Efforts by Trump, others to discredit press ‘dangerous phenomenon’, New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger says
- ‘Worrying time’ for readers who care about journalism, says A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times
- Distrust of the press comes as newspapers are facing major business challenges
In July, A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times, was invited to the White House for a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
It is the type of discussion that has happened before between his predecessors and other presidents, but came at a particularly acrimonious time for journalism in the United States.
Dissatisfied with coverage of his administration, President Trump has regularly called the media the “enemy of the people” and labelled stories he dislikes as “fake news”. The Times is often a target of his attacks.
Sulzberger told the president that he was deeply troubled by the anti-press rhetoric coming out of the White House, but agreed for the conversation to be off the record as requested by the president’s aides as had been the practice in the past.
That changed when Trump tweeted about it.
This is a really worrying time for all of us who care about journalism and the role it plays in supporting a free and informed society
“I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our country’s greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press,” Sulzberger said in the days following the meeting.