Trump says newspapers are in 'collusion' on championing a free press
President Donald Trump has lashed out at the press as newspapers across the US launched a co-ordinated rebuttal to his attacks against what he calls "fake news".
In a series of morning Twitter posts, Trump said The Boston Globe was "in collusion" with other newspapers for leading the editorial effort. Trump added in a tweet, "PROVE IT!" though it was unclear what he meant.
Trump tweeted that he supports a free press but much of what the US press prints is "fake news".
Earlier, newsrooms across the US hit out against Trump with a co-ordinated series of editorials condemning his attacks on "fake news" and his suggestions that journalists are the enemy.
The Boston Globe invited newspapers across America to stand up for the press with editorials on Thursday, and several began appearing online a day earlier.
Citing an Ipsos poll, the Globe pointed out that nearly half - 48 per cent - of supporters for Trump's Republican Party endorse the sentiment that "the news media is the enemy of the American people".
In St Louis, the Post-Dispatch called journalists "the truest of patriots", while the Chicago Sun-Times said it believes most Americans know Trump is talking nonsense.
The Fayetteville Observer said it hopes the President will stop making such accusations, "but we're not holding our breath".
Some newspapers used history lessons to state their case. The Elizabethtown Advocate in Pennsylvania compared free press in the United States to such rights promised but not delivered in the former Soviet Union.
Opinion writers at McClatchy put out an editorial for the 30 daily newspapers it runs, including the Miami Herald, saying they hardly ever spoke with one voice but were doing so now. It said "enemies of the people" was "what Nazis called Jews. It's how Joseph Stalin's critics were marked for execution".
The New York Times added a pitch.
"If you haven't already, please subscribe to your local papers," said the Times, whose opinion section also summarised other editorials across the country.
"Praise them when you think they've done a good job and criticise them when you think they could do better. We're all in this together."
That last sentiment made some journalists skittish.
The Wall Street Journal, which said it was not participating, noted in a column by James Freeman that the Globe's effort ran counter to the independence that editorial boards claim to seek.
AP