Despite recent attacks on the credibility of the American mainstream media, particularly those emanating from the White House, there are still some people willing to give up their Sunday morning to defend the press.
A crowd of demonstrators convened by a group called Get Organized BK marched through Manhattan from the headquarters of the New York Times to other media offices to show their support for news outlets across the political spectrum, the Times reports.
“It’s a New York Sunday tradition: coffee, bagels, and a FREE PRESS,” read a sign held by one of the demonstrators, according to the Times. The paper was one of a number of outlets—including CNN and Politico—recently barred from a White House press briefing, the latest escalation in the new administration’s feud with the media.
President Donald Trump has recently referred to the media as the “enemy of the American people,” rhetoric that many have pointed out has oft been used by dictators to delegitimize their critics. The President and his surrogates have also repeatedly sought to undermine confidence in the nation’s press by referring to certain outlets and reporters as “fake news,” falsely claiming that they make up sources and spread fabricated narratives.
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“I don’t look at us as the enemy of the White House,” Executive Editor Dean Baquet said in response. “I look at us as people who are aggressively covering the White House.”
This weekend’s demonstration attempted to show solidarity with outlets across the political divide; marchers began at the Times’ Eighth Avenue building, walked to the offices of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and NBC, ending back at the Times, the paper reports.
