Last Call For (Red) Meat The Press, Con't

The print media finally unites against the fascism of Trump regime, but at this point when journalism is considered to be as disgusting a profession as possible by Americans, and a plurality of Republicans want Trump to have the power to eliminate news organizations that criticize him, does it even matter anymore?

"The dirty war on the free press must end."

That's the idea behind an unusual editorial-writing initiative that has enlisted scores of newspapers across America.

The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a "coordinated response" to President Trump's escalating "enemy of the people" rhetoric.

"We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date," The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers.

The effort began just a few days ago.

As of Saturday, "we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days," Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN.

The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word.

"The response has been overwhelming," Pritchard said. "We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism."

Instead of printing the exact same message, each publication will write its own editorial, Pritchard said.

That was a key part of her pitch: "The impact of Trump's assault on journalism looks different in Boise than it does in Boston," she wrote. "Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming."

Sadly, this is an idea that would have been a hundred times more effective on August 16, 2016, rather than August 16, 2018.  But Trump has everything he needs from the media now, and they will remain a convenient enemy for him to terrorize until they either submit to him, or go out of business.

What the news media needs to do is starve Trump of attention, to cut him off and stop covering him, then across the board, start supporting local Democrats.  They won't, and as long as they refuse to do so, Trump will continue to use them, more journalists will be hurt or possibly killed, and Trump will use them to serve his purposes.

America has a choice in November, but so do the media.