Why the UFC is a perfect platform for Donald Trump’s political ideology
The president helped the promotion rise at a time when it was struggling to survive, and Dana White has been a loyal friend
Karim Zidan
Thursday 16 Aug 2018 19.00 AEST
Donald Trump helped Dana White’s UFC regain legitimacy at a time when it was struggling
Donald Trump helped Dana White’s UFC regain legitimacy at a time when it was struggling. Composite: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Tasos Katopodis/WireImage
Earlier this month UFC president Dana White and interim welterweight champion Colby Covington visited the White House and met with Donald Trump.
Within a matter of hours, photographs showing White alongside a beaming Trump in the Oval Office began to circulate on social media. Trump’s meeting with White and Covington highlights a longstanding and friendly relationship between the UFC and the current administration. It also makes the case for why the UFC is a perfect platform for Trump’s politics.
The first significant contact between the UFC and Trump occurred in 2001. At the time, the promotion was seen as illegitimate and had been relegated to small venues in Mississippi and Louisiana. Arizona senator John McCain reflected the feeling of many politicians in 1996 when he referred to MMA as “human cockfighting,” a comment that tarnished the UFC’s reputation. At its nadir, mixed martial arts (and by extension UFC) was banned in 36 states and from pay-per-view – a major source of revenue – and the promotion was desperate to build new relationships at the turn of the millennium. Enter Donald Trump. He was the first businessman to take a chance on the promotion, and allowed White to showcase UFC 31 and 32 at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City at the start of 2001 (UFC 28 had also taken place at the venue but was under different ownership at the time).
The Atlantic City events were an immediate success, and allowed the UFC to reestablish legitimacy under new leadership. By late 2001, they began hosting events in Las Vegas, which would later become the promotion’s home. While the UFC’s business relationship with Trump had already come to an end, White was always quick to compliment the billionaire mogul turned president.
“When we first bought this company, no venues would even take us,” White said at a UFC 53 press conference in Atlantic City four years later. “Donald Trump was the first guy to say, ‘We’ll do the fights here.’ Trump gave us our first shot over at [Taj Mahal], and then when we left and went to a bigger arena at the Meadowlands, he was one of the first guys there in his seat.”
White’s loyalty towards Trump continued. In 2016, White stood in front of the Republican National Convention and praised Trump in a bombastic speech before endorsing his run for president. Over the course of four minutes, White spoke of Trump as a “fighter and I know he will fight for this country.” He repeatedly praised the candidate’s business savvy and rehashed the tale of Trump’s magnanimous support for the UFC during the promotion’s dark age.
While notable combat sports figures – including former UFC champions Miesha Tate, Tito Ortiz, and Chris Weidman have backed Trump – White’s brash support raises questions about the UFC’s politics as a whole. His defence of Trump’s actions — many of which are racially charged — can be seen as an extension of the UFC’s continued support of the president.
“[Trump] is one of those guys that if he was sitting in this room and we were hanging out, he would completely change your opinion about him. I don’t agree with everything he says and I think some of the things that he does say isn’t exactly what he means. ‘Let’s build a wall’ and all this stuff – what he’s really saying is all these people coming from different countries need to do it the old school way,” White told UFC Unfiltered in 2016. “You register and you get your paperwork done. He is talking about people that are sneaking into the country. It is like when he gets in front of the camera, he gets a little too hyped up.”
White’s defence of Trump’s policies continues well past the billionaire’s election as president. When Trump mounted an attack on Colin Kaepernick for the football player’s decision to kneel during the Star-Spangled Banner, White stated that he believes in “standing for the national anthem.”
The UFC president is not the only executive who has a pre-existing relationship with Trump. Ari Emanuel, a Hollywood powerbroker whose WME-IMG company (renamed Endeavor) purchased the UFC for $4.2bn in 2016, was Trump’s agent when the billionaire starred in The Apprentice. He has also done business with Trump, as WME-IMG purchased the Miss Universe Pageant from him in 2015. The incumbent president also told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016 that Emanuel was a “very good friend of mine.”
Shortly following Trump’s election in November 2016, Emanuel met with the president-elect at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, emphasizing the continued relationship between the former associates. Incidentally, Trump also has a history with Ari Emanuel’s older brother Rahm, Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, who later became the mayor of Chicago. Trump reportedly contributed $50,000 to Emanuel’s mayoral campaign in 2010 in spite of the fact that Emanuel ran as a Democrat.
Given the UFC’s close ties to the current administration, it comes as little surprise that Trump laid out the red carpet for White upon his arrival at the White House. After the formal meeting and photo op with the president in the Oval Office, White described the treatment he received later that evening.
“I went back to the hotel, picked up my wife, and we came back and had dinner with the president in the residence,” White said. “We had dinner for three hours, and then he personally toured my wife and I around the White House.”
In many ways, the UFC is the perfect sports stage for Trump to promote his political platform with minimal resistance – there are no kneeling fighters, White House boycotts or stars like LeBron James calling him out (Ronda Rousey was critical of Trump but has now left for a career in wrestling).
During a recent interview, White revealed that the UFC is planning a series of documentaries to celebrate the promotion’s 25th anniversary. One of the those documentaries will focus on Trump’s history with the promotion, which was part of the reason for his visit to the White House: “[Trump] and I went to the residence after that, and he and I both shot for the documentary,” said White.
Trump’s photo op with a UFC executive and interim champion continues a long line of UFC figures who have posed alongside controversial politicians and world leaders. For instance, former two-division champion Conor McGregor met with Vladimir Putin during the World Cup. Other examples include UFC welterweight Abu Azaitar meeting with King Mohammed VI of Morocco in 2017 and former UFC champions Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir, Chris Weidman and Frankie Edgar meeting with Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov.
This trend emphasizes the importance of athletes in bolstering politicians’ image and legitimizing their respective rules. In Trump’s case, the support of a sports organization, its executives, and a handful of its athletes helps enhance his image, cement his popularity, and promote his policies across an entirely different platform.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Prosecutor: Priests 'weaponized' the faith to abuse kids - ABC News
Prosecutor: Priests 'weaponized' the faith to abuse kids
By MARK SCOLFORO, ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRISBURG, Pa. — Aug 16, 2018, 5:12 AM ET
Josh ShapiroThe Associated Press
Roman Catholic priests across Pennsylvania used religious rituals, symbols of the faith and the threat of eternity in hell to groom, molest and rape children, a grand jury found, in what the state's top prosecutor called the "weaponization of faith."
An 884-page report on the statewide grand jury's investigation, released Tuesday, detailed how "predator priests" used the children's own religious faith and trust in them as religious leaders to victimize and then silence them.
One priest tied up a victim with rope in the confessional in a "praying position," the grand jury wrote. When the victim refused to perform sex, the angered priest used a 7-inch crucifix to sexually assault him, the report said.
The bishop of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, held a press conference Wednesday.
Bishop releases list of 71 Catholic priests and church personnel accused of sex abuse
VIDEO: Victims speak out in US Catholic sexual abuse scandal
Victims speak out in US Catholic sexual abuse scandal
Another victim recounted how a priest used a metal cross to beat him.
At a parish rectory, the report said, four of the priests made a boy strip and pose as Jesus on the cross while they took photos.
"He stated that all of them giggled and stated that the pictures would be used as a reference for new religious statues for the parishes," the jury wrote. Two of those priests later did jail time for sexually assaulting two altar boys.
Another priest told a boy he was fondling that it was OK because he was "an instrument of God."
Priests also found in the sacrament of confession the opportunity to perpetrate acts against children, the report said.
The investigation of six of Pennsylvania's eight dioceses— Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton — is the most extensive investigation of Catholic clergy abuse by any state, according to victims' advocates. More than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — were molested since the 1940s, the report said.
The dioceses represent about 1.7 million Catholics.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Johnstown-Altoona Diocese were not included in the probe because they have been the subject of three previous scathing grand jury investigations.
Diocese leaders on Tuesday expressed sorrow for the victims and unveiled, for the first time, a list of priests accused of some sort of sexual misconduct.
"Predators in every diocese weaponized the Catholic faith and used it as a tool of their abuse," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday unveiling the grand jury's report, which documented allegations against 301 priests over seven decades.
Only two of the priests have been charged with crimes as a result of the grand jury investigation, though a number were prosecuted in years past. Over 100 have died, and many others have retired.
Church leaders say most of the offenses occurred some time in the past and note that major reforms were adopted starting in 2002 to safeguard children.
Terence McKiernan, president of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org, said the ritualization of abuse was a fundamental part of how children were sexually exploited.
"Even when the Catholic rituals and doctrines are not specifically mobilized by the priest, they are in play," he said.
Threats of eternal damnation were not uncommon, the grand jury found. Priests told children they would "go to hell" if they told anyone what happened and "nobody would believe a lying child over a man of God's word."
One priest was quoted as telling altar boys they should serve naked beneath their cassocks "because God did not want any man-made clothes to be worn next to their skin during Mass," the jury wrote.
In one church, a priest told a boy who confided he had been gang-raped as a 7-year-old that he had to provide sex to get to heaven. He would then be molested for three years before the priest was transferred.
In a case highlighted on the day the grand jury report was made public, a priest rinsed a boy's mouth with holy water after abusing him.
The predator priests used any opportunity they could to molest children while they had them alone, the investigation found. Several priests used hypnosis during counseling sessions to manipulate their victims. Helping a priest grade papers in his rectory somehow became a session of nude weightlifting. One boy was abused when he went to collect his report card from school.
When a bishop asked the Vatican to remove a priest who used physical force and threats to abuse children, the bishop noted the priest "invoked the name of God to justify his actions against his victims while using their faith and the priesthood to manipulate them and secure their silence." Parishioners were never told why he was removed in 2006.
The grand jurors pointedly wrote that the investigation was not an attack on the faith, noting many are Catholics themselves.
"People of all faiths and of no faith want their children to be safe," the grand jurors wrote. "But we were presented with a conspicuous concentration of child sex abuse cases that have come from the church."
By MARK SCOLFORO, ASSOCIATED PRESS HARRISBURG, Pa. — Aug 16, 2018, 5:12 AM ET
Josh ShapiroThe Associated Press
Roman Catholic priests across Pennsylvania used religious rituals, symbols of the faith and the threat of eternity in hell to groom, molest and rape children, a grand jury found, in what the state's top prosecutor called the "weaponization of faith."
An 884-page report on the statewide grand jury's investigation, released Tuesday, detailed how "predator priests" used the children's own religious faith and trust in them as religious leaders to victimize and then silence them.
One priest tied up a victim with rope in the confessional in a "praying position," the grand jury wrote. When the victim refused to perform sex, the angered priest used a 7-inch crucifix to sexually assault him, the report said.
The bishop of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, held a press conference Wednesday.
Bishop releases list of 71 Catholic priests and church personnel accused of sex abuse
VIDEO: Victims speak out in US Catholic sexual abuse scandal
Victims speak out in US Catholic sexual abuse scandal
Another victim recounted how a priest used a metal cross to beat him.
At a parish rectory, the report said, four of the priests made a boy strip and pose as Jesus on the cross while they took photos.
"He stated that all of them giggled and stated that the pictures would be used as a reference for new religious statues for the parishes," the jury wrote. Two of those priests later did jail time for sexually assaulting two altar boys.
Another priest told a boy he was fondling that it was OK because he was "an instrument of God."
Priests also found in the sacrament of confession the opportunity to perpetrate acts against children, the report said.
The investigation of six of Pennsylvania's eight dioceses— Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton — is the most extensive investigation of Catholic clergy abuse by any state, according to victims' advocates. More than 1,000 children — and possibly many more — were molested since the 1940s, the report said.
The dioceses represent about 1.7 million Catholics.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese and the Johnstown-Altoona Diocese were not included in the probe because they have been the subject of three previous scathing grand jury investigations.
Diocese leaders on Tuesday expressed sorrow for the victims and unveiled, for the first time, a list of priests accused of some sort of sexual misconduct.
"Predators in every diocese weaponized the Catholic faith and used it as a tool of their abuse," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Tuesday unveiling the grand jury's report, which documented allegations against 301 priests over seven decades.
Only two of the priests have been charged with crimes as a result of the grand jury investigation, though a number were prosecuted in years past. Over 100 have died, and many others have retired.
Church leaders say most of the offenses occurred some time in the past and note that major reforms were adopted starting in 2002 to safeguard children.
Terence McKiernan, president of the watchdog group BishopAccountability.org, said the ritualization of abuse was a fundamental part of how children were sexually exploited.
"Even when the Catholic rituals and doctrines are not specifically mobilized by the priest, they are in play," he said.
Threats of eternal damnation were not uncommon, the grand jury found. Priests told children they would "go to hell" if they told anyone what happened and "nobody would believe a lying child over a man of God's word."
One priest was quoted as telling altar boys they should serve naked beneath their cassocks "because God did not want any man-made clothes to be worn next to their skin during Mass," the jury wrote.
In one church, a priest told a boy who confided he had been gang-raped as a 7-year-old that he had to provide sex to get to heaven. He would then be molested for three years before the priest was transferred.
In a case highlighted on the day the grand jury report was made public, a priest rinsed a boy's mouth with holy water after abusing him.
The predator priests used any opportunity they could to molest children while they had them alone, the investigation found. Several priests used hypnosis during counseling sessions to manipulate their victims. Helping a priest grade papers in his rectory somehow became a session of nude weightlifting. One boy was abused when he went to collect his report card from school.
When a bishop asked the Vatican to remove a priest who used physical force and threats to abuse children, the bishop noted the priest "invoked the name of God to justify his actions against his victims while using their faith and the priesthood to manipulate them and secure their silence." Parishioners were never told why he was removed in 2006.
The grand jurors pointedly wrote that the investigation was not an attack on the faith, noting many are Catholics themselves.
"People of all faiths and of no faith want their children to be safe," the grand jurors wrote. "But we were presented with a conspicuous concentration of child sex abuse cases that have come from the church."
Republican who said 'Hitler was right' wins Missouri primary - Independent
Republican who said 'Hitler was right' wins Missouri primary
Posted on August 15, 2018 by Mimi Launder in news
UPVOTE
"Hitler was right." These are the words of Steve West, the man who just beat three other GOP candidates in the party's primary election for Missouri's 15th district.
He will now face Democrat incumbent Jon Carpenter in November.
On his campaign website, he trumpets 'old American values and traditions', calls 'Islam "anti-ethical to everything this country was founded on" and asks "Are vaccines making us sick?".
He also enjoys spouting an imaginative range of nonsensical conspiracy theories and hateful propaganda on his KCXL radio show.
Claiming "Jewish cabals" are "harvesting baby parts" through Planned Parenthood, abuse children and control the Republican party; saying"Hitler was right about what was taking in place in Germany. And who was behind it"; making homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist statements...You name it.
In his spare time, he also straps on a wig and beard for his YouTube channel, calling himself 'Jack Justice'.
The Kansas City Star reached out to West about his hateful statements. He said:
You guys want to make it an issue, you can go there, but I’m not going to comment on that. I’m not running as a radio show host, I’m running for state representative. I’m sorry. I’m not going to have this discussion.
He continued:
Jewish people can be beautiful people, but there’s ideologies associated with that that I don’t agree with.
All this for the reward of beating his political rivals by nearly 25 points to sail through the primaries.
He won nearly 50 per cent of the vote, leading the Missouri Republican Primary to denounce him.
The party said in a statement:
Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual.
West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.
Jon Carpeneter, the Democratic opponent who West will face in June, told The Pitch he was "dismayed" about the primary result:
This is anti-semitism, Islamaphobia, homophobia, and racism to a degree that truly shocks the conscience.
It is my hope that folks who voted for [West] in the Republican primary weren't aware of any of this stuff. I sincerely hope that's true.
Posted on August 15, 2018 by Mimi Launder in news
UPVOTE
"Hitler was right." These are the words of Steve West, the man who just beat three other GOP candidates in the party's primary election for Missouri's 15th district.
He will now face Democrat incumbent Jon Carpenter in November.
On his campaign website, he trumpets 'old American values and traditions', calls 'Islam "anti-ethical to everything this country was founded on" and asks "Are vaccines making us sick?".
He also enjoys spouting an imaginative range of nonsensical conspiracy theories and hateful propaganda on his KCXL radio show.
Claiming "Jewish cabals" are "harvesting baby parts" through Planned Parenthood, abuse children and control the Republican party; saying"Hitler was right about what was taking in place in Germany. And who was behind it"; making homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and racist statements...You name it.
In his spare time, he also straps on a wig and beard for his YouTube channel, calling himself 'Jack Justice'.
The Kansas City Star reached out to West about his hateful statements. He said:
You guys want to make it an issue, you can go there, but I’m not going to comment on that. I’m not running as a radio show host, I’m running for state representative. I’m sorry. I’m not going to have this discussion.
He continued:
Jewish people can be beautiful people, but there’s ideologies associated with that that I don’t agree with.
All this for the reward of beating his political rivals by nearly 25 points to sail through the primaries.
He won nearly 50 per cent of the vote, leading the Missouri Republican Primary to denounce him.
The party said in a statement:
Steve West’s shocking and vile comments do not reflect the position of the Missouri Republican Party or indeed of any decent individual.
West’s abhorrent rhetoric has absolutely no place in the Missouri Republican Party or anywhere. We wholeheartedly condemn his comments.
Jon Carpeneter, the Democratic opponent who West will face in June, told The Pitch he was "dismayed" about the primary result:
This is anti-semitism, Islamaphobia, homophobia, and racism to a degree that truly shocks the conscience.
It is my hope that folks who voted for [West] in the Republican primary weren't aware of any of this stuff. I sincerely hope that's true.
Kim Jong-nam murder: 'Enough evidence' for women to go on trial - BBC News
August 16, 2018.
Kim Jong-nam murder: 'Enough evidence' for women to go on trial
Doan Thi Huong (in yellow T-shirt) and Siti Aisyah (right) have said they thought they were taking part in a TV prank
Two women accused of killing the half-brother of North Korea's leader have been told there is sufficient evidence for them to go on trial.
Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Thuong are accused of smearing the toxic nerve agent VX on Kim Jong-nam's face in a Malaysia airport last year.
They have said they did not know they were killing Mr Kim and had been told they were taking part in a TV prank.
They could face the death penalty if convicted.
Four North Korean men also charged over the murder are still at large.
What happened in the airport?
Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, had been waiting to board a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Macau on 13 February last year when two women approached him in the departure area.
CCTV footage shows one woman placing her hands over his face before she and the other woman leave the scene.
Mr Kim is then seen seeking medical help - he told staff a chemical had been sprayed on him.
He died on the way to hospital from what was later found to have been exposure to the VX, one of the most toxic of all known chemical agents.
What is the deadly nerve agent VX?
What is the women's defence?
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam - both in their 20s - have said they were innocent victims of an elaborate North Korean plot.
"She knows nothing, she was fooled. The case was made up," Ms Aisyah's father told AFP on Thursday.
Their lawyers say that in the days before Mr Kim's death, the women had been paid to take part in pranks where they wiped liquid on people at airports, hotels and shopping malls.
The women accused of killing Kim Jong-nam
The unravelling of Kim Jong-nam's mysterious death
They thought the airport was just another prank.
Their lawyers had expressed confidence that the court would see they had no motive to kill Mr Kim.
But Judge Azmi Ariffin said there was enough evidence to suggest it was "a well-planned conspiracy between the women and the four North Koreans at large".
He said there was no hidden crew and no attempt to bring the target in on the joke afterwards, and that the footage "showed that they had the knowledge that the liquid on their hands was toxic".
They will now go on trial for murder and could be hanged if found guilty.
Kim Jong-nam (pictured in 2001) was late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's oldest son
Kim Jong-nam was the older half-brother of North Korea's authoritarian ruler Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-un: The king of Pyongyang
Stop romanticising a dictator, say N Koreans
He was once seen as a future leader of the isolated country, but when his father died, was bypassed in favour of the younger Kim.
He was largely estranged from the family, and spent most of his time overseas in Macau, mainland China and Singapore.
He had spoken out in the past against his family's dynastic control of North Korea and in a 2012 book was quoted as saying he believed his half-brother lacked leadership qualities.
Did this have anything to do with North Korea?
North Korea has fiercely denied any involvement in the killing.
Four men - believed to be North Koreans who left Malaysia on the day of the murder - have also been charged in the case, but have not been found.
Judge Azmi Ariffin said on Thursday: "I cannot rule out that this could be a political assassination. Despite that, I am unable to confirm this fact."
Kim Jong-nam murder: 'Enough evidence' for women to go on trial
Doan Thi Huong (in yellow T-shirt) and Siti Aisyah (right) have said they thought they were taking part in a TV prank
Two women accused of killing the half-brother of North Korea's leader have been told there is sufficient evidence for them to go on trial.
Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Thuong are accused of smearing the toxic nerve agent VX on Kim Jong-nam's face in a Malaysia airport last year.
They have said they did not know they were killing Mr Kim and had been told they were taking part in a TV prank.
They could face the death penalty if convicted.
Four North Korean men also charged over the murder are still at large.
What happened in the airport?
Mr Kim, the estranged half-brother of Kim Jong-un, had been waiting to board a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Macau on 13 February last year when two women approached him in the departure area.
CCTV footage shows one woman placing her hands over his face before she and the other woman leave the scene.
Mr Kim is then seen seeking medical help - he told staff a chemical had been sprayed on him.
He died on the way to hospital from what was later found to have been exposure to the VX, one of the most toxic of all known chemical agents.
What is the deadly nerve agent VX?
What is the women's defence?
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam - both in their 20s - have said they were innocent victims of an elaborate North Korean plot.
"She knows nothing, she was fooled. The case was made up," Ms Aisyah's father told AFP on Thursday.
Their lawyers say that in the days before Mr Kim's death, the women had been paid to take part in pranks where they wiped liquid on people at airports, hotels and shopping malls.
The women accused of killing Kim Jong-nam
The unravelling of Kim Jong-nam's mysterious death
They thought the airport was just another prank.
Their lawyers had expressed confidence that the court would see they had no motive to kill Mr Kim.
But Judge Azmi Ariffin said there was enough evidence to suggest it was "a well-planned conspiracy between the women and the four North Koreans at large".
He said there was no hidden crew and no attempt to bring the target in on the joke afterwards, and that the footage "showed that they had the knowledge that the liquid on their hands was toxic".
They will now go on trial for murder and could be hanged if found guilty.
Kim Jong-nam (pictured in 2001) was late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's oldest son
Kim Jong-nam was the older half-brother of North Korea's authoritarian ruler Kim Jong-un.
Kim Jong-un: The king of Pyongyang
Stop romanticising a dictator, say N Koreans
He was once seen as a future leader of the isolated country, but when his father died, was bypassed in favour of the younger Kim.
He was largely estranged from the family, and spent most of his time overseas in Macau, mainland China and Singapore.
He had spoken out in the past against his family's dynastic control of North Korea and in a 2012 book was quoted as saying he believed his half-brother lacked leadership qualities.
Did this have anything to do with North Korea?
North Korea has fiercely denied any involvement in the killing.
Four men - believed to be North Koreans who left Malaysia on the day of the murder - have also been charged in the case, but have not been found.
Judge Azmi Ariffin said on Thursday: "I cannot rule out that this could be a political assassination. Despite that, I am unable to confirm this fact."
Trump's 'dirty war' on media draws editorials in 300 US outlets - BBC News
AUGUST 16, 2018.
Trump's 'dirty war' on media draws editorials in 300 US outlets
The Boston Globe made a plea for editorial unity last week
More than 300 news outlets have launched a campaign to counter President Donald Trump's attacks and promote a free press.
The Boston Globe made the call last week for a nationwide denouncement of the president's "dirty war" against the media, using the hashtag #EnemyOfNone.
Mr Trump has derided media reports as "fake news" and attacked journalists as "enemies of the people".
UN experts have said this raises the risk of violence against journalists.
UN experts condemn Trump media attacks
Why Trump attacks the media
The Boston Globe had pledged to write an editorial "on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press" on 16 August, and asked others to do the same.
The initial positive response from 100 news organisations has grown closer to 350 with major US national newspapers and smaller local outlets answering the call, along with international publications like the UK newspaper The Guardian.
Fox v MSNBC: How the news divides America
What have the papers said?
Starting with the Boston Globe itself, the editorial there, headlined Journalists Are Not The Enemy, argued that a free press had been a core American principle for more than 200 years
The New York Times chose the headline A Free Press Needs You, calling Mr Trump's attacks "dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy". It published excerpts from dozens more publications beneath
The New York Post - hardly a left-leaning paper - answered the Globe's call by saying "Who are we to disagree?" adding: "It may be frustrating to argue that just because we print inconvenient truths doesn't mean that we're fake news, but being a journalist isn't a popularity contest. All we can do is to keep reporting." But it also said: "Will this make a difference? Not one whit"
The Philadelphia Inquirer said its city was the birthplace of US democracy, writing: "If the press is not free from reprisal, punishment or suspicion for unpopular views or information, neither is the country. Neither are its people"
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"
Another paper to join the campaign was the Topeka Capital-Journal which said of Mr Trump's attack on the media: "It's sinister. It's destructive. And it must end now." The paper was one of the few to endorse Mr Trump in 2016.
The fact that Mr Trump won without such media endorsements may cast doubt on whether the Globe's campaign would actually dent his support.
How Trump 'enemies' remark echoes tyrants
There have been some dissenting voices to the Globe's campaign.
Tom Tradup at the conservative website Townhall.com panned the Globe's "pathetic bid to pretend it is still relevant", writing: "I would not presume to tell anyone else what to think or what to do. But as for me - and I suspect many others - I won't be putting any coins in any newspaper box August 16th."
The Wall Street Journal declined to take part. An earlier piece by James Freeman argued Mr Trump was entitled to free speech and the Globe's drive ran counter to the very independence it was seeking.
What does the American public think?
A poll released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University suggested that 51% of Republican voters now believed the media to be "the enemy of the people rather than an important part of democracy" and 52% of the Republican supporters polled were not concerned the Mr Trump's criticism would lead to violence against journalists.
Among all voters, 65% believe the news media to be an important part of democracy, the poll suggests.
An Ipsos poll, also this month, gave similar figures. In addition it found that 23% of Republicans, and about one in eight Americans overall, believed Mr Trump should close down mainstream news outlets like CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Have journalists been under physical attack?
Mr Trump has certainly ramped up the pressure on mainstream media with numerous tweets.
The Trump Twitter Archive says he has tweeted 281 times so far using the term "fake news".
When he brings up the matter at his rallies, some journalists have felt uneasy about their safety and have even avoided using designated reporter zones.
Are journalists increasingly under attack?
At a presidential rally in Florida in July, CNN filmed Mr Trump's supporters yelling insults and swearing at reporters covering the event. CNN presenter Jim Acosta tweeted a clip, which contained strong language.
Jim Acosta
✔
@Acosta
Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy.
11:32 AM - Aug 1, 2018
A man was also arrested in January for making threats to CNN employees via telephone calls that referred to "fake news".
The publisher of the New York Times, AG Sulzberger, told Mr Trump in a personal meeting in July that the president's language was "contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence".
But most of the Globe's campaign is about maintaining a free press and its own editorial does not even touch on violence.
Some outlets do, however, refer to the recent killing of five people at the offices of the Capital Gazette in Maryland.
This, and an incident in which two journalists were killed live on air in Virginia in 2015, well before Mr Trump was elected, are used to highlight the dangers of the profession, although both were allegedly carried out by people with personal grievances.
Trump's 'dirty war' on media draws editorials in 300 US outlets
The Boston Globe made a plea for editorial unity last week
More than 300 news outlets have launched a campaign to counter President Donald Trump's attacks and promote a free press.
The Boston Globe made the call last week for a nationwide denouncement of the president's "dirty war" against the media, using the hashtag #EnemyOfNone.
Mr Trump has derided media reports as "fake news" and attacked journalists as "enemies of the people".
UN experts have said this raises the risk of violence against journalists.
UN experts condemn Trump media attacks
Why Trump attacks the media
The Boston Globe had pledged to write an editorial "on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press" on 16 August, and asked others to do the same.
The initial positive response from 100 news organisations has grown closer to 350 with major US national newspapers and smaller local outlets answering the call, along with international publications like the UK newspaper The Guardian.
Fox v MSNBC: How the news divides America
What have the papers said?
Starting with the Boston Globe itself, the editorial there, headlined Journalists Are Not The Enemy, argued that a free press had been a core American principle for more than 200 years
The New York Times chose the headline A Free Press Needs You, calling Mr Trump's attacks "dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy". It published excerpts from dozens more publications beneath
The New York Post - hardly a left-leaning paper - answered the Globe's call by saying "Who are we to disagree?" adding: "It may be frustrating to argue that just because we print inconvenient truths doesn't mean that we're fake news, but being a journalist isn't a popularity contest. All we can do is to keep reporting." But it also said: "Will this make a difference? Not one whit"
The Philadelphia Inquirer said its city was the birthplace of US democracy, writing: "If the press is not free from reprisal, punishment or suspicion for unpopular views or information, neither is the country. Neither are its people"
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"
Another paper to join the campaign was the Topeka Capital-Journal which said of Mr Trump's attack on the media: "It's sinister. It's destructive. And it must end now." The paper was one of the few to endorse Mr Trump in 2016.
The fact that Mr Trump won without such media endorsements may cast doubt on whether the Globe's campaign would actually dent his support.
How Trump 'enemies' remark echoes tyrants
There have been some dissenting voices to the Globe's campaign.
Tom Tradup at the conservative website Townhall.com panned the Globe's "pathetic bid to pretend it is still relevant", writing: "I would not presume to tell anyone else what to think or what to do. But as for me - and I suspect many others - I won't be putting any coins in any newspaper box August 16th."
The Wall Street Journal declined to take part. An earlier piece by James Freeman argued Mr Trump was entitled to free speech and the Globe's drive ran counter to the very independence it was seeking.
What does the American public think?
A poll released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University suggested that 51% of Republican voters now believed the media to be "the enemy of the people rather than an important part of democracy" and 52% of the Republican supporters polled were not concerned the Mr Trump's criticism would lead to violence against journalists.
Among all voters, 65% believe the news media to be an important part of democracy, the poll suggests.
An Ipsos poll, also this month, gave similar figures. In addition it found that 23% of Republicans, and about one in eight Americans overall, believed Mr Trump should close down mainstream news outlets like CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Have journalists been under physical attack?
Mr Trump has certainly ramped up the pressure on mainstream media with numerous tweets.
The Trump Twitter Archive says he has tweeted 281 times so far using the term "fake news".
When he brings up the matter at his rallies, some journalists have felt uneasy about their safety and have even avoided using designated reporter zones.
Are journalists increasingly under attack?
At a presidential rally in Florida in July, CNN filmed Mr Trump's supporters yelling insults and swearing at reporters covering the event. CNN presenter Jim Acosta tweeted a clip, which contained strong language.
Jim Acosta
✔
@Acosta
Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy.
11:32 AM - Aug 1, 2018
A man was also arrested in January for making threats to CNN employees via telephone calls that referred to "fake news".
The publisher of the New York Times, AG Sulzberger, told Mr Trump in a personal meeting in July that the president's language was "contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence".
But most of the Globe's campaign is about maintaining a free press and its own editorial does not even touch on violence.
Some outlets do, however, refer to the recent killing of five people at the offices of the Capital Gazette in Maryland.
This, and an incident in which two journalists were killed live on air in Virginia in 2015, well before Mr Trump was elected, are used to highlight the dangers of the profession, although both were allegedly carried out by people with personal grievances.
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