Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- February 24, 2017
- Targets
- Media
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., February 24, 2017.
In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 24, 2017, Trump referred to the media as the “enemy of the people.”
A week earlier, Trump had tweeted “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @CNN, @NBCNews and many more) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people. SICK!”
During the CPAC conference, Trump referenced his earlier tweet, saying that he called the “fake media” the enemy of the people because they had no sources. He also said that the phrase only replied to “dishonest” reporters.
During the conference, Trump also said that journalists should not be allowed to use anonymous sources. “They shouldn’t be allowed to use a source, unless the use somebody’s name,” he said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
