Team Trump Employs Smear Tactics Against Journalists Ahead of 2020 Elections
How very Putin-like.
Donald Trump apparently has at his disposal a “loose network
of conservative operatives” who are collecting and compiling damaging personal
information on journalists deemed unsympathetic to the regime, as well as their
families.
The New York Times reported
on the operatives on Sunday, saying the purpose of the network was to further
discredit news organizations and their staff among Trump’s base. It sounds
like v2.0 of Trump’s nonstop “Fake News” gaslighting campaign, in which he and
his enablers call members of the news media the “enemy
of the people,” a term often used by authoritarian regimes including
Stalin’s Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
The Times said
this group of political bullies has compiled “dossiers” on journalists that
include “potentially embarrassing information” dating back to more than a
decade. It already has used some of the information to attack journalists at
CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, which are frequent
targets of Trump’s hostility during the
president’s hate rallies in various cities across the nation.