NY Times publisher warns of 'anti-press campaign,' misinformation

The publisher of The New York Times is warning about what he says is a trend of misinformation permeating public discourse and an increasingly hostile posture toward the press taken by leaders around the world.

"This anti-press playbook is now being used here in this country — and it could not come at a more difficult time for the American press," Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger said as part of a speech at the University of Notre Dame that was published in a Times op-ed.

The business model that funded original reporting is failing, Sulzberger said.

"In short, a vastly smaller, financially weakened and technologically disintermediated profession now finds itself facing the most direct challenge to its rights and legitimacy, as well," he wrote.

President Trump, the Times's top executive said, "has been unusually aggressive in his use of anti-press rhetoric, and his supporters have been equally aggressive in going after his targets."

"Their goal is not just to spook journalists. It’s to train people to dislike and distrust the media," he added.

Trump and his allies have routinely ridiculed mainstream media outlets, including the Times, and during his first few months in office have sought to elevate more right-leaning and so-called "new media" outlets.

The president has at the same time threatened to use the regulatory power of the federal government to put pressure on major broadcast networks and media conglomerates.

"These efforts are portrayed as an expansion of perspectives. That would be a worthy goal. But in reality they are attempts to replace skeptical questions with supportive ones, independent accounts with recitations of the party line," Sulzberger said. "Engaging with the news is one of the simplest, most essential acts of citizenship. This is not the time to tune out."