you aren't fake, he's not talking about you. I take any of your criticism with a grain of salt because I don't remember this much wailing and moaning when President Obama went on the rampage against Fox News for essentially being "fake," although he used different words.
5
I totally agree with your incisive editorial. Thanks for restoring sanity during these propitious times.
1
I remember that reporters did not report on Occupy Wall Street until it was unavoidable that they do so.
I do not remember the NYT or any major newspaper providing anywhere near enough analysis and useful information that the public needed regarding the probable effects of money pouring into the political and electoral system. To be fair to you though, that kind of reporting and analysis rarely draws enough audience to pay the bills. At least until the corruption that ensues has regular people wondering what the hell happened.
I support you and other major dailies nonetheless, because the dire situation we have been in for several years now has returned all of you to your true and valuable purpose, which is digging up the facts and making sense of them. I wish we could also return to the days when good-quality information that was assembled with objectivity and wisdom (which is not the same as so-called neutrality) was considered valuable by most members of society, regardless of his/her/their socioeconomic background. That is not the case at present however. Many in our society regard facts and evidence with suspicion. Not skepticism. Suspicion. Challenging times for the press, indeed.
1
Bahahahaha…it’s too late! . The majority of Republicans believe YOU are enemy of the people! ..It’s too late to shut the barn door. .YOU sat on your hands and did NOTHING! . .Trying to take action when it’s too late just isn’t going to work! . .There are consequences for doing nothing…the ride is going to be rough for the majority of you…I hope you survive the ride! . . The Quinnipiac poll shows 51 percent of Republicans surveyed agreeing with Trump .. A poll from Ipsos asking the same question on Aug. 7 showed a similar result on the Republican side, with 48 percent of Republicans surveyed saying they believed the media is the people's enemy. …Stop the presses…it’s too late!
2
Right on!
Why still no response from Wyoming?
Do we want Alex Jones and Info Wars as accepted media? Heck no. Please fight for a respected media and let everyone know the NY Times, CNN, Boston Globe, etc. are not the enemy of the people.
1
I wouldn't like for CNN or MSNBC to qualify as "respected media" in the years upcoming either.
1
Trump of the Tweets whining about a Free Press "colluding" is rich rich loam.
Maybe he can get his little National Enquirer friend David Pecker, who buries unflattering stories for him.
2
Buck up NYT! The prez criticizes you and calls you "fake news." You've called him worse. You don't have to run around like your hair is on fire every time the prez makes a provocative statement about you. Stop being so precious. Report the facts, resist slanting any fact based on your political beliefs (though that's fair game for opinion pieces), put on your "big boy" pants, and stop whining because the prez was mean to you - nobody wants to see that. If the prez sends troops to your offices to shut you down, I promise most Americans will stand in front of your door to stop them. I would too. Until that happens, calm down. People have kids to raise, older parents to take care of and bills to pay. Their lives are hard enough without spending time worrying whether the President was to mean to the NY Times.
6
Read the article maybe. Over 300 newspapers took a stand on our Constitution-mandated free press. Trump is against a free press. That wont fly.
Absolutely right. Trump is terrible and completely unfit to be president. But our institutions are strong, and he’s no threat to American democracy.
Let him rant about “fake news” and “so-called” judges. As long as he complies with their so-called rulings, I’m going to keep my shirt on.
Trump is not against a free press. That's a lie. He's a lout, sure, and an oversensitive senior-citizen baby, but on occasion he correctly lambastes inaccurate and politically biased opinion pieces masquerading as news reports. Spend some time studying the headline of each NY Times "news" article, and focus on how it is worded to slant your views in a particular political direction. Fox and Breitbart do this as well, but on behalf of Republicans. If you can't see this then you're not paying attention and reading carefully. This is just one of the numerous reasons why the NY Times, Washington Post, and others deserve a huge heap of criticism, and I'm glad to see somebody doing the dirty work of taking them to task for it, even if it is a national embarrassment like Trump.
1
When I was in college in the 1950's a professor had us look at the same story in a leftist newspaper and a rightist newspaper and the New York Times as the objective newspaper. I truly wish the New York Times was objective today. I find most of your reporters objective and fact oriented but your headlines are heavily slanted. Please get back to being an objective paper and you would be the best newspaper in the world.
8
"But insisting that truths you don’t like are “fake news” is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the “enemy of the people” is dangerous, period."
And taking Trump's ridiculous hyperbole seriously is dumb, period.
2
Despite all our holier than thou talk about our rights and their inviolability, all the rights we enjoy need us. Democracies only stay free because of the vigilance of the citizens in them. In the end, Rights are conferred on human beings by human beings and they are taken away by human beings.
The vigilance of Americans has been lacking for some time now. We have allowed ourselves to be too easily manipulated and we have grasped at straws and demagogues. The election of Trump is the result of people not paying enough attention. Turn off your TVs and read a paper, read several and weigh the facts for yourselves. Think for yourselves instead of being told what to think by TV talking heads and loudmouths on cable.
In a little over two months from now we will see if Americans are going to participate in their democracy and be vigilant again or if we will lose the Rights past generations have bequeathed to us to maintain and expand.
If I may offer a dissenting option. I would say the NY Times has been as hostile in its treatment of Trump, in both news and opinion, as Fox news was hostile to Obama. If Obama attacked Fox news during his tenure the way Trump attacks the Times, calling it fake news and its journalists the enemy of the people, I would have supported him. (and so would most Time's readers)
While I don't support Trump as a politician, I do understand his point of view about much of the press. Deserved or not, this paper has been relentlessly hostile to him and I guess I don't blame him for fighting back.
By excluding all pro-Trump voices, instead of being an independent press, the Times has made itself the opposition. I do think the Times does need to be fairer in its coverage. To start, why not add one pro-Trump voice to the opinion pages (or even an op-ed now and then) You'd be doing a service to readers in giving us insight into how pro-Trump people think.
6
This already happens. Look back through the archives.
There are often Opinion writers who support Trump or a very conservative agenda-although I would not consider Trump a conservative.
1
This latest threat of Trump is indeed frightening. Those of us who are the real patriots, who love our country and who are terrified of what he is doing to it, must not let this happen and we must fight hard against it. The moment he controls the press, we are no longer a free country.
This act of #Resistance by the Times and its fellow progressives misses two important points. First, there is no immediate threat to freedom of the press, though the Times' own progressive allies threaten the First Amendment rights of those they disagree with. Second, what is at stake now is not the freedom of the press, but its veracity. The Times and its brethren are engaged in a war with the Administration the likes of which I have never seen before, one that goes beyond the media's typical antipathy to the GOP. It seems that the entire news media, as usual has taken its marching orders from the Times, specifically Jim Rutenberg's seminal call to arms in 2016, where he called for the press to essentially attack the Administration, no matter what the cost. Well, the cost has been high: it is now obvious to all that you and your colleagues in the "mainstream" media are no longer reporters, but liberal activists seeking specific ideological and electoral outcomes. Very simply put, you can no longer be trusted. Such is the cost of resisting and not reporting.
5
Conservatives believe the Amendments to the Constitution starts with the Number 2.
1
It's really mind boggling and incredibly sad that we are in such a conversation because of this President! He has upended the hstory and usual decorum of the office! Not just an embarrassment, but what will the future now hold for the office and our nation?!
1
By participating in or even coordinating this organized front to delegitimize the Trump administration seems you've gone really too far. As any liberal does, you assume to be speaking on behalf of all news outlets, which I doubt. Maybe you're aiming at giving democrats a hand, so that they get more votes in the upcoming elections for finally freezing DC, making it a worse battlefield than it already is. Instead of building bridges through well informing citizens, you side with one single political /ideological view of your own world, trying to brainwash and influence people by drawing your perception of right and wrong. Sad. Very sad. The American public, especially those who think themselves intellectually prepared, may know better. The proposal is fake. The assertions are fake. The sole truth is the intention: to deepen the divide.
5
The Founders placd hope in “a well informed public.” I fear that the public is not so well informed these days, When Trump lambasts journalists as purveyors of “fake news,” his followers believe him.
His base takes him at his word. They seem not to question even the most outlandish and foolish pronouncements that he makes. They seem happy to be duped by Trump, the most ignorant president in our history.
1
It's almost beyond comprehension, almost, that we even have to discuss this— that news organizations have to defend the purpose of being, well, news organizations. Yet, here we are. So whether I like an article or don't, agree with an opinion or perspective or don't, I would like to shout from the highest mountain top there is (would that be facebook) HERE, HERE! Kudos to you all, you brave men and women doing an honorable job in a dishonorable world. Please don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ever, ever stop regardless of who calls you names.
We all want free press, not fake news. Trump is right. The media, by and large, are partisan hacks, pedaling their bias as "journalism" when it is not even worthy of talk radio fare.
4
None of this really passes the "so what" test. Many will read this opinion piece and agree. Many will read it and not agree. At the end of the day, no minds will be changed.
2
I was recently in a graduate-level humanities classroom. A young woman was bemoaning her inabilty to trust the news, "I don't read it because I don't know what to trust." I was appalled that the professor said nothing, so i said to her, "there are well-respected news sources in this country, and if you believe there are not then why are you at a university, where you presumably learned critical thinking as an undergraduate?" Here is someone who in my opinion is using Trump's nonsense to justify an unwillingness to use her critical judgement, that is, to use her brain. There are many people who are not interested in keeping up with what is going on that are using "fake news" as an excuse. Welcome to the future, where people decide they may as well give up trying to think at all.
1
We need a Free Press. And those who attack it, like the self-serving, Dictator Trump, attack Democracy. New York Times and all free press, keep doing your job. I applaud and support you. And I subscribe to you.
As I see it the press has a lot to answer for, too many times over the last several years O have witnessed the twisting an outright lying. IE: the president of S Korea made a statement in the morning, by the after noon his words were totally twisted with a different meaning. What you call news seems to only be editorials. And editorials IS NOT NEWS. The press is a threat when they lie and call editorials news. Opinion is NOT NEWS!
3
So, let me get this straight. When Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., Republicans all - and some quite conservative - were president, the liberal/fake/enemies-of-the-people press did not gang up on them. However, when Trump assumed the presidency, virtually ALL (notice my astute use of CAPS) the media decided that THIS (again, notice my astute use of CAPS) was the man they would gang up on. Pres. Trump reminds me of the mother who was watching her son graduate from the military academy after his basic training. As his whole platoon was marching LEFT RIGHT LEFT, he was marching RIGHT LEFT RIGHT. The proud mom turned to everyone and said "look, my Jimmy is the only one marching in step!" Fox news and its ilk is the proud mom and Trump is the son.
Good for the NYT for joining the Boston Globe in pushing back against Trump's demonization of the press. I have read the New York Times for many decades. Sometimes they do get it wrong. When they do, they issue corrections. That is what a responsible news source does.
We need a free press, now more than ever. Our country is in a precarous place when the President calls the press the "enemy of the people" and demonizes legitimate news sources. Trump even told his supporters to "believe" him and NOT what they see and read. Sowing division and distrust is a tool of fascists, not leaders of a free country.
As a journalism major at San Diego State in the 1960s, I learned, and still believe, that a free press is an essential "watchdog of democracy." Donald Trump wants to kill the watchdog so he can continue to contort the truth, punish detractors, and plunder the nation.
As a young reporter, I was privileged to work for intelligent, honorable print editors in California and Colorado. I still find print journalism, on balance, more serious and reliable that the sparkling mediocrity too often found in the realm of broadcast "news." Still, reporting news of the day is often a fast and furious trade, and sometimes mistakes are made in writing the "rough draft of history." Good journalists always strive for accuracy and correct mistakes as quickly as possible.
Trump cannot stand the beacon of honest, fact-based journalism, and seeks to destroy the "Fourth Estate" by projecting his glaring faults onto others. If there is an "enemy of the people," it's Donald Trump, not the dedicated reporters I've known. Our fellow citizens have made a mistake in electing DJT; it's a mistake that needs to be corrected as quickly as possible.
There used to be a time when public opinion was shaped by the press. That is not the case anymore because there are more sources of information.
Facts, like statistics, can be tortured to confess whatever crimes need to be confessed to. A case in point, is the level of veracity assigned to the Hillary Clinton Campaign financed political opposition research dossier on Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump.
There are two points of view on the information in the dossier. One side of the press is vehemently supportive of the information and the other, not so much. More views on the same issue is not a bad thing. The cure to bad information is present better information.
The main street press media is used to controlling the narrative and spinning national politics to their beliefs. When only one side of opinion has become expressed and the "facts" that are used are generated by those of the same opinion, you get what you have now. Even before President Trump, the public lost faith in there being a fair and balance press. The "free " press has been lost, it does not exist, it is now owned and run to express the views of who ever the owners are. President Trump brought to light the Fake News in daring to Fight back. Free and open debate is alive and well in America, just not the way main street media like it
4
Thank you for holding fast to doing the right thing - publish the facts. I am personally grateful to you and these other 200 newspapers for your commitment to hold those in power accountable. Keep up the good work!
2
Thanks. Reading the list of quotes from other papers around the country made me feel a lot more hopeful about the state of our country, and has convinced me, pessimist that I am, that the venal Trump administration will eventually be defeated by Truth.
1
The time for snarky amusement about the repulsive behavior of the current occupant of the White House is over. It's not funny that he disparages women regularly and that his first comment about most of them is his assessment of their sexual desirability. According to him, the most important stable genius on the planet. It's not funny that he was and is a 'birther'. It's not funny that he disregards minorities entirely, except to vilify them and equate them with murderers and sex offenders. It's not funny that his history and his current life is inextricably and still a bit mysteriously entwined with Putin and his oligarch pals. And it's downright frightening that he is trying to silence any opposition to his anti-democratic ways, whether by revoking the security clearance of a dissenting top public servant or by threatening obliquely to mobilize his band of white nationalist followers to violence against journalists. He's not an object of amusement and disdain any more. He is a menace.
I am a reader of the NYT and prefer it to other papers and news media. However, when articles smack of opinion mixed with fact or cherrypicking facts to present a certain view or when articles make predictions that often change from day to day, I am disappointed in most news sources including the NYT. The news may not be fake, but needs to be read with a skeptical eye.
10
I'd like it if you pushed a post to my facebook wall every time you billed me. I'd be happy to show everyone that I support this institution with my wallet.
2
Where is the Starledger? NJ's largest paper?
Does Press only refer to "print media?"
Other sources (CNN and Fox) do not report impartially.
1
Our distinguished press needs a simple "Friend of Truth" motto to counter the reprehensible slurs and truly fake news repeatedly emanating from the White House.
I'm with you.
Give me a break.
You and your buddies are totally free.
You are totally free to bash Trump, but why should he let you do it without calling you out.
More than 90 percent of all press coverage of Trump is negative. Thst is not a free press, it is a biased press.
Get real.
12
Dick, so where did you get the 90% negative figure? Cite please. And what would you say if 90% of the coverage was positive? Still biased?
1
In my case and oftentimes local weekly "newspapers" are promotional pieces designed to satisfy their advertisers who pay the bills. Finding a way to cover the cost of a truly independent newspaper must rely on the open-minded judgment of an educated citizen. The NYT and the Los Angeles Times are papers I can largely rely on for factual information, if not opinion. What you could do is embrace selected local papers (not a chain) offering a degree of insuring independent, if controversial, dialogue. That's where foundations can help.
I made a recent NYT comment regarding my connection to print a few weeks ago when The NY Daily News took another hatchet job. That hurt to see but Trump’s recent outright threats to free speech itself goes beyond the pale.
As present day patriot Peter Strzok famously said, “We’ll stop it” and good people will.
The press in New York used to maul Trump on a regular basis. We knew. In areas outside Gotham plain folk don’t get it, so its up to the free press to get the story out there.
Downsized, mergered, short staff hampered tabloids still roll out morning editions despite even getting shot up the day before. I was so proud of the Capitol Gazette in Annapolis. They’ve got guts.
The free press will continue to roll out the truth along with the required dose of daily ‘dirt’ on a chump like Trump. The fourth estate is a guardian of democracy and printing nasty gossip sells papers.
It is a freedom to be able to add a reader comment into the mix once and a while too. I wish the Long Island NY newspaper would restore that right to its own readers.
As ludicrous as it might seem to enlightened readers and citizens, the fact is that Trump's bombast is believed by a good portion of the electorate. Whereas some have the intelligence and intellect to know what's true and what isn't, the narrow-visioned portion of our citizenry fail to ask the hard questions of their president. That's why the press, of all stripes and types, is so critically important to our society. It's not probable that President Trump would ever admit the error of his ways; it's not in his DNA. But as he loses traction in his job, as the number of folks who disapprove of him continues to increase, his effectiveness will wane and our Democracy will be reborn. Fortunately our Constitution sets term limits for the president; hopefully we won't have to worry about a third term because in all likelihood there will not be a second. If we're lucky, he'll be too embarrassed to run again.
The Trump administration assaults journalists because it despises the American people and their need for truth about its criminal effort to destroy anybody who wants the whole truth about its behavior. The issue is just exactly that simple, in my view.
The free press is the cornerstone of our democracy. This administration's attempts to belittle freedom of the press and to bully and threaten critics is more than alarming. Thanks to your reportage and the courageous reporting of The Post, the Wall Street Journal and countless other print and media outlets (NOT including Sinclair or Fox) we have access to objective facts to counter the lies and distortions of this administration.
YES! Democracy = a free press consistently printing the truth. News outlets fabricating "realities," or consistently presenting one-sided and often high-charged information, or serving as the messaging conveyor belt for a politician (such as a president) are undermining democracy itself. Perhaps that is indeed their goal. I say thanks to the New York Times and other news outlets fearlessly probing for transparency and truth and consistently publishing that truth. You ARE democracy.
Thanks again and again, NYT. You and a cup of coffee are my daily fix at 4 am before my morning jog. And then...on the jog, we discuss what we just read in the NYT. Thanks so much for thorough and honest reporting. Can I say thanks again?!!
1
Nonsense.
For when I write a Letter-to-the-Editor of my local newspaper, generally it concerns some local situation that I feel is worthy of the attention of the community. This article is straightforwardly and honestly written.
When major newspapers carry a story, their motivation is to sell papers and frequently stories are deceptively written. For example, a recent (WSJ?) story focusing on poor schools in Minnesota noted that a particular student had the highest SAT score in his class. So what? Why instead was not his numerical SAT score given so that the reader independently could evaluate this student's educational credentials? And the likely answer being that the score was so low that the discerning reader would be dismissive of the article's author's opinion that this minority student therefore "deserved" to be admitted to his "dream college".
And how about the recent censoring of Alex Jones and Inforwars? Frankly I really don't care much about what he has to say. However, I feel he is entitled to his opinion and if others want to listen to him, then that's up to them.
2
@Jeff, just two points. SAT scores are private info. Ah yes, those pesky privacy laws we have, but nice try. Second, Alex Jones was not censored. Did you forget? Only the government can censor. Private companies can make their own judgements and free speech can weigh in. But most importantly, there is established legal recourse for those who are defamed or injured by false speech against them.
Donald Trump will not stop attacking the press or any prominent figure that criticizes him. He will probably use pardons and whatever else is at his disposal to lash out at his "enemies" and thwart the Russia investigation. The Republican party will do nothing to restrain him.
It is up to the people to go to the polls and put Democrats in control of the House and, consequently, the House Committees. Armed with the power to issue subpoenas and investigate Trump and his administration it should not take to long before corruption and abuse of power are expose and we have a laundry list of impeachable offenses.
But the Republican's in the Senate will come to his defense and foil any attempt to convict him, regardless of how serious the charges. We will have to wait until 2020 when the people can turn him out of office and sound the death knell for the Republican party.
Until then, we will have to do whatever we can to keep him from destroying civic institutions, like a free press, that are the foundation for our democracy.
Either the news medium in question agrees wholly with Trump or that medium is in his mind and his outbursts "fake news". This is a President who will toss aside democracy if given a chance. I hope Americans are prepared for a new civil war, not in the media, but in hand to hand fighting as in the past. This war is just around the corner if the GOP does not act in a responsible fashion and start to reign in Trump.
We can never take free press for granted, I came from Soviet regime so I should know. If we wanted to hear the truth we were listening to BBC and "Voice of America." Otherwise it was state television and nothing else.
First time in my life, I fully appreciate the brilliancy of our amazing reporters, their relentless focus on unearthing the facts and truth, intelligent, sharp, insightful writing and especially the hope you deliver in hopeless times!
And on such crazy 24/7 breaking news cycle!
You deserve the highest prizes in the world, along with many others like you. Immensely grateful to our Free Press.
BRAVO!!!
1
The first steps taken by a despot is to strike at the press. Once done only his word will be the truth. Not only dangerous, but foolish for a populace to allow such a thing.
If you believe this nonsense, then you can’t support the troops you so frequently expound for. They fought and many died for this freedom.
President Trump is a disgrace to the country which is rightly called the leader of the free world. The most important institution that earned it such a reputation is its free press. It’s a shame that the country that was once led by a man who famously said that he would rather have “newspapers without a government” than the other way around is now led by one who ridicules the press as the "enemy of the people."
As you rightly say, “News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes.” But they are decent enough to admit the mistakes and correct them. Has Donald Trump, who ridicules newspapers as carriers of "fake news," ever admitted any of his mistakes? Here is a man who, according to the last tab kept by The Washington Post, utters on average 6.5 lies a day. Thanks to the exposure done by "the enemy" the people have learned what a deceptive and immoral life their president led before he reached that position.
You are right, again: Stifling the press “is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy.” Thanks to the protection guaranteed under the Constitution, journalists in the U.S. don't have to worry much about it. But that protection is not available to numerous journalists functioning under dictatorships around the world. To them, the free press of the U.S. has been a source of inspiration and strength. They are aghast that the president of that country is now ridiculing it.
Let me console them that the country and its free press will survive Donald Trump.
I would like the Editors of the NYT to consider publishing this editorial and all of the comments, well reasoned, insightful, well-written, as a free-standing document, perhaps published to contribute to the documentation of these perilous times, as a standing call to our citizenry for support and vigilance.
I hear Aretha singing this right now. Do you feel the Spirit?
Sing it press, sing it....
Amen.
Referring to those with whom one disagrees as "stupid," "crooked," or "a dog" (the list of similar epithets, sadly, is a lengthy one) demeans not only the speaker; it insults us as a nation.
Bravo to The Boston Globe for initiating this movement. I am heartened to see newspapers across the country respond. I particularly liked The Southern California News Group response which pointed out that the freedoms of speech, the press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances "are the very rights that give power to the people." Trump's attacks are aimed at us, the people of this once proud country. We need to defend ourselves.
The issue is not a free press. It is bias. There is no threat of a free press being taken away. This is an excellent tactic by the media to change the subject away fromthe ideologically liberal bent conservatives have complained about from the press long before Trump. That is the issue and it is one this paper, fantastic in almost every other way, does not want to have a discussion about.
10
The press/media is paramount to the health and wellbeing of this country. There is a lot that NYT gets right and for the most part they stick to high standards as concerns the facts reporting. They fall short on the opinion side a lot of the time. I can live with that as it is easy to ignore the opinions. It is the facts I cannot and will not ignore. So many in the media believe the president of the USA is more important than he is in reality, and much of the media undervalue their own import to our country as evident in ignoring facts, shirking responsibility and over exaggerating certain details such as that the central obsession of the citizens is this war: people vs. Trump. Keep the news STRAIGHT NEWS, and tone down the hyperbolic opinions. Thank you for your time.
3
A free press is crucial to our democracy. Journalists are not the enemy of the people.
I subscribe to this paper. I used to subscribe to our local paper (online), but I don't like their online version. I follow local news, national and world news, various sources.
i have the pleasure of supporting through subscription the San Diego Union Tribune. i was gratified to read their editorial this morning in support of a free press in general and new papers in particular. the true enemy of the people is anyone who would call into question the over all veracity, integrity and importance of news papers now and into the future.
I am writing to express my deepest appreciation for the NYT and other media outlets (with some very specific exceptions) that have been doing an incredible job under extreme duress. Thank you very much!
1
If the press would stick to true journalism they would regain the respect of the people.
The Yellow Journalism currently practiced on the front page of the New York Times, every "news' item filled with politically-biased personal opinions of the journalists and the mandated editorial bias of the papers editorial staff deserves no respect -- it deserves journalistic reform.
Defending bad journalist practices under the false flag of Freedom of the Press is hypocritical and anti-American.
11
Well said!
The level of political bias on display daily on the NYT digital front page is appalling and depressing.
Examples from the past week... The Brennan security clearance issue occupies top spot for two days and counting. The story of the firing of Strzok lastest less than 12 hours, while Strzok belligerent testimony before Congress was heavily covered.
If the news doesn't fit the NYT's political agenda it is ignored or quickly buried.
3
I believe the press has an obligation to ask the questions to which all of us deserve answers; when these answers are difficult to understand then more questions need to be asked. Likewise when questions are asked to confuse or mislead then still more are required to correct the mistake. But never should our free press stop asking the questions because the answers are too unpleasant to hear. I believe as a nation we celebrate our sincere quest for truth through the process given to us--citizens & others alike--by the First Amendment and made manifest through the freedom of our press.
To the women and men of the press I congratulate you and honor the work you do by standing with you acknowledging your greatness as leaders where other fail because they are afraid to hear the truth.
Trump's antipathy to a free press is obvious and threatening. But, for many of us our local papers have become, if they even exist, a shadow of themselves. Their content is hardly threatening to Trump because it is by design not controversial. While readers bear some fault, the decline of newspapers as a force can be traced to the papers themselves. Papers, emphasizing paper, have become averse to controversy. I used to look forward to my local papers prompt response to an issue of public concern. No longer. There is none.
I so appreciate the effort by U.S. newspapers to band together to send a message to the public. Right now the free press is the only thing we've got. Journalists and newspapers are imperfect and sometimes make mistakes, but a free press is one of the most important pillars of democracy.Thank you, NYTimes and all the newspapers that are participating.
I am deeply disappointed in my hometown newspaper, the Seattle Times, for taking the low road. I expected more and will let them know how much it hurts to see them absent from this list.
1
I was very disappointed to see that neither of the two major Detroit papers chose to participate in the Boston Globe's support of a free press. Having been born and raised in Boston, the Globe's leadership in this effor makes me proud, indeed.
2
As one of those people who is often critical of the mainstream media for the following reasons: i.e. that TV news media has monetized the way it acts to make its positions on issues less than 100% trustworthy. For example (and only as an example), when CNN reports on a story that goes on for hours and hours and hours, the viewing public ends up with a distorted view of the story. When I read stories (not editorials) in some papers I read, on the odd occasion when I have direct knowledge of the facts, I find the facts distorted to make a point (which often agrees with my view). As for sources like Fox News, I am afraid that I have never seen Fox News so cannot comment. My point is that I would like my free press to be a little more responsible and that while I am sometimes troubled by the free press that we have, there is only one thing worse than having that free press and that is not having a free press. It is a little like Democracy being a lousy system of government; it is just a whole lot better than any other system out there.
2
There are many comments more insightful and eloquent, this I freely acknowledge. Nevertheless, I note that being able to comment and be heard and heeded is an especial gift. It is a gift resonating from our beginnings and a nation, as a people. The most powerful observations, paradoxically, are usually the most simple, the most basic, the most elemental, the most human. When clatter is cleared away there reveals, the truth of decency, civility, honesty and most important, modesty and humility.
Thank you for reminding me that you work for me.
My money is well-spent on the three newspapers I subscribe to, and read daily.
1
A free press doesn't mean free from being criticized. The press is free to say what they want and have done so this entire time. The President is free to call you all charlatans (as he has this entire time). Now, if he were to start staffing press rooms with political officers tasked with approving what you publish, then you might have a case (as apparently someone in a previous administration suggested). But he hasn't.
What has happened is that the invention of the internet has allowed more people than ever before to converse, and it's created a competitive situation that the long standing, self-assessed, arbiters of truth in this country and struggling to adjust to. I grant the implied point about this being both a good and a bad thing, but my expectation is that you rise to the challenge and do the best you can to earn the trust of the American people, rather than engage in a coordinated begging campaign.
I also think that for the average American, the coordination between media, business, academia, and political insiders is self-evident, and that the listed groups are all trying to put the genie back in the bottle with this circular logic pathway of selective truth, mass distribution, and "fact-checking" which the originators of the information can then point back to when they need reinforcement, or when ideas they don't like need diminished.
If you truly believe in a free press, where are the mass editorials in support of Alex Jones?
3
You're confounding two different things: the freedom to express yourself, and the extent to which criticism of an opinion (or in this case of an entire profession) is justified (= based on facts) or not.
Of course everybody has the freedom to express himself in this country. Nobody is questioning that.
What the president is doing is asking his supporters to reject opinions and even news as "false" merely because and when he tells them that it is false, and secondly, to consider those who have those opinions as nothing less but enemies of the American people, and to avoid consulting MSM altogether.
THAT is not only a demonstrably false opinion, it's also very dangerous advice.
The ONLY way for ordinary citizens to have the tools to form your own opinion, is to systematically read both liberal and conservative newspapers, and to think about the arguments that BOTH are proposing.
You cannot possible ask the American people to use as criterium of what must be true or false, what the government officially says or tweets to be true or false.
Now as you seem to buy into conspiracy theories about academia etc., maybe you will also believe that no president asks his supporters to start reading the media the criticism him.
Obama, however, did exactly that. He used his rallies to explain to them WHY public debate is so important, and why that's only possible if you respect and regularly read and think about BOTH liberal and conservative media's arguments - even when some lie...
Amusing..President Trump uses his First Amendment right to attack the press for not treating him fairly so the Press defends the First Amendment by attacking his right to use it.
4
You're confounding the freedom of expression as enshrined by the First Amendment, and the right to criticize the CONTENT of what someone says.
Trump is asking his supporters to no longer read newspapers or watch media that disagree with him.
That means that a sitting US president is literally asking his supporters to no longer engage in debates with those who disagree, and to systematically reject as false what media who disagree with the president write or say.
The First Amendment gives him the right to say these things.
But of course, ordinary citizens and the media perfectly have the right to disagree with him on this.
And here's WHY they disagree: the reason why a democracy is a better political system than a dictatorship is precisely because debates among those who disagree allow ALL citizens to be heard and to fact-check their OWN beliefs through confrontation with arguments of those who disagree.
So you should NEVER EVER believe a politician when he starts asking you to no longer consult the opinions of those who disagree with him and to just blindly believe that all that he says is by definition the only and utter truth.
No liberal newspaper has EVER told you that you better no longer consult conservative media. They've on the contrary always invited conservatives to write on their op-ed pages, so that debates can continue.
Obama even advised his supporters to read conservative media.
THAT is what real leaders do, and what this editorial is all about.
Donald Trump is a dictator, and every day he remains in office, the country is one day closer to becoming his. And his alone.
Now that our elections are rigged, and no one has the power to do anything about it, the next step is to get rid of term limits under the guise "political freedom". "Why should people be denied the right to elect Donald Trump in every election if that's what they really want?" - will be the talking point.
Then will come the "Articles of Allegiance". All government employees will have to swear an oath of allegiance to the President, under penalty of death or life in prison.
Then will come the selling of party association pins. Pins that will identify the "true patriots", from those who aren't. Followed soon after by a central website where such patriots can enter in the who, what, when, and where "non-patriots" have committed actions deemed "treasonous" by the "Articles of Allegiance". Such as criticizing the President, his policies, or the ruling party in any way.
Then will come the arrests. The "detention centers". And, the inevitable economic collapse - which will be effectively blamed on the "other".
Then will come the wars. The wars of choice initiated against other countries in the name of "defense" of the homeland. And this, of course, will lead to a global war.
Mark my words, every day Trump remains in office, we are another day closer to the realization of all of this.
Food for thought - for those who can still think for themselves.
2
Free speech is a failure of good intentions. A newspaper can be sued if it falsifies or makes up facts. Or if it viciously or maliciously attacks an individual the newspaper opens them up to being sued for liable, slander, damage to a person’s reputation or defamation. That makes them vulnerable to costly risk and as a result newspapers take at least some care to be accurate and to get their facts straight. Apparently our citizens don’t care about such cautions. They seem to care only about the fun of hearing this most incompetent president lie over and over again and spew salacious, childish and misspelled comments. This president, who will be forever known in history as The Great Distracter, is appreciated not for any special governing ability or skills; he is appreciated for his guile, absurdity and stupidity. And it’s in his obnoxious, aggressive stupidity that he seems most like our common citizens. It used to be said, “Do you believe everything you read in the newspaper?” That was then. Now for many it can be asked, ‘do you believe everything you see Tweeted, read on some internet hate filled blog or get told by the Russians?’ Apparently the answer for many is- sure. What a mess we have gotten ourselves into thanks to free speech which really has always meant ‘free to lie and lie and lie’.
3
I'm concerned that Trump is making strides with his followers. Just today, when he tweeted another attack on the press after these editorials, more than 80K people liked it. This is truly turning into a cult.
2
Nancy
Democracy in America - Vol. 1, Ch. 12, by Alexis de Tocqueville: "The more I consider the independence of the press in its principal consequences, the more am I convinced that in the modern world it is the chief and, so to speak, the constitutive element of liberty. A nation that is determined to remain free is therefore right in demanding, at any price, the exercise of this independence."
2
Simply said, that was perfect. Thanks for standing up.
3
Thank you. Without a free press and honorable, reliable reporting people can never be truly free. It is one of the 'checks and balances' of a free nation. The press is being targeted, just like various individuals and groups, for being in opposition at times with the President. The presidency is being used as a weapon of vindictiveness. Unfortunately, unlike anything in our history the majority-led Congress is supporting this. I shall continue to support the press in any way I can because without it, there are few checks and balances with this President and Congress. Democracy may yet fail.
3
How can I add the sublime editorial from my local paper, The Gettysburg Times, to your list?
I'm from California, where so many newspapers are owned by the same vulture hedge fund in New York. They've been gutting their publications for years, laying off people, selling off properties, making the staff tremble as workers try to guess who's next. Hedge funds like this are just as much a threat to the free press as Donald Trump and his worshippers. The "fake news" mantra and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones are bad enough, as it's all anti-American and a thumb in the eye of the founders, but what if the press as we know it disappears someday? More funding is needed, for sure. But at least subscribe, whether to the print edition or online, to show your support.
3
Keep on fighting the good fight, NYT. It is very much needed in these difficult times.
4
Thank you.
1
Try as he may, The Dolt cannot silence those that both speak and / or report the TRUTH! Facts always win out and will!
Long Live REAL NEWS!!!
Thank you to all REAL NEWS OUTLETS and especially The New York Times, thank you!
2
I think the headline of every one of these media outlets should read,
"President Trump is a LIAR"
He should be called out a million times more than he is for the lies that he tells.
3
These are the times that try the souls of First Amendment defenders.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/opinion/20180816/editorial-freedom-of-press...
The MSM is a just a mouthpiece for the Democratic party.
6
With what the GOP is doing to this country today, EVERYBODY should be.
That being said, I don't think that you're right. They strongly criticized Obama on a regular basis, for instance.
But let's suppose that it's true for a moment. We all know that Fox News is just a mouthpiece for the GOP.
In that case, all real patriots SHOULD regularly read/watch BOTH of them, because that's the only way to be able to form an independent opinion, and certainly not follow Trump's fear-driven advice, which is to only start reading what people who adhere to your own political ideology write ...
1
Sad you think so.
Somewhere, in a lower circle of Hell described in Dante's Inferno, Josef Goebbels is looking up and smiling, pleased that another world leader is following his principles of propaganda: Proclaim yourself as the only source of truth; Defame and suppress anyone else who dares to tell the actual truth; and Lie, Lie, Lie!
1
Question: How many total PAID subscribtionscombined do all these media subscribers have? (i.e. media outlets that support this editorial.) That is a verifiable fact that speaks for itself. I have paid subscriptions to the NYtimes, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. Let the consumers of news speak.
2
Brevity isn't the soul of wit alone: most of the "Comments" invited and published in response to NYT articles and op-eds are too long. Who wants to read an editorial about an editorial? That said, and taking account of the subject at hand - the NYT's and other media's commitment to a free press - I'd like to record that several of the "Comments" I've submitted over time have not been "approved" for publication. None of them was rude or contained obscenities or slurs. While recognizing the need to "moderate" readers' comments, I'd therefore submit that "the press" is only as "free" as its censors allow it to be.
2
As a long time subscriber to the Times -- and way back when to the Herald Tribune-- I used to mind ink on my fingers. There was never any confusion about ''news'' on page one and ''opinion'' somewhere else. On extremely rare occasions, there might be an editorial on page one that addressed a major event or incident or even obituary.
Print news sources are up against so-called freebie video, smart phones, and other miraculous devices . But video cannot be denied as long as it is not altered in any other way.
So Sarah tells her lies, Hannity invents all sorts of stuff with coaching from Rudy, the Liar - in - Chief believes his own fabrications which none of the majority of the country accepts as gospel. Thankfully, most of us are not deceived because the truth is put out there by the NYT, WAPO, LAT and hundreds of other print services. Even cable stations like CNN and MSNBC will quote articles fom U.S. Newspapers.
Any attorney will tell you that ''if you write [read tweet], you are wrong.'' At one point, Trump cackled about changing the libel laws. Wonder why
1
Equally insidious are the “Comments” sections of newspapers that screen out comments critical of the paper, its ownership, its staff, and its editorial board.
Another threat to the free press is Chinese and Russian trolls using those same “Comments” sections in an attempt to steer American public opinion. I have never heard of the New York Times making an effort to thwart trolls, yet it regularly chides Facebook for not doing that.
5
It is time for all sane Americans to form armed militias and defend the First Amendment. The Russians placed their puppet in the White House, who threatens to dismantle our Intelligence officers from protecting our First Amendment Free Press Liberties that our Founding Fathers warned us to defend from the tyranny of Darkness.
As history has shown: the best way to defend the First Amendment is to USE it.
That means starting to engage in real, respectful debates with Trump supporters, so that they can learn how to fact-check for themselves too.
You don't teach something like that through bullets and guns, as far as I know ...
1
Agree with most of what you write. However, I often find myself among Trump-a-phants and have found it impossible to engage them in any kind of respectful debate. I am always, always, inundated with their standard response when they cannot find words or reason to defend their president -- "what about Clinton" or "what about Obama."
We are in a period of national mental illness; a movement to evolve our Democracy to Fascism.
To paraphrase Martin Niemoller:
First they came for CNN, and I did not speak out—
Because I did not work for CNN; I worked for Fox News.
Then they came for the New York Times, and I did not speak out—
Because I did not work for the New York Times.
Then they came for the Boston Globe, and I did not speak out—
Because I did not work for the Boston Globe.
Then they came for the Baltimore Sun and the Wall Street Journal and I did not speak out—
Because I did not work for the Baltimore Sun or the Wall Street Journal.
Then they came for Fox News____and there was no one left to speak for me.
1
Though I sometimes laugh at our local paper, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, for its gaffes and parochial foibles, I nevertheless value its valorous attempt to get stories right, and to uncover events that need exposure.
Today it published an eloquent statement of why the press matters and the danger Trump and his minions have threatened. I felt proud. It gives me hope that, even in this fairly red area where there are probably a lot of avid Trump fans, there is a community of people who still value the truth and will expose evil, stupidity and incompetence when they find it. And there's a lot to find in this current GOP government in D.C.
3
Checks and Balances 2.0: https://www.fundamentalreform.org/
A free press, whether you believe what it writes or not, is far more important to Freedom and Democracy in this country than any president, especially one who is a consistent liar.
2
NYC desperately needs a local paper. DeBlasio is running unhinged; special interest setting the agenda. we in the middle picking up the tab.
Bravo to the voice of the press! You are our daily/periodic window into what is going on in the world around us.
Our ignorant President does not like to hear anything he doesn’t agree with. So, he labels them fake news almost as if he fears that he’ll be uncovered as the fake.
2
And we desperately need a free press. Waiting....
As you and all of the other newspapers editorialize on the importance of a free press and how the press is not the enemy of the people, you are avoiding the truth by mouthing a mission statement. Of course, the ‘you’ I speak of is the collective news media.
We can all agree on the importance of a free press. What we will not agree on is what you are doing with that freedom. It is you that has weakened our belief in the honesty of your reporting. The ultimate cynicism is that you correctly defend the ideal but then practice yellow journalism. If we used to laud the press but now cannot trust what we are told, whose fault is that? Do you honestly believe that one person, even the president, could sway an entire country’s view of the press? I am sorry that the press has become an untrustworthy source of information but it wasn’t the president that caused that. You did it to yourselves.
2
I don't think so.
It's the unjustified attack first of Fox News and then of Trump tweet taking over Fox News that made you all of a sudden believe that each time that MSM say something that Fox News tells us is false, it MUST be false.
Fortunately indeed, a president cannot sway an entire country's view of the press.
But when a US president starts claiming that "the media" are "the enemy of people", he's simply wrong, and this editorial explains why.
So if you disagree with the arguments in this editorial, why don't you try to refute them? Why are you merely repeating what conservative media tell you for a decade now already: don't watch or read non conservative media because only we tell the truth, and IF you do, reject anything that disagrees with what we tell you is the truth as blatantly false.
Easy, many GOP voters thought! Now we don't have to fact-check for ourselves anymore! We just take Fox News or a president's tweet, and if a newspaper disagrees, we know it's false!
Don't you see that this kind of attitude is the EXACT opposite of being a patriot?
Don't you remember that when Fox News was claiming that Obamacare would kill grandmothers and be "Armageddon" (which as you hopefully know now was totally false), Obama ACTIVELY asked his supporters to read conservative newspapers, because THAT's how you get to the truth, not by only consulting media that adopt your own political view?
THAT is what strong presidents do, rather than being afraid of disagreement.
2
Thank you, New York Times for your great public service here. Yes, as you point out, Thomas Jefferson gave us not only that famous quote about newspapers and government, but also this one: “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper,” he wrote. “Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.” You're not the only one, President Donald Trump. I know reading makes your lips tired and your fingers go all atwitter, but perhaps somebody could read parts of some of these editorials to you, Mr. President (between holes maybe)? Your ignorance threatens us, all of us.
Thank you for your services. Please, please keep up the good work. We all depend on you to tell the truth. Thank you and thank you.
2
Thank you, Fourth Estate, for standing up to that demagogue in the White House. He is, of course, the real enemy of the people. Best of luck in this accelerated effort to make more people aware of the truth.
I don’t see the Arizona Republic on your list. Our local paper published a strong editorial on this topic today. I am proud of all the newspapers that are taking a principled stand against Trump’s “enemy of the people” propaganda.
1
Democracy hinges on freedom of press. Man in power will usurp this freedom as his evil deeds get shared. Instead of dooming our democracy we need to doom the man in question.
French Revolution is ominously knocking at USA doors. U.S. citizen have had enough. We cannot tolerate anymore.
I do not have a Twitter account- majority do not have one, either.
Starting my career as a reporter, then 40 years working in the public relations industry, I’ve found not a few journalists pushy, condescending and obnoxious. AND they are the thin black line that safeguards our democracy and makes it enduring . The Times points out that Thomas Jefferson said that between having a government without the press and a press without a government, he’d always opt for the latter. Touché, Tom
A free press is important now more than ever before in our country. Thank you to those in the 4th Estate for your dedicated and vital service to the U.S.
There seem to be quite a few comments accusing the liberal media of 'collusion' with these concerted editorials. For the benefit of those people, here is the definition of collusion:
'secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose'
1. There is nothing secretive here, the editorial board clearly says that they are 'answering a call last week from the Boston Globe.'
2. There is nothing illegal or deceitful here.
Cooperation does not equal collusion.
3
Is it telling that the Oregonian isn't included for Oregon? The paper isn't worth much more than human interest stories anymore.
And, of course, we all remember after the Senator Bob Packwood story broke, the tag line was "if it matters to Oregonians, it's in the Washington Post."
I for one do hold a subscription to the NYT, and will probably subscribe to other publications very soon.
The saddest part of this whole project is the need to have to do it in this country in this day and age. You truly cannot take anything for granted.
I do subscribe to my local paper, a semi-literate rag with an extraordinarily poor sense of what is and what shouldn't be news. Of course as a member of the "USA Today" network it is undoubtedly making money for its ruthless owners. Problem is: every once in a while, it makes a terrible mistake and publishes something of real local importance.
1
2 thoughts on my 65th b day- Copy that, and LET'S GO!!!!
We need free press more than the free press needs us. Checks and balances are the foundation of democracy. Our congress is impotent or ineffective and inactive. Our judiciary is totally biased and acting like a branch of right wing Republican Party. Our executive chief , the president is a non-democratic and acting like an emperor. Our democracy is in ICU. Now only thing we have to protect our democracy and liberty is FREE PRESS and the need for free press was never so important like now. We , the freedom loving people will be with the free press always. If needed, we have to fight for it.
I could not imagine a world without newspapers. They are my windows to the world. I have a need to know what is happening both locally and globally each day. I start and end my day with the the NY Times and the LA Times. I have been reading the NY Times for almost 60 years and it has never let me down.
Maybe this response by local newspapers will help to make a dent in Trump's thick skull! I hope so. Congratulations to all the newspapers who participated!
Thank you for supporting our democracy!
Very simply: power to the press and the people! Strength in numbers. Now just hope the people who need to read their local press, read it!
2
Does a jury in a criminal trial enter the deliberation room with all the facts of the case? No. Can it trust every witness called to the stand to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? No. Is every juror himself or herself 100% unbiased? No. Do juries sometimes render wrong decisions of guilt or innocence? Yes. Is every judge competent and impartial? No. Does that mean that all the decisions of juries and judges are "fake" and all the participants in the judicial system are "enemies of the people"? Would we as a country be better off without courts and the entire legal profession because justice is sometimes not done? Of course not. That any president, elected official or candidate would condemn a whole profession, though flawed like any other, and deliberately undermine the public's trust in even the most ethical and competent journalists cannot be called a patriot and defender of our Constitution.
1
I've had to eat a lot of beans and rice to afford my subscription to the Times. Best money I ever spent. Thank you to the readers and letter writers as well as editors and reporters that make this space feel like an American I'm proud to call home.
2
I subscribe to the Globe (paper copy), the Times and WaPo online editions, because I want to support the press. I have been wondering why all three papers and others across the country have not been more aggressively (am thinking of the concerted efforts made by papers a la the Pentagon Papers) working to fight the idea that they are “the enemy of the people”. I’ve been waiting to see what you are all going to do to combat the dangerous, injurious, bordering on criminal, to my mind, assertions of the current president. I and many others want to see you fight, out maneuver, and prove him wrong. Front and center, on the front page please. We expect no less.
And thank you all!
We subscribe to the NYTimes, The Washington Post and our local paper. We also listen to the BBC. Some days we may not read all three papers in depth. Nevertheless we very much value the free press and understand how important it is to our democracy.
A few days ago while driving home from a beach vacation to Hilton Head,
SC my wife played a Simon & Garfunkle CD on the car radio. One song gave me chills: "The Sounds of Silence" is clearly the theme song of the Trump Presidency.
Scary!
Paraphrasing Mary McCarthy when she spoke of Lillian Hellman, "Every word he (Trump) speaks is a lie, including "and" and "the."
So far the scoreboard on his spoken lies (he doesn't write anything except when he wants to show off his signature) is over four thousand and counting).
Why are journalists reporting Twitter rants as policy statements from the fraud occupying the Oval Office at the moment?
While I have always been an avid reader of newspapers, it has been in the past year a half or so that I have truly appreciated the First Amendment. Having numerous means for acquiring the news and not just through government sanctioned outlets is truly a saving grace. I am so grateful and thankful for all the members of the press and other news outlets for standing up for the truth and our democracy. Thank you and know that we the people are behind you.
1
Eloquent statements from the remotest parts of our country. A chorus in harmony, music to my ears.
Thank you for supporting our U.S. Constitution's First Amendment and the critically important work of newspapers and journalists in the support and survival of Democracy. I am grateful to be able to rely on my widely respected local newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, winner of 12 Pulitzer Prizes, and to read it every morning.
1
That Trump feels threatened by journalists and reporters who are delving, analysing and scrutinising his presidency is a sign that he has something terrible to hide. We must keep up the pressure for truth and transparency from the White House. One fine day he could impode before Robert Mueller's findings reach the public.
2
In these perilous times, as I myself and other readers assay to withstand the ongoing media onslaught, I buttress myself, with among other things, a subscription to The NY Times.
Thanks again, for your perseverance in reporting and commenting on the day's news, in the face of ongoing criticism coming from all sides.
1
I am happy to see that newspapers around the country are doing this. It is the job of reporters to inform our democracy of the facts in any story. We don't have to like it or always think it is right - but it is very important. I do subscribe to my local paper and every member of my household reads the local paper. I do not always agree with their stance on things but they provide the news on local events and that is sorely needed. I also want to say that the New York Times has been my go to paper during this very trying time in our history. Again - I don't always like the article or agree with the coverage but I love that it is there for me to read. I trust the work that you are doing.
4
When news is published, the reader is not in a position to differentiate between fake and real. America democracy demands BUILDING OF MOMENTUM of public acceptance perspectives. America is NOT a Moral State it is a LEGAL state. So, purveyors of news interject their slants into the narratives.
It is only with hindsight when all the facts/facets can be brought together and dispassionate analysis (elimination the fog the moment) attempted that a more lucid picture comes out.
When all is said and done, one should ask the question: is America a REAL democracy. More often than not America is a MOB-POWER democracy.
1
Thank you for this article and all of the support that news organizations have given to this day to reaffirm the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and the truth that needs to be told with it. We the People will never take that right for granted and will, along with the reputable media, continue to voice our concerns, fears, hopes, and dreams for our country, may she ever be free.
3
And you wonder why you’re all going out of business. It’s because you’re fake news... duh.
1
Sadly the problem is adults who don't read and who prefer to remain ignorant and use expressions like "duh" instead of having an adult vocabulary.
Except that the number of NYT subscribers went UP since Trump became president ...
You guys never fact-check anything, do you ... ?
https://www.adn.com/opinions/editorials/2018/08/15/why-attacks-on-free-s...
Just saying... Alaska stands for freedom of the press. I was unable to highlight Alaska in the list. Please don't forget the 49th state!
My brothers and I grew up reading the NYT, and I have been a subscriber ever since. You are the rock of my reality and my freedom, and I treasure your hard work to bring us the facts every day, year after year. I accept that it's difficult to get it right all the time, every time, but I know that's what you are trying to do. Please don't ever compromise that uncompromising standard.
5
Wonderful job by NYT team to be able to filter comments by state on this story. Thank you New York Times!
4
Please, there is no threat to a free press. Ironic that this hyped up, mock alarmist editorial is just another example of a press that has abandoned objectively and integrity in favor of naval gassing, self obsession, hypocrisy, paranoia, and bias. Rather than present the facts and leave interpretation and judgment to the public, the press now decides what meaning they want to sell and "report" accordingly. The Times is particularly blatant in this regard. Just look at the headlines, the loaded language, the selective omissions, the cherry picking. I have never been so disappointed in the press, and personally, look for alternate confirmation of anything remotely political that is published in the Times.
8
FYI: we're having a president who calls the free press "the enemy of the people" and constantly advised his supporters to ONLY consult conservative media.
Why would such a completely unconstitutional attack by a sitting president have to remain unanswered ... ?
As to your idea that the media shouldn't be a place where op-eds defending different political perspectives on the news are published and debated: since when is debate a BAD thing, in a democracy ... ?
Finally, it's quite obvious that what you guys are now calling the truth is TRUMP's version of it. Anything that doesn't correspond to the official government's version of the facts is now rejected by 30% of the American people as what MUST be false, simply because it doesn't automatically take over the government's narrative. How come you don't realize that there's something utterly wrong with such a definition of the truth ... ?
Finally, any concrete example of a "selective omission" or cherry-picking?
You are correct. I have read the NYT for 40 years, but now rarely, though still a subscriber. Nearly every story headline displays an anti-Trump bias. I never voted for Trump, but would like to see some degree of objectivity in news articles. Since 2015 (or so), such objectivity has taken a holiday.
3
Any concrete example of such a headline?
I have really learned to appreciate well edited, verified and investigative reporting and fully realized how much I depend on journalists to do the heavy lifting to get the story and get the story rights.
I especially appreciate as facts come in, interpretations change and discovery od what facts are valid, relevant and informative is a process and that process unfolds in the better news sources.
3
Interesting observation: A few newspapers made a point of not "participating" in this organized defense of the free press and expression of alarm over Trump's attacks on it. But 3 of those publications, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and the San Francisco felt the need to explain the reasons they declined to participate in editorials, and on the surface they sounded well thought out. The problem is that within these pieces they made sure to mention that they share the sentiments of the participating publications about a free press and the attacks on it. WaPo even posted excerpts from the editorials published by several of the "participants".
In other words, they participated while not participating. Maybe they think Trump is not smart enough to realize this?
3
Oops! Meant "San Francisco Chronicle"
I am so grateful for your hard work and appreciate it immensely. I depend upon you.
5
Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is because of the dogged dedication of journalist from around the world that as a child I learned about events ranging from Watergate to the happenings of today. For this, I am eternally grateful, and as a citizen of this nation and as an educator, I am heavily reliant upon and will remain supportive of our media and all that they do to bring us information regardless of whether I agree or disagree with their assessments. Having the freedom and ability to discern gathered information is what I consider to be one of the great blessings of being an American.
8
The First Amendment right of Free Press is an essential link to democracy because when voices are silenced, autocracy prevails and freedom ends. Mistakes have been made, but this is not a license to suppress; instead, these are bases for investigation and discussion.
4
To overcome claims of Enemy of the People, you have to prove that you are Friends of the People.
What have you done for them lately? Do more of it. Deliver it better. Advertise that you are doing it. Make sure they understand the value.
I pay a subscription to stay informed. Explain to those who do not pay, why it's worth it to those of us who do. Explain why they might need more than one subscription. Explain why local papers need subscriptions to survive too and support their stories. When I have to pay for multiple subscriptions, it begins to make me wonder as each monthly increment adds up to something significant, to the point that a family conversation about the cost of staying informed and supporting the "free" press makes sense. Whose freedom is it anyway when a third or more of the population would rather stay informed by appointed mouthpieces that make things up than knowing what is really going on?
I share your frustration.
3
To which third of the population that would rather stay uninformed are you referring, and what are the appointed mouthpieces that make things up to which you are referring?
During the Obama administration, it seemed the media would hold a meeting each day before they published the same story in many of the same words. The Democrats and the media appeared to coordinate messaging. That appeared to be a united media. The Boston Globe led the phone call this time around.
The united-together media chooses what to publish, and more importantly what not to publish. Editorials seem to read as if they came out of one piece of whole cloth, and press sanctimoniousness is wearing thin on the American public at large.
Many media sources have been purchased or have joined together, reducing the independence of media available to the public. And this further 'uniting to defend press freedom' will only combine to reduce freedom of expression and freedom of thought.
The bottom line: A united-together media is not an independent media.
6
Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson described in one of her books how the media has become risk averse. It's always safe to repeat whatever the AP reports. It's also safe to report what isn't considered a threat to the corporate owners' interests. It's now too risky to do anything that might create a problem for them.
So, when you see the same news reports, it's because they're playing it safe. Unfortunately, parroting is not reporting.
1
Except that there's no evidence to back up such a claims.
And since when are the media supposed to NOT agree about proven facts, so that if they do we should conclude all kinds of weird conspiracy theories ... ?
Finally, Fox News and conservative media HATED Obama, and yet, what did Obama tell his supporters during rallies? That they HAD to regularly read newspapers and watch conservatives media, because THAT is how you can form a serious and independent opinion as a citizen: by comparing different perspectives. Trump is doing the exact opposite, telling his supporters time and again that it's dangerous to consult non conservative media and that IF someone disagrees with him, it must be a fake disagreement ...
HOW can you guys support something like that ... ?
We are living in dangerous times. A free and robust press -- nationally and locally -- is the only way to preserve American democracy.
4
No reasonable thinking person believes that the press in this country is in danger of not being "free" to write anything they want. The First Amendment, both a shield and sword for the press, is no danger of being repealed. That anyone in the press chooses to conflate criticizing the press with silencing the press is not helpful. And there is no reason why the press should be free from criticism, regardless of who is doing the criticizing. To lessen the criticism, however, be better at separating news from opinions. Hyperbole, partisanship have no place in reporting news.
8
News is that part of communication that keeps us informed of the changing events, issues, and characters in the world outside. Though it may be interesting or even entertaining, the foremost value of news is as a utility to empower the informed.
The purpose of journalism is thus to provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.
The problem with every "news" outlet in every form is that relaying facts doesn't sell so it is infused with opinion. Every outlet leans one way or the other and by definition will eventually turn off the other half of the country. Fueled by counter attacks in social media, it appears there is no way to be "Switzerland" in journalism anymore (if there ever was). Social media, growing desire of all to be "influencers" or "thought leaders" no matter how ignorant of the facts (don't let facts stand in the way of a emotional position), growing demagoguery, growing inequality, and a looming recession almost guarantee a Bonfire of the Twenties in the coming decade.
1
With you.
1
Thank you!!!!!!!!
1
Apple has just censored Alex Jones. Facebook censored Diamond and Silk. The liberal elite controls Apple, Facebook, Google, Instagram and Youtube. The liberal elite has the power to influence USA thought and to ban conservative thought. I am much more concerned about the liberal elite's censorship more that Trump's provocations against the mainstream media. Please NYT publish this comment.
7
You seem to be equating lies and hate speech with conservative thought.
1
The term ‘Free Press’ is misleading or misguided at best. The so-called ‘Free Press’ in modern day America includes visual and print their products aren’t free at least not in this context. These media outlets are major businesses, a free press is and should be a press that’s publicly funded and is well-regulated to inform the masses about the affairs and the policies of their government.
“If you haven’t already, please subscribe to your local papers. Praise them when you think they’ve done a good job and criticize them when you think they could do better. We’re all in this together.”
Urging readers to subscribe to their local new papers after, the Press helped Donald Trump wins the White House and giving Republicans control of the federal government sounds, rather more like a membership drive than public service announcement.
To the Times Editorial Board, The Atlantic Monthly, Bloomberg, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post etc. do yourselves a favor and ask this question, why Rupert Murdock Media Empire business dominants the Americans Politics? I became for the first time a subscriber to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, the Bloomberg News etc. the moment Donald Trump was elected president.
“We’re all in this together” how exactly are we all in this together? If the Times Editorial Board is referring to Donald Trump administration despicable policies, I would say that warning came two years too late.
1
Why is it that the New York Times publishes a story like "44 Small Graves Stir Questions About U.S. Policy in Yemen" as it did today and yet does not permit New York Times readers to make comments regarding the actions of our own government and military personnel in this war crime?
4
A free press is one of our most important rights. We may not like the facts nor the press pricking at our conscience or the cognitive dissonance that is a challenge to our beliefs, but without the free press, we would be in danger of living in a despotism. If we lose the voice of the people then we may find we live under the orders of a tyrant.
3
Why is it necessary for all these great newspapers to a dim or obscure an area in something otherwise clear or transparent. Why must all these "Great" newspapers combine to try to discredit the President of our United States. We the people know how the newspapers print everything and it you make a mistake you print the correction on the last page. It is sad no less because we get the real news from We The People on the Internet. Catch up if you can Newspapers.
3
Thank you, New York Times, and please continue your coverage. However, if you and the print media could find a way to communicate information without publishing every single last breath of the twit-in-chief, that would go a long way in shutting him up.
3
Well, NYT, you created this monster. You gave Trump every inch of column space he ever wanted; you barely mentioned Clinton, except the occasional piece about those stupid emails. You wanted to make the race exciting by equalizing a moronic blowhard thug with a former First Lady & Secretary of State. Now you're whining?
4
The NY Times needs me? Why? I'm a middle-aged white guy. The Times hiring of Sarah Jeong was a clear statement of the respect the Times has for me.
13
AMEN!!!!!!!
2
SHAME ON YOU, NYTIMES! You are confusing 'reporting the facts' with promulgating your opinion. Your decision to join with other news outlets in publicizing your dislike of the President underscores the intensity of your vendetta. Again, shame on you.
12
FYI: this is explicitly called an "editorial". As you probably know, editorials are OPINION PIECES.
In this case, it explains why most media in this country disagree with the president when he calls them "the enemy of the people". If you disagree with that opinion, why don't you try to refute the arguments given in this editorial, for instance ... ?
Imho it's you who are confounding opinions and facts here, no ... ?
Perhaps.
But ever since you took it as your banner to cheer endlessly for the Democratic Party, took to calling a candidate 'Queen Hillary' like Charles Blow did, and such, you lost credibility with any one with a brain.
We came to the NYT because it was still the one paper refusing to take sides (MSBNC, CNN on one side, Fox, Breibart on the other), and you seemed to be the one who still stuck to just reporting the news.
But just look at your paper now.
Most of it is cheerleading the Democratic party, the rest is attacking the president and propping up any one who does no matter how despicable (Amarosa, the exCIA chief, and more). And once in a never an article about things that matter. But even then you always end up with a hook ('the economy is great... because Obama made it great and Trump took credit', 'Turkey is a mess... because Trump increased tariffs', 'the Koreas want to reunite... but Trump won't let them'), on and on and on it goes.
Stop that.
You are The New York Times.
If you are not, if you are CNN, the PR wing of the DNC, or worse, TMZ, then just be honest about it and stop pretending you still are the best newspaper this world has seen, or was until Hillary came about and you sold your soul.
Maybe then, people will stop pointing at you and telling their friends visiting NYC: '... and over here we have the MiniTru, making up the news as they go'
10
I really do appreciate the NYT. I also really dislike that the NYT has cut the editing department significantly, because it shows. Bring back better editors and stop trying to be a blog filled with quick stories and clickbait. I have considered cancelling my subscription in recent months due to the decline in quality articles, which I surmise has something to do with cutting editors. I know you're under pressure to get stories out faster and faster but please. This is how mistakes are made and reputation suffers.
7
Hear, Hear, for every word, sentence and paragraph which, assembled, beautifully describe the importance of a free press to the uninterrupted form of our democratic government. I am proud of the medias' demonstrated resilience by countering, at every turn, the despicable and untruthful attacks on their integrity and mission to inform our citizenry. I praise and added to the active role of speaking-to-power my entire adult life. Inspired by the herald calling of our diversified press, our democracy will not only 'hold' but flourish ... 'right' always does and always will.
1
Trump MUST be impeached. From calling the press “the enemy of the people” (a proven dictator’s tactic) to appointing foxes to guard our cherished henhouses (like national parks), he has proved he is not worthy to lead a democracy (Repugs: you are all traitors).
1
Everything you say seems nice and good but just yesterday the NYT published a completely biased and fake article supposedly written by Lula, the jailed ex-President of Brazil, who is a convicted criminal. So, how can you say you are independent? Your political words and actions are clearly towards the radical left and they are a betrayal of the public trust.
I am a subscriber, but your paper cannot so blatantly take political sides. We need you to be impartial.
4
ALL serious newspapers publish opinions written by experts and even leaders of other political parties/countries that they strongly disagree with.
They do so because in a democracy, disagreement is accepted as NORMAL and unavoidable, and because the only non violent way to live together as people who disagree is to have constant, respectful DEBATES among people who disagree.
Publishing op-eds written by people that an editorial board disagrees with is a crucial part of ANY serious newspaper.
Secondly, an op-ed gives a COMMENT ON the news. It is by definition giving ONE specific perspective on it. That is NOT the same as being "biased" as a reporter, as first of all an op-ed doesn't REPORT the news (its purpose is not to objectively describe what happened), and secondly, its very raison d'être is to explore ONE specific take on what happened.
When it comes to Lula: he's a former president. Many Brazilians and many international observers believe that the process that led to his conviction was a fake process, in other words did not respect basic rules of justice. Of course, many Lula opponents disagree.
Here too, debate is needed. So publishing an op-ed written by Lula or by Erdogan does not mean AT ALL that the NYT woudn't be independent, quite on the contrary, you see?
Toxic Trump is abhorrent and has no right to be the president of our country.
His continuous lies, dishonesty, sewer ethics, atrocious behavior and his demeaning of women, minorities and people who he doesn't agree with are all reasons he should be impeached.
He sleeps with the enemy and his base protects him.
Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and the GOP leadership are all hyprocrites with little if any dignity left. Their self-righteous sanctity and silence says it all.
Thank you NY Times and the Washington Post. Continue what you are doing. I pray it's only a matter of time the this loathsome, despicable, repulsive, obnoxious puppet gets booted.
1
Trump is a dictator. And this country is one inch away from becoming his.
2
The New York Times newest member to the editorial board, Sarah Jeong, was hired despite her racist tweets. No wonder people don't trust the media anymore.
8
When the New York Times begins to criticize consistently Israeli government policies adversely affecting Palestinians, then I will believe A FREE PRESS NEEDS YOU.
2
You didn't help your case when you called a Republican Congressman a "quisling" on July 19 in a New York Times editorial board editorial because he questioned his Democratic opponent's repeated use of the N-word, something you would never have tolerated in a Democrat. Who knows whether the shooting of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was driven in part by the virulent rhetoric and biased choices you made of which news to cover in the pages of the Times? Pull the beam from your own eye before you point to the moat in someone else's.
5
Before The Times gets our sympathy it needs to earn it, and it hasn't. Playing into Trump's Me vs. The Fake News Media narrative this easily by launching a coordinated attack on him is the latest sad installment in the decline of journalism at the Times.
6
Today, my hometown paper, The Washington Post, oddly did not join the Globe's call to speak out with one voice on the value of a free press. Its Executive Editor Martin Baron explained to the Code Media Conference in California that "we're not at war with the administration, we're simply at work."
He sadly missed the point: the administration is already at war with HIM, as it is with the rest of us. Not to respond to direct attacks is simply foolish. Today, I salute the Times, the Miami Herald, the Houston Chronicle, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Denver Post and others for their voices.
2
Bravo!
To put all of this in perspective, Jefferson and Adams used the newspapers as vehicles in the birth of negative campaigning for the Presidency. Although Trump doesn't have a minimal grasp of American history, he might look to these two to borrow some of their most vituperative attacks. Jefferson called Adams "hideous hermaphroditic [use this word, Trump, to confirm your stable genius] character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." Adams responded: "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." Makes calling Warner "Pocahontas" tame. In the absence of Twitter, Jefferson hired an attack dog James Callendar to do spread his venom. Callendar was jailed for slander. Jefferson didn't little to acknowledge him when he got out, so he spread the rumors about Sally Hemmings. Remind you of anybody? Michael Cohen? Omarosa?
1
Trump and his traitorous cabal are the most dangerous threat to U.S. democracy and values since World War II. With Nixon, the GOP at least had a few brave souls who recognized his malignancy and worked to bring him down. Not today with the craven, conspiratorial GOP.
True American patriots have one only more chance to take their country back from these traitors, fools, and Putin stooges..
NOV. 6, MOBILIZE, DONATE, VOTE.
2
Why isn't this more prominent on the front page?
"Investigating Donald Trump, FBI Sees No Clear Link to Russia" NY TImes, October 2016
"NY Times Floods Front Page With FBI Letter Stories While Acknowledging It Didn’t “Reopen” Clinton Server Inquiry" Media Matters, Oct 30 2016
It certainly didn't feel like we were "all in it together" in 2016. There needs to be some sort of public accounting by the NY Times for the gross mismanagement of the Times' 2016 election coverage. You can't blame the public loss of trust on Trump.
I had an exchange of letters in 2017 with your editor about your election coverage where he was unable to cite a single positive article about Hillary Clinton or any of her policy positions written after 2015. Not a single one. There was no substantive coverage of her platform at all. Meanwhile, the "Halloween special" cited above has yet to be explained. Where is the accountability?
Heather, The Editorial Board twice twice endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for President of the United States in glowing terms. The Times printed glowing endorsements of Candidate Clinton by President Barack H. Obama. To imply that The Times intentionally slightest Mrs. Clinton does not hold up to objective scrutiny.
Are we talking about the "free press" that gave Hillary the debate questions, that caused the stock market to drop by reporting fake information, that uses Obama era pictures of children in cages and then takes them down. Truth is we don't have a free press, we have leftist activists posing as journalists.
5
IF you would know how to fact-check, you would have discovered for years already that this is fake news. Here's what's happened:
1. Long BEFORE she was head of the DNC and when she was working for CNN as political contributor, Donna Brazile has sent two emails to Hillary SUGGESTING the themes of two debate questions.
2. This was during the primaries, NOT during the general election debates.
3. As soon as it became known (thanks to Wikileaks), CNN immediately fired her.
Now here's what Trump has fabricated out of this: he told his supporters at rallies that "the head of the DNC" had rigged HIS debates with Hillary and that CNN was behind this, so it's why we should see CNN as "biased".
All of this is FALSE, you see?
He's lying to you on a daily basis.
In the meanwhile, you get obsessed over the fact that WHEN Trump jails babies, ONE news outlet used a picture of babies jailed under Obama. The very ESSENCE that that news outlet was reporting on was the fact THAT Trump was doing this, and the picture correctly illustrated that idea, rather than distorting the truth. Moreover, once it became clear that they mistakenly took a picture that was older already, they admitted their mistake and corrected it. THAT's why they are REAL and credible news outlets, you see?
Trump STILL didn't admit his mistake when it comes to Hillary and debate questions, quite on the contrary, he continues to spread this conspiracy theory, just to get you all fired up ...
1
My hometown of Moab, Utah has a fine newspaper that's been around over 100 years. It's the Times Independent. You should contact them. Their traditions are compatible with the Times editorial on the free press.
Free local press is exorbitant and out of the reach of many. A web-only subscription to the Boston Globe is about twice the price of the NY Times. If they want more people to subscribe they have to make it accessible to to seniors, students, and others living on a tight budget.
1
I wish I could support my local paper, but it has become part of the problem with more Jay Ambrose and Marc Thiessen lies than I care to read at any sitting.
1
When a newspaper becomes so biased and one sided it makes it harder for all newspapers to be taken at face value
7
Thank goodness for the NYT ...WSJ...Boston Globe. Washington Post....LA Times CNN...etc...keep up the good work..it has really been amazing to see the current Administration..singlehandledly dismantle so much of our Democracy in such a short time !! We really have no one but ourselves to blame....why did so many of us vote to be put in this position? We need to be kept informed...we need to know the TRUTH...it's been amazing to watch the main stream media be relegated to being referred to as FAKE NEWS?? The only way to battle the propaganda is to to be inundated and educated by the TRUTH ! Keep up the good work ...America needs you now more than ever !! Sorry you have had to work so hard...it has been a difficult time for so many of us !!
1
NYT continues to engage in dishonest journalism and perhaps, the editorial board should focus on that instead of faking outrage at Trump’s potshots at media. It makes me sad to say this because this is a newspaper I used to admire (before it caught TDS syndrome) but you are getting what you deserve.
Just today, you have a video report attacking Sarah Sanders because she can’t ‘guarantee’ if Trump has ever used the N-word. Can you guarantee that Mr Sulzberger has never used the N-word? Your candidate lost. Get over it. Don’t try to mask your own journalistic dishonesty with this holier than thou facade.
7
1. That video report CORRECTLY describes what Sarah Sanders said.
2. ANY newspaper has the right to criticize a press secretary when she claims that she cannot guarantee that the president never used a racist slur. To claim, as a government, that if a newspaper does so, it becomes "the enemy of the people" and nobody should still read it, is what NO newspaper in a free society and democracy deserves.
What media strongly disagreeing and constantly criticizing a sitting president in a democracy deserve is what president Obama did:
1. to calmly refute their arguments and opinions with facts and arguments.
2. to call on his own supporters to go and watch Fox News BECAUSE they criticize him, simply because as a patriot you HAVE to have the guts to confront yourself with criticism of what you believe in and have to try to understand different perspectives and political stances.
THAT is what leading through example means, and it's certainly what the NYT deserves too.
While this is absolutely true, the free press do have (in general terms) trouble in not fanning the flames of the Trump cult. And Trump knows this. He is a master of sucking the air out of any "debate" and dominates the media like no president ever before. I feel that his strategy requires a different answer than the even- handed reporting that has been the hallmark of the free press. I truly believe, as unusual as this would be, that the responsibility of the free press demands that, on the front page, a clear laying out of the lies and twisted facts that the Trump government tells every day. Of course there are shades of truth and contextualizations that make some issues difficult to be "true and false" about. But it is RIGHT to be alarmist. It is RIGHT to call out falsehood and misrepresentation, hypocrisy and suppression through executive order, complicity of a political party and using the office for personal corporate gain. Much of this is not opinion. It is not Op-Ed. It is not bias. It is the news.
1
Each day with a new tweet, Mr. Trump becomes more and more dangerous not only to the press but to all the citizens of this country. When and how can this man be stopped of his daily idiocies? (Greek: "idiot" meant the citizen who didn't care about and did not take the responsibilities associated to its membership in his polis/city state and was, therefore, banished from his polis . And here, we are talking about the "elected" President of this country!).
2
This week in particular, if you have any doubts about the value of good and true and dogged journalism, watch the movie "Spotlight".
I am so very proud of my hometown paper, The Boston Globe, and its role in today's effort. To re-establish and re-invigorate the connection between the free press and the populace it has so ably served throughout American history is a crucial step towards our ability as a nation to see our way forward.
That 'collusion,' I can support.
1
Just ask blacks about how they've been portrayed in the media and you'll find complaints everywhere. And there are complaints about the media regularly in this the comment section in regards to the bias and half-stories that appear here in the NYT. I say it's about time folks take on the biases and propaganda in the media.
6
Here here! A free press is what keeps leaders from abusing their power. It's interesting to note what leaders have been against a free press... Castro; Pol Pot; Putin; Nixon; Stalin; Chavez; Mao; Mussolini; Trump. Do we all see a common thread?
Think of the United States without a free press! Hallelujah, you speaking out!
For the sake of facts and willingness to make corrections, The Jamestown Sun is published in Jamestown, North Dakota, not South Dakota. In any case, thank you for this show of solidarity in the defense of the free press.
As much as DT and his antics repel me, the NYT has sadly lost all credibility as an objective vehicle of truth, especially regarding its reportage of his Presidency. I have to filter through blatant personal animus and ideological bias with each and every reading, and the Times' lack of awareness (in the best and brightest, yet!) of its own zealotry is both astonishing and disheartening. This sanctimonious editorial further seals the deal. As if after hiring Sarah Jeong you have any moral coin left at all.
6
"Nothing flatters an independent journalist less than the sight of him forming a line to drink from the same fountain as his colleagues."
-Aleksi Tuomola/AP
3
My Father was UPI - NX65. A member of the Overseas Press Club. A founding member of the Overseas Yacht Club. I grew up in a reporter's household.
As an avid consumer of news, I am very dissatisfied with the product.
Too many opinions from the Journalists. I really don't care about your opinions. What you think. And I really do not care what you think is happening or has happened, or is likely to happen.
Report the event. Who, What, Where, How, Why, When - and only to the extent of the facts. Do not hypothesize. Do not Opine. Do not ask the remote reporter what they think. And do not think your a Cronkite who can objectively report and then opine....even he couldn't.
Just the facts. Anything else is NOT news.
And, by the way, Ms. Grey Lady - ALL THE NEWS THAT IS FIT TO PRINT. All of it. Not just the anti-position all the time.
It is a disservice - and, in that regards, it is not news....and, ergo, fake news.
Sigh.
5
Louisiana - where are the newspapers that will stand with the free press?
put on the Morning TV shows.
The only danger facing America's free press is being abandoned by subscribers. The press is its own enemy when in what it represents as truth or objective reporting is in reality biased, skewed, and often outright false news. A free press is a constitutionally granted right. A press that exhibits a fair and balanced view in its reporting is rare.
For an example of what is called balanced reporting read NYT Picks in this section of comments.
This is why i began subscribing to the NYT & WaPo immediately after Trump said that they were "failing."
And a free press without an agenda!
1
Keep on keep on.
the heroes of democracy, the people who find out the facts and publish them
Thank you New York Times, for all that you do, day in and day out... we, the people, have never needed you more than now... never relent ! ~
1
The sad truth is that our president is the 'enemy of the people.'
1
I fully share the agreement with your editoriall epressed in the e-mail sent by Jim D. ( I am also a committed anti-Trumper).
But I also strongly agree with him that journalists picture themselves “in a cape” and are caught in an “hysterical”mood. Dial down your rhetoric, guys!
I believe journalists as a whole are committed to getting the facts right. My deeper concern is the deeply ingrained cultural bias in journalism today. It arises from the minimal exposure to views deviating from the prevailing East/West Coast and left liberal consensus in which journalists are embedded. Hilary Clinton’s disastrous reference to the “deplorables” was an accurate reflection of that value consensus among journalists at the “leading” newspapers.
Stick with illuminating the facts, journalists! Plenty of work to be done there.
4
'..."insisting that truths you don’t like are “fake news” is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy"'. That says it all!
1
Could we all get off the Trump Train?? The man is dangerous and horrible. I wish the media would ignore his proclamations, his tweets, his lies and reality show. Instead report on the effect of it all. Stop giving him a platform to spew his bile.
I had a business reason to visit the news room of our paper of record a few years ago. Observing, first hand, the commitment to real news was inspiring. Keep doing your job. We're with you.
1
I stand with the news media. As others have said, it is so important to our democracy to keep us all informed. However, I think we don't spend enough time talking about the distinctions between fake news, which would be made up or fabricated, and biased, slanted, out of context, distorted, misleading, incorrect or stories not including important points or background, which is not at all fake. We need to know how to watch, read or listen to news so we know how to tell the difference, and how to follow up to make sure we aren't only hearing one side of a story.
We readers of the New York Times need no reminding of the value of the free press; it is the very reason we subscribe here. I am grateful to every single person involved in this news organization, right through the offices on down to the drivers who deliver the hard copy.
Thank you for being our voice in places where we seem to no longer have one. In return we will protect and defend you all, with our last breath if need be. Perhaps we all should let the current president know this.
Any honest person agrees that the press needs to keep digging for the truth. The public needs to know what is going on to make their decisions on how to vote. However it is the job of the press to report the news and report the news accurately.
This president says whatever is on his mind. What he says is not always accurate. That needs to be checked and his errors reported. The usual added rhetoric from the reporter needs to be left out. Report the news and the audience will be able to decide for themselves. If the truth is reported without bias, then there is no fake news for the president to bash. Unfortunately, the news that is reported in many articles has additional rhetoric that makes it hard to determine if a truth or an opinion is being reported.
I have no problem with the zeal that the press is using to keep this president in check. This president needs to be monitored. The problem is that the much of the press that is complaining today had no concerns with any of the actions of the previous presidency which may have been the most corrupt presidency in history. We still do not know what happened as there was very little investigative reporting during those 8 years.
Finally, this president has not limited any of the freedoms of the press. He has the first amendment right to say that the press are liars. Again, this argument falls flat with unbiased reporting of the facts so stick to the facts and there is no problem.
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As a senior citizen on a very limited budget, I still subscribe to both the NYT and the WaPo. Appreciate the good work done by their intrepid journalists and cannot imagine a day without thoroughly reading both! Journalists have died in an effort to get the Truth told. We need Truth to be told more now than ever, especially with an Administration that lies constantly. Special thanks to those who labor at the Boston Globe, the NYT and the WaPo!! You are the BEST!!
Although I am extremely happy to see that most of the major, reputable news sources have printed this article (or at least some derivative), it will fall on deaf ears and blind eyes when it comes to Trump supporters. They believe him when he says that journalists and the media are the "enemy of the people". All news and journalists with the exception of Fox News that is. I have family that supports this joke of a fake president and nothing I say or do (even when providing factual information) seems to sway them. They believe that it's all, as Trump states it, "a witch hunt". We need to forget our attempts at reaching out to this lost, uninformed group of people. We need to instead, continue to band as one. Fortunately, most people in this country see Trump as his cronies for what they are, a huge joke. We have strength in numbers, along with the facts on our side. We must continue to band together. We must never forget our oneness. With that, we will prevail. With that, we will see to it that history does not remember Trump fondly and that future generations will view him as nothing more than a skidmark on American history.
"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth.The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions."
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Judge John Tyler Washington, June 28, 1804
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In many of these editorials, the same mistaken assumption is made that Mr. Trump is oblivious to the consequences of his actions.
Trump's goal in waging this war on a critical press is obviously to create distrust among a sizable minority of Americans in any source of information other that Trump himself.
This is the express purpose of his words and actions, not a flaw in his strategy that he is blind to.
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Thank you for getting it right! We appreciate the work you do every day!
Unfortunately, a free press also includes Fox News and the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
They are propaganda sources, not news.
Yes, well if the "free press" had thought to spend as much time investigating Trump's Russian connections as they did Hillary's private email servers they wouldn't be in this mess. No sympathy here, they brought this on themselves.
The Times and all other papers that refused to be cowered by the dictatorial instincts of a dishonest POTUS are our bulwark in the preservation of our institutions and civil society. We must support them by reading their digital and paper versions to insure their financial health, which is necessary to sustain the battle against a would-be tyrant.
This retired journalist and owner of a small publishing business endorses the Boston Globe and other newspapers' editorials today 100%.
As a Small Government Republican, it is very disappointing and even scary to hear the president of the United States attack the #FreePress as the #enemyofthePeople. Such attacks, I think, Make Donald Trump the enemy of a free press around the world.
I can be as fierce a critic of reporters and editors as anyone. And I am happy to be free to point out that Trump would not be president or rich if he lived in Russia, China, N. Korea, Iran or Syria.
He doesn't get that without a free press, we would not have the best government in the world, the best national security, the best health care, the best rule of law, the most freedom to own guns, religious freedom and liberties and the most prosperous nation in the world.
I would much rather that the news organizations who've joined in today's effort joined, instead, in setting aside ONE day during which Trump is not mentioned. Just one day to ameliorate months of anxiety and fatigue caused by this administration.
I am of the opinion that Trump LOVES having this much attention at one time.
He's one of those people who think that all publicity is good publicity. By all of this focus being on his assault on an unfettered press, I'm sure that Trump thinks that the Fourth Estate has caved to his "power." Want to show the REAL power of the press? Shut him off for ONE day.
Y'all can do that.
I read my local paper every day. I read it because I want to know what's going on in my state and community. Unfortunately, many people I know - smart, caring people - do not. It's too expensive they say. It's become a shadow of it's former self. Not enough national news! Too many ads. I worry about this lack of interest in local affairs. As if the only news that matters is what's happening in Washington. They fail to recognize that much of what goes on locally, in state legislatures, schools, county commissioners offices, effects them as much or more than what happens in Washington. Many politicans count on peoples ignorance and lack of curiousity.
Yes, well if the "free press" had thought to spend as much time investigation Trump's Russian connections as they did Hillary's private email servers they wouldn't be in this mess. No sympathy here, they brought this on themselves.
I am a ninety year old long time reader of the NYT. Thru the years I have gone from everyday delivery to only Sunday .
Now because of the ease read as much as I can online.
This paper has remained the number one paper in my family
Over many many years. I have enjoyed it for not only the fast accurate news of the day but for the good reporting on arts, coolkimg, health, travel, most important to me the Book Review. You present your subscribers with a well rounded newspapers that will take important stands about important issues. What’s there not to like? Where do I find the fake news? Unfortunately anything that now comes from our soiled Whlte House!
Along with the vital need for all journalistic publications, large or small, to disseminate detailed events and opinions in keeping a democracy healthy, since its beginning, the press has served as an important resource for the writing of history.
History is not "The Truth," but instead is a written interpretation which rests upon various sources that offer information gleaned from doing research. If historians questioned the accuracy or integrity of what is found in newspapers, why would we so readily turn to the press to write about the past?
The next time you read an article in a professional history journal or a book or an online offering about American history, you might notice how frequently the sources for information presented will cite "The New York Times," or "The Washington Post," or "The Wall Street Journal," or "The Nation," or a regional or local news publication. The press is a trusted and vitally integral part of writing history in order to better understand the who, what, where, how, and why of our human society.
If journalists can be relied upon and trusted by historians to offer factual and relatively unbiased news reportage, it would seem the public can feel highly confident in doing the same.
Journalists give us the news that is learned about today, but it becomes history tomorrow--literally.
Trump has not merely sown distrust in and disrespect of the press. He has openly called for violence against the press. This is the stuff of fascist dictatorships. Democracy in the United States, already a gerrymandered, ill supervised mess, stands to lose its most necessary component - a voice for the people. This cannot stand.
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Thank you New York Times. We need press more than ever.
To all these journalists: thank you for your committed service to the American people and your country.
Our local daily newspaper here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia should also be on this list.
Here is the link from todays' Martinsburg (WV) Journal Editorial page:
http://www.journal-news.net/opinion/editorials/2018/08/fake-news-rhetori...
Spot on. Without the free press, we'd all be living in the dark not knowing what is going on in our country and world. Without journalism and reporters we would not know truth from fiction. It was the Washington Post reporters who revealed Nixon and saved our democracy. It is only despots, autocrats and dictators who despise the free press because they don't want the truth to come out. Now we see Trump doing the same as other despots and autocrats by trying to kill the truth in this country. We won't let him. Long live the truth! Long live the free press!
A free society is dependent on being able to speak out. We are in real peril now since this is in jeopardy. What is the point of only listening to opinions that I agree. Forcing people to apologize and/or be afraid to speak out in order to avoid being destroyed is McCarthyism. Sure it is difficult to listen to hateful or bigoted people, but if you don't let them talk you won't know who they are. Politically correctness is pure censorship. Trump wants to only listen to people who agree with him. This is why more than ever we need the press. I'm not sure why his supporters say he is 'only fighting back'. That is their opinion. I don't like Trump as a man or as a president, but I listen to him & his supporters. That is why I know that I don't like him. Why the fear? Why the violence? Why the anger Mr. Trump?
We need a free media and not a left radical propaganda machine where all think alike. The Problem in the USA is not Donald Trump but the reaction of the Media to Donald Trump. The media are destroying themselves.
2
Many news stories contain "facts" but no reference as to source. Opinions are best limited to the "opinions" column. It should be clear as to what is contained.
The last line sums it up: "We’re all in this together."
It is a tragic irony that the president of the United States has become an enemy of the American people.
Newspapers like the New York Times or Washington Post are essential for a functioning democracy. Thank you for your serving this country and fighting to bring the truth to those interested in it.
Ignorance and lies such as those being shamelessly spread by Fox News and Trump's (and Russia's!) uncontrolled Twitter machines breed corrupt dictators. We see this happening right now and it is not clear how this sad story of our country will end.
I've been a conservative AND a subscriber to the Times for many years. When the facts matter (and they always do,) the Times gets it right. Please keep it up. I am appalled at the attacks on the press that have been sent forward in recent years.
1
I haven't even read this article yet but I already know I will agree. As a former journalist (yes, I have a diploma!) Trump's attacks on the free press nauseate me. I'm not American so your First Amendment rights are peripheral to me, but in Canada we relish the joy of holding politicians to account - especially the liars and crooks. If you are one of the sheeple that trusts everything the government says, I refer you to Viet Nam. Trump makes Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon look like choirboys. Enough said.
One thing the media can do is to publish more information that people can use.
There should be a national holiday honoring the First Amendment.
1
Anyone who would attack our mainstream press as "Fake News" and/or "The Enemy of the People," whether it be some bum down the street or the President of the United States is the true fraudster and genuine enemy of the people. He or she is the enemy of democracy and everything our great nation stands for. I applaud the New York Times and all other long time legitimate news agencies whether print or broadcast in this country for continuing to do their job: informing us, the people of the truth as to what is happening, and what our elected and appointed officials either are and have, or aren't and haven't been doing while in power, or have or not done when and even before seeking any power in the first place. You are the true defenders of our freedom and way of life.
I am glad to see the press working together to explain why we need a free press! I would like you to consider a bigger problem: fewer and fewer people understand the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights. I wonder if all the media might, along the lines of this coordinated editorial, undertake a project in civics education. Once a month, on the front page, you could print one Constitutional Amendment, with a one paragraph explanation, and a link to more information. I hope that taking the front page space only once a month would not impact your business too much and, at the same time, it would play a vital role in improving people's knowledge of the Constitution and appreciation of the Fourth Estate. The best part: you could start with the First Amendment. I am sure that no newspaper could object to the idea of informing their readers about the Constitution. It needs to be front and center, not in the back pages!
Two legs on which a free society rests on: a truthful press & citizens with deep analytical thinking skills.
Behold: Mr. Trump's attacks on the truth and real education.
The perfect road to totalitarianism, fascism, and tyranny.
I support the hard work and high standards of the NY Times reporters and editors. In this environment, it would be good to do a series on journalism. Inform people about how it is done--sources, methods, problems, and what is required before a story is published.
1
Two words: GROUP THINK.
Another set of two words: SHEEP MENTALITY
Not good for our democracy or for survival of free press.
The only TRUE exemplars of free press are the LA TIMES and WSJ which did not join today's madness.
#DESPERATION
1
The truth is Trump's worst enemy.
1
There are three types of news journals : Authentic, Somewhat Authentic and Those That Pretend to be Authentic.
Of the first kind is NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe etc. They are usually aided in their efforts by objective media such as NPR and PBS.
Of the second kind is The Wall Street Journal. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong and fairly ideological. It is aided in its efforts by hit & miss media like CNN.
Of the third kind is the downright nonsense like Breitbart which proactively peddle conspiracy theories in order to achieve a ideologically driven objective and aided in its efforts by Fox News, Infowars etc.
In the midst of all this, we are doing ourselves no favors with the explosion of Tweets, FB posts, Blog posts, etc. within the social media outlets which only adds to confusion among those that believe anything published is real. In a country where only about 33% of the population has anything more than a 2 year college degree, the dangers of un-vetted news being mistaken with authentic news is very real as we are now seeing. After a while nobody will believe anything anymore, driving wannabe demagogues like our President to reel things to his advantage as we are also now witnessing.
Most of us disparage the use of the words 'fake news' particularly from sources like yours. We ignore our President's narcissistic views although getting so sick of it. Keep at it--this too shall pass.
We disparage the words 'fake news' and encourage you to keep up the good work. This too shall pass. (Hopefully soon)
I am NYT subscriber, which is my go to for daily news information, or confirmation of what I hear otherwise. How would we ever know or see proof of those poor children separated from their parents. This "fake news" syndrome was perpetuated from a "fake" personality. I applaud the diligent work of journalists, please keep it up, I need you. Let's open our eyes and ears, stand up for decency and respect for others. We cannot rely on this administration to give us the whole truth!
So many things have left me stunned in the past 644 days.
Not one of them, however, has frightened me so much as the war against a free press in this, the world’s foremost democratic Republic.
It is not just this vicious, ignorant man.
It is every single American who vilifies the press in support of “their” argument.
Every American who embraces the many biased mouthpieces which present only one side of a complex situation.
It is every American who checks their intelligence at the door; foregoing the most minimal of efforts to read, comprehend and research those events which threaten the very foundation of America.
In a nation now filled with savagery, with a man who hurtles towards dictatorship, we have one defense.
A free and vital press.
Thank you to the NYT, to the Washington Post, to the Chicago Tribune, to the San Francisco Chronicle, to the Wall Street Journal, to the Los Angeles Times.
Thank you to the hundreds of newspapers, tiny to giant, who have joined you
today, who have fought for this nation daily since this tragedy unfolded.
You stand on the shoulders of giants. You are the shoulders upon which the next generation of giants will stand.
Absolutely! The demeaning of the Free Press and reporters is to me the most frightening of 45's behavior, fundamental to a free society.
1
well, I subscribed to my local paper the milwaukee journal sentinel after a call by someone to support your printed news. Sad to say they continue to be a trump apologist and did not have an editorial about the free press. I will not subscribe again. I still read the newyork times on line and the paper sunday and to the washigton post on line. I get good news every day from them
"A well informed electorate and a vigorous free press are crucial to the survival of democracy.
The job of right wing media and the republican party are to dumb down as far as possible both of these premises. And for a small minority of US it has worked. A poll was conducted that showed folks who get all their news from fox know less about what is really going on than people who don't watch any news at all.
republicans have spent all their efforts the last 30+ years trying to destroy our democracy. They just don't believe in it.
But I can't read the Denver Post after the stupid endorsement of bush in 04. I read this paper and the WAPO instead.
Ideally, the press promulgates objective information. Journalism students are taught to fact check, interview persons championing both sides of an issue, keep their personal feelings out of reporting.
Editorials are clearly "bylined", and the writer's opinion is appropriate.
While "The Press" as an institution is presently assailed - the Truth is doing just fine.
How do you know?
If your child is sick, do you take her to a pediatrician who has a mastery of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and organic chemistry?
Of course you do. Because if you don't, the consequence of your child suffering unnecessarily is unthinkable.
We all reap what we sow. This POTUS's decisions will bear appropriate fruit - in organic time. The flyover states will suffer because of the tariffs. The whole nation suffers because of discrimination against Hispanics and Blacks. Truth itself, however, is not in jeopardy.
OK. BUT it is time for the press to stop treating this person as if he is normal. As if he was duly elected. As if he would ever change and do right by the press and by the people. He will only double down - as we have seen today.
With regular respectful, as-it-always-was coverage, he and his cronies and his cult followers get to say it is all political bias, it is all just "hateful." The media has been complicit in his rise to dictatorship. Calling out bad behavior, dysfunctional behavior, and even behavior that disregards the Constitution clearly is not having any effect. He is not going to change and his people will only be further motivated to dig in.
I don't have the solution. I know the question was raised when he got elected about what the media should do -- how they should change because you all knew you were responsible. But no one changed. You continued to do the same thing with the same results -- the definition of "foolishness."
It is not he who is going to change. You need to stop hoping for that.It is WE, and the media who need to change. Stop covering him in the same way you always have.
Keep fighting back, journalists of USA. We need you more than ever. We need the truth. We need a free press. Don’t give up!
I come from a family of journalists. My uncle was Manager of the Des Moines Register and Trbune Syndicate, my father was a Sports Columnist for the Associated Press and my brother was a general interested columnist for the Albany Times. I have known many journalists and it would be hard to find a more honest, dedicated group of men and women. Nothing gets my ire up more than to read the inaccurate, irresponsible comments that are currently be thrown at them. Freedom of the press is vital in a democracy,
The LA Times is NOT participating in today's nationwide editorial page protest orchestrated by "failing" Boston Globe, and their rationale is sound.
That is what I call a FREE press, free from peer pressure of other liberal newspapers.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol-enter-the-fray-the-los-angeles-time...
1
You left off the Asheville Citizen-Times here in NC: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/opinion/2018/08/16/asheville-citizen...
The louder and sharper the cries of "Fake News", the more we all know the media is doing its job and hitting uncomfortably close to the mark. No amount of inspired journalism and reporting can make up for a large segment of our population that is happily, willfully, and stubbornly proud in it's rejection of any fact that doesn't square with its world-view. just keep doing what you're doing and ultimately even the blind will see the emperor came to this party naked.
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I am deeply appreciative of your journalists' work. THANK YOU.
54
Thank you for your editorial. It is the voice of reason. "We, the people" cannot do our job of governing intelligently unless we have a free press that reports both news we like and news we disagree with. To call the latter "fake news" is functioning completely on emotion, not on intellect. We need our journalists to help us recognize "objective truth" by digging for the facts and not allowing exaggerations, opinion, and outright lies to stand as truth. Our democracy cannot survive without you.
Now more than ever, our democracy is in need a vibrant free press. In my lifetime which consist of 65 years on this planet, I have never seen a period where information and knowledge is so devalued. I just became aware of the term "Gaslight" which speaks to the manipulation facts. When generations look back at this period, they will wonder in this age of technological wonder, how could a country be so maligned by a cult like figure who is trying to destroy what has taken generations to develop. They will also ask of those who lived through this, what did you do to fight it?
1
So, yes. The question is whether this concerted effort demonstrates broad-based agreement on the facts, or, well, collusion among elites to undermine our populist President. You might have just re-elected the man by charging up his base.
2
That sounds like the comments that Bernie Bros. and Hillary haters posted throughout the election. They regard their votes as weapons to be used against "elites" rather than as expressions of freedom in a democracy.
Here's the fallacy in your argument.
This is a president telling his supporters on a daily basis that BY DEFINITION, anything that disagrees with his tweets, spoken words or deeds, is FAKE disagreement, so it's not worth being taken in consideration, AND a clear sign that the person who's disagreeing is only FAKING to disagree because real disagreement is impossible - and by consequence, this is a BAD person, disagreeing only out of bad intentions to hurt "us" (= the president and his supporters).
So when almost the entire free press writes an editorial to remember WHY this is something that only dictators try to make their followers believe, and should have NO place in ANY free society or democracy built on the American Constitution, it's obvious that Trump and his followers will reject this too as being merely a conspiracy rather than trying to come up with facts and arguments that could try to refute the content of this editorial or could try to justify their cultivation of conspiracy theories.
So what you seem to miss here is the fact that Trump's strategy is to IMMUNIZE his supporters against all possible criticism against him, so that they support him no matter what he does or says.
An editorial like this one of course will be used as "proof" of their conspiracy theories, just like ANYTHING is used as "proof".
This editorial won't convince people who are already blindsided by Trump tweets. It instead remembers basic values to the still sane and critical majority.
Thanks to all journalists for your courage and relentless pursuit of the truth. As a proud subscriber to many periodicals including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Baltimore Sun, I know that I speak for most Americans when I say that we salute you! Please keep up the stellar reporting. Your work is critical to preserving our democracy for the future.
2
This morning, Aug 16, 2018, Trump has tweeted that "THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country..." Leaving aside the obvious "fake news" category, doesn't this tell us that Trump wants a one-party America? Opposition parties, however constituted, are essential to democracy. Trump is a neo-fascist.
2
What he's saying indeed is that all opposition to him, all criticism of him, is necessarily fake.
He wants his supporters to see him as some kind of infallible pope.
They seem to want to see a politician in that way too, apparently ...
THANK YOU FREE PRESS MEDIA! It's long overdue for the press to take on the occupant of the White House ( I cannot call him president). It is unconscionable that in a free society that so many American citizens can believe that the constitutional guarantee of free speech and press can be so cavalierly challenged by a reality TV mogul.
What makes this nation so unique among the many nations of the world is that we, as a people, believe that one of our bedrock principles is a free and unfettered press. I read that a significant number of registered Republicans believe this mindless mantra of fake news.
YOU FOOLS ARE BREAKING MY PATRIOTIC AMERICAN HEART!!!
1
It stands to reason that in a corporate-run country, its corporate-owned press will declare itself to be "a free press." Accordingly, The New York Times does so here, showing the indoctrination to be complete: In America, a corporate-owned press = a free press. And The New York Times does indeed need you to believe it is a free press.
Donald Trump is fake news. The press is his conduit to the people. When Trump started his campaign he was receiving over 3 billion dollars in free TV time from CNN, MSNBC, Fox and the networks, he was on TV 24/7. Trump plays the media like a mistro plays the violin. Starting every day with a tweet, he sets the narrative for the next news cycle. If the press wants to counter Trump, they should ignore him as much as [possible. If something newsworthy occurs report it, if it's more personal attacks or self-serving garbage ignore it. Stop sending reporters to his rallies.
1
President Trump scrawls his signature on an executive order. He then holds it up and shows it all around, like Little Jack Horner. What is he saying? "What a smart boy am I?"
These orders, a weak Congress and an increasingly rightward leaning Supreme Court do not make me feel secure about "rule of law" in the USA. The rule of law is eroding at a very fast pace, while defunct Walmarts are "repurposed" to house children in cages (is there one in your town?). Bravo for the press. But the Terrible has already occurred.
Free press does not exist behind a paywall.
Truth hurts the so-called free press.
1
As each day progress and each day brings a new crisis emanating from the White House, it is the press that, for now, keeps us from going down the rabbit hole of total dictatorship.
My fear is, how much longer can we, as a nation, withstand this onslaught and attack on the very fabric of our democracy??
For the first time in my life, I wonder if this upcoming election will actually be free from interference from a foreign power intent on destroying our country from within. How do I know this? A Free Press!
Think about it this way, the guy in the White House is telling the nation there is no interference from Russia into our electoral process. He keeps on saying it. Our Free Press (enemy of the people??) is telling us otherwise, with facts and comments from professional intelligence people who actually know the truth! Without a "Free Press", "we, the people" would be in the dark about the real threat to our democracy...the occupant in the White House lying to us!!!
I just wonder if our Democracy can survive this vicious vindictive attack from the White House and the total silence from a political party that puts its own agenda in front of the welfare of our nation.
It is a free press that is holding on to the tenuous thread of truth that keeps the current GOP from completely destroying our freedoms and civil liberties.
I just wonder how much longer the free press can hold on?? I just wonder??
1
I began paid subscriptions to four newspapers when Trump was elected. It is the only thing holding us back from utter kleptocracy.
Collusion among most liberal media.
But then, collusion is not a crime.
3
Imho you don't understand the word "collusion" ... ;-)
When all of Trump's supporters agree with his tweets (as they do by definition, no matter what he tweets, no? They even seem to be proud of following their leader so faithfully), would you say that you and the other Trump voters are "colluding"?
No of course.
The same goes here. Having the media agree that a free press is important isn't a "collusion". It's just an agreement, remember?
So if you disagree, any concrete arguments ... ?
I do not support, and did not vote for, our current President. However, we would benefit if the press gave a minimal level of unbiased coverage. The Times does not support anything the President has done, even if it worked or was a good idea - even if it was something the Times has supported in the past! I have lost my personal belief in the political coverage of the Times because it is so clearly biased. How can I rely on you when I know I can't rely on you? You should clean up your own house before you criticize others.
4
Examples of what Trump has done that "worked or was a good idea?"
I depend on NYT to tell me the facts about what is going on I know I can believe what they print. I have never subscribed to a newspaper in my life. Normally I would just pick up a paper on the way to work or glance at at internet browser headline. But when I started watching a regular news station on tv the top commentators were always from NYT and I wanted to hear more from the source. That is what intriqued me to subscribe , I enjoy knowing all the facts. Thanks for the great job your team does every day. And you guys are not FAKE news you are TRUTH finders. Thanks for being there for America we appreciate you.
I wish "The Press" could take a good hard look at its self and what led to the election of Trump and where you failed, as failed you did. Investigative reporting seems to have taken a hit in the press, period. Trump's association with mobsters and the Russia Probe. The relentless, focused appeal for voters to consider HRC emails more important than his obvious corruption. He is your boy, NYT. Where is the times on NY real estate corruption, obviously one of the money laundering capitols of the earth? I approve that you want to make a stand, although it feels more like a publicity stunt. It rings hollow without a mea culpa.
If no headline for a particular newspaper listed, does that indicate they chose not to participate?
Since there is reference to Thomas Jefferson being used to support the news papers cause, here is one from TJ. "The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, in as much as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors."
Given this statement, "The Times editorial board and 200 other papers are raising their voices to affirm the value of independent journalism." one is left wondering how a concerted effort can, at the same time, be considered independent journalism? Sounds like a planned narrative using different words.
1
The Republican Party is the enemy of the American people; but, they are doing great things for the Russians.
And why, having hired Sarah Jeong, should the Editorial Board's judgment on *anything* be trusted?
6
Bravo to you all!
Yes! Please, please help us preserve our democratic republic.
As long as you continue to report the facts as best you can, you will prevail. Maintain your dedication to the truth, and those facts will eventually be confirmed despite every attempt to pretend they are not. Reputable newspapers, radio, TV, and yes, internet reporting that sincerely tries to relate objective truth will not die just because a liar says so. You have enough support in this country to weather the storm. Thank you NYT!
NYT - Thank you! I am impressed by your professionalism and your quickness to correct an error. I appreciate the insight you provide. May you continue to be free to tell the story.
I currently subscribe to the WSJ (too pro trump, but I call them on that), the NY TImes and the Washington Post. Plus Twitter.
For those who say "we have been through worse" than what we face today - with a pathological liar in the highest office in the land daily attacking anyone who dares express the truth - I say wake up. The free press and the courts are all that currently stands between us and fascism. And the integrity of the courts is being speedily eroded. Vote in November, and hope that your vote will be fairly counted. In the meantime, do all you can to support the free press.
Labeling our journalists, many of whom I admire and have followed for decades, "enemies of the people" tells us all we need to know about the danger Mr. Trump poses to our democracy. He's a small, petty, vindictive, fearful man who is in way over his head. His personal insecurities feed his growing, glaring paranoia. His presidency is tainted, and he knows it. He has become the most investigated man on earth, and it is driving him crazy. Mr. Trump is a man without a moral compass. He has lied and cheated all his life. Now, somehow, he has become the President of The United States and has the power to do permanent harm to this country. The only thing standing in the way of this awful man is our journalists, which is why I subscribe to four newspapers. We all need to put our money where our mouth is or else our children will be living in some nightmarish version of "1984."
1
I wish this editorial had been shorter and more direct.
Thank you
Thank you
Bravo!
Is Fox News part of the free press?
1
With Sarah Jeong on board, I am assured that the Times is seeing its peril clearly and accurately.
4
“Public discussion is a political duty,” the Supreme Court said in 1964.
Well, The New York Times doesn't allow for public discussion. In your Comments, you pick-and-choose NYT favorites, and likewise choose comments to post and not to post. When it comes to "public discussion", NYT, your just as filtering as "the other side".
If you value public discussion, show all points of view, not just the ones your editors appreciate.
Otherwise, respect for both your editors and journalists is undeserved.
1
President Trump is evil. The people who put him in office are evil.
Thanks so much for leaving out the District of Columbia in your filter.
The responsible printed press provides information essential for keeping any powerful gov't in check. Contrariwise, cable news varies from propaganda (FoX so-called news) to actual, relatively unbiased sources such as the international news providers. Lastly, the Blabosphere provides unauthenticated material, both from reasonable sources and from bigots, fire-breathers, (Infowars), bots and trolls.
Our so-called president if fighting tooth and nail to hide his treasonous connections to Russia, and has hidden his conversations with our arch-enemy Putin. He is a wedge, pushed by Russia, to gore NATO and the EU. His assaults on the press are attempts to thwart, divert and de-fang the efforts to unmask his treachery.
The name of our paper is San Antonio Express-News.
Amen. Thank you.
Support the press? Absolutely!
Earn it! Too much of the NYT political writing is slanted and subjective (Bernie's a dangerous Socialist, Trump's an idiot, etc.). Keep to just the facts. Reporting should be entirely objective and balanced; do your thing with the op-eds.
I subscribe to the NYT and Washington Post. Wapo has it right - Democracy dies in darkness.
Don't feel too bad NYT - you really are the better paper. ;)
So, you are finally being called out on your blatant hypocrisy and bias and you don't like it. Too bad!
Nobody, including our president, is saying you should close down. You can and do still print whatever you want to. We are all just exercising OUR First Amendment Rights to comment. This, of course, rankles you as you believe this right is your exclusive domain. How dare we disagree with your oh so brilliant thoughts.
1
Omarosa was spot on when she said the best thing MSM and citizens can do is ignore Donnie's daily twitter rants. Starve his oxygen and he'll no longer be powerful!
We need a fair press to look at ALL politicians actions to keep them from running amok
Where I live only the press or feds stop total city /state corruption and only get tip of the ice berg of of this filth
Thank you NYTimes in participating in last week's call of The Boston Globe to protect the "free press".
We have a "Dictator Wanna Be" in the W.H. All that stands between him and our democracy is the "free press" and voters who love the Constitution.
Just like the WP banner states...."Democracy Dies in Darkness".
Continue to speak truth to powers.
--a NYT reader since 1954
I'm all for a free press. But to deny the MSM is biased and routinely slants news and eds toward their favored positions (Climate change is real, cops are targeting & killing Blacks because they're racist, Trump is BAD, etc.) is wrong. Look at today's paper. An unhinged article by John Brennan that presents no evidence yet runs with the headlines that "Trump's claims of no collusion are hogwash."
You don't seem to recognize that opinion pieces must be based on facts. Not cherry picked facts but the known facts. And "news" pieces need to stick to the news and not insert opinion.
The NY Times, has conducted an all out assault on Trump from before he took office. Everyday there are negative stories and opinion pieces. This ed is obviously an attack on Trump and scaremongering that a free press is under attack. There's some hogwash.
The biggest threat to our democracy is false news spread by outlets considered legitimate. A great example is Ferguson, MO. The press tried and convicted the policeman who killed a Black teenager who was trying to attack him and take his gun. Even when the "hands up, don't shoot" story was shown to be bogus, the Times kept running stories about Ferguson. There were riots. Police were shot at. Stores were burned.
So yes. Let's have a free press. But admit the Times slants its coverage, doesn't give any column inches to positions it opposes. Admit the Times and MSM are simply the mouthpieces of the left.
OK New York Times
Get on with it
Take a look at yourself
It is obvious who owns you
Decide which side of the fence you are on
Betray your masters
Make some free press
Editors: write about the unfair law that allows the wealthiest to use Citizens
United to fund campaigns for their self-interest
Editors: The 'free press' is YOU....and so why are you not publishing the
fact that Trump is so seriously mentally ill sic. Letter sent to you about this
fact from Harvard Professor of Psychiatry Lance M. Dodes M.D. - soo..
You too....are withholding facts...
Be for once ; what your forebearers demanded All the News That is FIT to
Print....print Dr. Dodes Letter...I ask you to do so almost daily..and yet
you surpress the truth.
As inept of a President, Donald Trump is, he is a Master Strategist. Immediately convince, on the campaign trail, that the News Media reports nothing but 'fake news' sets up, right away, that anything then reported, in a negative way towards him, would be, of course, fake. The Dude gets a big fat "F" as leader of this Country, but gets an 'A+' in pulling that coup off.
The free press is falling into the same trap that led to Trump's popularity and election. Hardly a day goes by without multiple Trump headlines, swamping out stories about democrats or progressive policies. I love the NYT, but it is one of the worst offenders in this regard. Reporting on every tweet and lie sucks up all the oxygen and damages the credibility of the "free" press. I know Trump sells papers and gets clicks- he has been a boon for the news industry. But is a press truly "free" if it is beholden to maximizing profit by giving him so much airtime- most of it unwarranted. I am waiting for the day when the press emphasizes issues that have a real impact on my life, not on the reality TV star. My fear is that Trump was correct when he said that he will be re-elected easily, because the press won't know what to do without him.
1
I propose an entire day of news without ever mentioning T***p. A day without his name appearing in a single media outlet. Focus on policies, events, but leave him out of it-- for one day. That would be liberating.
The press has created their own problem. They decide what to report, how to report it and what to imply. These are powerful areas. I can't think of a more subliminal way to communicate with the public. The public is like sea gulls waiting to see what is thrown their way. It is a fry or a candy wrapper? The press needs to look at the ethics and morality of their reporting. To much of the reporting needs to really be in the opinion pages. Free press is so important, please press don't screw it up, revisit the concept of accurate, unbiased and fair reporting.
Too bad this needed to be said, but it did and your saying it was balanced and fair and accurate. Now more than ever we need the press. And we need people to wake up. Trump has no intention of draining the swamp. He parked his pirate ship in the Potomac River and has loosed a cabinet of pirates on the nation.
1
Trump doesn't want to be accountable to anyone, hence his animosity towards a free press.
And yet he loves seeing his name in print!
1
Thank you NYT for taking a stand for our beloved democracy. Please continue to investigate those who would do us harm, continue to explain and write about what it means for a country to have a “Free Press”.
1
On the same day you publish an op-ed piece from a torturer, a liar and by someone who relishes in using his special position as a former top security official to score political points and for personal economic gain, you want the public to think about the freedom-of-the-press dangers we are facing?
Just in my lifetime alone the press has mostly supported all of our wars of aggression, from Vietnam to the vast morass of wars we have in the Middle East and other places. Most of the US press has been against a publicly paid for health care system and supported the insane private system that is helping to bankrupt the country and its citizens. Then there exists a new Red Scare based on absolutely no evidence except “trust us” from our national security industry that almost everyone in the mainstream press fully supports.
I can go on and on.
You created the Trump monster and now you want us to worry about how dangerous he is to your business and to the special position you hold because of the First Amendment?
Chutzpah of the press is more like it.
1
The attacks on the press are all to reminiscent of the thirties in Germany. A dictator always wants to control the press.
Thank you and all the other papers across the country whos editorial pages today have made the case for freedom of the press. Without it we are doomed as a democracy.
1
THIS is collusion.
1
Who thought collaborating with a bunch of other papers to criticize the President's claim that the press was collaborating against him was a good idea? Between that and Gov. Cuomo's Trump 2020 re-election commercial yesterday, I'm not sure who stands for what anymore.
2
I couldn't agree more. Keep fighting the good fight NYT.
1
I subscribe to my local paper, the NYT & Washington Post. I also contribute to many online news sources that I consider important to reporting the news accurately. If we all don't continue with our financial support, we stand the chance of losing unbiased news. Please continue to support the news outlets.
1
Further askew to opinions is provocation, instigation, and incitement. Those with seemingly no moral code or boundaries have corrupted what is considered 'press'. Their second act is then to call every other actual source 'fake'.
Judgement Day won't be pretty...
1
Government should not infringe..true..but it is equally a time when our press investigates the effects of the crumbling, internal wall between profit and public interest. The amount of free publicity given to the campaign of Donald Trump is as shameful and dangerous as the claims he now makes. How does a for-profit, free press cover an American president with authoritarian tendencies? Keep calling out the truth whenever you can. Do not, however, think you were not complicit in the rise of the Trump regime.
2
Holy cow, overnight dozens and dozens of US newspapers independently decided to write editorials about freedom of the press.
How is this possible? It isn't. These articles and editorials are the result of a concerted effort led by the Boston Globe. In short, these literary gems are the result of collusion.
Is the pot calling the kettle black?
BTW, I am in favor of freedom of the press, but I think bashing Trump 24/7 has gotten out of hand, and collusion in creating the chest-beating, self-serving editorials will only fan the Twitter flames.
3
Erm... what?!?! I think you are confusing cooperation with collusion.
Here is the definition of collusion:
'secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose'
1. There is nothing secretive here, the editorial board clearly says that they are 'answering a call last week from the Boston Globe.'
2. There is nothing illegal or deceitful here.
A frre and unfettered press has been the guardian of JUSTICE these many years since Jefferson's ultimate reaction to the deserved criticism he eventually suffered. In the face of the scurrilous and totally unintelligent attitude of POTUS today, it is essential that the Press "PRESS ON" with their revelation of the incredibly base positions that POTUS and his minions take every day!!! We don't need to make America Great again, it was never anything BUT great. What we need is to stop POTUS from destroying the freedoms we still enjoy!!!
1
The Press is an institution and now it's acting like one.....Its basic
raison d'être supersedes politics. Its basic mandate is to alert citizens of
what faces them as citizens and to do it in the most honorable and truthful way possible.
Now it's time for the electronic Press to do the same. It's time
to abandon news conferences which tell and try to sell only lies...our top journalists
are wasting precious time going through that Kabuki dance every day.
More truth is to be found elsewhere. It is also time to turn cameras off that are merely recording someone walking to a helicopter.
Now here's the big thing...stop campaigning with him. Stop publishing tweets
which have nothing to do with the proper conduct or concern of the country. The
"picture of himself" is all he is interested in and in that sense those TV cameras
are in collusion with his methods and practices.....Cut it out
There are important issues that need exploring....Another picture of someone who has literally nothing to say about anything but himself....wastes my time.
Wasn't it Ed Murrow who said that "Television could become the greatest classroom"
Well, many of us are short of the knowledge necessary to conduct fruitful lives.
Start by explaining the effect on a personal level of the tax cuts...or trade wars
do it in front of a blackboard...............the pictures we need to see are of Americans
trying hard to live their lives and see to the welfare of their families.
Newspapers sometimes make mistakes. The honest ones correct them and move on continuing to look for the truth and bringing those truths to the public. While the NYT and WSJ may have differences of opinion on the same facts and present them from their own points of view they still use facts.
1
This is wonderful, and thank you for participating. But what am I do when, today, my local paper, the Los Angeles Times, fails to join the protest? And not only do they fail to stand up for a Free Press, they couch their cowardly stance in claims of journalistic "independence" in a piece signed by one of their most conservative contributors. So, while I generally agree with your call to support local newspapers, I cannot continue to support the Los Angeles Times. That's why I have canceled my subscription and urge others to do the same.
1
Without a free press, we are lost. I had a professor who was from the former Soviet Union and he said that he would only read the sports pages because the government controlled all what was said in the rest of the newspaper. That idea was shocking and horrifying to me... and yet, here we are.
1
"No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth.The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions."
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Judge John Tyler Washington, June 28, 1804
2
Thanks you, thank you, for the simple reminder that, without paid individual subscribers, where would our newspapers be...bought and paid for by the highest bidders, with their own propaganda?
I'm a proud NYT online subscriber. It's more than well worth the $15/month. I've posted this on my FB wall, urging my friends to consider supporting the NYT or similar.
2
The press is our true hero. If anything will save our country from this corrupt administration, it will be the press.
1
free press is essential to our country and the attacks by this administration are sickening and put reporters as well as our democracy at risk. Trump is doing Putin's biding and he proved that in no uncertain terms in Helsinki.
THANK YOU to the brave people that keep us informed
1
I support a free and vocal press.
1
I have never been so proud of the American Free Press or the readers of the Free Press as I have been today. With tears welling in my eyes I read each of the quotes from the contributing papers, and with joy in my heart I read all of the comments written here. (There is something about the cogent give and take of opinion from an informed public that is so very special.)
To know in my heart of hearts that the American People are being fed a bill of goods by a man that wants us all to look at his left hand while he is filling his own pockets with his right is abhorrent, however the thought that he is getting away with it is even worse.
I thank you and all the journalists of our nation for the work you do. yes, Democracy Dies In Darkness but Cockroaches do Scatter In Light. Please do keep the light on, I need the hope that you bring.
1
I find the media at times addicting, shallow, and annoying. For people in a position of power, doing the job right sometimes means the media has fewer juicy stories, and you resent the media because it seems they're trying to dig where there is nothing to dig, trapping you into saying things you don't mean, taking things out of context, and redefining the reality where others see you from what may be the truth.
But there is a difference between not liking the media and not recognizing its importance. I would be doing my country a disfavor saying the media should not be trusted or its power curtailed at any point in time, with Exhibit A being the man in the White House. We the People rely on newspapers to bring us timely, factual, and useful information so we can organize and stand up for our interests. That's why I subscribe to the New York Times and engage in the comments. So it can do its job, help end this ludicrous charade that is U.S. politics in 2018, and go back to talking about tan suits and Dijon mustard.
Beautiful. I agree 100 percent!
1
Just just to set the record straight, the Hawaii papers had editorials supporting the value of a free press. Check them out! Civil Beat and the Star Advertiser.
1
If you can view Trump and the GOP from a distance, you can see them trying to inch closer to a dictatorship where Fox News would be the new Politburo that they control and all other media outlets are "fake" because they don't tow the party line. It's obviously modeled after the old Soviet Union. And when nuts like Jones tell his audience to take up weapons against reporters, that is a big step toward Putin ordering the murders of any journalists who criticize him. Under Bush 2, Karl Rove once said that he thought the presidency would permanently be controlled by Republicans but we saw how that turned out. Now I have no doubt that many conservatives feel the same way.
1
San Francisco Chronicle editor John Diaz refused to join the other papers represented here because he says it gives Trump fuel for the argument that they're all against me.
Let's examine that as we also examine newspapers that are not against Donald. What are they for?
1
I would like it if someone published, in book form, ALL of today's "the Press is not the enemy of the people" editorials.
I think it would be powerful and a good teaching tool in the schools (and the White House).
I'd like to read them all.
1
The Times may be called a liberal newspaper, but one thing its reporters are is literate. If you take the time to read complete stories on any given day, you will find well-written, well-reasoned stories of great depth and perception, and true fidelity to the subject. Of course, everything can be open to interpretation, but the Times isn’t a study in deconstructionist arguments, it is merely a paper, telling a story.
58
Kudos to all the newspapers who offered opinions today about not being "enemies of the people."
We sometimes forget the purpose of the news media, for its protection of First Amendment. If you want to see the press's impact on our society, just go to the Web site of the Pulitzer Prizes (www.pulitzer.org) and see how newspapers have protected our citizenry from an often avaricious and corrupt government. The awards for Public Service and investigative reporting clearly illustrate why our free society needs a free press. And you will also notice that a great number of the awards are given to newspapers other than the NY Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Journalistic vigilance is absolutely essential if we are to survive as a truly free society and set the standard for the rest of the world.
1
I grew up in New York City. I now subscribe to the NY Times on line and was a print subscriber since the late 1980s until recently. I subscribe to the print edition of my local newspaper now and to the on line edition of the NY Daily News. I subscribe to the on line editions of the Washington Post and The Guardian. I do this, not specifically to support these newspapers (although that is the outcome) but so that I can read about what is happening in this world around me. There is a long history in the United States of nasty political journalism but for the most part our legitimate press is non-partisan, truthful and seeks to expose real government corruption. This is what makes American newspapers so great. The First Amendment's guarantee of a free press is thus surely our most important right as Americans. That this administration and its supporters deny this exposes how utterly unpatriotic they really are.
1
I think it's a shame that the vast majority of the largest mainstream papers in the "Red States" have refused to participate here. This exercise just becomes "preaching to the choir" without those voices in the mix as well.
1
Simply look at the papers listed to see that Trump is being effective. He has very strong support from states that are south of the Mason-Dixon Line and it appears that very few papers representing that area have published editorials critical of the "fake news" charge. Intimidation must be working there!
1
We are fortunate to have as many excellent newspapers as we do, starting with the NYT, but I do wish for another I.F. Stone's Weekly!
1
You have my full support! Keep shining a light into the dark corners, especially in this Presidency.
1
I often disagree with the editorial content of my local paper, and especially, of the New York Times. But never in my wildest dreams would I want my newspaper or the New York Times censored or silenced. There is a reason why the Founders placed freedom of the press in the very first amendment. Without a free press the government propaganda in an autocracy or theocracy has no rebuttal, no ability by the citizens to critique or analyze the government's policies. In a democracy, a free press is as essential to allow all sides of an issue to participate & persuade the public, to inform the public about important matters which may involve the government, or just involve a community. A free press supports another important element of the First Amendment, the right to protest & petition the government for redress of grievances. Without the media, there can be no real protest; the government can simply ignore or jail those who disagree with its policies.
Trump says that the press is the enemy of the people. This is autocratic nonsense. The press (no matter how much we may dislike the message) is the guarantor of our freedoms and the herald of the truth.
1
Two great quotes to remember:
“The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often even more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are."
Niccolo Machiavelli
Italian philosopher, humanist and writer
"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear."
Herbert Agar
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal
1
The free press is important! Even if the editorial board is completely biased against a president and is bent on destroying him, they are free to do that if they want. And the president if free to criticize that editorial board as being hopelessly biased.
One thing this editorial effort proves is that the major media can coordinate, in a very short period of time, a clear and coherent message that gets published across the nation in unison. This is exactly what those critical of the bias media have accused them of doing, and they just did it.
This means on one side the media's supporters will applaud the nobility of this heroic effort to stand up for themselves while the other side will use this as proof that the media can coordinate an attack on someone they dislike.
Amen, Amen, Amen! Journalists are on the endangered species list. It's up to us to save this messy vehicle from those who seek to render it mute.
2
The press biases needs to disappear into history. Reporting without bias is a quality that few reporters of the news exhibit now days. What a great quality to be proud of.
1
There has been a lot of discussion lately on how to deal with a bully at school or in the workplace. Unfortunately that bully is most often surrounded by people who are too afraid to stand up to him/her or have too much to lose. It is a very sad state of affairs when that bully happens to be the leader of a respected world power.
Congratulations to The New York Times and all the other newspapers who continue to inform and educate and stand up to bullys.
1
Thank you for raising a voice in support of our invaluable fourth estate.
1
We need the media to hold the governments and the people accountable. We need the people to hold the governments and the media accountable. The government has no business restraining the free flow of information to the people or between the people. False claims by the POTUS and his administration are both factually wrong and morally wrong.
1
Thank you, New York Times, for taking a leadership role in this rebuke to the threat to our democracy originating in the White House. Thank you for your bravery and your commitment in these perilous times.
1
THANK YOU, NYT!
Your tireless commitment to the truth and promotion of rational thought has made me a subscriber for 30 years in 5 different states. (FYI -- Home delivery of a NYT in Fresno, CA can me a bit hit or miss, but I digress).
Please keep up your incredible efforts, New York Times! I plan to be buried with copies of your Sunday Crossword puzzle by my side.
1
Mr Trump's repeated tirades against a free press tell us everything that we need to know about his view of democracy.
2
I wish journalists would treat the president like other sources and push back on misinformation more strongly. When he says something wrong, say, "That's provably false. Are you aware of that?"
And if a president relied on a questionable advisor, that would be a news story. This president relies on FOX News as his main advisor. FOX News should be covered that way. We lost something when the Daily Show stopped giving us a window into the slanted and misinformed world of FOX News. It is now a matter of national security.
And it is not just the president. Republicans have long been the party of made-up facts and evidence-free policies. That is the main story of the day. And the main problem in our political system. We are relying on the NY Times to cover these things.
1
Amen! And spot on.
A real threat to the future of our democracy if we don't collectively and rigorously address Trump's attack on the free press.
1
You are the guardians of liberty, you, journalists. That's why I subscribed to the NYT. The behavior of your president isn't that of a responsible man, rest assured, you are not alone. In the world, our politicians are not for many, wise and thoughtful men. They think first and foremost of them and notions of collective, dignity, respect and integrity are far away. All are not like that, fortunately. This policy disengagement and some press has caused a lot of negative effects. you journalists must take your share of responsibility in what is happening in the world. Do not run away from this responsibility. Instilling fear through articles, has revived old behaviors that we do not want to see again. you knew how to regroup then know how to make rebirth and to show the pains but also the joys of this world. they are many. To you to reinvent yourself and to be more serious about your sources, your articles, the choice of your journalists. You have an important role to take back the reins of your future. Everything is still possible. The ecological future will be dark and will not help the meeting of peoples, a stability of our institutions would help greatly. You have everything to create, reinvent, change ......
The press needs to do some serious soul searching. As someone who despised Fox News since its inception, I have watched formerly objective and sober news sources such as the Times and WaPo sell their souls to Roger Ailes over the past few years and thereby forfeit their credibility. The "main stream media" has become Fox-left. The amount of political and social bias infecting the majority of articles in the Times and WaPo is as bad as Fox at its worse. I can see this clearly because I am an Independent centrist who does not HATE Donald Trump. I'm able to see what is good and bad and there is plenty of both. But the main stream media sees only the bad and twists coverage to promote their point of view...just as Fox used to do with Obama and Clinton. I'm all for a free press but I wish there were more sources providing sober and objective coverage. Right now the only publication that has retained its credibility is the WSJ.
3
It's disheartening to have Trump accuse the press of fake news. It was the media however that was complicit in Trump's success because of the constant coverage and exposure given to him during the primaries and election. Because he was outrageous and inflammatory, the media latched onto him like ambulance chasers to a crash. He received at least 3 times the coverage of anyone else. I hope next election the coverage is more even handed.
1
The press needs to beyond the editorial page. It needs to do eye-catching public service ads on cable celebrating freedom of the press. Our schools are failing in teaching basic civics lessons. The gap needs to be filled.
2
The problem with Donald Trump and the media is of course most easily seen at the level of name-calling. But beneath that is the public's right to get the truth. Unfortunately, the perceived main actors often fall short in that category. However, the press has responsibilities as well as rights, and I do not see enough focus on the former in this discussion. So much of what I see in the press is the expression by writers of personal effrontery, and little concern about how their reports impact the supporters of those under attack by the press. So many of the people I talk to around here in Central Virginia say there is little to see or believe in the media. How could a large number of people b so blind, you say? When we are talking about the highest level of government, constant negative reports about Donald Trump seem unbelievable to these folks. No wonder they feel cast out, deplorable, unfit to be even addressed by the media. Granted, the Democratic Party does the same thing. And granted, it is not easy to bring bad news to folks. But I sure would like to see some effort made to dissolve the black and white of the line we call the truth. And I know, Trump is a master at distorting the truth. The media just has to do better at sorting this chicanery out-too much is at stake.
2
The real question here is: WHY would those people consider the constant "negative" reports about Trump to be "unbelievable"?
Since when is it impossible, in a democracy, to truly and profoundly disagree with most of what a president does or says?
Because let's be honest, that IS the case of a majority of the American people, as was already the case during the election itself - and the reason why a whopping 3M more people voted for Hillary rather than Trump.
So WHO is making these people believe that if you truly disagree, then it must be fake disagreement...?
Trump, the GOP leadership, and Fox News.
Because WHAT would the "effort to dissolve the black and white of the line we call the truth" be, concretely?
Any concrete example?
Imho we should NOT ask the media to blur the truth only to make Trump supporters feel a little better. Because TRUTH MATTERS.
What we do have to do is to engage much more in real, respectful debates with Trump supporters.
"Real" means: accepting that at any point in the discussion, we can be wrong too, no matter how strongly we believe in our own opinions. So at any point we should accept to fact-check and think about arguments that criticize our own opinions and beliefs.
"Respectful" means NEVER attacking the messenger, only the message, even when the messenger doesn't respect this rule (Fox News tells them 24/7 that "liberals" are "bad people", so they WILL attack you as a person). Reminding our common humanity.
Yes we can ... ! ;-)
It is our freedoms that will save us from these time: Free press, free speech, freedom for the right to assemble. These are some of the very freedoms for which we have fought wars and for which our loved ones have died. The press is not the enemy of the people, wannabe autocrats and dictators are.
2
In my opinion, the enormous energy being spent defending the free press should instead be refocused onto who/where it belongs. In other words, our collective unwavering attention ought to be on exposing the divisive/destructive behavior of the unstable insecure person in charge who's discrediting the free press in the first place & who's abuse of power and constant destructive/demeaning/unenlightened words/actions, across the board, are posing grave Orwellian threats/dangers to our Union and our democracy and the world.
The United States is in crisis.
Leading by US President Donald Trump American etiquette has down to the drain. People become rude. The president is no longer a role model for the younger generations.
Schools could become slaughterhouses. Gun killings are parts of daily life. Partisan politics has become the mean stream. Congresses become ineffective. The government is no long of the people, for the people, by the people, but of the rich, for the rich, by the rich.
Health care is supposed to be available no matter poor or rich. But it is hard to come by. Insulin crisis has been with the country for a long time, https://healthasahumanright.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/the-insulin-crisis-....
Living as a normal person is a fundamental human rights. But rampant medical cost becomes prohibitive to the poor. Emergency room visits become the only way to survive.
The whole thing did not start with Donald Trump. But he has made it worse.
I just listened to Fox News as they were criticizing the whole idea of this series of opinions. Do the people who run Fox and those who watch/listen to Fox reports not know that they are the media too? Fox sounds like state-run media. Maybe we'll learn it's actually Putin-run media. In the meantime, keep up the good work. Trump may hate the press, but to me you're noble warriors.
1
The message should be: "We are enemies of tyrannies, and allied with the people."
Nothing else stands in the way of injustice, oppression and bigotry.
2
Thank you NYTimes and journalists out there who take their jobs seriously and work to keep us informed. We've found ourselves in a new era that, collectively, is still struggling to manage. Between social media, information overload, shoot-from-the-hip commentary, trolling, and the general loss of respect for technocratic sophistication, our grip on stability feels ever more tenuous. The turbulence and uncertainty of this age has enabled the flourishing of a post-factual, oily morass of confusion; and within this, the conditions could be ripe for an entire nation to throw off its global leadership responsibility and slide into rank authoritarianism. Do we know if it's already happening? Would the populace know it if it happened? Will history look back on this era of the beginning of the end? Journalism must stand strong to reflect all of this back at us, to raise the alarms, to insist that facts are real. And it is on the populace -- each of us -- to heed the clarion call sent out today and stand together to protect the press, information, facts, and ultimately, our freedoms.
2
A free press is one of the most basic ingredients of a free society. It must be defended regardless of who is trying to suppress its ability and obligation to tell people the truth. Authoritarian governments have always discredited journalists and newspapers to insure that any information for general consumption only comes through them. Since he took office, this has been Trump’s approach, everyone else is misleading us, only he is telling us the real story. The media has the obligation to cover the president but when dealing with a liar like this it also has an obligation to separate the wheat from the chaff and report when he is lying. I suggest covering what he says but along with the report print a little fact check box and point out the false claims and wrong statistics right then and there.
48
Thank you for reporting true journalism. I am a subscriber of the NYT and Washington Post. Thank you all for banding together to speak on the most wonderful liberty we have-"freedom of the press".
I am okay with President Trump criticizing the press. Here's why. The press has increasingly abandoned the post World War II standards established for journalism in which the press reports the facts and lets the public make up their own minds about the merits of different causes. WWI was the most unifying experience for the US in the 20th century. The existence of the nation was in serous jeopardy in a way that most Americans today can't fully comprehend today. The left and the right came closer together and worked together to preserve the nation. In subsequent decades, we've grown apart. The chasm between left and right is greater. And here is where the media has let me and the country down. Instead of adhering to the high standards that were established, the media has devolved and is more akin to earlier times in our history in which a more combative free press existed. The media's bias is clear and the media is attempting to affect the outcome of events in many cases, instead of simply reporting clear facts. There is far too much opinion today. All this said, the media has become active combatants in the story line, which makes them fair targets, including targets of Trump. This is not the end of a free press. It is the end of an era in history and a return to an older more combative norm. But it is a choice the press made when they elected to drop the post WWII standard and become part of the story. And the press is still free to say what it wants.
1
Newspapers from all over the land
Have decided they must take a stand
Against President Trump
And his penchant to lump
Them as enemies that should be banned
Extraordinary.
A Free Press Needs To Tell The TRUTH!
We hear you. Keep up the good work.
1
No serious person denies the vital importance of a free and open press. But that belief is built on an underlying assumption that the press will present the truth. Institutions like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Guardian, MSNBC and CNN care little about the truth. The truth is an inconvenient obstacle to their message. Does anyone with half a brain really believe that Trump would publicly ask Russia to hack into DNC records? Yet that absurdity gets constantly repeated by all of the above. The Washington Post proclaimed that police hating, violent, masked communist anarchists (Antifa) who relish destroying people and property are merely anti-hate protesters exercising their first amendment rights! Chris Cuomo defended these antics. And that is objective? The media wants the public to be divided, to hate each other, to do violence on each other. In that regard, the media often is the enemy of the people. How does the Times justify the hiring of Sarah Jeong, a person whose primary qualification is her anti-white and anti-male screeching? Is is to promote objective truth or to provoke controversy and sow discord. The answer is pretty obvious. Respect needs to be earned. The media has not earned it.
3
Thankfully, the free press will be here long after the impeachment of the current occupant of the Whitehouse. The clock is ticking for the Drumpf administration. Much sooner than anyone can imagine, the most crooked man to sit in the Oval Office in the history of the republic, will be reading about his impending criminal trial. I do believe that the hard work of news organizations like The Times and the Post, will play a leading role in seeing to it that the abomination of Donald Drumpf will never again be repeated.
A free press is essential.
But that doesn't mean the free press has any credibility remaining.
The relentless left wing bias in the N Y Times, in both opinion and what is supposed to be bias-free news, is just embarrassing at this point.
By allowing the bias to leave the opinion pages, you brought this onto yourselves.
You deserve every bit of criticism you get.
You have betrayed a fundamental principle of journalism: news is news, opinion is opinion. Keep them separate.
1
I have just written two rebuttals to your proposition that Trump thinks that journalists are the enemy of the people, but you wouldn't print them.
Think about that.
You need to bite the bullet and say out loud that President Trump will get everyday journalists killed. I blame him for creating the public climate that encouraged an angry man with a gun to kill the Annapolis news people. That's what is at stake.
1
Fox News is destroying our country. Propaganda works! if you watch Fox news you more than likely will support Trump. I agree we need free press but they must also present evidence based facts
1
“In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.” Adlai E. Stevenson II “In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem.” George Carlin
Thank you, Voice of Freedom.
"Free" is fine, but that is not enough. Press should also be truthful to deserve public support. And also not to be mercenary in service of the moneyed elites. NYT and many others fail on both counts. Perhaps, you should lie less for a start, and only them make any demands of the public. Nowadays people are not as easily fooled as they used to be. Raising the level of hysteria is a poor substitute for journalistic integrity. Shamelessness is not bravery.
It only stands to reason in a corporate-run country that its corporate-owned press defines itself as "the free press." Or how else could The New York Times solemnly write (in an urgently-sized font), "A Free Press Needs You"? They know they can write this with a straight face only because the indoctrination is complete: In America, The Corporate Press = The Free Press.
And one can only weep at this corporate-owned state of affairs.
Fake news is news that Trump and his minions don't like, and it's frightening that a significant part of the American electorate continues to support Fox News, Breitbart News, InfoWars and other purveyors of lies and conspiracy theories. Although it costs me well over $1,000 a year, I proudly will continue with my subscriptions to the New York Times and Arizona Republic.
It frightens me, that an editorial, such as this, is even considered necessary to write. Please keep continue to keep truth alive.
1
Why is the Guardian listed as the London paper? Not the Financial Times? The BBC? The Telegraph, the Times of London?
Yes, we all need to read as many different newspapers as possible, including foreign ones. But could we please get the NY Times to run at least one front-page article daily with interviews and reactions from Democrat politicians. How about a list of proposed remedies from Democrats? During the last election any proposal made by HRC was usually buried in back pages. Only the "deplorables" mistake was highlighted. Why is everything every day Donald Trump? And if you look at the pictures of his rallies, the same people are often in the crowds in different states. Does the GOP pay them to go?
1
The seeds of my discontent with the NYT were sown on September of 1975. In US History 101 a man stormed into the room, slammed the door, kicked a garbage pail, sat at the teacher's desk and glared. We sat stunned. He told us to take out a pen and piece of paper and write down what we saw. He then asked us to read aloud what we wrote.
"Sarcasm."
"Editorial-ism."
"Reporting."
He noted we all witnessed the same event and then noted how everyone interpreted what they had seen differently as a result of their own prejudices. He posited that we need to view history and the news similarly as unless we'd witnessed it ourselves, it would almost certainly be biased by whom had written it.
He then handed out copies of The New York Times and explained the front page was for reporting. He then had us turn to the editorial page where he showed that this is where interpretations of reporting are to be made. Thus began my life-long love affair with history and my first genuine experience with critical thinking. I'm indebted to Mr. Gallucci for this, for life. It was his lecture that has forced me to stop reading your paper: it is just too presumptive, biased, condescending and illegitimate.
For years, the NYT has abrogated its responsibility to the public through biased and misleading editorializing thinly disguised as reporting and has become irrelevant. Sadly, Wikileaks has become the only credible source of facts.
Please,once again, begin separating reporting from editorializing.
I grew up reading The New York Times and have been a subscriber for most of my adult life regardless of where I was living, including overseas. I read the news articles for facts and straightforward reporting, if incorrect a correction will be published quickly. The Times has earned my trust in their news reporting. I read the analysis articles for insight and to promote thought. I read the Opion section and their comments to further develop my own opinions on any subject covered, including typing classes! I am very happy to report I shamed my sister into subscribing - she’s quite well-off but was limiting herself to the allotted free articles per month after she moved outside the print version delivery. Yeah, she’s an honest subscriber for all the right reasons which includes All the News That’s Fit to Print, journalistic integrity, phenomenal cultural coverage, a great Science section, and a can’t be beat Opinion offering!
I also subscribe to WaPo as a way to support the Free Press! Their coverage of the Manafort Trial has been Pulitzer worthy.
In these trying times The Free Press is our greatest strength. Thank you, The New York Times, for participating in this campaign to elevate the public awareness of the incredible importance a Free Press holds in the structural security, transparency, and foundational strength of a Free Country.
Your roles are not without angst, controversy, liability, exhausting efforts, and, at times, physical risk. Thank you.
79
Some comments here argue that a free press is actually not under threat.
I think it is.
When day after day a president tells his own supporters to try to hate and ignore all the media that disagree with what he says/does, then:
- part of his supporters will no longer analyze the arguments given by those media, when they read/watch them, and immediately reject them as "false" just BECAUSE of the fact that they disagree with the president
- another part will no longer watch/read media that disagree at all.
That in itself inevitably reduces the power of the media to freely spread its arguments and news, as it reduces its audience, whereas REAL freedom of the press doesn't just mean that you can write/say whatever you want, as a journalist, including things that criticize a sitting president, it also requires the freedom to talk to all of the people, so that we can have a REAL debate, rather than each one of us only talking to and reading stuff written by people who share our own political ideologies.
That's why democracies vitally need presidents/governments that ENCOURAGE the media to defend different opinions, especially those opinions that they disagree with.
Of course, you can urge certain media to be more objectively correct in their reporting (as Obama did with Fox News), but that's the farthest you can go. Obama ACTIVELY asked his supporters to go and watch Fox News, BECAUSE a democracy needs debate. Trump prefers to avoid those debates, and that's a huge mistake.
1
Thank you for lighting a fire. After reading my local Tampa Bay Times for free online, I subscribed for 7 day delivery. Not the biggest deal, I know, but I'm hoping others like me will do the same for their local papers.
2
I know this list is incomlpete because The Idaho Statesman here in Boise took part this morning. I wonder about the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Indianapolis Star and other major papers missing from this list. How could they not participate?
Thank you.
The Free Press worked as hard as it could to give Herr Trump as much free publicity as it could, and now you're not happy?
The Free Press spent months demonizing Hillary Clinton, covered the Republican congresscritters endless campaigns to persecute her, and now you're not happy?
2
I believe in the sanctity of a free press, and its underpinning, freedom of speech. That's why I accept everyone's right to voice their opinion, even when it's diametrically opposed to my own. When anyone closes their ears, eyes, and mind to what they dislike or fear, they are imposing ignorance on themselves, and if they're in a position of power - like Trump - on everyone else. And it's ignorance that enables unchecked power, like Hitler and all other tyrants. To those not ignorant, it's clear that Trump aspires to that fraternity.
As Edward Bulwer-Lytton said, "The pen is mightier than the sword", which is why tyrants like Trump are terrified of a free press and freedom of speech. The NYT and all media, and especially all freedom loving people, must remain resolute in opposing any attempt by Herr Trump to limit them.
That said, the MSM hurts its credibility, and therefore gives fuel to the "fake news" tag, when it slants the news towards its own objective. Picking and choosing which stories to run, how they're worded, and where they appear, all are aimed at influencing reader opinion. That's fine for the Op-Ed pages, but not the "news" pages. The media need to look in the mirror and address its own sins if it wants to keep the moral high ground.
1
For those who do not like having a free press...Is there any country lacking one where you would rather live ?
interesting that your thoughts of the "free press' would not include my latest comments.
1
The mainline newspapers like the NY Times rarely (if ever) print outright lies. Their slant lies in story selection. For example, story after story about the Trump administration being tough on "migrants." No stories on the costs to taxpayers of "illegal aliens." Free delivery at the county hospital for undocumented moms, 12 years of free public schools for children of undocumented immigrants, etc. cost plenty but is never mentioned in the press. That is why the NY Times and similar papers have no credibility with a large section of American voters.
5
Thank you.
Thank you for your informed writing.
2
Assumedly your failure to mention President Trump was deliberate. Perhaps to demonstrate you aren’t always bashing him.
Be not afraid. You can return to your reason for existing tomorrow. And your so called columnists can help. How about the new one? She reflects your views and values perfectly. Give her a full column tomorrow.
2
Dear Editors,
No, we aren't in this together.
No, you don't represent me.
No, you don't share my values.
No, you aren't trying to make the world better.
You are only forwarding your own interests, and you no longer even try to fairly represent issues anymore. You view people who don't share your values as opponents, not citizens that also need a voice. You distort your opponent's views in order to further your agenda.
You may not be the enemy of the people, but you sure aren't my friend.
7
Has anybody else noticed we didn't have "Fake News" til we got a "Fake President"?
1
This just in. Donald's accusing the entire body of independent press of "collusion" in the defense of freedom. He's finally got something right! The last such insidious collusion was NATO, which Trump-Moscow want to destroy. Before that, it was the Allies colluding against Hitler, and prior to that, Martin Luther and the printers, taking on the Vatican. Scary!
And maybe an encore for this with a "counterpoint" list/critique of sources, print, electronic and "submerged", that battle the dissemination of accurate stories, cherry pick, and indulge in historical fantasy.
Please vote 2018. Register your friends and relatives 18 years+.
Save our Republic!!!
1
Thank you.
1
The Palm Beach Post is also writing today in support of this action:
https://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/opinion/editorial-defense-democracy...