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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 10/19/16

As Trump Wages War On The Press, News Outlets Refuse To Fight Back

Message Eric Boehlert
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Like everything else about Donald Trump's vitriolic campaign, his attacks on journalists, and the way those assaults are being fervently amplified by Trump's whipped-up supporters, have become genuinely frightening during the finals weeks of the Republican's faltering run.

Fronting a nihilistic campaign that seeks to do lasting damage to our electoral and democratic process, Trump has shifted his all-encompassing war on the media onto more dangerous terrain this month. Graduating from his previous claims that reporters are "disgusting" and "horrible people," Trump now insists they're all part of the "rigged" infrastructure this election cycle that's conspiring against the former beauty pageant owner.

Forget blaming the messenger -- Trump's now trying to bury the messenger. And his fans want to help.

In addition to lobbing regular abuse at journalists on social media, Trump and his supporters have waged their vendetta at the candidate's rallies, where journalists are corralled behind metal barricades. And his fans have become increasingly unhinged. "The traveling press corps covering Donald Trump's rally in Cincinnati had to be escorted out the back door of the event to a heavily guarded motorcade after being greeted with boos, middle fingers and a seemingly 'arena-wide' chant of 'Tell the truth!' from a crowd of 15,000 people, according to a pool report," People recently reported.

Meanwhile, journalists have been sharing disturbing rally snapshots on Twitter:

From NBC News' Ali Vitali:

CNN's Jim Acosta:

Washington Post's Jose DelReal:

None of this is new, unfortunately. On Monday, The New York Times published a piece headlined "Criticism of the News Media Takes on a More Sinister Tone," which raised concerns about "dangerous" anger targeted at reporters.

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Eric Boehlert is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush (Free Press, 2006). He worked for five years as a senior writer for Salon.com, where he wrote extensively about media and politics. Prior to that, he worked as a (more...)
 

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