We Must Push Back Against a White House Bent on Secrecy

It's no secret that President Donald Trump holds the mainstream media in low regard. He expressed his disdain as a populist GOP candidate barnstorming the country. As commander-in-chief, Trump raised the ante by calling the media "the enemy of the state.""A few days ago," Trump said in a Feb. 24 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, "I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are — they are the enemy of the people."Trump went on to say that "nobody loves" the First Amendment "better than me," while vowing "to do something" about the media.What the Trump Administration has done, unfortunately, is steadily take broad swipes at the free press, an institution that our Founding Fathers canonized as a cornerstone of our democracy. The latest and most glaring example of the administration's effort to put the press on a leash is its misguided decision to hold off-camera press briefings, except when letting the cameras roll serves a specific White House agenda.  Continue reading...