Newsprint—it’s the news media’s Achilles heel.
President Trump has called mainstream news media “enemies of
the American people,” a rather startling escalation from “fake news” by an
irresponsible national leader. It’s language that echoes sentiments of
dictators and totalitarians, rather than a responsible U.S. President.
But I don’t think many intelligent adults would consider
Trump to be a “responsible U.S. President.”
Earlier this month, in the wake of another Trump attack on the
media, CNN’s Jim Acosta asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to say
the press isn’t the enemy. “It’s ironic Jim, that you attack the President,”
she shot back. And she listed a litany complains, noting she is the “first
press secretary to require Secret Service protection.”
Well, that’s terrible. But Sanders doesn’t own any of her
own part in creating the divisive discourse that tears at the fabric of our
democracy and makes it seem impossible these days to have a civil discussion of
real issues. And she never acknowledges the bedrock principle that Acosta asked
her about: The press is listed as being free in our First Amendment because a
free press is a necessary ingredient for a self-governing body politic to function
well.
And we, that body politic, are growing less functional,
partly due to the current horrible administration that keeps scooping sand into
the grease of the gears of our government.
Still, it’s not news that Donald J. Trump, an immature
narcissist, only likes sycophantic media attention. And Sanders is a
spokesperson for Trump. Her job is to preach his message, no matter how bad or wrongheaded
that message is.
And Trump’s message, on this point, is
authoritarian. It steps over the line of endangering an already endangered species—the
few journalists that remain active in this country, nowadays. Those
reporters work with targets on their backs placed there by an unashamedly
shameful President Trump.
Yeah, as a journalism professor, former reporter and media
writer, I’m bitter about the horribleness of Donald J. Trump and his minions
and his alternative media universe. But I think I have rational grounds for
that bitterness.
Remember how President Trump as a candidate mocked a New
York Times reporter’s physical disability? I’m sorry, Sarah Sanders, that you feel you’ve
been personally attacked. But look at the conduct of your boss and tell me he’s
not setting a low tone for public discourse.
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| Image of early press in Oregon from Wikimedia Commons. |
And Trump’s war on the press includes an important recent jab. The free press in this country grew historically with loads of
indirect government support. Newspapers used to be sidelines of print shops
that sprang up in county seats as the country grew, partly to handle government printing.
The U.S. Postal Service, the internet of the early Republic, offered very favorable
rates that allowed newspapers to circulate and exchange information easily.
Of course, the press-government relationship can be too
cozy, and a free press needs to guard its own independence. I recall once on the
final day of the legislative session in Missouri, excitedly entering the tiny
office of the newspaper Capitol bureau in Jefferson City and telling my editor
that “they are offering free hot dogs in the halls.”
My editor fixed me with a dour stare. “I. Do. Not. Eat.
With. Those. People,” he informed me.
Well, from his physical appearance, I’m not sure he ate
anywhere—he was a wiry old codger who seemed to subsist on caffeine and nicotine
(It was the ‘80s, a world that has long passed away). (Note that I'm attacking the physical appearance of a person who I respect and who I agree with—for effect, by the way. Sarah, if you are reading, that's an attack on physical appearance--you burning lies for a perfect smokey eye isn't the same.) But I mostly remember his
point. He didn’t say I couldn’t have a hot dog if I wanted (and truth be told I’ve
never let my sense of professional ethics stand in the way of free food), but I
admired his spirit.
And his idea. Be independent of your sources. Don’t get too
chummy. You are you and they are they and you both need to understand your often-adversarial
roles. But I didn’t hate the Missouri politicians that I wrote about, and I don’t
think they hated me.
I don’t trust politicians, yet I still have respect for them.
Their motives aren’t pure and they bear watching (which is what a press is
for), but they are also, most of them, motivated by a sense of mission and
public service.
Government is messy, sometimes corrupt and often
inefficient, but since we try to be governed by “we the people,” we can’t point
our finger at “them” without some fingers pointing back at us. Or as Pogo put
it: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
Anyway, one of President Trumps recent initiatives is to instigate
trade wars as a bargaining ploy for better trade deals. I am not an economist,
and despite my trepidation at what seems to be a wrong-headed policy, I’ll
conceded it’s possible he’s playing some international game of chess that may
help equalized past inequities in trade. Frankly, I doubt it, but it’s
something that I can strain to imagine.
However, his targets are often odd. Canada? We have an intertwined
economy with our friendly frozen neighbors to the north, and we can’t hurt them
without hurting us, too. And one product in particular that’s caught up in the this
tariff tiff is newsprint, the price of which is expected to rise 30 percent due
to Trump’s import tariffs.
This comes at a time when newspapers are already in a steep decline as a part
of the overall news media system. Trump didn’t cause that decline, but he’s kicking a
part of the historic media system when it’s down.
Making the Trump paper tariffs go away won’t revive the newspaper
business. It’s likely the New York Daily News would be letting go of half its news
staff anyway. But Trump's trade policies are yet another blow to an ailing free
press, another hit on his “enemies.”
And democracy in American is less healthy as a result.
Sarah Sanders, if it were up to me, you would not need the Secret
Service to protect you. But don’t blame the “enemy press” for your personal safety
issues—you are caught up in a firestorm that your own boss keeps pouring gasoline
on. As I’ve said before, the current biggest enemy of the American people isn’t
the press that brings them the bad news of the day.
It’s the incompetent president who keeps generating more bad news—and
is now making that news more expensive to print.
