The Boston Globe is reaching out to editorial boards across the country in an attempt to publish coordinated attacks on President Donald Trump’s criticism of media outlets unfavorable to him.
The Associated Press reports that the Globe is calling for media outlets to publish editorials denouncing what it called a “dirty war against the free press.” Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor of the Globe’s editorial page, told the AP: “We are not the enemy of the people,” as Trump has called the media.
Pritchard told the AP that 70 news outlets, including the Denver Post, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, and Minneapolis Star Tribune have all agreed to publish editorials critical of Trump’s treatment of the media on August 16.
“The newspaper’s request was being promoted by industry groups such as the American Society of News Editors and regional groups like the New England Newspaper and Press Association,” the AP reported. “It suggested editorial boards take a common stand against Trump’s words regardless of their politics, or whether they generally editorialized in support of or in opposition to the president’s policies.”
Pritchard told the AP the paper made the decision to reach out after Trump recently escalated his rhetoric against the press. At a political rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Trump asked his audience: “What ever happened to the free press? What ever happened to honest reporting?” and claimed the media “make up stories.”
Pritchard called this “an attack on the First Amendment” and said she hoped the editorials would “educate readers” that such comments were “unacceptable.”