Trump Launched a War on the Press. GOP Lawmakers Are Boosting It.

Some on Capitol Hill are offering blistering critiques of stories they dislike and personally singling out and fighting with individual reporters whom they view as biased. And they’re doing it all in real time. Democratic lawmakers have offered their share of media criticism, too, but usually in the context of going after Rupert Murdoch-owned outlets like Fox News for presenting a right-leaning outlook of the news; or lamenting that other outlets feel compelled to manufacture artificial debates. Republican lawmakers, by contrast, have targeted the broader “mainstream media” more aggressively and personally, adopting Trump’s framework that the press is, fundamentally, an enemy of conservatism.