Free press under fire
Presidents, like all elected officials, dislike what they term “negative press” — almost always factual reports on their actions and policies — but President Trump has taken this to the basement level.
His adolescent name-calling is a daily feature, almost always directed at individual women journalists, telling them to “shut up,” calling one “piggy.” Another woman reporter was told “you’re a stupid person.” One was asked why she didn’t smile more. Another was described by Mr. Trump as “ugly, inside and out.” And of course, there are the general descriptions of reporters as “scum,” “treasonous,” “seditious,” “true enemies of the people,” adding “we should do something about it.”
And he has.
The administration is banning media outlets from official government sites, places paid for by your tax dollars, such as the White House, the Pentagon and Air Force One. And, by his direction, his administration is going after individual reporters and the companies they work for, mounting multiple lawsuits. In almost every single case these lawsuits are dismissed or soon will be. But the suits are not really about winning the case; they’re about forcing individuals and companies to fight them, spending massive sums on lawyer’s fees and tying them down in court for months. The process, as they say, is the punishment.
Another example of the all-out war on press freedom is the laughable banning of the Associated Press from the White House because the esteemed worldwide press outfit wouldn’t go along with the notion of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. The AP had to sue to gain access for its readers and subscribers. Laughable, but punishing.
This constant blowhard-barrage creating a crisis for democracy never ceases. The Freedom of the Press Foundation found that, as of Aug. 31, since 2015 Mr. Trump has made more than 3,720 entries on social media maligning the press and spreading falsehoods. That’s one a day for 11 years.
And this vile stuff filters down.
As we have mentioned before in this space, two years ago there was a police raid on the office of the Marion County Record, circulation 2,035, in Marion, Kan. The local police chief had axes to grind with the paper and directed his officers to go to the Record’s office and seize computers, notes and cellphones. The paper refused to be intimidated and hit their deadline without the equipment. The paper had one of the immortal front-page headlines in American journalism history: “Seized … But not silenced.”
The Freedom of the Press Foundation reported that 2025 marked “one of the most dangerous periods for journalists in U.S. history … Journalists were tear-gassed, beaten, and arrested … Press freedom violations in the U.S. rose almost 30% from 2024.”
Why do people attack freedom of the press? Easy. Because they’re encouraged every day to do it. And they think they can get away with it. But they won’t. The headline of the gallant Marion County Record is our rallying call.
