The publisher of the New York Times on Sunday said he warned President Trump that his repeated attacks on the “fake news” media are “divisive” and could lead to violence.
“I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous,” A.G. Sulzberger said in a statement released just hours after Trump tweeted about their White House meeting.
“I told him that although the phrase ‘fake news’ is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists ‘the enemy of the people,”” Sulzberger continued. “I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.”
The president started the ball rolling earlier Sunday when he announced that he had met with Sulzberger and the two talked about his views of news coverage and why he described the media as the “enemy of the people.”
“Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times,” Trump posted on Twitter. “Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, “Enemy of the People.” Sad!”
His tweet prompted Sulzberger to release his take on the July 20 meeting also attended by Times editorial page editor James Bennett.
The meeting, according to a Times NYT, -1.84% spokeswoman, was supposed to be off the record, but Trump’s tweet changed that designation.
Sulzberger said he attended the meeting to “raise concerns about the president’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric.”
“I repeatedly stressed that this is particularly true abroad, where the president’s rhetoric is being used by some regimes to justify sweeping crackdowns on journalists,” Sulzberger’s statement said. “I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our country’s greatest exports: a commitment to free speech and a free press.”
He also said he told Trump that the president was free to air his criticism of news coverage but to be careful about waging a war against journalism.
“I made clear repeatedly that I was not asking for him to soften his attacks on The Times if he felt our coverage was unfair,”
Sulzberger said. “Instead, I implored him to reconsider his broader attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country.”
