President Trump ripped the New York Times on Sunday for its planned Oscars ad — and hours later the paper’s executive editor called the media takedowns “dangerous.”
“For the first time the failing @nytimes will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. Try reporting accurately & fairly!,” Trump tweeted.
The Times’ 30-second ad in stark black and white begins by stating “the truth is our nation is more divided than ever” and continues by listing other truths – “media is dishonest,” alternative facts” – before concluding with “the truth is more important now than ever.”
Executive Editor Dean Baquet shrugged off Trump’s Twitter attacks and comments about news outlets by saying he’s just trying to reduce the power of the media.
“They’re actually designed to minimize the institutions charged with keeping him accountable. I think that’s dangerous,” he said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
And he said rather than delivering a blow to the newspaper, Trump’s ranting against the news media is actually good for business.
“Every time he tweets it drives subscriptions wildly,” Baquet said.
The Times was among a number of media outlets that were excluded from a news conference on Friday with White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
The president also singled out the the newspaper in a tweet about fake news on Friday, saying “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth. A great danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!,” he said.
His tweet came hours after Trump addressed a conservative conference where he wailed on the media about reporting fake news and the use of unnamed sources in stories.
“A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are – they the enemy of the people,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference gathering in Maryland.
Then on Saturday, Trump said he wouldn’t attend this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner, an annual gathering of political reporters and celebrities.
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