Analysis: Trump claims the press is demeaning the military. But questioning power is patriotic.
Journalists ask questions, vet the answers and report the results to the public. That’s pretty much the job description.
But the Trump administration is claiming that it’s unpatriotic to do so.
Several days after the US conducted airstrikes in Iran, as the public awaits a clearer picture of the strikes’ impact, President Trump is attacking CNN for reporting on an early US intel assessment that undercut his claims about Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites being “totally obliterated.”
The New York Times is also being targeted by Trump because it matched CNN’s reporting. “They tried to demean the great work our B-2 pilots did,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.
Related Knowledge Center: The White House vs. the press
Whether it’s the Des Moines Register’s publication of an unfavorable election poll, a routine edit of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, or the Associated Press’s decision in its authoritative stylebook to continue to use “Gulf of Mexico,” Donald Trump and the White House have used executive authority and legal reprisals in an effort to punish and suppress press coverage that runs contrary to the administration’s preferred narratives.
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