How Trump Endangers Press Freedom and Journalists

FEATURING JOHN LANGFORD – Donald Trump’s supporters heckled CNN’s White House Correspondent Jim Acosta at a rally in Tampa, Florida last Tuesday chanting “CNN sucks,” as well as, “traitor,” and “You’re a liar.” The rally attendees were channeling their President who has repeatedly pushed violent rhetoric against media outlets like CNN. Trump re-tweeted his son Eric’s post of a video of the heckling.

A CNN reporter on Wednesday asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether the Trump Administration condoned Acosta’s treatment by Trump supporters. Ms. Sanders said the President does not condone violence against journalists but qualified her statement saying the press needs to act responsibly.

Then on Thursday, at his Pennsylvania rally Trump continued to attack the media. He spoke at length about how the media covered his trip to England where he was late to visit the Queen and called the press “fake fake disgusting news.”

John Langford, Clinical Lecturer in Law, Abrams Clinical Fellow, and Associate Research Scholar at the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Abrams Institute, Yale Law School.