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Journalists
are not
the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “The enemy of the people.” This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences. We asked editorial boards from around the country – liberal and conservative, large and small – to join us today to address this fundamental threat in their own words.

Replacing a free media with a state-run media has always been a first order of business for any corrupt regime taking over a country. Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current U.S. administration are the “enemy of the people.” This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president much like an old-time charlatan threw out “magic” dust or water on a hopeful crowd.

“The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom,” wrote John Adams.

For more than two centuries, this foundational American principle has protected journalists at home and served as a model for free nations abroad. Today it is under serious threat. And it sends an alarming signal to despots, from Ankara to Moscow, Beijing to Baghdad, that journalists can be treated as a domestic enemy.

More than 400 news outlets from around the country have joined our effort to support a free press. Scroll below to read them. We will be updating the list as more editorials are published.

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Long Beach
The Long Beach Post

The media as ‘your enemy’ is perhaps Trump’s biggest lie

Journalists report about your world, your nation, your state, your city on every level, sometimes as watchdogs when corruption, moral misdeeds and financial abuse occurs, and sometimes as cheerleaders when there are so many happy and heroic things to share with readers: triumphs and victories, moments of great inspiration and bravery.

Riverside
The Black Voice News

Enemy of The People Attacks, Not New

Her remarks, “The Requirements of Southern Journalism” was a call to action from a former member, “one of the journals which was a member of your organization has been silenced by the edict of the mob which declared there shall be no such thing as ‘Free Speech’ in the South.” She appealed to them in their role as independent watchdogs of the government, because the government refused to protect all its citizens. “The President of the United States announces himself unable to do anything to stay this ‘Reign of Terror,’ and the race in the localities in which these outrages occur are nearly always unable to protect themselves.”

Berkeley
The Daily Californian

Donald Trump’s ‘fake news’ rhetoric doesn’t just hurt professional journalists

Still, student journalists refuse to be silent — instead, they are reporting on these issues and putting an emphasis on the resources their universities need. Although these young writers are battling obstacles from their government both as students and as journalists, they continue to dedicate their time to publishing groundbreaking content.

San Francisco
Bay Area Reporter

Trump’s ‘fake news’ is fake news

Don’t fall for the clickbait on social media and don’t let the president define your reality for you. He says it’s “fake news” when media does not flatter him. We say be aware of news that affects you and your community, here, across the country, and around the world. Trump will continue calling media “fake news,” but that doesn’t mean it’s true.

Seaside
Monterey County Weekly

Free Speech

We launched this “Free Spech” feature right after Trump was elected. We weren’t so much clairvoyant of what was to come as proud of our place in a long history of people making a living utilizing the protections enshrined in the First Amendment.

San Diego
San Diego Union-Tribune

How we restore faith in journalism

Distrust is not easy to dismantle. But journalists at The San Diego Union-Tribune and nationwide will keep advocating for a free and fair press. With this president. And the next. And the next. And the next. And all who follow.

Eureka
The Times-Standard

No, the press is not Public Enemy No. 1

We run senior menus and back to school photos. Menacing the republic is not in our job descriptions. The downfall of America is not on our to-do list. We’re here to put out a newspaper and help keep our community informed.

Idyllwild
Idyllwild Town Crier

Fake news, American institutions and the presidency

Apart from our free press and the Electoral College, Trump has attacked the judicial branch of our government, our military and civilian intelligence communities, his own Department of Justice, the FBI — and even the NFL. Of course, he enjoys freedom of speech, but when he uses it to attack these established and treasured American institutions, he attacks our American way of life.

Coachella Valley
Coachella Valley Independent

Anger and Divisiveness Are the Enemy—Not the Free Press

I could go into details here about how this rhetoric is right out of the authoritarianism playbook. I could elaborate on how the news media is not one big, cohesive entity, but instead, many hundreds of publications with all sorts of different editorial philosophies and viewpoints, ranging from sharply liberal to staunchly conservative. I could go on and on … but I won’t. I’ll just again repeat: If we can’t communicate with each other, democracy doesn’t work.

Fresno
The Fresno Bee

The Fresno Bee is not the enemy. We are Americans, and Valley residents like you

President Trump, please stop calling the press “the enemy.” Disagree with us; call us slow-witted if we make an error. But don’t make us less than the Americans we truly are.

San Jose
San Jose Mercury News and the East Bay Times

Editorial: President Trump, we are not the nation’s enemy

We can’t sit here and be silent. The notion that we are the enemy fomenting division domestically and abroad is absurd.

Chico
Chico News & Review

Not the enemy

At this point, it would be easy to tune out the president’s constant rebukes—to trigger the internal “blah, blah, blah” button. But that would be normalizing his attacks, so resist the temptation.

Eureka
The North Coast Journal

Enough, Mr. President

These attacks, this vicious rhetoric, have created two very real dangers: Short-term, it increases the danger inherent in doing our job. Long-term and far more important, it undermines the very basis of our democracy.

Santa Rosa
The Press Democrat

Editorial: Enemies of the people? No, we’re your eyes and ears

Reporters shouldn’t be seeking approbation from politicians or government officials or anyone else they cover. But there’s more than a little irony when a man whose celebrity is rooted in the tabloid culture, and who tried to keep himself in the headlines by posing as his own publicist, cries “fake news.”

Stanford
The Stanford Daily

In our ‘post-truth era’ quest to defend journalistic principles, a look toward our predecessors

These claims of so-called “fake news” have undermined the very existence of a free press, eroding the credibility of reporting and making it increasingly difficult for smaller, local publications to flourish.

Colorado

Connecticut

Falls Village
Lakeville Journal and Millerton News

Perspective on truth, lies, respect and hate

Americans may not like the news they see or hear but they should not hold that against those who report it. In short, don’t shoot the messenger.

Hartford
Hartford Courant

Reporters As “The Enemy”? Take A Closer Look And You Decide

Is this really what the enemy looks like? Climbing creaky stairs in old town halls for 7 p.m. meetings. Sitting on folding chairs for hours. Writing stories on those meetings that same night. Getting up too early the next day to do it again.

Meriden
Record-Journal

Journalists are not the ‘enemy ’

Unable to carry on in the light, the president attempts to drag us all into a dark labyrinth where rules don’t apply and some vacant concept of winning seems attainable. This is the playground of “alternative facts .” But news organizations do not play in that dark playground.They perform in the light, and as such they are not the “enemy of the people” but precisely the opposite.

Willimantic
The Chronicle

Trump’s rhetoric hits all media hard

So when he continues to attack the press as a whole with almost demonic disdain without any proof of inaccuracies, he’s not hurting the feelings of journalists. They’re tough men and women. They can take it. What he’s doing is undermining democracy itself.

Darien
The Darien Times

There is nothing more American than a free press.

We are the enemy of governmental secrecy, of public self-servants and of lies — we are the enemy of absolute power seekers and the enemy of efforts to propogate an uninformed electorate so as to manipulate it. From the tiniest newspaper with no budget to an international journalistic powerhouse — we are the enemies of those who would seek to hide the truth from you.

New London
The Day

Uniting our voices in defense of a free press

Only information coming from the president or news and social media sites he deems worthy is acceptable.

Delaware

Florida

Jacksonville
Folio weekly

The King’s Speech

It is the enfant terrible of a king’s greatest hope that the people will rise against us media tyrants who hold his monarchy hostage, wielding our mighty pens of insistence to verify facts and tell objective truths, of analyzing and critiquing and speaking truth to power, of presenting a broad variety of views, so long as these be based in reality.

Wilton Manors
South Florida Gay News

The Most Dangerous Man in America is Still Donald Trump

The challenge today is for America’s free press to remain independent, not supplicant; to print real news, not government Pablum, whether you are the Wilton Manors Gazette or the Capital Gazette. We choose to question authority, not bow down to it.

Havana
The Herald

We are not the enemy of the people

When an elected leader refuses to answer our questions, he or she is, by proxy, refusing to answer your questions. The problem isn’t that they don’t want us to know, it is that they don’t want you to know. It is the American people, not the American press, that they hope to keep ignorant of their actions and words.

Sarasota
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Freedom of press is under attack

Enough, President Trump: Don’t tread on us.

Jacksonville
Florida Times-Union

The war between Trump and news media must end

Even those who have little reason to defend Trump have found the media’s coverage excessive at times.

Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach News-Journal

Trump’s cynical effort to cast the press as ‘enemies’

“Fake News.” Trump wields that phrase like a bully with a truncheon.

Panama City
Panama City News-Herald

We are your defense

We believe good, fair, in-depth storytelling, moving the community forward, understanding each other, finding commonalities, moving past rumors and celebrating accomplishments while solving problems.

Ocala
Ocala Star-Banner

Nothing fake about our news

It is well to remember that one of the things that make America great is the fact that we grant the freedom of expression even to those, who, if they got their way, would deny those same freedoms to us.

Orlando
Orlando Sentinel

President Trump, the press isn’t the ‘enemy’ — it’s America’s watchdog

That is good news, indeed!

Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay Times

Strive to keep truth flowing for democracy

In such a toxic environment, Trump’s declarations undermine not just journalists and news organizations but the communities and democracy we endeavor to serve.

Lakeland
Lakeland Ledger

As Lincoln advised, this, too, shall pass

Remember, what power you give the president today will one day be possessed by a president you don’t like

Bradenton
Bradenton Herald

President Trump, we’re not ‘enemies of the people.’ End your war on our free press

Everywhere in the country, any matter that an official doesn’t want to talk about or that a reader doesn’t want to hear about is “fake news” now.

Melbourne
Florida Today

What our investigative journalists expose isn’t fake news

The reporters aren’t the enemy of the people. They pursue real stories intended to right wrongs and help the least among us.

Gainesville
Gainesville Sun

We’re not the enemy of the people

it is doubtful these words will make a difference to Trump or his most steadfast supporters.

Miami
Miami Herald

President Trump, we’re not ‘enemies of the people.’ End your war on our free press

We all — as citizens — have a stake in this fight, and the battle lines seem pretty clear. If one first comes successfully for the press as an “enemy of the American People,” what stops someone from coming next for your friends? Your family? Or you?

Palm Beach
Palm Beach Post

In defense of democracy’s defenders

In less flowery terms, the role of the press is to keep an eye on the henhouse.

Highlands County
Highlands News Sun

Bad for democracy

Calling our work fake news or the individuals who work here the enemy of the people is not a successful attack on the media. It is an attack on how our democracy works. This fake news rhetoric is an attack on the vision of our Founding Fathers. The enemy of the state rhetoric weakens our democratic notion of checks and balances for future generations.

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Canton
Daily Ledger

Freedom for all…with the exception of journalists?

Just prior to the 2016 presidential election I saw a disturbing meme.

Galesburg
Register Mail

Editorial: We believe in power of good journalism

We don’t believe the American people need a tutorial from the president about what to watch, read or believe. Our founding fathers trusted the people enough to give them the power to control and change our government.

Peoria
Journal Star of Peoria

President’s attacks on the press must stop

You can call us and we pick up the phone. You email us, and we reply. We cover the news to inform you, and we get both sides of an argument. We live by a code of ethics. Just like a teacher, firefighter or police officer, you will find few people who are as committed to their work as a public servant than a journalist. It’s not a job, it’s a calling.

Chicago
Chicago Sun-Times

This newspaper is the ‘enemy’ of all that hurts ‘the people’

Arlington Heights
Daily Herald

Not enemies, but voices of the people / In midst of assaults on press, we all must defend principles of First Amendment

When all news media are approached with reflexive contempt and the only voice we are urged to respect is the one at the head of the government, we represent something very different from the ideals that so many people have sacrificed for, that have served us as a people in a manner unprecedented throughout human history and that have lit a beacon of democracy envied and copied around the world.

Metamora
Metamora Herald

A Free Press is Essential to a Free Society

“We all have an obligation to ourselves and each other to protect the freedoms provided to us in this great experiment. Exercise your rights, get involved, and vote in every election.”

Trenton
Trenton Sun

Standing with the “mainstream media”

President Trump is correct about one thing: fake news is a real and pressing threat to our democratic principles. But having turned governance of the most important nation on earth into a game of Constitutional Three-Card Monte, he wants you to turn over the wrong card in seeking its source.

Indiana

Jeffersonville
News and Tribune

Defined by purpose, not president

Politicians have a vested interest — their careers — in driving the narrative, controlling the message. It’s not unusual for presidents to be at odds with reporters. The difference between President Donald Trump and his predecessors is that 45 seeks not just to control the message, but to serve as puppet master over those who deliver it.

Connersville
Connersville News-Examiner

We are not enemies of the people

Newspapers have been called enemies of the people before, mostly by some of the people afraid of what the people would do if they knew the truth. It happens on the national level and, sometimes, locally.

Shelbyville
The Shelbyville News

We are not enemies of the people

Newspapers have been called enemies of the people before, mostly by some of the people afraid of what the people would do if they knew the truth. It happens on the national level and, sometimes, locally.

Portland
Commercial Review

Democracy requires press freedom

There is an unshakable feeling that this country may be at a tipping point. Either we get a grip and get back to our founding principles of fact-driven dialogue, debate and decision-making, or we go off the deep end.

Bloomington
The Herald-Times

Trump’s attacks on media can’t go unchallenged

He’s attacking the institutions and individuals who tell the stories of our nation and their communities, small and large; who work to hold the powerful accountable; and who seek to give voice to the underserved and underrepresented. His rhetoric divides and causes distrust. It could lead to violence. It can’t be left unchallenged.

Kokomo
Kokomo Tribune

A free press works for you

If a free press is to disappear, who will hold our elected officials accountable? Who will monitor new businesses, crime and community health? Who will be the voice for the voiceless? Will you? If you’re anything like us, you’d better be prepared to die trying.

South Bend
South Bend Tribune

Nothing fake about our mission

The words still ring true today — an objective look at the region; meaningful journalism; frank and fair reporting about our area. We’re not your enemy. We just want to help make this community stronger. There’s nothing fake about that.

New Castle
The Courier-Times (New Castle)

We are not enemies of the people

Newspapers have been called enemies of the people before, mostly by some of the people afraid of what the people would do if they knew the truth. It happens on the national level and, sometimes, locally.

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Cape Cod
CapeCodWave.com

The Media Is Not The Enemy Of The People - An Editorial

The world is made up of facts. And one fact is that journalists, those people asking questions of the highest authority in the land, are American patriots.

Cambridge
Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard

“What Ever Happened to the Free Press?”

Given the threat to democracy and the rise of autocracy around the world, now is the time to support, not decry, legitimate journalism and to reaffirm our commitment to free speech and a free press.

Provincetown
Provincetown Banner

Trump’s attacks on the free press

Anyone who thinks this administration — or any administration, national or local — doesn’t need the independent watchdog function of the press has not been reading newspapers.

Whitman
Whitman-Hanson Express/Plympton-Halifax Express

We stand for press freedom

While the Maryland shooting may have happened without Trump’s braying claims that journalists are “dangerous and sick” and “the enemy of the American people,” these verbal assaults make additional violence more likely. That is the real danger.

Nantucket
Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror

Editorial: The need for a free press

Every American citizen, regardless of political viewpoint or party, has a vested interest in supporting a free press, for journalists are the eyes and ears in communities across the country.

Chatham
Cape Cod Chronicle

Unmoored

When perception is skewed by ideology and propaganda, facts suddenly become negotiable. Thus we are unmoored, and our society drifts into swift and dangerous currents. Journalism isn’t designed to be comfortable. It’s designed to keep us off the rocks.

Hyannis
Cape Cod Times

Trump, tweets and the truth

he true enemy of any democracy is ignorance, and the only way to battle ignorance is through the aquisition of knowledge: a single set of well-researched, incontrivertible, unbiased facts.

Brockton
Brockton Enterprise

We are not the enemy

Brockton
The Enterprise

We are not the enemy

The true enemy of any democracy is ignorance, and the only antidote for ignorance is well-researched, unbiased, agreed-upon facts. As journalists, our role is providing you with the information you need to make informed choices.

Martha’s Vineyard
Martha’s Vineyard Times

Enemy of none

At an Islanders Write forum, “Politics and the Press: Covering the Chaos,” sponsored by The Times earlier this month, Melinda Henneberger of the Kansas Star told the audience how scary it is for the press to cover Trump: “We could always have conversations. They’d tease you, but were willing to talk. I began talking to a guy recently, and he began screaming, calling, ‘Fake news!’ I honestly became concerned he was going to his truck and get a gun,” she said.

Quincy
Patriot Ledger

We are not the enemy

The true enemy of any democracy is ignorance, and the only antidote for ignorance is well-researched, unbiased, agreed-upon facts. As journalists, our role is providing you with the information you need to make informed choices.

Plympton
Plympton-Halifax Express

While the Maryland shooting may have happened without Trump’s braying claims that journalists are “dangerous and sick” and “the enemy of the American people,” these verbal assaults make additional violence more likely. That is the real danger.

Southbridge
The Citizen Chronicle

Citizens and Journalists

Donald Trump’s broad-stroke claim that journalists are the enemy of the people is bold and provocative, but historically uninformed.

Boston
WBUR's Cognoscenti

Cog Contributors Respond To Attacks On The Press

We believe in facts. We believe in compassionate, relentless reporting. We believe in a free and independent press. We hope you do, too.

Carlisle
Carlisle Mosquito

There’s a reason the Bill of Rights protects journalism

Voters make better decisions when informed about what is happening in the world around them. Problems arise when people base their actions on incomplete or erroneous data. (Ever buy a house without inspecting it first?) Similarly, leaders will make better decisions if they possess accurate information.

Boston
Daily Free Press

EDITORIAL: Journalists are not the ‘enemy of the people,’ they are the people

Boston
The Nonprofit Quarterly

NPQ’s Statement Urging the White House to End Its Irresponsible Attacks on Journalism

Both nonprofits and the media are creatures of the First Amendment, in that a “free press” and a people’s “free and active association” are both considered to be essential for a healthy democracy and an informed citizenry.

Wellesley
The Swellesley Report

Is humble Wellesley news site an “Enemy of the People”?

Nothing much happens in Wellesley… That’s why you read Swellesley, to have this knowledge confirmed and to bear witness to our daily documentation of, well, the dailiness of a quiet community. What’s important about this isn’t so much what we do, it’s that we can do it.

Athol
Athol Daily News

Journalists are not the ‘enemy of the people’

Pittsfield
Berkshire Eagle

Our Opinion: Trump’s assaults on press are assaults on democracy

Boston
The Boston Globe

The press is not the enemy

A central pillar of President Trump’s politics is a sustained assault on the free press. Journalists are not classified as fellow Americans, but rather “the enemy of the people.” This relentless assault on the free press has dangerous consequences.

Northampton
Daily Hampshire Gazette

Journalists performing public service are not the enemy

Trump’s rhetoric has fueled some Americans’ distrust of journalists and further blurred the line between fact and opinion in the minds of some news consumers.

Lynn
Daily Item of Lynn

We (are not the enemy of) the people

The media — the people who have answered a calling to report the good, the bad, and the ugly that happen in our world — are not the enemy. We’re not some anonymous, amorphous entity. We’re friends, neighbors, husbands, wives, daughters and sons. We are the people committed to speaking truth to power and keeping you informed, educated, and entertained.

Milton
Milton Times

Keeping it local, keeping it real

Communities large and small function best when democracy is allowed to flourish with a free press.

Greenfield
Greenfield Recorder

Editorial: Journalists are not the ‘enemy of the people’

Arlington
YourArlington.com

“I am your friend, not your enemy”

The First and the Second amendments are equally important in their contexts, but note which comes first – protection of the press. Support for reporting and publishing what occurs daily in America marches to the head of the line, in front of establishing a “well-regulated Militia.” In the amendments to our Constitution, information trumps security.

Michigan

Detroit
Deadline Detroit

We Stand with Our U.S. Colleagues Against ‘Fake News’ Claims

The president, so they say, isn’t much of a reader, so perhaps he doesn’t know these words, attributed to Buddha: “Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth.”

Holland
Holland Sentinel

Our View: Power of the press a sacred trust with readers

Alpena
Alpena News

We stand for the First Amendment, defend the truth

Three Rivers
Three Rivers Commercial-News

Standing together

Unjustified criticism from the leader of the free world in an attempt to degrade our profession, oppress the free flow of information, and erode the people’s trust in the media cannot and will not stand.

Ironwood
Daily Globe

News media not the enemy

It’s important to stand up for the good work of the media that sheds light on the news of the day. Sometimes these are happy stories, sometimes they are not. Not everyone comes across looking as good as they want to.

Detroit
Detroit Free Press

Defending my profession amid ‘enemy of the people’ rhetoric

Grosse Point
Grosse Pointe News

OUR VIEW: Press call to action

The Grosse Pointe News agreed to participate, because we fear readers do not truly realize how dangerous it is to be labeling responsible media “enemy of the people” and accusing the press and news broadcasters of fabricating “fake news.” Most media consumers realize the anti-press rhetoric is meant to “muddy the waters” over negative reporting of government affairs, but we fear some less thoughtful readers and viewers might see the name-calling as a “call to action” of a more dangerous kind.

Houghton Lake
Houghton Lake Resorter

Freedom’s defender

We believe the newspapers that tell the stories of communities throughout this land, from the largest to the smallest, serve as beacons of freedom and hope.

Statewide
MLive Media Group (8 newspapers)

A free, independent press is America’s watchdog, not the enemy

Do we really want a country where public institutions go unchecked? Where the press is cowed and intimidated? Countries like that exist, of course. And they aren’t democracies.

Muskegon
The Muskegon Chronicle

A free, independent press is America’s watchdog, not the enemy

Do we really want a country where public institutions go unchecked? Where the press is cowed and intimidated?

Northwest Michigan
Northwest Michigan Voice

Editorial

Historically, tyrants have sought to eliminate a free press, so that the press cannot contradict or criticize the government. If the government can silence the press, it can also silence the citizen. If we value our right to freedom of speech, we owe it to ourselves to defend freedom of the press with all our might.

Minnesota

Montevideo
Montevideo American-News

The enemy of my enemy…

Trump’s repeated and blatant attacks on the media not only fan the flames of anger and distrust among his believers, but they are also a direct attack on the Constitution of the United States, and therefore could be considered as treasonous speech. There can be no doubt about his intentions: control the media, control the people.

Spring Valley
Bluff Country Newspaper Group (Chatfield News, Fillmore County News Leader, Spring Grove Herald, Spring Valley Tribune, Tri-County Record)

Constant attacks on free press transcend partisanship, threaten American values

His words embolden people at his political rallies to threaten the news people covering the events. They allow others to copy his “fake news” claim when unfavorable coverage appears. Even more concerning, people are becoming more agreeable to his view that he should have broad power to quiet those who challenge him.

Elbow Lake
Grant County Herald

Calling the press ‘enemy of the people’ will lead to violence

Benson
Swift County Monitor-News, Benson, MN Grant County Herald, Elbow Lake, MN

Attacks On Journalists Will Lead To Violence

That’s just about as real as it gets.

Duluth
Duluth News Tribune

Free press: Our protection from tyranny

An independent and free media — and local news in particular — is our protection from tyranny and our guard against the oppression of those who would take advantage of us. Our nation’s democracy hinges on the accountability and the checks and balances ensured by a responsible press.

Alexandria
Echo Press

Dirty war against media must end

Journalists are being undermined and attacked, not on the basis of facts but because someone powerful doesn’t agree with what they are reporting.

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

Nashua
Nashua Telegraph

Free press imperative

Throughout the newspaper’s history, the pages of The Telegraph have chronicled the presidency of New Hampshire native Franklin Pierce, the Civil War, the invention of the telephone, World War I and World War II, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a plethora of presidential candidates campaigning in the New Hampshire primary, and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, along with numerous other historical events.

Portsmouth
Seacoast Online

The president and the press

As the president and press corps battle it out on the national stage, we remain deeply committed to the mission of our news organization, which like real estate, is local, local, local. Ultimately, we are answerable to the readers and the communities we serve and it is to them we must remain credible.

Keene
Keene Sentinel

Precious priority: A free press

We strive to enlighten public discourse on topics of civic consequence; to ask tough questions on your behalf, following your hard-earned tax dollars and holding up for public accountability those in power who serve the citizenry

Manchester
Union Leader

Trump’s assault: ‘Enemy of the people’ slander

It is disturbing because too many Republican politicians, concerned solely with their own security at the next election, have abdicated any responsibility to call out Trump on this.

Concord
Concord Monitor

Enemies of the people

Journalists are compelled by the tenets of their chosen field to hunt for the truth regardless of who tells them to back off.

West Lebanon
Valley News

The Wider Danger in Trump’s Troubling Attacks on Journalism

For many years it has been the general practice here at the Valley News not to respond in kind to critics of our coverage, even when the paper’s motives and good faith are questioned. The working theory is that journalists are not and should not be in the business of getting into public arguments; that we expect public figures to have a thick hide, and it is unbecoming to display a thin skin when they push back; and, most of all, that our coverage rises or falls on its own merits, as determined by the readers we serve, not on the opinion of those whom we cover.

New Jersey

Malaga
The Sentinel of Gloucester County

Call for action to protect the freedom of the press

The job of a reporter is not about glamour and makeup like you often see on television. The majority of reporters and journalists work part-time and make under $30,000 a year. They usually receive no additional benefits. To lump all reporters and journalists in the same boat as ‘the enemy of the people’ is certainly not an accurate statement.

Jefferson Township
The Jefferson Chronicle

We Have Met the Enemy, and It Is Not Us

We believe this attack against the press has the propensity not only to turn into another historical misstep, but also to loosen a brick in the foundation of our democracy.

Trenton
The Trentonian

Information is critical to keep a free society free

Undermining the free press is a distinctly un-American message for someone with such patriotic branding.

Atlantic City
Atlantic City Weekly

Joining in solidarity with the Boston Globe, others

Verona
Insider NJ

We Stand Against Craven Attacks by Trump and for the Free Press

This President did not singlehandedly make routinely personal and profane what should be an independent but finally common cause of gravitas, but his ongoing attack on the media – his tweet fits at CNN and The New York Times among others, in addition to nullifying the solemnity of his own elected position, can only ultimately add to the world’s rancor, insecurity and ugliness, and instead of appealing to the better angels of our nature as Lincoln once urged, further diminish the sacred trust of E Pluribus Unum.

Secaucus
Jersey Journal

Attack on the press is an attack on America

True Americans must not tolerate these efforts to undermine the free press.

New Mexico

Belen
Valencia County News Bulletin

We are not the enemy; We are the people

When the leader of the free world works to erode the public’s trust in the media, the potential for damage is enormous, both here and abroad.

Santa Fe
Santa Fe New Mexican

Here since the beginning — a free press

The press is independent, designed to be a watchdog — on government, the powerful and any forces that operate secretly and without sunlight.

Albuquerque
Albuquerque Journal

A Check on Power: Journalism, free speech are what helped Make America Great in the first place

If we buy into this falsehood of the news media as “the enemy of the people,” we will be leaving our children and our grandchildren a weakened democracy vulnerable to the whims of tyrants. And that is the very antithesis of Making America Great again.

Los Alamos
Los Alamos Daily Post

Newspapers Across America Speak Out In One Voice Today Against Attacks On Press

We’ve been complacent. We thought everybody knew how important a free press was to our world and that all this talk about us being the enemy of the people would be dismissed for the silliness that it is. But the reckless attacks have continued, instigated and encouraged by our president.

Roswell
The Roswell Daily Record

Erosion of trust in media damages democracy

When there is an erosion in the public’s trust in the media, the potential for damage is enormous, both here and abroad. We once set an example of free and open government for the world to follow. Those who seek to suppress the free flow of information are doing so with impunity. The role journalism plays in our free society is critical.

Taos
The Taos News

Defending free press

Our reporters let readers know what is really happening in government. We sit through interminable government meetings and analyze them for readers. We dig through public records and interview officials, so our readers know what is happening with their tax money.

New York

Southampton
The Press News Group

Chasing ‘Stubborn Things’

They’re not just words. If the public can be convinced that journalists are no longer seeking truth, but are mere foot soldiers or ringleaders for political ideologies, it shakes the foundation of the free press. That, in turn, weakens the columns supporting this entire American experiment. The onus is on the media to be objective, fair and accuratebut it’s also on the readers, listeners and viewers to ignore sweeping generalizations that recklessly attempt to make reality malleable.

Northern New York
Johnson Newspaper Corp. 5 dailies and 12 weeklies

Pressing back on Trump: Attacking journalists hurts ability to hold officials accountable

The president wants his supporters to conclude that what they’re learning from media outlets isn’t real. Don’t trust your eyes and ears, he tells them: “Believe me!” Well, someone who has Mr. Trump’s history of lying can’t be taken at his word on this.

Geneva
Finger Lakes Times

A free press is not the enemy

No matter what our President, the most powerful man in the world, tweets or says in a misguided attempt to erode the public’s trust in the media, we will steadfastly stick to our belief that the role journalism plays in our free society is a critical one, so indispensable that even our earnest Founding Fathers had the foresight to seek to protect it nearly 250 years ago. It also is one of the components that truly makes America great.

New York
New York Daily News

Cut it out, Mr. President: Stop vilifying the news media

When a critical mass of our fellow citizens reflexively distrust everything that is written or broadcast because it is written or broadcast, reading not with intelligent skepticism but dismissive cynicism — or, more often, not reading at all unless a piece has the sickly perfume of propaganda — we lose the ability to expose and repair problems in our government.

Middletown
Times Herald Record

Editorial: If the press isn’t free neither are the people

Altamont
The Altamont Enterprise & Albany County Post

Journalism needs a champion — you.

Citizens have a responsibility to read, to listen to, to look for, and to embrace news from sources that will widen their perspectives and understanding. After all, since it is the people who hold sovereign power in our democracy, they must not be like King Tigranes and listen only to those with whom they agree. They must not kill the messengers — the journalists who tell the truth.

New York
The Hechinger Report

Congress shall make no law

It makes sense that people of great power and means dislike the press. We uncover uncomfortable truths, such as the fact that our schools remain segregated, that state-regulated child care programs can be unsafe and of low quality, and that public scholarship money doesn’t always reach the students who need it the most.

Queens
QNS. Queens Courier, Ridgewood Times

Hey Trump: We are not the enemy!

Who will bring attention to the problems we experience every day if the press isn’t there to report it? Who will hold government accountable for inaction, corruption and poor decisions if the press isn’t there to shed light on them? Do you honestly think that a state-run media would ever tell you the truth about anything?

Long Island
The Queens Courier and Ridgewood Times

Hey Trump: We are not the enemy! An editorial on the #FreePress

There’s nothing fake about the real threat that Donald Trump poses to the freedom of the press in this country.

Sag Harbor
The Sag Harbor Express

We Are the People

This week, we join a national movement of journalists coming together on editorial pages to state this clearly: we encourage debate, we welcome criticism and we are not perfect — we make mistakes, we correct our errors and learn from those moments — but we are not the enemy of the American people. We are the people. We aren’t fake news. We are your news and we struggle night and day to get the facts right.

Garden City
Garden City News

It trickles down

With cries of “Fake News” and suggestions that supporters assault reporters during rallies, President Trump has taken our country down a road we should be very afraid of.

White Plains
The Journal News/lohud.com

Let’s reaffirm the vital role of a #FreePress

We need politicians of good will to defend the Constitution-given right of reporters to ask tough questions and write controversial articles — especially when they don’t like the questions or the articles.

New York
New York Times

A Free Press Needs You

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to your local papers. Praise them when you think they’ve done a good job and criticize them when you think they could do better. We’re all in this together.

Rochester
Rochester City News

Trump, democracy, and freedom of the press

Imperfect as we are, the nation’s journalists are not enemies of the people. And when the president of the United States verbally attacks us, he is attacking something vital to the functioning of the country’s democracy.

Westchester and Putnam counties
Examiner Media: The Examiner, White Plains Examiner, Northern Westchester Examiner, Putnam Examiner

Newsprint Tariffs and Fake News Mantra a Threat to Democracy

Citizens from across the country, of all political stripes, must stand against the systematic attacks on journalism and journalists. Our democracy’s ability to breath healthily depends on it.

New York
The Marshall Project

What ‘Enemies Of The People’ Truly Means — And Why The Media Are Not

Mostly, the media are a pain in the neck to people in public office. We don’t live to serve the goals of people in power, even reform-minded ones. We live to point out wrongdoing, and if someone in power has the good sense to act upon our revelations, so much the better. If they don’t, we need to keep doing our job anyway.

Penn Yan
Chronicle Express

We are not the enemy of the people

Join our united message in support of free responsible speech because if the press is muzzled, you could be next and not one will be there to shine a light on it.

Queens
The Wave

Enemy of the People

The true enemy of the people? Ignorance and apathy.

North Carolina

Fayetteville
The Fayetteville Observer

‘Fake news’ and all the president’s taunts

Taking everything this president says as literally true can be a dangerous mistake, even for his most ardent supporters. And we see worrisome signs that many people in the Trump “base” would gladly restrict the freedom of the press to report and opine on the president’s actions.

Elizabeth City
The Daily Advance

We are not the enemy

In a democracy, the press is not supposed to shower public officials with accolades and praise every decision. We exist to ask questions, dig for facts and uncover the truth hidden behind public relations spin sessions. We ask the questions that members of the public cannot … We challenge authority, because officials are human beings who can make mistakes and sometimes make decisions based on self interest instead of public interest.

Greenville
The Daily Reflector

We are not the enemy

In a democracy, the press is not supposed to shower public officials with accolades and praise every decision. We exist to ask questions, dig for facts and uncover the truth hidden behind public relations spin sessions. We ask the questions that members of the public cannot … We challenge authority, because officials are human beings who can make mistakes and sometimes make decisions based on self interest instead of public interest.

Rocky Mount
The Rocky Mount Telegram

We are not the enemy

In a democracy, the press is not supposed to shower public officials with accolades and praise every decision. We exist to ask questions, dig for facts and uncover the truth hidden behind public relations spin sessions. We ask the questions that members of the public cannot … We challenge authority, because officials are human beings who can make mistakes and sometimes make decisions based on self interest instead of public interest.

Wilmington
Star News

Trump’s attacks on press go too far

We want to be very clear – our complaint is not with any Trump policy. Voters will get to judge the policy results. Our complaint is that the president, through the false and absurd claims that journalists are “enemies of the people” who “only make up stories,” is intentionally trying to undermine an institution the founders deemed important enough to protect with the First Amendment.

Greensboro/Winston-Salem
Triad City Beat

The enemy, the press and the lie.

Not too many industries are mentioned in the Bill of Rights, but ours is, right up front and center.

Shallotte
The Brunswick Beacon

Free press essential to our freedom

Regardless of political leanings, newspapers at their core are champions of the public’s right to know about the issues and events that affect it.

North Carolina
North Carolina Health News

First for a Reason

We’re simply holding our public officials and some of our institutions to account – on your behalf – because if we don’t, who will? And we’re not quitting. That’s because we all share the belief that journalism is essential to the functioning of our democracy.

Sylva
The Sylva Herald

We’re not the enemy - just ask the Founding Fathers

In 1792 Thomas Jefferson wrote, “No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will.”

North Dakota

Ohio

Canton
Canton Repository

Fake news’ label doesn’t fit local newspapers

We are an “enemy” only of those who stand in the way of truth.

Chagrin Falls
Chagrin Valley Times

Local news is real news

We are indeed your lens into your community. We are not your enemy. Unlike some posts on Facebook and other social media sites, we verify our facts before publication. We are not anonymous. We stand by the veracity of our work.

Elyria
Chronicle-Telegram

The media are not the enemy

Our mission is to serve the public good, in part by using the freedom granted us under the First Amendment to hold the powerful accountable.

Columbus
Columbus Dispatch

What’s the value of a free press? Judge for yourself

Our decision to speak out today — a day that newspapers across the country have chosen to send a similar message — is not about politics but about condemning unprofessional, uncivil and dangerous behavior. The president’s actions are a calculated effort to obfuscate the truth and undermine the ability of Americans to trust the most reliable sources of information on which to judge the conduct of government officials.

Athens
Athens News

In attacking journalists, Trump damages all Americans

This is terribly galling for the hundreds of thousands of journalists who do their jobs far away from the national stage.

Athens
The Athens NEWS

In attacking journalists, Trump damages all Americans

If you can make citizens believe that journalists can’t be trusted, that established mainstream media outlets are hopelessly biased, you accomplish the same thing as censorship, arrests, closures. A discredited journalist or news outlet no longer has the authority or ability to inform the public. He may as well be locked away in an underground prison cell.

Cincinnati
Cincinnati City Beat

We Are Not Your Enemy

CityBeat has been a voice in Greater Cincinnati for nearly a quarter of a century now, publishing a print edition weekly and producing regular content throughout the week online to try to help keep you informed of what is happening in your city. Over the past 24 years, we have faced intimidation and efforts to shut down our attempts to report on matters important to our community, from religious organizations to business leaders to government officials. We, of course, stand with the rest of our sisters and brothers in the press to say to all citizens, “We are not your enemy.”

Akron
Akron Beacon Journal

Not the enemy of the people

Quite often, that comes in terms of covering municipal and county meetings. People are busy and can’t always sit in on these kind of official gatherings. The press is there to sit in for those who can’t attend, to let them know what their leaders on the local level are doing. These meetings are sometimes, honestly, a bit boring, focusing on the formation of a task force to study this or that esoteric concept. At other times, they can mean you wake up one day with a gun range bordering your property, or a hog farm, or who knows what. It’s our job to give you a heads-up as to what’s coming down the pike.

Oklahoma

Oregon

Forest Grove
News-Times

The news isn’t ‘fake’ just because you see things differently

We are not the enemy of the people. We are the people. And our commitment, as always, is to you.

Hillsboro
Hillsboro Tribune

The news isn’t ‘fake’ just because you see things differently

We see “fake news” used as an epithet, and ad-hominem attacks hurled at people simply doing their jobs, by powerful people who do not appreciate that journalism is as American as apple pie.

Cannon Beach
Cannon Beach Gazette/Seaside Signal

America’s newspapers always by your side

Hood River
Hood River News

Friends of the People: ‘No educator to compare to the press’

The Dalles
Dalles Chronicle

Editorial: Media loyalty lies with the people

Eugene
Eugene Weekly

We are not the enemy.

Trump’s incessant threats are a real danger, not just to the people who write, photograph, edit and deliver the news — but to democracy itself.

Beavorton
Beaverton Valley Times

It’s time to stop the false attacks on the media

Reporters Peter Wong, Ray Pitz and Blair Stenvick sit through countless government meetings, long into the night, not to invent fake news, but to cover how your tax dollars are being used in your community by the people you elected

Estacada
Estacada News

Contray to reports, we are not your enemy

We tell the stories of our community — like today’s goofy front-page story about sandwich lovers, or of the concerns of the local school superintendent regarding the temporary loss of a school resource officer.

Forest Grove
Forest Grove News-Times

It’s time to stop the false attacks on the media

Photojournalists Jaime Valdez and Jonathan House don’t shoot fake events. They sprint from assignment to assignment, providing images of your neighbors, you community, your events

Gresham
Gresham Outlook

Contray to reports, we are not your enemy

On rainy January days, we’re the people’s eyes and ears at Gresham City Council meetings, or at Centennial School Board meetings

Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego Review

We all must stand agaist ‘Fake Attacks” on the free press

Sometimes we play the role of cheerleader, and we’re OK with that. Sometimes we have to tell uncomfortable stories, and we think we do a pretty good job of that, too

Woodburn
Woodburn Independent

The free press is loyal first to the people

We aren’t the enemy of the people…. We tell the stories of our communities, from the fun of the Fiesta Mexicana and the opening of a new shop in Mount Angel

West Linn
West Linn Tidings

Setting an example for the world

We aren’t the enemy of the people…. On rainy January nights, we’re the people’s eyes and ears at city council hearings and school board meetings.

Wilsonville
Wilsonville Spokesman

Setting an example for the world

We aren’t the enemy of the people…. On rainy January nights, we’re the people’s eyes and ears at city council hearings and school board meetings.

Portland
The Portland Tribune

We aren’t fake news. We are the people

Thomas Jefferson, who had his run-ins with journalists, nonetheless understood the importance of the free press. “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government,” he wrote, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Others

Pennsylvania

Levitt Town
Bucks County Courier Times

We’ve been complacent

Sunbury
Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.

Let’s be clear: We are not the enemy

There are tens of thousands of journalists who care about those communities who work hard for not a lot of money in many cases and who do not desrve to be derided or in fear of their personal safety for doing their jobs.

Ellwood City
Ellwood City Ledger

Ledger joins nationwide call to action to defend attacks on journalists as ‘enemy of the people’

In today’s world of the 24-hour news cycle, sometimes we make a mistake in the rush to sort through conflicting information and tell a story. We then do our best to correct the error and learn from it.

Gettysburg
Gettysburg Times

Real, honest and credible news

Erie
Erie Times News

Our view: Freedom of the press is your freedom

Allentown
Morning Call

Why newspapers are not the ‘enemy of the people’

No, we are not the “enemy of the people.” We feel so strongly that The Morning Call decided to write a rare editorial.

Philadelphia
Philadelphia Inquirer

Stop the war on a free press | Editorial

If the press is not free from reprisal, punishment or suspicion for unpopular views or information, neither is the country. Neither are its people.

Beaver
Beaver County Times

Journalists are not ‘enemy of the people’

Times joins nationwide call to action to defend attacks on journalists as ‘enemy of the American people’

Lancaster
LNP/LancasterOnline

Freedom of the press is essential in every community, including our own

We’re not going to ask President Trump to cease being annoyed by the media. We’d just urge him to manage his annoyance as Jefferson did. And to cut out the “enemy of the people” cracks. It’s a slur favored by tyrants, and it gives license to unstable people to threaten and harm journalists.

Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown Advocate

We Need Freedom of the Press, Not Freedom in Name Only

“The danger of Trump’s temper tantrums, though, is what happens when his supporters get caught up in them.”

Harrisburg
PennLive/The Patriot-News

“In the face of ‘fake news’ claims, here’s why local news matters more than ever

“The adversarial nature of journalism is to ask questions, challenge the status quo, be skeptical of motives and statements, dig past the “official” versions of events, give a voice to those whom power would silence and to publish unpleasant truths .

Scranton
Times Tribune

Free press still crucial to democracy

It would indeed be “fake news” if anyone in any form of news media proclaimed perfection. But by commitment, training, experience and an understanding of the role of journalism in our free society, journalists at The Times-Tribune and industrywide strive to get it right.

Puerto Rico

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Sherman
The Herald Democrat

A world without a free press is one without a safeguard of freedom

Journalists are called “fake” and worse because we listen when those in power speak and note what they say. By undermining the messenger, those in power try to discredit the message without having to answer the tough questions.

Marfa
Big Bend Sentinel and Presidio International

We are your friends, your neighbors, your local journalists

Dallas
Dallas Morning News

The First Amendment helps the people hold elected officials accountable

It said, “Rope, Tree, Journalist, some assembly required.”

Denton
Denton Record--Chronicle

We are not fake news — we are your news

But you also know we are fulfilling our responsibility when we ask the tough, probing questions of the candidate you supported, when we seek the records documenting the operation of the agency in which you serve, when we continue to call those elected leaders who never pick up the phone.

Houston
Houston Chronicle

The real enemy of the people? It’s not the press

Austin
Austin American-Statesman

Journalists are watchdog neighbors, not enemy of the people

It’s the job of Statesman reporters to bring you articles that may make you uncomfortable.

Longview
Longview News-Journal

The free press is not the nation’s enemy

We are not the enemy. We, like you, are the American people.

Texas
The Brownsville Herald, The Monitor, Valley Morning Star

Who we are

The job can be painful. We see our neighbors pulled from the wreckage of auto collisions; we are there when violence erupts in our neighborhoods. We share the families’ joy when their sons and daughters return from military deployment, and we share their pain when they return as casualties of war. Sometimes, we are those families. After all, our reporters are your neighbors. We shop beside you and attend church with you. Our children share local classrooms. And we care — how can we not, after witnessing the triumphs and tragedies, the joys and pains that mark our neighbors’ daily lives?

El Paso
The Prospector

The enemy of the people

President Trump and his supporters hate the media for those exact reasons: journalists shine a light on the government, corporations and its leaders.

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Long Beach
Chinook Observer

Join America’s free press in defense of freedom

The Chinook Observer isn’t your enemy. Neither is the rest of the American press. Be annoyed all you want at errors we make, or if we exhibit instances of bias, insensitivity or laziness. But don’t believe anybody who says we’re pursuing any agenda, other than digging out the truth and reporting it as well as we can.

Aberdeen
The Daily World

Trump’s press attacks have real consequences

When the president turns to propaganda and a phrase such as “enemy of the people,” it has a totalitarian ring that should concern us all, no matter where we are on the political spectrum. It divides us. It puts everyone on one side of the other. It’s no way to run a society.

Blaine
The Northern Light

No excuse for fake news rhetoric

Newspapers are the first to admit they are not perfect, but they are serious about what they see as their core roles: documenting the history of our towns and serving as watchdogs to protect the public interest.

Montesano
The Montesano Vidette

Hello, and I am not your enemy

However, what President Trump also is saying is “Trust only me.” There’s a saying in journalism that I learned about 20 years ago: If your mother tells you she loves you, get a second source. The news is not the enemy. Ignorance is the enemy.

Camas
Camas-Washougal Post-Record

Will you believe the propaganda or fight ‘fake news’ attacks?

Knowing now that a majority of Republicans — the same people I and my coworkers have been interviewing, photographing and using as trusted sources for decades — suddenly think we’re “enemies of the American people” is a gut punch.

Wisconsin

Ripon
Ripon Commonwealth Press

One thing worse than the ‘enemies of the American people’ …

But when the government falls short, the public may never know it if the press are silenced by a president who divides the nation by stomping on those who refuse to kiss his feet.

Beloit
Daily News

Truth can survive ‘fake news; it cannot survive disinterest

Kenosha
Kenosha News

Nothing ‘fake’ about this: Working hard to inform

So who is the “enemy of the people,” after all? Well, they shop in the same stores as you. They pay taxes just like you. They send children to schools just like you. They volunteer for organizations that help others just like you.

Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva Regional News

Time to stand up for a free press: We’re not the enemy of the people

If we’re unwilling to accept news that upsets us, or if we’re indifferent to differing views simply because we don’t want to deal with them, we’re essentially giving up on the notion we can ever truly be “one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Eau Claire
Eau Claire Leader-Telegram

Phrases damaging for free press

A re­port on a pol­icy or com­ment is not fake news sim­ply be­cause it is crit­i­cal of the sub­ject mat­ter. Jour­nal­ists work too hard at their craft to have a story brushed off sim­ply be­cause a flip­pant tweet or ill-in­formed com­ment takes is­sue with it.

Plymouth
The Plymouth Review

This dirty war against the press must end

When the idea that facts or truth exist is called a lie, that newspapers like ours—yours really—are an enemy of the American people, then anything a person of power wants to say, hear or have believed by others may come to be.

Gays Mills
Crawford County Independent

Etc.: Our Free Press

Fennimore
Fennimore Times

Don’t dismiss, debate

The nature of power is such that it must be constantly examined and held in check or it corrupts our institutions. When I listen to people attacking the news, I hear two voices, those who feel disempowered and those who seek to harness the collective power they represent. Whatever we may feel about the shortcomings of the media overall, they have been instrumental throughout our history by striving to hold up a light to the workings of power, that the people may harness the leaders of our institutions rather than our leaders harness the people.

Madison
Wisconsin State Journal

Trump is an enemy of the truth

Reporters may sometimes seem rude. They may ask sensitive or embarrassing questions. But documenting and holding accountable the leader of the free world — as well as his opponents — is what the media is supposed to do.

Milwaukee
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Editorial: As Founders intended, democracy functions best with a free, independent press

Often those in power react angrily when held accountable. Most recently it’s been by attacking any negative report as “fake news.” But politicians come and go, political parties move in and out of power. A free and independent press holds them all accountable, giving citizens the knowledge they need to stay in charge, just as our nation’s founders intended.

Dodgeville
The Dodgeville Chronicle

What we are, what we are not