With President Trump’s condemnation of journalists as the “enemy of the people,” we all know that journalism is under siege like never before. But frighteningly, it will likely get worse in 2020, as Democrats jump on a condemn-the-press bandwagon of their own.
For all Republicans’ “fake news” rants, Democrats are increasingly excoriating reporters for being insufficiently tough on Republicans — or for being too tough on Democrats. Most recently, coverage of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg prompted a Twitter backlash among some Democrats, who argued reporters were being too hard on the candidate by pointing out he was less than forthcoming about his work at McKinsey. You can get a taste of the outrage from the left day after day, on social media, when dissatisfied New York Times readers sling the hashtag #CancelNYT — along with their critiques of stories or headlines that reflect their expectation that the Times should better align with their own perspectives.
Already, we’ve seen a willingness among Democratic candidates to attack the press more harshly than in the past. Senator Bernie Sanders, for one, sounded much like he was mimicking Trump when he suggested The Washington Post was hard on him because he is no friend of Amazon and its owner (and the Post’s owner) Jeff Bezos.
The expectation that the press should take sides may well grow as we enter a super-charged presidential election year. And journalists are likely to continue to come under fire.
Rick Berke is co-founder and executive editor of STAT.
With President Trump’s condemnation of journalists as the “enemy of the people,” we all know that journalism is under siege like never before. But frighteningly, it will likely get worse in 2020, as Democrats jump on a condemn-the-press bandwagon of their own.
For all Republicans’ “fake news” rants, Democrats are increasingly excoriating reporters for being insufficiently tough on Republicans — or for being too tough on Democrats. Most recently, coverage of presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg prompted a Twitter backlash among some Democrats, who argued reporters were being too hard on the candidate by pointing out he was less than forthcoming about his work at McKinsey. You can get a taste of the outrage from the left day after day, on social media, when dissatisfied New York Times readers sling the hashtag #CancelNYT — along with their critiques of stories or headlines that reflect their expectation that the Times should better align with their own perspectives.
Already, we’ve seen a willingness among Democratic candidates to attack the press more harshly than in the past. Senator Bernie Sanders, for one, sounded much like he was mimicking Trump when he suggested The Washington Post was hard on him because he is no friend of Amazon and its owner (and the Post’s owner) Jeff Bezos.
The expectation that the press should take sides may well grow as we enter a super-charged presidential election year. And journalists are likely to continue to come under fire.
Rick Berke is co-founder and executive editor of STAT.
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