News Media Alliance president David Chavern says that President Donald Trump's tweet about the media being the enemy of the people sounded more like something a terrorist would say than a U.S. president.
The alliance, which represents almost 2,000 news outlets, was responding both to the President's latest tweets and his drumbeat of criticism and disparaging remarks about the mainstream media in general and particular news outlet name-calling.
"Even those who dislike the media are coming to the defense of the journalists and publications in light of recent attacks the Donald Trump administration has launched," he said in an article on the alliance website.
Of branding the media as enemies of the American people, as the President has done on multiple occasions on Twitter and in a speech to conservatives, Chavern said: "This is, frankly, the type of rhetoric usually reserved for terrorists.”
“I do not care if Donald Trump loves or hates the press. I care that he respects the First Amendment and that he acts with dignity," he said. Both of those have become subjects of debate after the President's press secretary excluded some news outlets from a post-press conference gaggle—Chavern called that move "baffling and backward"—and the President continued to brand stories about Russian contacts "fake news" generated by Democrats and the media, in some references the "failing" and/or "disgraceful" media.
