Comprehensive Impacts of Trump’s Second Year: Targeting Free Press, Free Speech, & Privacy
This publication is meant to be a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the Trump administration. There are many things that happened during the campaign that are not included. For this series covering the second year, impacts from about January 20, 2018, to January 31, 2019, are included. An introduction to this year’s series is here.
You can read the complete series on the first year of the administration here.
There are sure to be things missing, but I have done my best to record these impacts. The impacts are compiled under 20 different categories, or articles:
1. Cabinet and Other Appointments;
3. Women & Families;
4. LBGT;
6. Ethics;
7. Targeting free press/free speech/Privacy;
8. Health & Safety;
9. Consumer Protections;
10. Education;
11. Transportation/Infrastructure/Housing;
12. Immigration;
13. Social Contract;
14. Business/Economy;
15. Budget;
16. General Governance;
17. Character;
18. Military/Defense/Police;
19. World; and
20. Some good news. Because there is always some good news.
Since this series takes a long time to write, I will publish each section as I complete it. This article is on Trump’s targeting free speech, free press, and privacy.
Targeting Free Press, Free Speech, & Privacy
An analysis of more than a year of Fox & Friends illustrated how the show became a “a feedback loop” with Trump. Reporter Alvin Chang found that “Fox & Friends has a symbiotic relationship with Trump that is far weirder and more interesting than state media. Instead of talking for Trump, they are talking to him,” going from “being the bully on the periphery [before the 2016 election] to the prom king’s posse.” Because of this feedback loop, renowned journalist Dan Rather noted how critical it is for the press to identify and discuss Trump’s false or misleading statements:
Now more than ever is when the press needs to be a kind of truth squad for this and every other president. It’s perhaps more important with President Trump because there are more untruths to set the record straight. . . . Most people understand that they’re facing on a daily basis from the White House and from the president himself, the rough equivalent of you’re facing a fertilizer spreader in a windstorm.
The irony of Trump then suggesting that government start its own television network was not lost on anyone paying attention.
Trump’s consistent rhetoric about fake news has no limits. He has even called his own interviews “fake news” when he tries to claim that he didn’t say or do things that are on record. Which he does often.
While people love dismissing things they don’t agree with as “fake news,” actual fake and misleading news continues to spread. Writer Uri Friedman described the real-world consequences of this fake news as an echo chamber that undermines public trust in the press. He went on to say,
[In] conflating unfavorable journalism with disinformation, Trump is arguing that journalists maliciously fabricate the sources and substance of their reporting — at least when what they report doesn’t reflect well on him. By persistently hurling the fake-news put-down at nearly all the country’s leading news organizations, he is refashioning a vital democratic institution — the independent press — as an enemy. According to his populist-nationalist narrative, it’s an enemy not just of his but also of the people and the nation. He is thus inverting the core mission of news organizations: to ferret out the truth and hold powerful people of all persuasions accountable.
Friedman added that global leaders have noticed how Trump has “wielded the powers of his office to punish unsympathetic media organizations.” From dictators imprisoning journalists for “disseminating false news” to Assad claiming Amnesty International’s reports of his extrajudicial killings are “fake news to Burma dismissing its genocide of Rohingya Muslims as “fake,” Trump’s propagating the war on journalism has global ramifications. Friedman summed it up nicely by quoting Arendt scholar Lyndsey Stonebridge:
Once you’re uprooted from your sense of reality as a community, that allows all sorts of other uprootings to take place. We lose our human connection to other people, and that’s when the conditions are in place for tribalism and mass violence, for the extermination of ‘superfluous people,’ for ‘others.’
Reporter Zoë Carpenter and photojournalist Tracie Williams described how by early 2018, Trump’s crackdown on journalists and activists intensified. They detailed how “the sheer number of anti-protest bills that have been introduced, along with the heavy-handed policing of demonstrators on the ground, points to a trend towards the criminalization of dissent — spanning from Standing Rock to the 194 people, including journalists, who faced felony charges and up to 70 years in prison for protesting Trump’s election.”
All of these attacks on the press lead to attacks on people. As one example, a conservative columnist said that Trump is “fomenting violence” against the press, suggesting that his constant attacks on the press helped lead to the deadly shooting at a Maryland newsroom. In fact, Trump continued his attack on journalists only five days after that shooting. And even after The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned Trump of the violence that could result from his rhetoric, Trump continued his twitter tirades against the media.
Trump is on the record admitting his consistent attacks on the media are meant to discredit journalists so that negative stories about him would not be believed. That is all part of his effort to target freedom of the press, limit free speech, and eliminate privacy. Or, as anyone paying attention would notice, dismantle democracy.
Targeting a Free Press
· In one of the most terrifying and fascist-like acts of this administration, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security created a plan to gather and monitor all public activities of media professionals, journalists, and influencers.
· In the annul Reporters Without Borders ranking of countries’ freedom of press, the US dropped to 45th out of 180 countries. They specifically called out Trump’s leadership as the driver behind the U.S.’s fall.
· In fact, the US under Trump was added to list of most dangerous countries for journalists for first time this year.
· In response to the brutal murder of reporter Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident, Trump said that the US had no obligation to investigate or punish the perpetrators because Khashoggi wasn’t an American citizen. In fact, Trump held on to his false rhetoric that Khashoggi was probably murdered by “rogue killers” — a Saudi conspiracy theory — to protect his Saudi interests long into the future, even going so far as to dispute CIA and other intelligence findings on the matter.
· On his way to a summit with Vladimir Putin, Trump called news media “the enemy of the people.”
· He also threatened to remove journalists’ press credentials if their news station reported negative coverage of his administration.
· Later, reporter Jim Acosta bravely walked out of a White House press briefing after press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to confirm that the press corps is not the “enemy of the people” as trump had described.
· In another instance, after Acosta dared to ask hard questions at a press conference, Trump called him a “terrible person” and revoked his press pass allowing him into the White House and access to press conferences. To justify his actions, Trump’s press secretary issued an altered, doctored video to make Acosta appear more aggressive at the press conference.
· After, Trump threatened to revoke more press credentials from anyone who “doesn’t show him respect.”
· A writer for The Nation, also communications director of U.S. Institute for Public Accuracy, was forcibly removed from a Trump-Putin news conference for having a “malicious item.” That item was a sign.
· Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency blocked The Associated Press and CNN from entering a national summit on harmful water contaminants, and then guards forcibly shoved a female reporter out of the building.
· In another press conference incident, Trump told a female reporter, “I know you’re not thinking. You never do.” As journalist Amber Phillips noted, “Belittling women in those terms is standard Trump practice. But the unprompted way he did it Monday is especially notable.”
· And in yet another instance, Trump called a female reporter “a loser” after she asked hard questions.
· In the same week, Trump insulted two additional black women reporters simply because they dared to do their jobs well. He told Abby Phillip that she “asks a lot of stupid questions” and called Yamiche Alcindor a “racist” for asking questions about Trump’s characterization of himself as a nationalist.
· Trump then changed the White House rules to revoke press credentials for doing things like asking follow-up questions or pushing that a question be answered.
· Trump also praised a Congress member who violently attacked a reporter. Trump called him “my guy” as he made veiled threats to other reporters that they could get the same kind of attack for asking Republicans hard questions.
· Thanks to Trump’s rhetoric, at least one person was arrested for making threats against a newsroom.
· In response to the dangerous rhetoric, hundreds of news outlets joined together for a nationwide response to Trump’s attacks on press. For example, The New York Times’ editorial board reminded readers of the value of America’s free press. The board wrote, “As the founders believed from their own experience, a well-informed public is best equipped to root out corruption and, over the long haul, promote liberty and justice.” The Boston Globes’ board wrote, “The greatness of America is dependent on the role of a free press to speak the truth to the powerful.”
· In addition, writer Uri Friedman again talked about Trump’s impact on basic democracy and press freedom in an article describing how trust is collapsing in the US. As he quoted from researcher David Bersoff, “The lifeblood of democracy is a common understanding of the facts and information that we can then use as a basis for negotiation and for compromise. When that goes away, the whole foundation of democracy gets shaken.”
· Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which is known for being a right-wing, pro-Trump organization and has been taking over local news stations across the country, mandated news anchors at all of its local TV stations to recite a statement verbatim chastising “one-sided news stories.” According to one anchor, “I felt like a POW recording a message.” According to one source, “Every news station under Sinclair’s umbrella is required to syndicate commentary that comports with its owners’ ideological views.”
· Sinclair also regularly forces its 193 local stations to air a segment by a former Trump advisor. One segment described negative press about Trump’s family separation policy as “politically driven by the liberals in politics and the media.” Another required anchors to defend the use of tear gas on child migrants attempting to cross the border.
· Trump tried to pressure Twitter to remove the accounts of The New York Times and The Washington Post as “fake news.”
· Trump’s efforts seemed to pay off. In one poll, 51 percent of Republicans said that the media is the enemy of the people, rather than an important part of democracy, compared to 66 percent of all Americans.
· Another poll showed that nearly half of Republicans believe that the president should be able to shut down news outlets for anything he deemed to be “bad behavior.”
Limiting Free Speech
· Trump forced all of his staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), which prohibit anyone from revealing confidential information and making them liable for damages for any violation. With pressure, all complies, even though “the agreements would likely not be enforceable in any event.” (NDAs have been struck down in many states). The NDA would last after Trump’s presidency is over.
· Trump created a policy requiring US Geological Survey (USGS) scientists to get approval before agreeing to interview requests from reporters.
· Trump blocked John Bolton from doing an interview with CNN after a conflict between Trump and a CNN reporter.
· He wasn’t done with CNN. He denied access to a CNN reporter to cover a press event with the president of the European Commission because he felt that she asked “inappropriate questions” when she asked about Michael Cohen and about reports of Putin’s not accepting a White House invitation for another summit between the two leaders.
· He also threatened to remove the security clearance of former intelligence officials who criticized him.
· After Trump did, in fact, revoke the security clearance of the former CIA director in retaliation for Brennan’s criticism, more than a dozen senior intelligence officials, including the retired navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, publicly accused Trump of trying to stifle free speech, describing Trump’s actions as “McCarthy-era tactics.”
· In addition, the pentagon began retaliating against journalists who write anything that it deems critical. One journalist said, “It’s not unusual for an administration to monitor what reporters are doing and reporters produce. What’s unusual now is it’s being used to evaluate whether we’ll be included in things or invited to things. . . . It’s never been so overt.”
· An award-winning editorial cartoonist with a 25-year strong reputation had a disproportionate number of his cartoons blocked because they were critical of conservative policy. They were blocked by the new editorial director who was appointed by a right-wing communications company.
· At The Correspondent, a new editor resulted in all of the past articles by writer Sarah Kendzior being abruptly deleted with no reason or warning.
· Trump threatened tech companies, telling them to “be careful” and talking about new regulations on search engines such as Google in retaliation for him thinking that they turn up too many stories that are critical of him.
· Keeping in line with Trump’s level of hate and clear lack of understanding of the Constitution, Texas Attorney General sided with a school that expelled a student for refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance.
· Trump tried to drastically limit the right to protest or demonstrate near the White House and on the National Mall, going against decades of court orders. (Spoiler alert: After receiving more than 100,000 public comments about this, he backed off. YOUR RESISTANCE WORKS.)
· Trump’s National Labor Relations Board, consisting of all republicans, made union picketing illegal by ruling against janitors picketed in front of their workplace to win higher wages, better working conditions, and freedom from sexual harassment in their workplace.
Eliminating Privacy
· Trump’s Transportation Security Administration created a secret watch list to monitor people who may be targeted as potential threats at airport checkpoints simply because they have swatted away security screeners’ hands or otherwise appeared unruly (when not allowing themselves to be sexually assaulted by the security theater).
Writer John Nichols suggested three things that Trump — leading the United States — must do to show a commitment from the US to press global and national freedom of the press, including defending of journalism and democracy above business and politics, realigning with the global community to stand with a free press, and refraining from “fostering impunity with attacks that picture the free press as an ‘enemy of the people.’” Nichols went on to say that to ignore these three things will continue to endanger journalists and press freedom. It seems like the US will not show this commitment until a new president is elected.
The next article will cover Trump’s impacts on health and safety.
