Hundreds Of Newspapers Denounce Trump's Attacks On Media In Coordinated Editorials

Their only agenda is the truce. That's a line from a San Diego Union Tribune editorial today talking about the nation's journalists and pushing back on President Trump said attacks on the press. The he joined with some 350 other papers across the country in an effort suggested by the Boston Globe the editorials explaining how journalists work and pointing out the stories they bring to light are meant as a rebuke to President Trumps claims of fake news. Meanwhile this morning in response to the newspaper editorials the president tweeted quote the fake news media is the opposition party unquote. Joining me is editorial and opinion director for the San Diego Union Tribune MATT HALL And Matt welcome to the show. Thanks for having me Maureen. What's your understanding of the purpose behind this effort. It's not simply to get back at the president is it. No I wouldn't characterize it that way at all. I would say that different editorial boards had different reasons for writing editorials today or not writing editorials today as you saw some major newspapers The Washington Post The L.A. Times San Francisco Chronicle did not write editorials and explained why for us we asked ourselves the question Should we write this. Should we write it on this day. And who's our audience for this. I think that's an important question the editorial board needed to ask our audience is not one person it's not the president of the United States. Even though his rhetoric is what caused 350 newspaper editorial boards to think through their thoughts and put them on paper in bits and bytes today you know our audience is our readers and our potential readers we want San Diego ins and those interested in San Diego to know that a free and fair press is crucial to democracy to communities like ours to the future and that we do good work every day. Yes we make mistakes we own them. We address them. We acknowledge and correct them and we move on and keep doing the great work that we do and that is not fake news. That term has kind of been you know manipulated and used as a weapon for far too long and the president's rhetoric has kept ticking up to the point where now not only his supporters but other politicians here in San Diego County and elsewhere use the term to kind of sidestep questions about their misdeeds or alleged misdeeds. And I think it's time for media members to say a free press is an invaluable part of society and to take a stand and today was that stand. What efforts of San Diego journalists did you highlight in your editorial. We talked about the hepatitis A outbreak particularly because that one was so top of mind for so long. It was such a kind of crazy story where you had a lot of politicians whose bureaucratic bungling and lapses in judgment and decision making went on for a long time and would have continued to go on were it not for local journalists at a number of outlets. Now that's what journalism does journalism holds the powerful accountable and empowers the powerless so that was a perfect anecdote for why the news media is real and necessary. Now some papers as you mentioned Washington Post San Francisco Chronicle etc. said they were not participating in this mass editorial effort because well they said they wanted to preserve their independence and also they suggested efforts like this can play into the president's hands. Do you think they have a point. They clearly have the point. And our editorial board was not all in. From day one on doing this we got the request from Marjorie Pritchard the deputy editorial page editor at The Boston Globe on Wednesday morning and for several days last week had discussions about whether and what to say. I pretty quickly came around to the idea that we needed to do it because my driving philosophy as editorial and opinion director has been if there's a conversation happening we want to be in that conversation and we want to be talking about those issues and listening to what other people are saying. So for me the question of what you know my colleagues in San Francisco John Diaz and in Los Angeles Nick Goldberg the way that their columns about their reasons not to do this. They explained that they wanted independent authority they wanted to know that they could write editorials whenever they wanted to write editorials that it was their schedule on their calendar that would dictate that I don't mind knowing and acknowledging that this is a coordinated effort and letting our readers know though that this was again individual journalists choosing individual words and trying to send a message of their own to an audience of their own. So I think that if you acknowledge that this is a coordinated effort there's a power to that. There is also a peril to that. And what we tried to do was once we decided to write this editorial to acknowledge that head on. But to say even so it was worth the risk to let you dear reader dear listener dear viewer know that what we do every day is try to get it right . Now you include the phrase in your editorial quote Even if sudden violence stuns are industry unquote. Is that a reference to the shooting at the Capitol Gazette in Maryland. And if so do you think President Trumps attacks on the press can take some of the blame for that event. I'm not sure that you can link Trump's attacks on the press to that shooting in Annapolis. And to be clear that reference that line was not a reference to Annapolis. I probably could have been clearer there. It was a reference to potential future incidents. That line followed shortly thereafter one in which I quoted a Quinnipiac University poll that just came out a couple days ago that showed pretty stunningly that 44 percent of people responding to that poll believe that the president's words may incite violence that's inflicted on members of the news media. Now that's pretty stunning. You know people get up and do their jobs every day and don't expect it to not come home and be able to hug their spouse or see their kids. I'm not saying that his rhetoric is going to lead to that. But Bret Stephens in the New York Times had a pretty interesting column about a week ago that the president may have blood on his hands if this happens because the rhetoric is escalating to unseen heights. Like you said just today he tripled down quadruple down and use the phrase opposition party. You know this is not about politics. You had boards who see themselves on the conservative side boards who see themselves on the liberal side weighing in today because this is a defense of the work that we do every day more so than an attack on a president's policies. Now this week the San Diego Union Tribune added a page to its Web site that explains how journalists at the paper do their work. What can people find on that page. Thank you for bringing that up and I also encourage your listeners to look for that. It's Estey Utica U.S. slash what we do. That page is crucial that page hopefully will be remembered long after this editorial is forgotten because that page is going to live on our Web site every day. And what it explains is how we do our job. Journalist maybe we didn't think the public would care. But you know what the public should care and they should demand of their media outlets. How do you do your job. Because then that helps restore trust. And at the very least it is an explanation of what we do and we're in the explanation business. But I think to long for for far too long we haven't really explained what we do ourselves. That's kind of ironic. And it's about to change. I've been speaking with editorial and opinion director for the San Diego Union Tribune. MATT HALL Matt thank you. Thank you Maureen.