President Trump has spent the last decade railing against fake news, a phrase that’s now deeply embedded in our culture.
He has accused the media of being relentlessly biased against him – which is largely true – and called out journalists by name. He has sued such outlets as ABC News (which paid him $16 million), CBS and the Des Moines Register.
He has charged that Politico received payments for negatively covering him – it turned out these were routine subscriptions, and for the New York Times as well – and then canceled many of the subscriptions.
TRUMP ORDERS THE DISMANTLING OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED, ‘PROPAGANDA’-PEDDLING MEDIA OUTLET
But in a controversial speech at the Justice Department, Trump went further than ever before. He said the Times, the Washington Post and the major networks were engaged in “illegal” reporting.
The president did not specify what was illegal about it. But perhaps there’s a short distance between Trump’s accusation and a future prosecution?
The DOJ speech drew heavy coverage. The Times said he “veered from his prepared remarks to lash out at lawyers and former prosecutors by name in a venue dedicated to the impartial administration of justice. He also accused the department’s previous leadership of trying to destroy him and declared former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. the head of a ‘crime’ family.”
President Trump has effectively gutted Voice of America. He’s castigated the outlet as unabashedly leftist and once called it the “voice of the Soviet Union.” (Getty Images )
The Post quoted Trump as saying his enemies had “launched one hoax and disinformation operation after another, broke the law on a colossal scale, persecuted my family, staff and supporters, raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the President of the United States.” The paper added: “It is rare for a president to visit the Justice Department — which has kept safeguards between the White…
