Trump Responds After Newspaper Editorials

He sees 'COLLUSION' on the part of the media
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2018 12:44 PM CDT
Trump: Newspapers Colluded Against Me
President Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Monday, Aug. 13, 2018, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

More than 340 newspapers published editorials Thursday decrying President Trump's repeated attacks on the media, and now Trump has responded. "The Boston Globe, which was sold to the the Failing New York Times for 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS (plus 800 million dollars in losses & investment), or 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS, was then sold by the Times for 1 DOLLAR. Now the Globe is in COLLUSION with other papers on free press. PROVE IT!" Trump tweeted Thursday, adding, "There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!" Earlier Thursday, he had tweeted, "THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!"

The New York Times notes that Trump's first tweet contained a factual error; the Times Company paid $1.1 billion for the Boston Globe and other properties decades ago, then sold them for $70 million in 2013. But an editorial at Investor's Business Daily Wednesday was on Trump's side, and even used the same charged c-word in its headline: "Editorial Collusion By Dozens Of Newspapers Proves Trump's Point: The Media Are Biased." It calls the move by the newspapers (CNN lists some of those that participated) a "political stunt" that shows the papers are more interested in pushing a left-wing agenda than actually informing the public. And at Politico, Jack Shafer says the plan "played right into Trump's hands" and will surely backfire, despite Trump's attacks on the press being truly "alarming" and deserving of a rebuttal. At NOLA.com Tim Morris echoes that, noting that the Times-Picayune editorial board did not participate because "we believe a local news organization's voice should be independent. ... Having 350 editorial voices saying the same thing on the same day just seems to prove Trump's point." (More President Trump stories.)

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