Archer begins the article by explaining that while Trump’s attacks on the news media have gotten a lot of attention, he is not the first president to have issues with journalists and try to control what the media publishes about the government. The tension between the government exists because the media’s job is to give the public the information they need, which sometimes means exposing information that the government may not want everyone to know. According to Archer, this tension is natural and has existed since the beginning of the United States. She compares Trump’s criticism of the media to Nixon, who also called the press “the enemy of the people” and even sued the New York Times for publishing information about the Vietnam War. By attacking journalists’ credibility, politicians can detract attention from the issue being reported about and prevent it from influencing followers away from supporting them.
Despite this long history of tension between the government and the media, Archer argues that Trump’s attacks are unprecedented. One reason for this is that his attacks are extremely public. While Nixon had similar views about the press to Trump’s, most of his inflammatory comments were made in private. However, Twitter has given Trump the ability to attack the media much more publicly and frequently than any other president. Archer also talks about how attacks on the media have exacerbated divisions within our society because when elites question the media’s credibility, it “creates a permission structure for citizens to dismiss anything they disagree with as fake news.” These divisions have led to an increased demand for news outlets with partisan bias such as Fox News and MSNBC.
I like the comment you made that emphasizes the fact that Nixon made the comments relatively in private. I think that is a key difference between the two presidents. and while archer does note that it gives people a reason to dismiss anything they disagree with it also gives the media a chance to placate their audience more by sensationalizing a story their base will read, it’s a double edged sword that is pushed further and further by media and the president.