08/26/2019
Poynter: Allies of President Donald Trump have started a campaign to discredit news organizations and journalists they consider to be anti-Trump. The “aggressive operation” aims to publicize damaging information about journalists to “undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting.”
This is all according to a story in Sunday’s New York Times by Kenneth P. Vogel and Jeremy W. Peters. According to the story, the group already has released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times. The information comes from closely examining more than a decade’s worth of public posts and statements by journalists. The story said, “Only a fraction of what the network claims to have uncovered has been made public … with more to be disclosed as the 2020 election heats up.”
The Times said it is impossible to independently assess the claims about how much damaging information this group has, but that material publicized so far has “proved authentic, and much of it has been professionally harmful to targets.”
The White House has denied knowing anything about the operation. The Times named Arthur Schwartz, a conservative consultant and “friend and informal adviser” to Donald Trump Jr., as a key figure in the force to take down journalists. (As CNN’s Oliver Darcy noted, The Daily Beast’s Maxwell Tani wrote about Schwartz and this topic in January.)
Last week, a New York Times political editor got into trouble for tweets nearly a decade old, when he was in college, that ridiculed Jews, Native Americans and the Amish. The story first appeared on Breitbart News then spread quickly when Donald Trump Jr. tweeted it to his 3.8 million followers.
Schwartz then tweeted:
“If the thinks this settles the matter we can expose a few of their other bigots. Lots more where this came from.”
The Times story goes on to say that the group not only is targeting high-profile journalists, but anyone who works for news outlets who are seen as being hostile toward the president to undermine the credibility of that outlet.
In a statement, New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said, “They are seeking to harass and embarrass anyone affiliated with the leading news organizations that are asking tough questions and bringing uncomfortable truths to light. The goal of this campaign is clearly to intimidate journalists from doing their job, which includes serving as a check on power and exposing wrongdoing when it occurs. The Times will not be intimidated or silenced.”
Sulzberger also wrote a note to the staff, which the Times published online. In it, he showed support for the journalists at the Times, but added, “I also want to be clear: No organization is above scrutiny, including The Times. We have high standards, own our mistakes and always strive to do better. If anyone — even those acting in bad faith — brings legitimate problems to our attention, we’ll look into them and respond appropriately.”
So, you might say, if journalists never tweeted or said or did anything embarrassing then they have no need to worry, right? And if they have, shouldn’t it be exposed?
It’s not that simple.
According to this story, what this group is doing seems to be two-fold. One is to blackmail news organizations from questioning, criticizing and holding the president accountable. The other is to chip away at the media’s credibility so it cannot effectively keep the president in check.
In other words: stop the media from getting out information and, if they do get it out, make sure it’s not believed.
That’s incredibly damaging to our country because it’s an attempt to undercut one of the most essential parts of our democracy: a free and open press whose primary role is to hold the powerful accountable.
Yes, absolutely, the media should be held accountable, too. But stories published or aired by reputable news organizations stand up to scrutiny through the use of facts, sources and citations. Because this operation can’t discredit such stories, the next best thing to do is discredit the journalists and outlets by combing through tweets and Facebook and Instagram posts from years gone by.
Will this group find examples of stupid social media activity? Probably. Might it find journalists who had some legal or financial trouble in their distant past? Perhaps. Might there be some embarrassing text messages or emails uncovered? Possibly.
But ask yourself, what’s more important: What the president is doing right now or what some unknown copy editor who has nothing to do with a Trump story said on Twitter a decade ago? Which is more important to our democracy: holding the president accountable or seeing to it that a production assistant at CNN is punished for an Instagram post from a New Year’s Eve party five years ago?
This operation has no interest in making our country better or supporting an independent press. It only is interested in distracting the public with unimportant items to allow the president to rule ungoverned, unchecked and unhampered.
Tweet of the day
Not sure I actually believe this is what world leaders were asking, but here’s what President Trump tweeted on Sunday:
“The question I was asked most today by fellow World Leaders, who think the USA is doing so well and is stronger than ever before, happens to be, ‘Mr. President, why does the American media hate your Country so much? Why are they rooting for it to fail?’”
