A "Knight" has ridden in to help protect the safety of TV and radio journalists in an increasingly threatening world.
According to the Radio Television Digital News Association, the Knight Foundation is providing a multi-part grant to the association to provide training in safety and security of journalists, as well as newsroom leadership.
RTDNA said the grant will fund three one-day regional training programs this year covering safety and security for journalists, both physically--"in and out of the newsroom"--and in "digital spaces."
Related: White House Reporter Trades Stories from Trump Trenches
President Donald Trump has arguably been leading the rhetorical attacks on U.S. journalists, calling them "fake news," "enemies" and conspirators with his political opponents, words that groups trying to protect journalists say have consequences.
For example, the Committee to Protect Journalists has argued that the White House's equivocal response to the killing of dissident Saudi and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, have made journalists less safe. "Essentially, Trump signaled that countries that do enough business with the United States are free to murder journalists without consequence," CPJ said in its December report on the killing of journalists.
Sen. Flake Brands President's Attacks on Press 'Moral Vandalism'
Trump rallies frequently feature chanted attacks on various media outlets critical of the President, conduct the President does little or nothing to discourage and arguably foments.
At The NAB Convention in Las Vegas earlier this month, ABC White House correspondent Cecilia Vega talked about the danger the anti-journalist rhetoric represents. She said she was at the rally where a Trump supporter jumped into the crowd and assaulted a photographer and also she looks both ways herself when she leaves the White House gates to see who "might be ticked off...."There is a serious danger in that rhetoric."
