Trump Escalates Attacks on Press
The Stakes in the Attempt to Silence the Media
Updated February 26, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Friday, February 24, Trump and his regime further intensified their dangerous and outrageous assaults on the press. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in a speech filled with fascist venom, Trump’s major focus of attack was on the media. He said, “A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people because they have no sources—they just make it up.” And he claimed, “They are very smart, they are very cunning, they are very dishonest. It doesn’t represent the people; it never will represent the people.” He demanded that the press name their sources and claimed “they just make them up when there are none.”
Just a couple of hours after this, the regime made an unprecedented move to bar a number of specific news organizations from a White House press event. Reporters from the New York Times, CNN, Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed News, and Politico were refused entry into a scheduled briefing by Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer. Only those handpicked by the regime were allowed in, including reactionary outlets like Breitbart News, Washington Times,and One America News Network, and several others like ABC, CBS, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. Reporters from Time magazine and the Associated Press had been among those given permission to attend the briefing but chose not to participate—in protest of the White House actions, according to the New York Times.
New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said of the barring of specific news organizations: “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.” In fact, this is indeed part of an unprecedented presidential assault on the U.S. press, and it must be opposed.
The media being targeted perform a specific function under capitalist-imperialist rule. They report the news through a framework which assumes the basic good intentions of the U.S. government and ruling class around the world, and the basically just character of the social relations of U.S. society. As part of this, they shape the terms of debate around key social questions. Within these constraints and framework, they at times investigate and expose abuses and outrages and air some dissenting opinions, in part to check one or another part of the ruling class from getting too powerful and also to point to abuses that, from the point of view of some defenders of the system, should be brought to light and reformed.
They also adhere, as part of this, to some standards of objective reporting—again, coming from a long-term view of preserving the system. Such was the case during the Vietnam War, in which many reporters, at least initially coming from a standpoint of defending what they understood to be democratic ideals and even U.S. interests, as well as objectively reporting the truth, brought to light important crimes being committed by American forces. At that point, these reporters and the institutions they worked for incurred the wrath of the Johnson and Nixon administrations, but even then nothing close to what is being done now was attempted in terms of intimidation and suppression (though in later wars the U.S. government took care to much more closely rein in and control reporters).
What the Trump regime is now carrying out with unprecedented vigor is an attempt to stop the media from conducting any exposures or investigations of the administration and even from contesting what are clearly distortions of objective reality or outright fabrications. This will serve to suffocate any dissent.
These and other assaults on the press are part of how the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist juggernaut is moving rapidly to break down and essentially eliminate the historical institutions and norms of bourgeois-democratic rule in order to replace those, through the iron fist of fascism, with new norms that serve the Trump/Pence agenda. In addition, this battle is one concentration of the overall struggle going on between different sections of the bourgeoisie brought on by Trump’s attempt to consolidate a fully fascist regime.
And in doing this, the Trump/Pence regime is further rallying and mobilizing their fascist social base—when Trump says the “dishonest” media do not represent the “people,” he is counting only those who support him and his regime among the “people.” Others are inconsequential or even the “enemy.”
Part of the logic and dynamics of fascism is the need to shut down critical thinking and the ability of people to figure out what is true. The Trump/Pence fascists cannot allow any press that doesn’t obediently swallow and repeat the lies that come out of the regime, that raise any question about the narrative they are spewing out. That is why the regime is moving decisively and rapidly to force the press to be compliant and loyal to them—or silence and suppress them through the force of the state and by rallying the fascist base against them.
On Freedom of the Press and Media
The New Socialist Republic in North America will be a revolutionary society aiming for the final goal of a communist world, where human beings everywhere would be free of relations of exploitation and oppression and destructive antagonistic conflicts, and could be fit caretakers of the Earth. This new socialist society will handle the question of freedom of the press in light of that goal.
From CONSTITUTION for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal)
by Bob Avakian
The following is an excerpt from Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution.
I. The Media.
1. In line with the socialist orientation and principles regarding the development of the economy–and with the orientation and principles set forth in this Constitution as a whole–the ownership and use of the major media in the New Socialist Republic in North America shall be in the hands of the government and under its ultimate direction, and specifically that of the Executive Council of the central government. At the same time, as discussed below, various media that are independent of the government shall not only be allowed but, to a significant degree, funded (and otherwise facilitated) by the central government, acting through the Executive Council and agencies and other instrumentalities it may establish for this purpose (see 4, below).
2. It shall be the orientation of the media directly owned and run by the government to provide the people in society with truthful and important information and analysis regarding affairs of state, the functioning of government, and other significant developments in society and the world. In the gathering and presentation of such information and analysis by the government media, the orientation and principles that are emphasized above (in parts F and G, relating to education and science) with regard to the pursuit of the truth and the criterion of truth, shall be applied and given particular importance, as the purpose in presenting such information and analysis is to contribute in significant ways to the ability of the people to understand and act to transform society, and the world, in the interests of humanity. And, in the service of this same objective, in addition to the funding and facilitation of alternative media independent of the government, significant allowance must be made, and time and opportunity provided, for the presentation, through the government media themselves, of a diversity of viewpoints and analysis, including ones which differ from and are in opposition to those presented by the government and its representatives. All this will be in accord with, and an application of, the principle of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity.”
3. In addition to the dissemination of information and analysis of current events, affairs of state and other important developments in society and the world (“news programs” and “news media”) the media owned and operated under the direction of the government shall provide an increasing volume and variety of music, drama, comedy and other artistic works which will aim to be of the highest artistic quality and with a content consistent with the principles set forth in this Constitution. (See also part J, below, regarding Art and Culture.)
4. Besides the media owned and operated under the direction of the government, provision must be made and funds and other resources allocated for the establishment and operation of media which are independent of the government and which may present views and opinions that are in opposition to those put forward by the government at any given time through its media (and in other ways). For this purpose, various bodies and other agencies shall be appointed, under the ultimate direction of the central Executive Council, to review applications and grant licenses, funding and other resources, for such independent media. In the determination of which applications shall be granted, the criterion must not be agreement with the government, but on the contrary to facilitate the promotion and dissemination of a diversity of views and opinions, with a significant representation of views and opinions that may run contrary to those of the government at any given time, including even some which may oppose not only particular policies and actions of the government but the basic principles and objectives of the New Socialist Republic in North America. In this connection, what is discussed in Article III, Section 2 concerning freedom of speech and other rights has importance as a basic guideline.
5. In addition to media which receive government funding and other resources but which operate independently of the government, there will also be, and be allowance for, many different means of communication belonging to individuals, including those connected to the internet, and various media generated through the efforts and personal resources of individuals. Besides the ways in which this can serve as a means of individual expression, of various kinds, it can also contribute to the larger atmosphere of lively and substantive exchange of and wrangling over different ideas and viewpoints. In accordance with the orientation and principles set forth here, “self-generated” media, and in general media independent of the government, may seek to raise funds and acquire resources, beyond those which may be provided by the government, so long as these funds and resources are utilized solely for the operation of these media and do not lead to, or involve, the accumulation of private capital and the employment of people as wage workers, except as might be specifically authorized through the economic plan of the state, or by an agency of the government authorized to make such a decision in the context of the overall economic plan.
6. Through funds and other resources provided by the government–not to exceed ½ of the value of that provided for the independent media discussed above–and through support it receives directly from its own members and others more broadly in society, the Revolutionary Communist Party may also maintain and establish media directly under its leadership, to propagate its full program and viewpoint, the principles and methods of the Party itself and their application to various spheres of social and international relations, and to analyze current events and important developments in society and the world, and other major questions relating to politics as well as philosophy, science, art and culture and in general matters which are of importance to society and the people and the advance to communism.
7. All this is, once again, an application of the principle of “solid core, with a lot of elasticity,” a key means for enabling the broad masses of people to be exposed to, and to debate and “thrash out,” various ideas and viewpoints, in order to more deeply engage, come to understand, and transform the world in the interests of humanity. And, once again as well, all this must be “embraced” by the “solid core”–with the Revolutionary Communist Party as the most decisive leading element–and enabled to contribute, through many divergent paths, to the advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism.
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