President Trump, in another broadside against the news media, on Monday accused "the dishonest press" of failing to report terrorist attacks.
Speaking to troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, Trump cited a series of recent attacks, and then added, "It's gotten to a point where it's not even reported, and in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn't even want to report it."
Trump told the troops that the media "have their reasons, and you understand that."
Trump cited no examples of the media's failure to report terrorist attacks. Such attacks are generally reported with blanket coverage on TV, and receive wide attention in other media.
On board Air Force One as he returned to Washington with the president, press secretary Sean Spicer said terror attacks "aren't exactly covered to a degree on which they should be":
"[The president] felt members of the media don't always cover some of those events to the extent that other events might get covered. Protests will get blown out of the water, and yet an attack or a foiled attack doesn't necessarily get the same coverage."
But Spicer did not specify which attacks he meant, only saying there were "several instances." He said the White House would issue a list of underreported terror attacks to substantiate Trump's claim.
Numerous journalists have been killed by terrorists, including freelance reporter James Foley, who was the first American to die at the hands of ISIS in 2014. Many others have died covering fighting related to the war on terrorism, including NPR photographer David Gilkey and translator Zabihullah Tamanna, who were killed last June while covering the fighting in Afghanistan. The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps a tally of journalists killed each year.
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