No, The Media Is Not The Enemy Of The People

Assuming the United States survives the Trump era as a functioning democracy, its namesake will be considered by historians an aberrant, notorious figure.

That’s because Donald J. Trump systematically wields divisiveness as a cudgel, denigrates women and minorities, tears immigrant families apart, and considers white supremacists “fine people.” And that is without factoring in whether or not his campaign colluded with the Russian government to secure the 2016 presidential election and he obstructed justice to thwart the investigation into that matter.

The truth can hurt. The truth can be ugly. In Trump’s universe both are the case more often than not. That’s likely one of the primary reasons he lies as readily as others breathe – he’s uttered more than 4,200 untruths and falsehoods since he has taken office, according to the Washington Post’s tally from earlier this month.

Many of those falsehoods have been directed toward the healthcare sector. Trump claimed the Affordable Care Act was a disaster and was spinning out of control. That was not the case, although the sabotage his administration has wantonly inflicted on the ACA is doing the healthcare reform law no favors. And that reckless disregard for facts has seeped into other parts of the administration, most notably at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Its director, Seema Verma, regularly denigrates the ACA in public statements – a practice I had never seen before in 25 years of healthcare policy reporting.

Meanwhile, Trump also has another device he uses to deny facts: He attacks the media. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the U.S., said a free press was indispensible to democracy. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, encouraged ground-breaking investigative journalists such as Ida Tarbell to expose the way Standard Oil and the other large corporations of the day conducted themselves. Other presidents have butted heads with the media, but none have ever suggested it should go away.

By contrast, Trump has publicly declared the nation’s press “the enemy of the people,” “the lying, disgusting media” and many other things, some of which cannot be published here. Trump’s absurd public rallies often center around heaping opprobrium on members of the media, who are conveniently penned into a highly visible part of the venue while performing their jobs. At a grip-and-grin in New Jersey last week, a group of bikers rained invective on the media as Trump stood by, doing nothing to quell their moronic rage.

Trump’s denigration of the media has reached a critical point. Bret Stephens, perhaps the most conservative of the New York Times’ three right-of-center opinion columnists, recounted earlier this month one of the numerous telephoned threats he has recently received: “Once we start shooting you f—ers you aren’t going to pop off like you do now,” was among the milder things one person said. Stephens’ conclusion: Trump’s words will eventually lead to journalists being physically harmed and perhaps even killed.

That may have already happened. A mass shooting occurred at a newspaper office in Maryland in late June, claiming five lives, including four journalists. The gunman held a long-running grudge against the Annapolis Gazette that predated Trump’s election, but who is to say that Trump’s words did not goad him to mass murder? That may come out during that gunman’s trial. Trump himself barely acknowledged the tragedy.

I’ve had great fortune working as a journalist in the healthcare business, where virtually every person involved in the sector is rational, highly intelligent and does not have a secret agenda. I’ve been treated with virtually universal respect. On the rare occasions I have not, I either pushed back or did my job – calmly and rationally reporting on the facts.

I also have the great fortune to work out of my home office, where it is highly unlikely some nut case would stalk me for doing my job.

However, the staffers for the New York Times, Washington Post and other newspapers do not have that luxury. In fact, the terrific Showtime documentary series “The Fourth Estate” gave many of the New York Times’ scribes national profiles. That was evidenced by the fact my wife recognized – and geeked out over – investigative reporter Jeremy Peters as we walked down Pennsylvania Avenue during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.

But it’s entirely possible some other person or persons who have no respect for the Jeremy Peters of the worlds may take a dark action should they spot them ambling down a sidewalk. Something like that was unimaginable just a few years ago. It’s entirely imaginable now, solely due to the 45th President of the United States.

The media is definitively not the enemy of the people, Donald J. Trump. But if one or many of them are hurt or killed due to your invective, what exactly would that make you?

Ron Shinkman is the Editor of Payers & Providers. This publication has joined hundreds of news organizations throughout the United States today in publishing an opinion article in support of the free press and to assert it is not the “enemy of the people.”