Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

NY Times Publisher Tells Trump Anti-Press Attacks ‘Dangerous and Harmful’

NY Times Publisher Tells Trump Anti-Press  Attacks ‘Dangerous and Harmful’

WASHINGTON - The publisher of the New York Times said Sunday he warned Donald Trump in a White House meeting that the president’s escalating attacks on the news media are “dangerous and harmful to our country” and “will lead to violence.”
But the meeting with A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of the prestigious newspaper since Jan. 1, appeared to do little to improve Trump’s tense and testy relationship with the press.
On Twitter, the president blasted what he called the “anti-Trump haters in the dying newspaper industry,” calling them “very unpatriotic!”
The president’s meeting with Sulzberger took place July 20, following a request from the White House for what appeared to be a routine get-to-know-you session. The meeting, which also included Times editorial page editor James Bennet, had remained secret at the White House’s request, according to Sulzberger, until Trump tweeted about it early Sunday. “Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger,” Trump said.
“Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, ‘Enemy of the People.’ Sad!”
Sulzberger, in a statement released hours later by the Times, said the president’s tweet effectively “put the meeting on the record,” and he described what appeared to be an unusually blunt session with the president. “I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous,” Sulzberger said.
“I told him that although the phrase ‘fake news’ is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists ‘the enemy of the people.’ I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.” (AFP)