Donald Trump missed the White House Correspondents Dinner, the first time that a president has done so since Ronald Reagan, who passed on the invitation because he was recuperating from his assassination attempt in 1981. No president has ever had a relationship with the press anywhere remotely close to the bizarrely hostile one that Donald Trump has with various media outlets and shows, among them CNN, "Deface The Nation," and of course his favorite, "The Failing New York Times." (Just FYI, the New York Times has expanded the staff of both its Washington and New York bureaus and its subscription rate has climbed since the election.)
ABC's Johnathan Karl asked Reince Priebus today to comment on a recent Trump tweet about changing the libel laws so that the New York Times could be sued. Preibus responded that, "it's something that we've looked at." Here's the transcript from ABC, "This Week:"
KARL: So I want to move on, before you go, we have a segment coming up with Ann Coulter and Robert Reich. Of course, there's a big controversy at Berkeley over freedom of speech.
I want to ask you about two things the president has said on related issues.
First of all, there was what he said about opening up the libel laws, Tweeting, "The failing "New York Times" has disgraced the media world, gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change the libel laws."
That would require, as I understand it, a constitutional amendment.
Is he really going to pursue that?
Is that something he wants to pursue?
PRIEBUS: I think it's something that we've looked at and how that gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story. But when you have articles out there that have no basis or fact and we're sitting here on 24-7 cable companies writing stories about constant contacts with Russia and all these other matters that (INAUDIBLE)...
KARL: Do you think the president should be...
PRIEBUS: -- no basis at all...
KARL: -- to sue "The New York Times."..
PRIEBUS: I think that...
KARL: -- for stories he doesn't like?
PRIEBUS: Here's what I think. I think that newspapers and news agencies need to be more responsible with how they report the news. I am so tired...
KARL: I don't think anybody would disagree with that. It's about...
PRIEBUS: But everyone...
KARL: -- whether or not the president should have a right to sue them.
PRIEBUS: And I already answered the question. I said this is something that is being looked at. But it's something that as far as how it gets executed, where we go with it, that's another issue. But I think this is a frustration of unnamed sources, of things that the FBI has told me personally...
KARL: Yes.
PRIEBUS: -- is complete BS, written in a newspaper article, in my office, one-on-one, this here is not true.
KARL: And...
PRIEBUS: And guess what?
But it's sitting there on the front page.
So how is it possible?
And what do we have?
Twenty-four seven cable about a story about intelligence that the actual intelligence agency says is not true.
Trump declared war on the First Amendment last February at a campaign rally. Here’s what was said.
“I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,” Trump said. “We’re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace, or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”
That’s the back story. Then we have Reince. Reince is such a good little lap puppy. His master tweets, and Reince is there with the party line, backing to the hilt Trump's latest vow to destroy the constitution. This is the very same constitution which GOP, elected officials in any event, are sworn to uphold.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans with respect to freedom of the press is so unparalleled as to be laughable. Minutes after Priebus finished with Karl, Ann Coulter came on, and Karl asked Coulter the same question he asked Priebus, whether Trump's war on the media sets a dangerous precedent for free speech. Coulter, true to form, ignored the question, instead braying about:
“The radical insulated left on the college campuses. And the entire left wing, including President Barack Obama and Bill Maher, are on the other side. And what useless institutions our universities are,” she continued. “The lefties are on the side of the thugs. They’ve taken over the universities. I don’t think anyone learns anything at college anymore. It’s a four year vacation. And I think that’s what people ought to be looking at because the taxpayers are supporting these universities."
Robert Reich addressed the question at hand, unlike Coulter, and here is what he said:
“The libel laws should not be widened [as Trump has suggested],” Reich explained. “We really do need a free press. One thing that concerns me about the present administration is the willingness of the administration to not only talk about widening the libel laws and also criminal laws — flag burning — but even the president of the United States, last night, using a [rally] in Harrisburg to summon his supporters and criticize the press once again.”
“This is dangerous,” Reich added. “I mean, if we believe in the First Amendment, we believe in a free and independent press.”
Reich is correct. A free and independent press is endemic to a free and independent society. Inversely, the erosion of a free press is a dangerous sign of the erosion of other fundamental values. Freedom of the press is freedom of thought and expression and that has to be preserved at all costs. Of all of the dangers that Trump has posed to this republic, the danger to free speech is arguably the worst.