WHAT’S NEXT MR. TRUMP, THREATENING TO SILENCE NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS?

“Freedom of conscience, of education, or speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

The freedom of the press, protected by the First Amendment, is critical to a democracy in which the government is accountable to the people. 

A free media functions as a watchdog that can investigate and report on government wrongdoing. 

It is what we do here best at HMG-LCCN, and that freedom is being threatened.

The recent action of Trump, revoking John Brennan’s security clearance because he criticized Trump and his administration in the media, goes beyond the pale. 

Especially in light of the fact that his former advisor Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I., still has his security clearance.

“I think Mr. Trump is getting more and more concerned, more and more desperate and I would say more and more frightened, as there is closer and closer magnification of some of the things that those around him have been involved in,” Brennan told MSNBC. “So I do think it’s important that I continue to speak out.”

So does HMG-LCCN.

Many times this newspaper has been attacked for “fake news” that, as we all knew here in the newsroom, turned out to be true.

It is part of the job. We are not doing our job if 50% of our readers love us while 50% hate us, and we have three public records requests out to public agencies 

But what Trump did was way over the line, going from verbal abuse to abusing his power as the president to silence his most vocal and qualified critics.

But it’s all part of his multi-part plan to silence the media and freedom of the press and set up state-run media.

1) Attack the industry: Trump’s has had a sustained assault on the free press. He calls journalists and the industry “the enemy of the people.” Not even Nixon did that.

2) Attack the reporters: Trump started his Stalin-like crackdown on the media threatening journalists and whistleblowers with jail time in order to find their sources and discover leaks to the press that are in the public interest.

3) Attack the newsroom: Trump inexplicably placed a 25% tariff on Canadian newsprint because one out of the five U.S. newsprint companies complained.

Many newsrooms had to layoff reporters, and the entire printing industry has suffered for what 99% of experts call a “unnecessary tariff.”

4) Attack the publishers: With his actions against Brennan and the assembly of an enemy list as dictated by Sarah Sanders, could Trump’s next move be to attack newspaper publishers using national security as an excuse?

Only the most ardent supporters of Trump defended him on his Brennan move, even Fox News blasted him which led Trump to his usual tweet storm.

When Fox News is alarmed, we should all be alarmed.

“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”