A couple of months after assuming office, Trump accused the press of being an "enemy of the American people." While calling mainstream media "fake news" is irresponsible, calling the press "enemies of the people" is something much more unsettling.
Soviet government leaders, such as Hitler and Stalin, often used the phrase "enemy of the people" to delegitimize the people's trust in opposing parties.
However, the distress that the Trump administration induced was good for business. A study showed that the anxiety and anger experienced during Trump's presidency led to an increase in profit in the media. The more uncertainty there is in the world, the more people turn to the news.
Just because the press got more attention and profit doesn't mean that people trusted them more, or that newsworthy content was being published.
Journalist McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic and the White House 2019 Aldo Beckman Award winner, spoke on how damaging it is when publications focus on every outlandish thing that comes out of Trump's verbal and posted statements.
"It's really important that we not have our business models depend on that being the case. Because if they are, all of us are going to be pushed to insert artificial drama into every story we do, and that's not good for anyone," Coppins said.
Many news outlets turned to profit-seeking coverage - abandoning their standards by leaning into clickbait and irrelevant stories.
Journalists have an advantage this election with Trump no longer regularly posting on X, formerly Twitter. While he often used Twitter to go above the media, he seems to not plan on utilizing that platform anymore. Trump has other plans for his social media use.
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