The publisher of the New York Times, AG Sulzberger, has publicly urged President Donald Trump to stop calling journalists 'enemies of the people', warning that such language could incite violence against the media. Sulzberger disclosed details of their off-the-record meeting after Trump tweeted about it, initially calling it 'very good' but later accusing the media of endangering lives through their reporting.
In a statement, Sulzberger said he accepted the meeting to raise concerns about Trump's 'deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric'. He told the president that the phrase 'fake news' was 'untrue and harmful', but was 'far more concerned about his labelling journalists the enemy of the people'. Sulzberger warned that this inflammatory language contributes to a rise in threats against journalists and 'will lead to violence'.
Sulzberger noted that Trump's rhetoric is particularly dangerous abroad, where some regimes use it to crack down on journalists. He said he warned the president that it was 'putting lives at risk, undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and eroding one of our country's greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press'. The publisher clarified he was not asking Trump to stop criticising the Times, but to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism.
Trump responded on Twitter, claiming that media reporting on 'internal deliberations' of government 'truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk'. He accused the media of suffering from 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' and writing 'bad stories even on very positive achievements'. The president has repeatedly used the phrase 'enemy of the people' since February 2017, targeting outlets including the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CNN and CBS.
