On Monday, the Editorial Board at the New York Times published an op-ed declaring that President Donald Trump’s latest attack on the press is a level of “oppression” so enormous that the country’s Founding Father warned of it. This is in response to the president’s declaration over the weekend that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House due to what he called “purposefully negative stories,” an act the Times warns is the next chapter in “Trump’s attempt to prevent the free flow of information in American society and his utter disregard of the law.”
Trump attempted to ban journalists from the White House twice during his first term, and judges declared it unconstitutional in both cases. Even though this makes the illegality of such a move clear, he has done it again anyway, an action that the Times notes as part of a second-term trend of “flagrantly breaking the law” that has also seen the administration ignore court orders halting deportations, launch war with Iran without congressional approval, use federal power to “corruptly” enrich Trump and his allies, and more. Now he’s once again threatening the free press, which the Times explains “enables citizens to assess reality in their own democracy,” “allows a flowering of different media voices, and “holds powerful people to account.”
This is why, notes the Times, the founders were clear in emphasizing “that freedom of the press meant the freedom to say things that the government did not like.” As James Madison wrote, “To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.” And as the Times reminds, “The Bill of Rights devotes part of its first item — the First Amendment — to the idea, barring any laws that abridge ‘the freedom of speech or of the press.’”
Past rulings against Trump’s efforts to ban journalists didn’t escalate to the constitutional question and only relied on matters of due process. “Judges said that a presidential administration was not obligated to create a press corps with dedicated White House space,“ explains the Times. “Once it did, though, it must run a fair policy through which journalists can become part of the pool. The administration’s banning of journalists was instead arbitrary.” Even if the First Amendment didn’t enter into those cases, according to the Times, “Those principles are important here. If a president allowed access only to those reporters who are friendly to the administration, the nation would be poorer for it. The American system of government has endured for more than 250 years partly because our leaders are not autocrats who can censor criticism or monopolize information flow. They are subject to feedback, debate and critique.”
“Trump’s latest move is part of his wider effort to control the media,” warns the Times. “Officials from his administration have searched the home of a Washington Post reporter and served subpoenas to staff members of The New York Times. He has sued The Wall Street Journal and intimidated ABC News and Paramount into paying tributes to him. His Federal Communications Commission has abused its regulatory power in an effort to shape coverage.” With all this in mind, asserts the paper, Trump has “impinged on press freedom in ways that no other modern president has.” Furthermore, if he gets away with it, “he will be able to credibly threaten other organizations.”
As the Times concludes, “Trump is a master manipulator of public attention, and it is possible he has lashed out at the three organizations to distract from the policy failures — the war with Iran, tariffs, inflation and more — that have defined this term. The attacks on the press nonetheless deserve attention. Mr. Trump is once again choosing ‘error and oppression,’ to use Madison’s formulation, and rejecting ‘reason and humanity.’”
